The structure is something a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with, even though there are tons of information available on creating a structure for your business. A lot of founders find themselves stuck with businesses that cannot run in their absence, even after trying endlessly to create one.

To understand if your business is properly structured, there is a question you need to provide an answer to.

If you take 4 weeks off your business, with no call, text, mails, or communication of any sort, will you have a business when you get back? Will sales be made in your absence? Can deals and contracts be sealed in your absence? Will projects get delivered in your absence? Will customer complaints get resolved in your absence?

It sounds all complicated and maybe even a bit impossible for startups, but it is achievable. Once you have left the self-employed stage of your business (where you are the only staff) and gotten to a point where you have two or more employees, then a structure needs to come into place or you will end up doing the tasks you pay people to do.

There is a different post about laying out the procedures for staff to follow to get things done, but this post is actually about letting the structure stand after you have created it. Some founders will create a structure of some sort, but still end up constantly butting in, such that after one year, they are still struggling with the same problems they always had.

Let’s take the hierarchy of reporting for instance. A founder hires two new staff into the tech department and tells them that they will directly answer to his CTO. After giving them a rundown of their responsibilities, they get started. Despite telling them that they report to the CTO, the founder here continues to speak to them directly every day to find out what they have done, what they are working on, and so on.

It would only take a couple of weeks for these two new staff to figure out that the CTO is only in charge ‘in the paper’ but does not have a direct say over what they do or what happens in the technology department. Now, they think they have to report directly to the Founder/CEO and if the founder travels for a couple of weeks, he could very likely return to discover that they did nothing in his absence.

Do you understand it now?

A lot of entrepreneurs are like this. They claim to have an organized structure and hierarchy of reporting, but in truth, they still have everyone reporting to them and taking instructions from them directly. You cannot grow or scale a business by micromanaging every staff on your payroll. If you have assigned someone to head a team, then trust the person to get the job done. Don’t keep going around to directly liaise with the team members, unless those times you occasionally want some direct feedback.

Worse still, you could lose some really good talents doing this. If you keep butting in, you will weaken the same business structure you are trying to create. If you have delegated a task, let the person get it done. If you have a defined hierarchy of reporting, let it work. Stop interfering every step of the way. If not, you will end up having a structure on paper and not in reality.

It may not work out right the first time you try it, but when you finally get the right hands on your team, it becomes easier to put everything on automation. This in itself means that you have to be very precise during your recruitments and get the qualified hands on deck.

Technology has topped all sectors as the sector people trust the most. You may wonder why there are many high voltage searchlights beamed on these firms from government quarters. Of course, tech is simplifying people’s lives and people appreciate those, privacy or no privacy.

“A new survey, part of the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer (pdf) report, shows that people trust the tech industry more than any other—even more than healthcare, the sector the world has relied on most heavily during the pandemic.

“The findings go against the grain of reports of an ongoing “techlash”—a wave of hostility to technology, its numerous breaches of privacy and security, and its disconcerting pace of disruptive change. Edelman’s newest numbers suggest that tech has perhaps benefited from an overall cross-sector rise in trust. But it also follows a period in which technology has proven even more indispensable to our lives during the pandemic.” – Quartz newsletter

But that is coming despite this debacle on regulation: who do you expect Google to do?  Improve privacy and be sued, or leave it and be sued. Tough position for the search giant.

Fortune newsletter: “Germany’s biggest publishers and advertisers have complained to the European Commission that Google’s plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome is illegal on competition grounds. Google is of course already the EU’s most successful antitrust-fine magnet, but on the other hand, what it’s doing is a pro-privacy move, and the EU likes privacy. Either way, the Commission is already looking into the issue. Financial Times”

Last year, Nigeria came close to removing fuel subsidy following the lifting of petrol pump price to N165 per liter. The move generated a lot of backlash and protest from organized labor, who argued that it will compound the suffering of Nigerians.

Ever since then, the topic has remained controversial. On one hand, the government is facing pressure from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and economic experts, to remove the fuel subsidy and channel the fund to educational or infrastructural development. On the other hand, the government is being dared by organized labor unions, who have threatened to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike if the subsidy is removed.

