What makes small companies thrive in a world where there are big firms? Tomorrow, during Tekedia Live, I will share how and why small companies WIN, sometimes. Remember to join us:
Sat, Aug 7 | 7pm-8.30pm WAT | Competition and Your Edge Over Larger Companies – Ndubuisi Ekekwe
Registration for the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA which begins Sept 13 continues. Go here and join us; beat early bird registration now.
Let me welcome all the companies which are joining the 6th edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA which begins Sept 13 to end Dec 6, 2021. We expect an amazing academic festival where the dance moves would be on understanding and mastering the mechanics of business systems. Let me take a sample…
Loosechange, an emerging leader on contactless payment, WELCOME. Ethnos IT Solutions LTD, a provider of solutions and professional services in Information security, Risk management, Cybersecurity and Compliance management, WELCOME. Union Systems Limited, Africa’s leading trade finance software company, WELCOME
I also welcome Tekedia Practice members, beginning on Monday for Tekedia Practice on Agribusiness, and Practice on Renewable Energy Business. Welcome to the Tekedia Institute school.tekedia.com .
Every year, thousands of graduates are churned out by universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, mono-technics and allied institutions. From the east to the north and west to the south of the continent, stakeholders have at least debated and still debating employability of the graduates in the last three decades. From physical sphere to the online platforms, various questions have been asked and still posed to the graduates, their producers and government at all levels.
A number of answers have equally been given to the questions on different fora. Despite the answers, the question remains, are African graduates employable? Can they translate the gained theoretical propositions into a practical framework for solving issues and needs in industries and sectors?
Largely, various industry reports and academic publications have revealed problem solving, resilience and communication as the main skill gaps being experienced by employers. This indicates that majority of graduates cannot solve tasks effectively using these skills. For the students who are still in various higher institutions and some graduates who attended some of our personalised training on ‘skilling, reskilling and upskilling’ programme, the question we usually received is how can I improve my lack of skill gaps?
The answer has always been that both the students and creators of knowledge and skills need to work together. As long as institutions and tutors follow the theoretical basis of each course of study and having professionals from the field once a while for the purpose of reinforcing the basis practically, there should not be skills gap among the graduate. Skills gap can only exist when the graduates cannot convince employers how their theoretical understanding of various concepts and constructs can solve existing and future problems in workplaces. This has been dubbed by several professionals and scholars as awareness gap.
In reality, most African graduates have awareness gap not skills gap. However, one cannot completely have blind views on the existence of skills gap when new developments are changing the face of competition and how businesses navigate uncertain terrains across Africa. In our understanding of the Tekedia Mini-MBA’s working in the last five sessions, it has emerged that the Tekedia Institute, an African owned business school, which is situated in Boston, the United States of America, is solving the two gaps -awareness and skills gaps holistically using value co-creation and delivery strategies.
Apart from the fact that the Institute has an array of seasoned professionals and captains of industries within and outside the continent as tutors, its weekly live session via zoom meeting is delivering principles and practices of overcoming awareness gap. Bringing in some of the tutors as speakers during the live session to talk about business and political dynamics disentangles problems associated with a better understanding of uncertainties in African economies in relation to other economies outside the continent.
Tekedia Practice and Business Growth Playbook have a high tendency of providing augmented realities that would enable employees and owners of established and start-up businesses navigate the current VUCA world. The Institute, according to our analyst, within a few years of existence has proved that overcoming the skills gap on the continent needs more than providing enabling platforms and resources. It requires the fusion of perception mechanics and physics of business creation and management.
On Thursday, Spanish football giant FC Barcelona dropped a bombshell. It was a heart-breaking message that started with a simple sentence: “Latest news: Leo Messi will not continue with FC Barcelona.” Coming from FC Barcelona’s social media pages, the news has thrown the world of football into disarray as it marks the end of an era.
Lionel Messi, who had agreed to a new contract with Barcelona, was expected to sign on Thursday, putting to permanent rest, all the intrigues that it has birthed since last year. Alas, the club and the player have to part ways when they thought they have it all sorted.
“Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today [Thursday], this cannot happen because of Spanish LaLiga regulations on player registration.
“As a result of this situation, Messi shall not be staying on at FC Barcelona. Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled,” Barcelona said in a statement on Thursday.
In June last year, Messi, out of frustration, had sent a burofax to the then Barca president, Josep Bartomeu, demanding to leave the club. His contract with the club was supposedly expired, making him a free agent, if only Barcelona would see it that way. But the club said he had a €700 million buyout clause, which must be paid before he is allowed to leave. That was the turning point of Messi’s desire to leave the club, and to cap it, La Liga supported Barcelona’s claim. With no club ready to dish out that money, Messi had to stay one more year in Barcelona to see off his contract.
However, following the avalanche of controversy Messi’s burofax generated in and outside the club, Bartomeu was forced to resign and Barcelona conducted an election that ushered in the current president, Joan Laporta. But it didn’t solve the problem. The club had yet to convince its greatest asset to stay, and time was running out.
Messi’s contract eventually expired on June 30, 2021, making him a free agent and creating the problem that would later shatter dreams, hopes and joys. Barcelona’s inability to get Messi to renew his contract before its expiration means he has to be re-signed as a new player, and register with LaLiga as a new signing – and that’s where the whole challenge hangs.
