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A Key Global Company On The Path of US and China Battle for Supremacy

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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1

The conflict between Ukraine and Russia will be a footnote if China and US enter into hostilities as a result of Taiwan, as Nancy Pelosi ( US House Speaker) is rumoured to be visiting Taiwan which China claims belongs to it: ‘U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was set to visit Taiwan on Tuesday, three people briefed on the matter said, as China warned that its military would never “sit idly by” if she visited the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing’. China has warned and warned. If Ms Pelosi does visit and China takes kinetic actions, it would be a massive dislocation in our world.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is one of the main suppliers of the world’s most advanced microchips – used in everything from smartphones to cars to rockets – and factories. company is operating at full capacity to alleviate the global shortage.

“If you use military force or invade, you will make the TSMC factory inoperable,” he said.

“These are sophisticated manufacturing facilities. It depends on real-time connectivity with the outside world, with Europe, with Japan, with the US.”

Unlike Ukraine where the issue was wheat, Taiwan will bring the world to its knees. Yes, it hosts TSMC which is one of the most important companies in the world. It makes microprocessors and integrated circuits which power the modern economy.  If you cut-off TSMC from the global supply chain, economies will fade. I predict an immediate global recession!

We’re witnessing a new era as the world awaits – will Pelosi enter Taiwan and if she does, will Chinese warplanes escort her out of the Taiwanese airspace? And if that happens, will US warships fire on those warplanes? Pay attention!

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was set to visit Taiwan on Tuesday, three people briefed on the matter said, as China warned that its military would never “sit idly by” if she visited the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing.

Pelosi, who began an Asia trip earlier on Monday in Singapore, was due to spend Tuesday night in Taiwan, the people said.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it had no comment on reports of Pelosi’s travel plans.

[…]

One source told Reuters that the United States had informed some allies about Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Two other sources said Pelosi was scheduled to meet a small group of activists who are outspoken on about China’s human rights record during her stay in Taiwan, possibly on Wednesday.

The Fandoms of iPhone and Indomie Noodles – Winning via Innovation

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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1

Steve Jobs, an Apple founder, was legendary for stimulating demand. He worked without surveys or focus groups. He was a genius, peerless in his generation. He saw an unborn future many years ago. He was an icon, who changed his world. He developed a good design paradigm of working at the #perception of customers, beyond their needs and expectations. He found glory, and Apple triumphed with iPod, iPhone, iPad and more.

The Perception Demand Construct is a product evolution strategy where you work on things which are not really evident to be in demand. Yet you go ahead to create that product, being confident that you can stimulate demand for it.

Ordinary companies work to meet the Needs of customers. Great companies work to meet the Expectations. Disruptive and generation-shaping companies transform customers by creating new bases of competition, where they turn customers into FANs, triggering perception demand and stimulating new market categories or sectors.

Products like iPhone and Indomie Noodles work at the level of Perception; both are revolutionary and evolutionary with fandoms in their respective markets. Pursue #fandom through market innovation. Until you can reach that mountaintop of Perception Demand, your leverageable factors cannot compound at scale. I share some components to explain the N.E.P of the thesis.

Needs Customers know what they want and look for them in the market. Many companies pursue to serve those frictions which are evidently known. For example, a customer wants electricity in Enugu Nigeria and an electricity company offers that via coal.
Expectations Customers’ needs have been met but they expect a new dimension of service. Consider an environmental activist who is being served with coal power in his house in Enugu Nigeria. Yes, even though the needs have been met, the customer will still be expecting to power the house with renewable energy source like solar or wind. Any day a company offers solar solution in that locality, at competitive pricing, that customer will possibly sign-up, disconnecting from the coal solution.
Perceptions The customer has never imagined or ever thought of this demand domain. The customer never conceived of the possibility or existence of this friction. However, the day, the customers see the product, the customers move in droves because the product clearly met their needs, exceeded their expectations and took them into a new domain by fixing their frictions. Most times, focus groups and surveys cannot capture perception demand because until the users have the products in their hands, they cannot make sense of the value. See my Harvard article in next section of this class note on how Verizon missed Apple iPhone, and Steve Jobs’ lack of interests on market study. The legend had posited that even customers do not know what they want! But when you give them the “next big thing”, they come to party. So, for him, the plan was to go into that esoteric level of creativity to stimulate latent needs only few like him could decipher, and turn the consumers and customers into fans. Greatness comes via stimulating and serving Perception Demand. On the pyramid, it sits on top because only few can get there.