Caught in the dilemma, the Nigerian government has been exploring a way out. The only choice hung on Dangote Refinery, which is expected to be launched in July this year. Based on this expectation, the government had set a mid-year timeline for the removal of the subsidy – but it has been forced to change the timeline.

On Monday, the Minister of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, said in Abuja, during a meeting held at the National Assembly, that the Federal Government had postponed the planned removal of subsidy on petroleum products till further notice.

The meeting was convened at the instance of the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, following the unwavering determination of organized labor to embark on strike, should the government remove the fuel subsidy.

At the meeting which had in attendance the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva and the Group Managing Director of the NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, among others, the Finance Minister said there is a change in Federal Government’s initial plans to remove subsidy on petroleum products from July this year.

“Provision was made in the 2022 budget for subsidy payment from January till June. That suggested that from July, there would be no subsidy. The provision was made sequel to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act which indicated that all petroleum products would be deregulated.

“Sequel to the passage of the PIA, we went back to amend the fiscal framework to incorporate the subsidy removal. However, after the budget was passed, we had consultations with a number of stakeholders and it became clear that the timing was problematic. We discovered that practically, there is still heightened inflation and that the removal of subsidies would further worsen the situation and impose more difficulties on the citizenry.

“Mr. President (Muhammadu Buhari), does not want to do that. What we are now doing is to continue with the ongoing discussions and consultations in terms of putting in place a number of measures. One of these includes the roll out of the refining capacities of the existing refineries and the new ones which would reduce the amount of products that would be imported into the country.

“We therefore need to return to the National Assembly to now amend the budget and make additional provision for subsidy from July 22 to whatever period that we agreed was suitable for the commencement of the total removal,” she said.

While this decision will compel organized labor to shelve its proposed strike, it sets Nigeria up to spend more on fuel subsidy in the coming months, especially as oil price rises. Brent Crude reached a seven-year high at $88.67 a barrel, as of Monday. This means a major adjustment has to be made in the 2022 budget to accommodate the shift in subsidy removal plans.

In 2021, fuel subsidies gulped over N2 trillion from the national budget amidst revenue shortfalls, which were exacerbated by the oil downturn and forced the government to borrow to fund the budget. With this turn of events, the government, who is still counting on loans to fund the 2022 budget, will pay more to finance the subsidy particularly as oil price goes up.

However, it is a win for the people whose poor living condition degenerated under covid strains, and cannot afford the amount of additional economic hardship the subsidy removal would bring.

Did you notice something? Coups are happening here and there in West/Central Africa. Burkina Faso has joined Chad, Mali and Guinea – and the khaki boys are arguing that deteriorating security is the reason they are leaving the barracks to the government houses. With the US withdrawn from Africa as they confront the rise of China and the hotspots with Russia in Ukraine, it is looking like West Africa will have a long harmattan.

ECOWAS and AU, it is time to save the continent because the businessmen who help these guys to overthrow elected governments will open bank accounts for them in Europe and North America tomorrow.

But you may ask: what can ECOWAS do since most of its members are broken? People, despite the optimistic exuberance of AfCFTA, most parts of Africa have serious issues which must be addressed for sustained progress.

Burkina Faso’s army said on Monday it had ousted President Roch Kabore, suspended the constitution, dissolved the government and the national assembly, and closed the country’s borders.

The announcement cited the deterioration of the security situation and what the army described as Kabore’s inability to unite the West African nation and effectively respond to challenges, which include an Islamist insurgency.

Signed by Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba and read by another officer on state television, the announcement said the takeover had been carried out without violence and that those detained were at a secure location.

Photo: Sidsoré Kader Ouedraogo on state television announcing the Burkina Faso coup.

More than 80% of the most successful digital (especially web-based) tech companies run this business model: Aggregation-Integration Construct. In this piece, I argue that the empires of the future, in this web economy, will be built on the business model. If you are building and you want to become a category-king in the online business, pay attention to AIC.

From Facebook to Google to Amazon, this business model powers the very best in them.

Also, I posit that if this model has brought a new basis of competition, improving marginal cost efficiency in many business sectors, it will anchor and become the foundation of the future. All businesses will become technology companies and those with tech nativity will dominate. As we digitize and take more sectors to the web, AIC will be catalytic in the new ordinance.

I explain in this video.