WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 25: U.S. President Joe Biden signs an executive order related to American manufacturing in the South Court Auditorium of the White House complex on January 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden signed an executive order aimed at boosting American manufacturing and strengthening the federal government's Buy American rules. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Just started reading a nice book from our leadership faculty, Dr. Ayodeji (Emmanuel) Oyebola, Ed.D. The book is titled CARING: The Soul of Leadership.
The book overview: “… As the soul is the essence of humanity, caring is the essence of leadership, and a care-less leader cannot lead. If the leader does not care, then the leader is not leading, and leadership dies at that point. Many leaders have good intentions but unconsciously neglect some aspects of their establishments. This book examines how leaders can care for their establishments to lead successful teams and achieve the desired results.”
I have got mine and I ask you to get yours here.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 25: U.S. President Joe Biden signs an executive order related to American manufacturing in the South Court Auditorium of the White House complex on January 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden signed an executive order aimed at boosting American manufacturing and strengthening the federal government’s Buy American rules. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 25: U.S. President Joe Biden signs an executive order related to American manufacturing in the South Court Auditorium of the White House complex on January 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden signed an executive order aimed at boosting American manufacturing and strengthening the federal government's Buy American rules. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 25: U.S. President Joe Biden signs an executive order related to American manufacturing in the South Court Auditorium of the White House complex on January 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden signed an executive order aimed at boosting American manufacturing and strengthening the federal government's Buy American rules. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Sure, some will be disappointed – now, he is supporting banks! I wrote and praised a public servant yesterday and many were disappointed. That was really strange: if we truly want to bring change, we need to be fair, and focus on the data. I am not an activist – I am an engineer; I use facts to make my calls. If you do well, I praise you. But if you do wrong, I offer my perspectives which may not matter.
I read how people are abusing banks, on how they are frustrating SMEs in Nigeria. Before you accuse me that I am defending banks, I want to show you this table. I made it because I understand the business. I worked as a banker in Lagos!
Banks “borrow” from the Central Bank of Nigeria at 11.50% (latest number) and they have to insure that money. They have staff and operations to run. Then, they need to make profit to stay in business. By the time they are done, realistically, they should not lend below 17%!
For them to lend below 17%, it means that money is not coming from CBN, but from other sources which might be cheap (donor agencies, DFIs, etc). You may argue, what of the customers’ deposit which is “free”? There is nothing free there since if they lose your money, you will NOT take any excuse. In short, the risk has to be balanced.
With the CBN lending-deposit-ratio where they need to lend a certain percent of the customers’ deposits to avoid fines, some banks prefer to pay the fines instead of losing your money. See it this way, a fine on N10 billion may be N50 million if the ratio is not hit. That is well better than trying to hit a ratio and lose N1 billion on a bad loan. Now, you can see why CBN fines have not drastically made your bank beg you to come and collect loans anyhow!
My point is this: for CBN to reduce that rate, inflation has to become manageable. If not, it cannot reduce the benchmark. Interestingly, there are many factors that come into play to manage that inflation and to a large extent, you need to be producing things and having a better economy.
Nigeria has a long way to go and everyone is a victim. And that is why we need to work harder. The U.S. can lend its banks at near zero-rate because its inflation is well under control. Nigeria does not have that privilege at the moment. So, we should not be abusing banks, but rather go and build our Amazons, Googles and Teslas, to strengthen the economy and make it possible to lend at 6%. Cursing and abusing bankers will not fix the rate!
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 25: U.S. President Joe Biden signs an executive order related to American manufacturing in the South Court Auditorium of the White House complex on January 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden signed an executive order aimed at boosting American manufacturing and strengthening the federal government's Buy American rules. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
This is simply magical – Amazon now employs1.1 million around the world. In the United States, it comes behind Walmart as the private sector largest employer of labour. Today, Amazon is a digital conglomerate with tentacles in ecommerce, web cloud services, robotics, logistics and voice recognition. And in these domains, it is one of the top three, if not the category-king.
Amazon will add 3,000 more employees to its books — this time in Boston. The online giant is expanding the technology and software development teams that work on Alexa, Amazon Web Services, Amazon Robotics and Amazon Pharmacy. After Walmart, Amazon is the country’s largest employer, employing more than 800,000 people just in the U.S. The company has experienced “unparalleled growth” in the last 12 months, says The Wall Street Journal, hiring over 400,000 employees in 2020. Its global workforce totals more than 1.1 million.