Source: Tekedia Mini-MBA classnote

 

Response to a comment: Indomie invented sharp sharp (timely) fairly nutritious meal, saving you from the typical 40-120 minutes required to prepare a typical African food. Fofo requires at least 3 hours and you need more energy to prepare the food than the energy the food will give you upon consumption! With mortar and pestle pounding the fofo, you need energy to prepare that. Indomie has cut those off. That saves mothers time.

Inflation Straining Income Of Young People, Low-Income Earners In The U.S

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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0

As inflation continues to bite hard in economies across the globe, it has no doubt disrupted energy markets and food exports, forcing developing countries to pay more on the importation of food products. With countries perturbed over the high inflation rate, the IMF predicts that it will be much felt in developing countries compared to the rich ones.

In the U.S, the inflation rate surged to a new four-decade high in June, because of the rise in the price of gas, food and rent that has affected the disposable income of most households in the country, as well as pressuring the federal reserve to raise interest rates aggressively.

Low-income earners and young people have been the most hit, as a disproportionate share of their income goes toward essentials such as transportation, food and housing. Most Gen Z consumers are falling behind, and are accumulating credit card debt at a pace not witnessed since before the covid-19 pandemic.

Although, with the cost of so many goods and services rising faster than average incomes, a vast majority of Americans are reported to be feeling the heat in their daily routine. A 72-year old retired pensioner Marcia Freeman who resides in the U.S, described the inflation rate as terrible, stating that there is no escape from rising expenses.

According to her, “Everything goes up, including cheaper items like store brands. Grocery prices have jumped to 12% in the past year, the steepest climb since 1979”.

For months things have been reported to be looking good for U.S consumers as their bank accounts have been padded by government stimulus, student loan forbearance and pandemic-era savings. Bank executives have disclosed that consumers in the U.S have healthy financial cushions and are spending money despite high inflation that has slowed down the economy.

They further revealed that citizens who were mostly able to boost their savings during the covid-19 pandemic are the ones who are financially healthy amid the biting inflation, which is evident by their strong spending and few signs of credit deterioration.

Despite the fact that some people seem to still have their finances stable during this inflation, reports show that U.S consumer spending grew at its lowest pace in two years, as the economy unexpectedly contracted in the second quarter.

The surge in prices of goods/services is forcing consumers in the country to cut back on discretionary spending like Walmart, Tide-Maker Procter & Gamble Co which lowered sales growth forecasts over the past week. One major effect of inflation on the U.S economy is that average credit score has surged as a result of consumers spending less and paying down debt.

Bank of America, which is the second-largest U.S bank by assets, as at the time of filing this report, disclosed that the average credit score of its customers was 771. There has been reported loss of consumers confidence in the economy, as it has greatly declined, so have President Joe Biden approval ratings, posing a major political threat to democrats in the November congressional elections.

About 40 percent of adults in a June poll by AP-NORC disclosed that they thought tackling inflation should be a top government priority this year, Currently, the relentless increase in the price of goods and services is frustrating many Americans.

Fintech in the Age of MTN Nigeria

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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0

“Our Fintech active users rose by 87.3% YoY to 11.5 million, of which 2.4 million represent active MoMo wallets. This has helped drive growth in the total volume of transactions to over 124.3 million. Our MoMo PSB commenced commercial operations on May 19, 2022, and we are pleased with the progress thus far” – MTN Nigeria in a statement.

With these numbers, MTN Nigeria has become the largest and biggest fintech company by customer base in Nigeria. The Mobile Money (MoMO) latest data makes it the fastest growing financial institution with no bank license in the history of Africa – 4.2 million customers in two months!

As I have written in Harvard where I noted that startups must see companies like Facebook and Google as utilities (here, ICT utilities) which must be built into, and not out-of, since you really have no chance to frontally confront them, MTN Nigeria is assuming a new positioning that all fintechs in the nation must re-examine their strategies, on how they fit into the age of MTN. The competition is asymmetric and truly unbounded when you see the numbers MTN has been producing.