As a new signing, Messi’s salary has to be restructured to fit into La Liga’s financial framework as part of the league’s efforts to uphold financial fair play. Barcelona’s wage bill is the highest in Europe, and with the pandemic compounding clubs’ financial challenges, La Liga is sticking to strict financial rules that will ensure the clubs stay in shape financially. Under the rules, the club could not register a new player until some of their wage bill had been cleared.
La Liga’s President, Javier Tebas had warned Barcelona that the rules would apply to Messi, and the club will need to make tough decisions, including cutting its wage bill, by letting some players go, if it would re-sign the Argentine. However, everyone thought there would be a way around it, after all, Messi is the biggest footballer in the world and Barcelona is not a team to be ignored.
Barcelona’s eventual inability to beat the fair play bottleneck has become the most stunning news in the world of football since Messi’s burofax last year. The 34-year old was on vacation in Ibiza, after leading Argentina to Copa America glory. He arrived in Spain on Thursday to pen the rest of his future to the club which has given him everything. Messi had agreed a 50% wage cut in his new contract that would have seen him remain in Barcelona for the next five years. Unfortunately, his dream to end his career in his childhood club was ended by the decisions of others.
Caught between keeping the league’s biggest player and upholding its financial regulations, La Liga had agreed to sell 10% stake to CVC Capital Partners for €3 billion that will be shared to clubs to help them deal with the financial crisis. But it’s not enough, and the league is not going to compromise its financial rules since it will set a bad precedent and thus undermine the efforts to restructure the league’s finances.
Barcelona said La Liga did not carry the clubs along in the 50-year CVC Capital Partners deal, and the terms of the contract condemned the club’s future with regard to broadcasting rights.
“FC Barcelona considers that the operation that has been announced has not been sufficiently discussed with the clubs (the owners of TV rights), that the amount is not congruent with the years of duration, and the deal affects part of all clubs’ audiovisual rights for the next 50 years.
“FC Barcelona wishes to express its surprise at an agreement driven by La Liga in which the teams’ opinions, including those of FC Barcelona, have not been taken into account. There has not even been a presentation of options offered by other competitors in order to evaluate the pros and cons in a post-pandemic situation in which there are still many questions left unanswered,” the club said in a statement on Thursday.
Messi arrived at Barcelona at the tender age of 13, and grew with the club winning many titles. His prodigy was a spectacle that kept both Barca and La Liga on the side of lucrative commercial deals. Many Believe that Messi is a victim of behind the scene politics between Barcelona and La Liga, which has to do with the canceled Super League and the newly announced CVC Capital Partners deal.
There is little chance that La Liga will bend the rules based on the above concerns raised by Barcelona, but it is clear that Messi’s departure will bring great misfortune to both La Liga and Barcelona.
SpaceX has added more subscribers to Starlink internet service, having about 90,000 users globally now. Elon Musk’s satellite internet business has been pushing for a wider coverage amidst competition with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
The company said in a call with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officials on July 29 that it now has users in 12 countries. Musk said in June during the Mobile World Congress trade show in Spain that SpaceX had about 70,000 users, and he hopes it reaches the 500,000 mark before the end of the year.
“We are on our way to having a few hundred thousand users, possibly over 500,000 users within 12 months,” he said.
The new addition means about 20,000 more new users have joined Starlink service, counting by the number of dishes in each household.
Musk’s quest to deliver a high speed global internet has seen an uptick since early this year, with SpaceX shooting up more satellites to orbit. In early January, SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sent 60 more of its Starlink satellite into orbit. The number of SpaceX’s satellites in orbit has since increased to 1,700, making SpaceX the company with the highest number of internet satellites in orbit.
With interest in the satellite service so far increasing, Musk is pushing to meet the demand. Musk said in May that Starlink has received more than 500,000 orders and deposits so far.
SpaceX is creating a new technology named “space lasers” by Musk, an intersatellite link which would allow the satellites to create data connections to each other – rather than individually connect to points on the ground.
Intersatellite links will also help improve the Starlink system by reducing the number of ground-based stations needed to operate globally, as well as decrease the network’s latency and increase its speed.
Musk said latency and download speed are key to delivering a fast internet service because they define how much time it takes a signal to travel back and forth from a destination.
“The latency for the Starlink system is similar to latency for ground-based fiber and 5G, so we’re expecting to get latency down under 20 milliseconds,” he said.
To beat the latency hurdle, Musk said SpaceX is launching a next-generation satellite that will orbit in low altitude to increase network service. The new satellite will feature faster speeds, lower latency, and more backhaul capacity to serve more users. But to achieve this, the company needs to shoot as many as 4,000 satellites to orbit.
However, executing this internet speed comes at high cost, and SpaceX has been losing money providing the hardware to subscribers at subsidized cost. Musk said satellite antenna costs $1,300 each but SpaceX charges users $499.
Though he said the next generation terminal is designed to reduce the cost, Musk admitted that SpaceX will need roughly $30 billion in investment over the long run.
SpaceX plans to execute its global satellite internet projects through partnership with telecom companies.
“We have two quite significant partnerships with major country [telecom companies] … and we’re in discussion with a number of other telecom companies to provide Starlink access,” Musk said.
Late last year, SpaceX presented the FCC with Starlink internet performance tests, revealing download speed of about 102Mbps to 103Mbps, with upload speeds of 40.5Mbps to nearly 42Mbps, with a latency of 18 milliseconds to 19 milliseconds. The company hopes the Starlink service will yield multi-billion revenue in the long run that will spur its future growth.