Google (yes, Alphabet) joined the grand party when it shot over $2 trillion: “Google parent Alphabet Inc. rallied Monday to breach $2 trillion in market value for the first time, fueled by a rebound in spending on digital ads and growth in its cloud business.” As you look at these companies, I can explain how American senators made them possible through policies. Yes, they began and then the government came to make them better. (That has been the pattern, going back to Carnegie, Mellon and other titans of American capitalism.)

Google was possible because of the Bayh-Dole Act. The landmark Act celebrated my quote on its Washington DC-based website – “For me, the Bayh-Dole Act is the most important business legislation of the last century in the United States. And this is the American Congress at its very best moment. It delivered through the legislature, and transformed the pace of innovation by providing a fluidic system that enhances U.S competitiveness.” https://autm.net/about-tech-transfer/advocacy/legislation/bayh-dole-act

Amazon would not have worked if not that US Congress waived collection of sales taxes from ecommerce firms thereby making everything bought online cheaper. In other words, if you buy a dishwasher for $1,000 from your physical store, you will be off by $1,100 if sales tax is 10%. But on Amazon, you will pay only $1,000. Because of that, US used tax policy to change purchasing habits, creating a new industry called ecommerce sector. Simply, everyone bought online to save that 10% – and the government knew people were not paying those taxes.

Tesla would have died if not for the EV vehicle tax credits. Facebook? Online portals got waivers on secondary contents they host. Indeed, there are clear paths on how policies made these firms better. I can keep going.

This is the deal: Nigeria needs pioneering innovators along with brilliant parliamentarians who can see the big picture to redesign our industries to advance the wealth of the nation. The innovators are working, may 2023 bring these great leaders.

The US did not care about the old retails leaders like JCPenney when Amazon was coming. Yes, America disrupted itself and today it is better. 

By next year, I expect four of their firms to be in that 2T club; it did not happen by luck: they made it possible.

Companies exist to solve customer problems. It requires moving the customers from friction spot (A) to the solution spot (B). I see it as a projectile where you create many trajectories to move from A to B. What happens there is this: there are many paths from A to B, and if you focus on developing a better path, you can find opportunities even in places which have many trajectories. 

Let’s say you want to build a new financial institution, you do not follow the path which First Bank pioneered centuries ago, to go from A to B.  Rather, you create a new path (like the Paystack guys) to move from A to B, and to a large extent accomplish the same result of providing a specific financial product.

If you have this mindset, you will agree that the greatest company in Nigeria has not been launched, because the possible paths from A to B are infinite – and you can create a better one in any sector than whatever anyone has there.

They say the insurance sector is competitive in Nigeria (!) even though they have less than 5% penetration. Can you create a new path to fix the friction? Think of electricity, education, etc.

Simply, the best companies in Nigeria have not been founded. And if anyone tells you that all the opportunities are gone, respectfully ignore him or her. If Nigeria is operating at its optimal productivity level, its GDP should be $3 trillion (well above the current  $500 billion). If you do the math, it means Nigeria needs 6X multiples to attain equilibrium.

About 90% of the companies in Nigeria today are not wired for that type of unbounded, unconstrained, and compounding  leverageable growth with accelerating returns. Yes, even if they try, the anchored elements upon which they are built cannot enable them to experience  that redesign.

Only new species will provide that growth under new tenets, driven by new business models, energized by new policies. Hope you get the point why our insurance sector has less than 2% penetration, electricity companies deliver darkness to more customers than light, potable clean water nonexistent, using 65% of workers to produce hunger, [add your list], and banks serving less than 50 million unique customers in a nation of about 210 million citizens.

People, the best companies for Nigeria have not been founded. So, begin to #BUILD.

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.

I call this Perception Demand because Mr Jobs used his vision to create new industrial sectors. He used his talent to launch the new dawns in the apps economy and the smartphone economy, at scale. Who remembers that Kuda, Nigeria’s digital bank is a microfinance bank? Not many because they used perception demand to make customers become FANS.

Go back to the playbook and transform that company, pushing it beyond the needs and expectations to the perceptions of customers. Until you do that, transformation has not started. From consumers to customers to FANS; when a company gets into fandom, it becomes a category-king. 

Be a KING … in that market. Read more here.

Steve Jobs’ Perception Demand Construct, for Africa

We have Tekedia Mini-MBA Live today as follows:

Tue, Nov 9 | 7pm-8pm WAT |  Managing Operations for Productivity. Our Faculty is Modupe Olusoga, the Chief Operating Officer in Streamsowers & Köhn and a former HR Business Partner in KPMG.

When all the factors are ready, how do you manage them for productivity and business growth? Our Faculty will provide guidance on how to unlock new vistas in your company.

Tekedia Institute >> learn from the best.