Daficionado is offering a free webinar on “Starting a career in Information Technology (IT), Data Analytics, AI and Cloud Computing” for people in the UK, Nigeria, Africa and other Africans based in the diaspora. Our experienced mentor will help you discover the different career paths you can take in IT, including being a developer, a data analyst, machine learning professional, cloud computing practitioner, cyber-security expert, etc. Guest speakers from Amazon and other innovative companies will be there.

The free virtual webinar will be held on Saturday, 6th of February 2021, between 3 pm – 5 pm (GMT).

Sign Up at tinyurl.com/DaficionadoCareer2021  to receive a Zoom meeting invite. You can also access free online courses (Python and Tableau) and discounted certificate courses (Data Analytics, Data Science) on Daficionado Hub.

Daficionado is a Data Analytics, AI and Cloud Computing training and recruitment company with headquarters in the UK; we offer our Bootcamp candidates internship opportunities. Learn more about our boot camps (www.daficionado.co.uk) or chat with us about our boot camps on WhatsApp (+44 7470 655226).

Speakers

Ikenna Uzoh, BI & Analytics Manager, Amazon UK
Ikenna is a Mentor at Daficionado Ltd with almost ten years of experience in data analytics, machine learning, and cloud computing. He is currently a BI and Analytics Manager at Amazon, UK. Before Amazon, he was the Global Head of Data at VisitBritain. He has acquired various certifications, including AWS Certified Data Analytics, AWS Certified Machine Learning.

Sadegh Jalalian, Machine Learning Engineer & IT Manager, Altin Cuzdan
Sadegh is a Coach at Daficionado Ltd with almost five years of experience. He is currently a Machine Learning Engineer & IT manager in AltinCuzdan, Turkey. He completed his MSc in Data Science at the University of Salford UK and graduated with distinction.

Elum Ndubuisi – Data Analyst, ICS Outsourcing
Elum is a Coach at Daficionado Ltd with over five years of experience. Currently, Elum is the Lead Data Analyst and Technical Assistant to the MD/CEO for ICS Outsourcing.

“Apple has every incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work, which they regularly do to preference their own,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO

Facebook could indeed file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple on its position that Apple is using its dominance in the iOS ecosystem to obliterate flank “competitors” like Facebook. Lol. Of course, there is no need to sympathize with Facebook which has its own “Supreme Court” to ban and unban members as it desires. This is a new age of frenemy and it looks fascinating as each of these ICT utilities fights one another these days.

Tensions are said to be rising between two tech world giants as Facebook contemplates an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of anticompetitive App Store practices, two anonymous sources tell The New York Times. Friction has been building ahead of Apple’s upcoming release of its App Tracking Transparency feature, which will impact user data that fuels Facebook’s digital advertising business. While he didn’t mention Facebook by name, Apple CEO Tim Cook linked the company to rising polarization, violence and recent erosion of trust.

Facebook has issues with Apple, and Google thinks Apple should not be preaching privacy when its servers in China are maintained under the dutiful watch of the Communist Party. Simply, Apple is not fair – it has strong privacy in the US, but it’s the most porous on privacy in China. Largely, there is no core principle guiding Apple. It is simply making business decisions!

So, it is what it is – everyone is doing all things necessary to protect its castle with no purity on any fundamental principle. Yes, harden your moat and run your playbook. 

These companies have different business models and they have strong reasons to fight among themselves where necessary. Apple’s products are usually paid as Apple is not built on advertising. However, Google and Facebook derive their corporate lives from ads which are used to subsidize some of their solutions for users. Apple should not think that people “parting” with their data for those free goodies is evil.  

The key factor here is balance and that is what Apple should focus on. Yes, there is no need to obliterate Facebook in iOS because users understand one thing: free things are not wholly free. Yahoo gave the world a premium Yahoo email version which ensures you do not see adverts; few paid. Simply, provided the ads are manageable, users will understand.

That does not mean that I am showing sympathy for Facebook as Apple works to clip its data harvesting activities. Yes, Facebook runs its own playbook and Trump is not smiling in Florida.

The independent group that will decide whether former President Donald Trump can return to Facebook is officially taking public comment on the case.

Facebook’s Oversight Board, a group that includes legal experts and human rights advocates, said in an announcement Friday that people and groups with “valuable perspectives” on Trump’s indefinite suspension from the social media platform have until Feb. 8 to weigh in via its online form.

Rotational presidency is NOT Nigeria’s solution since rotating inefficiency is not a solution. The growth key is building healthy intra-competition among states, and scaling productivity systems in communities. I support a revamped and restructured economic federalism so that the principle of comparative advantages will work in Nigeria. Until Nigeria does it, it will not advance!

Abia and Yobe states were created on the same day. Both states have been receiving the same Universal Basic Education funds per capita since 1991. After three decades, Abia has a literacy rate of close to 95% while Yobe is below 15% (NBS data).

It is only in Nigeria that such is possible. My point is this: the current economic architecture makes no sense and has to be upgraded!

