2021 is now history. 2022 offers an unbounded opportunity, only constrained by our imaginations. Make 2022 the best year yet, by partnering with others, getting closer to the right people, showing grace and humility despite any ascension – and making people feel good around you!   I wish you a Happy New Year!

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The ‘showing grace and humility’ is the most important part, ascending or getting to the top is not the problem, but what you do and how you make others feel when you get there.

Some people unconsciously deliver depression to others, because of their inability to manage fame and success.

Hopefully the year 2022 will give many the much needed peace of mind, whether financially rich or poor.

Thank you Fellow Abians and the good people of Nigeria for honouring this Ovim village boy as the 2021 Most Outstanding Abia Professional in the Diaspora and the 2021 Abia Ambassador. My love for Abia is my love for Nigeria and I continue to hope that one can do more. Thank you.

If the world is made up of numbers according to a Greek philosopher, it does mean that if you cannot measure anything, you are wasting your time on it. Your business is numbers, and you must measure it in order to make progress.

From the  Great Library of Alexandria  to the The House of Wisdom (Grand Library of Baghdad), the ancient world was ruled by those who could make sense of numbers. The Great Al-Khwarizmi, the Father of Algebra, and the man whose name is “algorithm”, preached the message of numbers. As the director of the House of Wisdom, he pioneered algebra and went to Mecca to shape commerce. He told men that unless you could  make sense of numbers, you cannot be a good merchant! He solved puzzles on the streets of Mecca, but those puzzles were business numbers – cost, profit, etc.

In this 2022, invest to understand the numbers in your business and your career. Watch this keynote I gave on “Unlocking Business Agility with Learning & Numbers”.

I am wishing everyone Happy New Year. It would be a great one.

Quite an impressive number of disruptor startups are springing up by the day and in different countries. Like most other businesses, these startups will have to consider scaling up at some point to offer more services to a larger client base. Unfortunately, scaling up is a stage that is as dreaded as it is anticipated. Some founders will say that it is the point the business is no longer within your control, but I would like to think that scaling is the point where you equip your startup with the wings to fly higher than you can take it on your own.

At some point in the business, the business will outgrow itself and even outgrow you and it is something you should look forward to if you are hoping to have a business that will outlive you.

For digital or tech startups, scaling up will require things different from what a conventional business would require. It is not about building more infrastructure or physical branches, nor is it going to be about moving from 50 to 500 staff in one breath. It may surprise you that the companies behind some of the fantastic applications and software may not have such large staff strength.

So instead of dreading the day when you will have to scale your startup, maybe you should start considering putting some of these things in place.

Self-service features

As you work on perfecting and maybe even upgrading your digital services and products, you should enable self-service options so that users can signup, get the services, and even resolve issues on their own. This includes user-friendly interfaces, complaint resolution, maybe a chatbot, and a blog session with short articles detailing how users can get everything done on their own. If this is in place, you may not need more staff before you can grow your customer base. Let your processes gradually begin to involve less and less staff and more of the customers.

Automate processes

Before you get to the point of scaling, you should review your processes far ahead and begin to automate whatever can be automated especially the mundane or repetitive procedures. Customer onboarding, testing, regression runs, code deployment, or whatever else you think can be automated. There is no general rule here and it will differ from sector to sector. Increase your product reconfigurability

Position your systems and products in a way that will allow for modifying existing features or launching new products without going through lengthy release cycles. Where possible, you should be able to deploy changes in hours with as little help from the engineering or technical staff.

Use KPIs and Metrics to measure and manage results objectively

If there is any part of your startup that you cannot measure, then you cannot manage it effectively. Define the key metrics and implement them objectively. Everyone on your team will align themselves with these metrics and deliver results.

Optimize your products and systems to take up to 100 times their current load

Stabilize your products and systems so that they do not malfunction or become unreliable when they have to deal with 100 times their current load. If a little extra customer base already has your system delaying, then you are not properly optimized.

There are other helpful tips that could pertain to your industry. But generally, if you are in the tech space, applying these tips early will have you prepared for scaling up, long before you need to.

It is all beautiful – leaving the bounds of 2021 to touch the ecclesiastical blessings which 2022 has in stock for all. The sun rises on the horizon as the songs of the happy crickets fade, and the flowers blossom, awakened by the fresh energy from the eastern corridor . The happy birds are out, in ecstasy, and men and women, look with fresh imaginations in the horizons. A new day, bringing a new year, has broken.  Happy New Year.

2022 will bring abundance to you, your friends and your families. Like the baobab tree, abundance unconstrained, on health, wealth and wisdom. The works of your hands would be blessed!

My name is Ndubuisi [ life is first]. And we’re here, breaking the curtains of 2022. Experience the best, 2022 brings. Welcome to 2022 – and Happy New Year.