I have called this company “osisi na ami ego” [a tree that produces money as the fruits]. So, just like we work to fit into the world of Google, hiring and paying search experts to make it easier for Google to use our contents for free, so that we can extract small opportunities online, you need to think how to fit into the world MTN  Nigeria has defined right now in Nigeria. 

Nigeria is now an MTN nation and it runs this era; even the big banks are not safe!

—part of MTN statement

”We achieved some important strategic milestones in H1 towards delivering our ambition 2025 strategy. This includes the final approval for our MoMo payment service Bank (PSB) and the commencement of commercial operations on 19 May 2022, leveraging the solid foundation of our existing MoMo business.

”We are pleased with the progress since the launch and excited about the prospects of our Fintech business and driving financial inclusion in the country. As of the end of June 2022, we recorded 4.2 million registered MoMo wallets of which 2.4 million are active, generating MoMo transaction volume of approximately 7 million within six weeks of operating.

“Our Fintech active users rose by 87.3% YoY to 11.5 million, of which 2.4 million represent active MoMo wallets. This has helped drive growth in the total volume of transactions to over 124.3 million. Our MoMo PSB commenced commercial operations on May 19, 2022, and we are pleased with the progress thus far.

”Our primary focus has been to offer and scale basic services targeting the large unbanked segment and evolve into more advanced services across our Fintech verticals, leveraging our vast distribution network”.

MTN MoMo Wallet Hits 4.2 Million In Less Than Two Months

MTN MoMo Wallet Hits 4.2 Million In Less Than Two Months

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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0

Multinational mobile telecommunications company, MTN, last month announced its groundbreaking achievement of hitting N181 billion profits in the first half of the year with a 28% increase from last year’s profit.

Recall that MTN in May 2022, moved into the Fintech space with the launch of its MoMo payment service bank (PSB). The firm disclosed that it sees great opportunities in Africa’s nascent digital economy which was the reason for moving into the fintech sector.

Recent reports reveal that MTN’s mobile money business MoMo has recorded 4.2 million wallets in less than two months of its launch. Out of these 4.2 million wallets, the company disclosed that 2.4 million were active users which had generated MoMo transaction volume of approximately 7 million. The company reported that deposits held for its mobile customers rose to N1.091 billion as of June 2022.

Speaking on the recent milestone achieved by its Fintech payment service (MoMo), the company had this to say;

”We achieved some important strategic milestones in H1 towards delivering our ambition 2025 strategy. This includes the final approval for our MoMo payment service Bank (PSB) and the commencement of commercial operations on 19 May 2022, leveraging the solid foundation of our existing MoMo business.

”We are pleased with the progress since the launch and excited about the prospects of our Fintech business and driving financial inclusion in the country. As of the end of June 2022, we recorded 4.2 million registered MoMo wallets of which 2.4 million are active, generating MoMo transaction volume of approximately 7 million within six weeks of operating.

“Our Fintech active users rose by 87.3% YoY to 11.5 million, of which 2.4 million represent active MoMo wallets. This has helped drive growth in the total volume of transactions to over 124.3 million. Our MoMo PSB commenced commercial operations on May 19, 2022, and we are pleased with the progress thus far.

”Our primary focus has been to offer and scale basic services targeting the large unbanked segment and evolve into more advanced services across our Fintech verticals, leveraging our vast distribution network”.

MTN through its MoMo payment service, with its recent milestone, has no doubt positioned itself as a dominant player in the Fintech service, giving competitors in the country a run for their money. The company has no doubt has mastered the act of making money as they are very strategic with their products and services.

No wonder erudite Professor Ndubisi Ekekwe in an article described the company as “osisi na ami ego” which means (a tree that produces money as the fruits). Indeed, they have got the “Midas touch” that anything they touch turns to gold.

Creating shared value is one of the four strategic priorities of MTN and the company has no doubt been living up to that standard. The company which currently operates in 17 different countries across Africa, has often been ranked as the number one African brand among other top brands on the continent.

MTN in 2021 was recognized as the leading African company in the Forbes world’s best employers last year. In March this year 2022, MTN was also listed as the biggest company in sub-Saharan Africa by market capitalization.

Despite all these remarkable achievements recorded by MTN, the company seems not to be resting on its oars as they constantly seek to improve their customer services as well as launching products/services that will properly benefit them.

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