Join me at the Hub at 4-4.20pm WAT on Wed (Feb 3) as I webcast on a topic titled “The Most Important Cost To Understand When Scaling Digital Startups”. Connect https://hub.tekedia.com/admin to join live.

Case 1: “Oil giant Exxon Mobil suffered its first annual loss in decades last year as the pandemic prompted energy use to plunge. The firm lost $22.4bn as energy prices dropped – at one point falling below zero. The downturn forced the company to make drastic cuts to its workforce and investment plans”.

The pandemic has taken a massive toll on Big Oil as demand has all but dried up, with global travel still largely restricted and swaths of ex-commuters working from home. Energy, according to The Wall Street Journal, was the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 last year. Exxon and BP both reported annual losses of $22 billion and $18.1 billion, respectively, and for Exxon it was the fourth consecutive loss for the first time in modern history.  Exxon Mobil is investing $3 billion over the next five years in efforts to lower emissions. The CEOs of Exxon Mobil and Chevron spoke last year about combining into one oil giant, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources. The market value of a combined Exxon/ Chevron could surpass $350 billion. (Innews)

Read further for Case 2 on the same site: “Drugs giant Pfizer has said it expects $15bn of sales this year of the coronavirus vaccine it developed with German firm BioNTech. The vaccine was one of the first to be authorised for use by countries including the UK and the US. The vaccine sales represent a quarter of its expected revenue for this year.”

Two companies, two sectors and two different scenarios. The Covid-19 pandemic may provide a thesis on what portfolio managers may have to do when balancing risks. This world is becoming stochastic and that state may be the steady state if the climate change worst case model comes to pass.

That health insurance companies declared massive profit is an irony in a time when the world experienced one of the most challenging healthcare issues in decades. Why did they make money? Lockdowns and restrictions froze hospital visits and with limited hospitalizations, those elective surgeries which cost so much were waived, pushing insurers to keep their premiums. Those premiums give you the massive profits.

 When you look at the different outcomes from Exxon and Pfizer, you will understand the challenge ahead if the projected climate change paralysis happens. Yes, there could be structural redesigns which can change the economic architectures of nations. WIth no resilience, humans will suffer. Africa needs to invest to acquire and deepen its resilience to such shocks. They could be existential. 

One of his generation’s finest operators with capability to combine amalgam of empires with ease, is stepping down. Yes, Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, will step down as CEO. He will move into the Executive Chairman position. Andy Jassy will replace him as CEO. 

If you look carefully, Jeff has determined the future of Amazon by appointing the executive who currently runs the cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services, the most profitable unit of the digital conglomerate, as Amazon CEO. Through AWS, Amazon taxes the world of commerce and is certainly the future of the empire.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will step down from his role as chief executive later this year and transition to the role of executive chair, the company said Tuesday. He will be replaced by Andy Jassy.

Bezos has been Amazon’s CEO since its founding in 1995. He oversaw its growth from an online bookseller into a $1.7 trillion global retail and logistics behemoth, which has also made Bezos into one of the world’s richest people. Jassy has worked for Amazon since 1997 and currently serves as CEO of the company’s cloud business, Amazon Web Services, which is its biggest profit driver. (CNN)

Fellow Amazonians:

I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives. Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence.

This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name. The question I was asked most frequently at that time was, “What’s the internet?” Blessedly, I haven’t had to explain that in a long while.

Today, we employ 1.3 million talented, dedicated people, serve hundreds of millions of customers and businesses, and are widely recognized as one of the most successful companies in the world.

How did that happen? Invention. Invention is the root of our success. We’ve done crazy things together, and then made them normal. We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more. If you get it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. And that yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive.

I don’t know of another company with an invention track record as good as Amazon’s, and I believe we are at our most inventive right now. I hope you are as proud of our inventiveness as I am. I think you should be.

As Amazon became large, we decided to use our scale and scope to lead on important social issues. Two high-impact examples: our $15 minimum wage and the Climate Pledge. In both cases, we staked out leadership positions and then asked others to come along with us. In both cases, it’s working. Other large companies are coming our way. I hope you’re proud of that as well.

I find my work meaningful and fun. I get to work with the smartest, most talented, most ingenious teammates. When times have been good, you’ve been humble. When times have been tough, you’ve been strong and supportive, and we’ve made each other laugh. It is a joy to work on this team.

As much as I still tap dance into the office, I’m excited about this transition. Millions of customers depend on us for our services, and more than a million employees depend on us for their livelihoods. Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else. As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions. I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring. I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have.

Amazon couldn’t be better positioned for the future. We are firing on all cylinders, just as the world needs us to. We have things in the pipeline that will continue to astonish. We serve individuals and enterprises, and we’ve pioneered two complete industries and a whole new class of devices. We are leaders in areas as varied as machine learning and logistics, and if an Amazonian’s idea requires yet another new institutional skill, we’re flexible enough and patient enough to learn it.

Keep inventing, and don’t despair when at first the idea looks crazy. Remember to wander. Let curiosity be your compass. It remains Day 1.

Jeff

The Covid-19 vaccine passport and the Covid-19 test certificate would become another level of legendary discrimination against Africa and the developing world. Already, the BBC has made it clear:  that negative test certificates from Nigeria could be fake. That documentary is pure wickedness because BBC does not have enough data to single out a country that way.  Watch out as the world requests re-testing and re-issuing of documents with Africa hitting a double whammy: you do not have money, yet you have to do more tests to prove you are clean, from a disease which to a large extent you have “overcome” relatively better.

I call on the African Union to mount a ferocious defense from this Covid-19 discrimination against Africa. I like what Nigeria is working on: ban our airlines, we will ban you. Stop us from flying in, we stop you from flying out. We are a people of 1.3 billion people and we matter.

Covid-19 is not ebola virus and we cannot be pushed to suffer the “after-effects” with global discrimination which entities like BBC are already seeding with the documentary on fake travel documents. 

Sure, this is not to endorse people who peddle fake documents. But the point is this: we need to fight this pandemic without bringing the old codes. While it is easier to throw nations like Nigeria under the bus, I am yet to see these media entities do the same to China.

$140 is a lot of money in our continent, we just noticed. We receive not less than 15 requests daily for scholarships at Tekedia Institute to attend Tekedia Mini-MBA. A young man saved for six months to afford 50% after the team gave him a partial scholarship. So, with our data, I quickly noticed that we have a real challenge: if you cannot find a way to make it even easier, you cannot impact lives.

I am happy that we will unveil an Interest-Free Loan scheme which will make it possible for anyone to attend our program and pay over 3-6 months. A financial institution is structuring that and we will be announcing it in the coming days. The company manages it and using the volume, we will “pay” the interest through discounting.

We continue to receive registration for the edition beginning on Monday, Feb 8. Register to get your login.

Tekedia Institute offers an innovation management 12-week program, optimized for business execution and growth, with digital operational overlay. It runs 100% online. The theme is Innovation, Growth & Digital Execution – Techniques for Building Category-King Companies. All contents are self-paced, recorded and archived which means participants do not have to be at any scheduled time to consume contents.

(This loan service will not be available for the edition starting next week as we will not be ready with the partner)