Every Entrepreneur Must First Become a Pricing Engineer

One of the most influential courses I took as an engineering student at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) was Engineering Management. It was not just another technical course; it became a bridge between engineering and business, between designing products and creating value. The course was taught by three lecturers, each contributing a unique perspective that has stayed with me throughout my career.

Engr. Dr. Onwuka, now Professor Onwuka, handled a significant portion of the course. Fresh from earning his MBA, he brought a refreshing business perspective into an engineering classroom. He introduced us to Managerial Accounting, teaching us that engineering decisions cannot be separated from financial realities. It was a lesson that challenged many of us to see beyond calculations and technical specifications.

Another remarkable contributor was the celebrated Professor P.B.U. Achi of Mechanical Engineering. While teaching Automation and Robotics, he consistently emphasized the economics behind automation. Technology, he argued, should never be evaluated solely by its sophistication but also by its ability to reduce cost and improve productivity. Towards the end of the course, together with Dr. Ichie, the lecturers delivered a unifying theme they called “Engineer Turns Manager.” Their message was unmistakable: the best engineers eventually learn to think like business leaders.

Looking back, that course fundamentally reshaped my understanding of innovation. It taught us that great engineering is incomplete unless it is commercially viable. Every design has a cost implication. Every invention must ultimately find a market. Every technical breakthrough must justify itself economically.

Years later, when I joined the banking industry, I reconnected with many of those lessons. Costing, especially marginal cost, became central to understanding how businesses create sustainable value. I realized that while engineers often focus on building products, successful businesses focus on improving unit economics as they deliver value by fixing market frictions. The difference between a promising startup and a profitable company is frequently the ability to continually reduce marginal cost while maintaining or increasing customer value.

This realization has deeply influenced how I teach entrepreneurship today in Tekedia Mini-MBA. I tell founders that if they do not understand pricing, they should postpone starting a business until they do. Pricing is not merely attaching a number to a product; it is one of the most important strategic decisions a company makes. In markets like Nigeria, where purchasing power is constantly under pressure and competition is relentless, pricing often determines whether a business survives or disappears.

Many entrepreneurs devote enormous effort to product development while treating pricing as an afterthought. That is a costly mistake. A brilliant product with the wrong pricing model can fail just as easily as an average product with poor execution. Sustainable businesses are built not only on innovation but also on pricing architectures that reflect customer behavior, market realities, and long-term economics.

History repeatedly illustrates this point. Elon Musk’s achievement at Tesla was not limited to building exceptional electric vehicles. He also reinvented how automobiles could be sold, financed, updated, and monetized over their lifecycle. Bill Gates ignored the prevailing assumption that software should simply accompany hardware. Instead, Microsoft established software as a product with independent economic value through licensing and contractual pricing.

Likewise, Nigeria’s new-generation banks transformed banking by making relationships agnostic of where accounts were opened but they also engineered revenue models, including the once-prominent Commission on Turnover (COT), that generated the financial resources needed to expand aggressively before incumbents responded.

These examples demonstrate an enduring principle: innovation is incomplete without a viable commercial model. Products may attract attention, but pricing determines sustainability.

That lesson from Engineering Management at FUTO continues to resonate with me decades later. The course was never really about accounting or management in isolation. It was about teaching engineers to understand markets, economics, and customers. It was about recognizing that invention creates possibility, but pricing creates business.

For every entrepreneur, therefore, the question is not simply, “Have I built a great product?” The more important question is, “Have I engineered a pricing strategy that customers will embrace and that will allow my business to thrive?” Understanding pricing is understanding business itself.

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