There needs to be incentives for governors to live and govern in their states instead of camping at Abuja counting monthly allocations. Our Vice President promised this during the 2015 campaign. I hope he can get Mr. President to build a foundation for future Nigeria by fixing this paralysis through federalism. Aba is dying because money is coming from Abuja. Osogbo, the same. Jos, the same. Pick your city!

The most profitable unit in Tesla is selling emission credits, not cars. But for the emission credits business to thrive, Tesla has to make cars to earn those credits. Because it makes electric vehicles, it earns credits for not polluting the world. Then, it resells those credits to other car companies which make fossil-fueled cars to stay in compliance. 

The Tesla car making business represents the One Oasis in the business while the emission credit unit captures the value through the Double Play strategy.

Eleven states require automakers sell a certain percentage of zero-emissions vehicles by 2025. If they can’t, the automakers have to buy regulatory credits from another automaker that meets those requirements — such as Tesla, which exclusively sells electric cars.

It’s a lucrative business for Tesla — bringing in $3.3 billion over the course of the last five years, nearly half of that in 2020 alone. The $1.6 billion in regulatory credits it received last year far outweighed Tesla’s net income of $721 million — meaning Tesla would have otherwise posted a net loss in 2020.

What is your business One Oasis? Can you build a Double Play strategy around the One Oasis? Think about these as you begin the 2021 Playbook. Watch my video.

In this video, I challenge us to use the One Oasis Strategy and Double Play Strategy to build business models that will ensure that we capture enterprise value even as we create for customers. Skype creates great value for customers but it has struggled to capture most value; so, Skype remains a sojourner, constantly being passed around by buyers and sellers. Do not be like Skype!

You can also add Apple in this league where the iPhone is now the One Oasis and values are captured from many services. The company returned a huge number last quarter.

Apple closed out 2020 with an exclamation mark, logging its most profitable quarter in history thanks to a surge in iPhone sales and soaring demand for laptops and iPads from remote workers. The tech giant racked up $28.76 billion in profit for the period ending Dec. 31, with $111.4 billion in quarterly sales. Previous fears that enthusiasm was waning for the iPhone proved unwarranted as sales jumped by 17%, with Apple’s decision to delay the iPhone 12 release also creating “pent-up demand.”

[In Tekedia Mini-MBA, we discuss One Oasis and Double Play extensively. If you can, join our next edition, starting Feb 8]

It is a new one: China has overtaken the United States as the world’s top destination for new foreign direct investment . Also, in 2020, China was the only major economy  to grow its GDP.  Since 2017, foreign direct investment in the U.S. has been slipping. Of course, if you do not allow China to invest in your economy, that is a default expected outcome.

China overtook the U.S. as the world’s top destination for new foreign direct investment last year, as the Covid-19 pandemic amplifies an eastward shift in the center of gravity of the global economy.

But that is not the message: the message is that China is doing today what actually made America great. China has invested in infrastructure and deepened its human capital  – “China has 60,000 miles of high-speed rail; America ZERO”.

2) China forty years ago consciously adopted the American Model for economic growth–large sustained public investment in infrastructure and human capital. America has largely abandoned these investments and has already declined significantly (See Alden, Failure to Adjust). China has 60,000 miles of high-speed rail; America ZERO. Europe has several thousand miles. Our infrastructure is rotting and extracts an annual “tax” north of $600 BILLION; we don’t spent enough to fill potholes let along build a modern airport or port. China, India, and Europe have all vastly improved their universities and research centers; America’s have declined and shrunk. America once led the world in both infrastructure and human capital–we are now an also-ran. 1993 America was 1st in college completion rate for that cohort, now ranks 19th or lower, nearly last among all developed economies. And now 28th in publicly funded University based research, behind Slovenia!

[…]

The main purchasing power party in China – Middle Class has been growing rapidly after 2018. The huge amount of educated factory workers gives China a competitive advantage among the international competition. Modern infrastructures and stable social environment bringing more and more foreign investment into China. In 2020, Chinese authorities established a new economic model called “The Inner-cycle”. In the future, China will spend more time focusing on a more openly domestic financial market, new technology, and innovation in order to achieve its vision in 2050 – a fully developed country.

Largely, China did two main things:

• It invested in infrastructure and that helped it to improve the efficiency of business systems in the country. With that, productivity has improved, making production largely competitive against most competitors.
• It invested in core technical education positioning itself as the manufacturing center of the world. Today, China has young people with top modern skills to work in factories. 

If  Nigeria does these two things and some others I have noted in this Harvard Business Review article, we will emerge. These constructs are fundamental if you trace the history of modern societies: nations do not rise faster than their abilities to accumulate and utilize knowledge. In other words, if you cannot create new knowledge, and have the capacity to use it, you will fade. But if you do, you will thrive.

Of course, investing in infrastructure and educating the young people require resources. Nigeria has blown its oil resources, and getting into the building phase at this time of limited resources, in the midst of the expanding population, would be challenging. But if there are ways to make those happen, good things will happen. From roads to energy to healthcare systems, Nigeria has to invest in critical infrastructure. Then following the investments with a revamped technical education will offer a new vista for growth and prosperity.