What is happening here is typical: the most important element in modern companies is building the fundamental stack. Yes, spend the fixed cost, and once that is done, other things can be added on top. It takes out the old construct of core competency, since adding new services today does not require extremely new capabilities, once the fundamental stack is there.
Yes, if you have a cloud infrastructure, you can add music services, voice recognition technology, web metric technologies, and more, largely because the core investment has been done and these ones are not evidently onerous. That is why Facebook can do many things today since the hard work has been done. Facebook Local, check. Facebook Portal, check. Facebook fintech, loading.
If Amazon has logistics infrastructure to move books and office supplies, why not add drugs by opening a pharmacy? If Amazon has a supermarket chain, why not offer pick-up? Amazon does some of these things already and they are connected under symphonic innovation.
Symphonic Innovation is innovation that is not domain-specific, but is anchored on a unified and harmonious approach in the deployment of technology components to accelerate productivity gains and cushion competitiveness. With Symphonic Innovation, you do not deploy and launch for one technology area like blockchain only to be tripped by AI or big data; you launch with a mindset that these technologies are like extended musical compositions which must be carefully organized to make the orchestra an unforgettable experience.
There is one core lesson for emerging regions like Africa: the vision can start as a digital business, but can quickly grow into the meatspace, providing huge societal benefits besides fixing market frictions, but also providing jobs to the citizens. Scale has value because, most times, only big companies tackle extremely challenging problems. Amazon is serving America, Nigeria needs its equivalent.
The push for cleaner energy is climbing back to the top of the chain of priorities in the United States. On Monday, President Biden vowed to replace the US government’s fleet of about 650,000 vehicles with environmental friendly electric models.
It is a contrasting shift from the past administration’s stand on combustible vehicles, and signals the new administration’s readiness to lead by example in matters of climate concern.
“The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re going to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in America made by American workers,” Biden said.
He promised to close “loopholes” that allow key parts like engines, steel and glass to be manufactured abroad for vehicles considered US made.
General Services Administration (GSA), said as of 2019, the US government owned 645,000 vehicles that were driven 4.5 billion miles consuming 375 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. The GSA added that the government also spent $4.4 billion on federal vehicle costs in 2019.
GSA said only 3,215 electric vehicles are part of the US government’s fleet as of July 2020.
Climate change was top of Biden’s campaign promises. In his first day in office, he signed an executive order that will foster environmental friendly energy technology and rolled back former president Trump’s orders backing fossil fuel.
Although it is not clear how Biden will keep his promise, as his ‘Buy America’ executive order does not include the purchase of electric vehicles, the move underscores his determination to keep his campaign promise on climate change at extra cost.
Replacing the current government fleet could cost the US more than $20 billion.
During his campaign, Biden promised to “make a major federal commitment to purchase clean vehicles for federal, state, tribal, postal, and local fleets.” He also vowed to create 1 million new jobs in the “American auto industry, domestic auto supply chains, and auto infrastructure, from parts to material to electric vehicle charging stations.”
As part of his climate action, Biden said he would build 550,000 EV charging stations and spend more in clean energy research. He also supports new consumer rebates to replace old, less-efficient vehicles with newer electric vehicles and incentives for manufacturers to build or retool factories to assemble EVs and parts.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 25: U.S. President Joe Biden signs an executive order related to American manufacturing in the South Court Auditorium of the White House complex on January 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden signed an executive order aimed at boosting American manufacturing and strengthening the federal government’s Buy American rules. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The move means that solar energy and electric vehicle companies will get preferential treatment. Tesla’s shares surged in December after pro green Democrats won the Georgia senatorial election, which gives them control of Congress and paves way for legislation that will back environmental friendly industries in the US.
However, it spells doom for the traditional energy industry that has already plummeted by the outbreak of COVID-19. As focus shifts to electric vehicles, automakers that are yet to find foothold in the emerging market will likely be overshadowed by Tesla and others leading the market in the US.
Experts believe the shift will help automakers in the US to show more commitment to cleaner energy by embracing electric vehicles. There has been a significant increase in the number of car manufacturers fighting to grab a share in the EV market. In the US, Nissan, Ford and GM are all working to increase their production capacities and disrupt Tesla’s dominance.
For traditional energy companies, Biden’s climate stance will mean switching to cleaner energy supplies. As more EVs get on the roads, the need for charging stations increases. Energy experts believe Biden’s vow to build 550,000 charging stations among other key energy reforms, will offer alternative business to existing fossil fuel companies.
