It was a great moment at AXA Mansard’s Out of the Box event last week. Yetunde Osanyin, CFA summarized the outcome here  and added this line: “Thanks to the AXA Mansard team for putting together an amazing session and for giving out Tekedia Institute MBA Scholarship to some of the participants”.

Yes, AXA Mansard is sponsoring makers, innovators and project champions to Tekedia Institute Mini-MBA on full scholarships. We look forward to co-learn and co-advance with these recipients.

Thank you AXA Mansard; Tekedia offers more scholarships than any university in Nigeria using public data!

Last week, I had the privilege of hosting Ngozi Ola-Israel and Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe at the Sixth Edition of AXA Mansard’s Out of the Box program. It was indeed a memorable experience!

Both speakers did justice to their assigned topic. Ngozi Ola-Israel spoke about the “Role of Finance in Business Modernization”, while Ndubuisi Ekekwe discussed “Innovation and Making Changes in the Workplace”. I took the following points from the session:

1. The role of finance in business is evolving to include; Strategic, Disruptive, Digital … really, you need beyond the accounting and finance skill set to function successfully in any finance role

2. The CFO is the Chief Priest…they posses extraordinary ability to guide the business

3. The world revolves around numbers, to create value you need to know your numbers…Show me your business data and I will tell you who you are and what you need to be

4. Innovation without commercialization is just an invention

5. People remain the most critical factor of production across all industries

Thanks to the AXA Mansard team for putting together an amazing session and for giving out Tekedia Institute MBA Scholarship to some of the participants

Innovators, founders and project champions, if you are building something amazing and need capital, Tekedia Capital will like to partner with you. In Q2 2021, we invested $3.5 million. Visit our site and see what we do and explore how we can help you. We fund great ideas, helping you with money, contacts, networks, and things you will need to thrive. Visit Tekedia Capital .

Chinese regulator’s hammer has kept hitting players in its tech industry for months now, accelerating the government’s push to keep the industry under control.

China’s market regulator on Saturday said it would bar Tencent Holdings Ltd from exclusive music copyright agreements and fined the company for unfair market practices in the online music market after its acquisition of China Music Corporation. Reuters has the report.

It follows other antitrust actions that have in recent months been leveled against the country’s large tech companies, including a record $2.75 billion fine on e-commerce giant Alibaba for engaging in anti-competitive behaviour.

Tencent and Tencent Music Entertainment Group, the unit created from the acquisition, said they would abide by the decision and comply with all regulatory requirements.

The State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) said it had investigated Tencent’s activities in the online music broadcasting platform market in China, in which music copyright is the core asset, in a notice posted on its official website.

Reuters reported in mid-July that the antitrust regulator would order Tencent’s music streaming arm to give up exclusive rights to music labels that it has used to compete with smaller rivals, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Tencent held more than 80% of exclusive music library resources after its acquisitions, the regulator said, increasing its leverage over upstream copyright parties and allowing it to restrict new entrants, the regulator said.

SAMR said Tencent and its affiliated companies must not engage in exclusive copyright agreements with upstream owners of such rights, while existing agreements must be terminated within 30 days of the regulatory notice.

The regulator also ordered Tencent to pay a fine of 500,000 yuan ($77,150).

Earlier this month, the regulator said it would block Tencent’s plan to merge the country’s top two videogame streaming sites, Huya and DouYu, on antitrust grounds.

The culminating crackdown, which is fast touching the big names in China’s online space, is not only depleting the companies’ value but it’s also creating uncertainties for them. Earlier this month, Didi, the fast-rising ride-hailing company got its fair share of the treatment two days after going public in the US. Didi was stopped from registering new customers, and had its app pulled from China’s app market. The authorities are also after a video platform run by ByteDance that it said glorifies teenage pregnancy.

On Friday, the government’s decision to turn its $100 billion edtech industry to non-profit was confirmed, heightening investors’ fear about the future of Chinese startups and established companies.

“They (the crackdowns) send a stark message to Chinese businesses about the government’s authority over them, even if they operate globally and their stock trades overseas. And they are a reminder to international investors in Chinese companies about the regulatory curveballs that can sometimes come hurtling their way,” New York Times noted in a report.

But there is more. In the competitive digital age that has been narrowed to a battle of dominance between China and the United States, clipping the high-flying wings of its internet companies places China in a jeopardizing position.

Although the US has been mulling breaking up the big tech, a move that will curtail the global dominance of its tech giants, it may unlikely be, and China’s crackdown on the big names in its internet space will mean that the US tech industry will for long stay dominant.

We are sharing here for group  members who might have missed the email (spam mail issues)

Dear Member,

(Please talk to others in your company/group as we need one session per group or company)

Tekedia Institute is scheduling Tekedia Growth Hour where we have conversations with group or corporate participants at Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 5. This meeting is essentially to discuss at more specific levels the mechanics of business systems as they relate with business innovation and growth, in your company and sector. We do batch this throughout the program and we have opened a link for your batch.

Go to this link (provided) and select a time slot for your company – one slot only as we will meet all the members at once.

Once you do that, on the day and time, each member should visit this Zoom link (provided) (If you have other alternatives like Microsoft Teams, please send and we will use it).

Please note that besides your members currently attending Tekedia Mini-MBA, you are free to bring other staff, associates, clients and partners of the company to this meeting.

Our Lead Faculty, Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe, personally coordinates this. His vision is that through these specific conversations, we can point out areas of growth and opportunities in the business, using some frameworks discussed in our school.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Regards,

Tekedia Team