Nations rise when pioneering entrepreneurs emerge to make this equation come to pass:

• Innovation = Invention + Commercialization. 

Without those pioneers, the capacity to combine factors of production to set a new basis of competition and fix market frictions stall. Interestingly, most nations always have those pioneers before they can advance. In other words, the state cannot be optimized before the emergence of these pioneers. 

Why? It is through the wealth created by these entrepreneurs that the wealth of a nation is built, and through that wealth, the institutions of states are advanced. Nigeria cannot advance until it can produce great pioneering entrepreneurs, Aso Rock or no Aso Rock. Fixing Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power,  will go through markets because only markets fund the promises of politicians.

Before the American steel industry, Carnegie had to emerge. Before the US energy sector, Rockefeller existed. From JP Morgan to BY Mellon, men were ahead of the government in setting the ordinance of  US banking. Nigeria cannot have it the other way around: the government has never led anything and we cannot expect everything to be anchored by bureaucrats.

Like Nollywood, Nigeria’s movie industry, which emerged without any memo to the government, our pioneering innovators must do the same in other sectors. Even in China, the rise has gone through markets, specifically its state-owned-enterprises, an invention in its market systems.

Pioneering innovators, we are waiting for you to transform Nigeria and Africa.

Process efficiency is great. But a winning business model is more important. You can be efficient doing the wrong thing. It comes down to operating where you can capture value. Because of the unconstrained and unbounded nature of the web, businesses must change their operational protocols.

 In 2000, assembling the top global movie producers to make short videos for a digital platform would have been a great idea (Quibi like). But in 2021, where discovery and owning the demand, not the supply, is more strategic, that model will struggle. So, today, it is a better idea to have a platform where millions of people can post videos and your algorithms sort, and pick the best, and within seconds distribute them on your platform (TikTok like).

The most catalytic thing a leader can do today is to have a responsive business model. If you miss it, everything falls because the dynamic of the internet has changed everything. 

A man picked a company, and changed the business model, and within five years, quadrupled the market cap, with largely the same products. Yes, the difference between Steve Ballmer (former CEO of Microsoft) and Nadella Satya (current CEO) is this: Satya runs a model for the web era while Ballmer was old school.  Ballmer focused on controlling supply of Microsoft products in a world where winning demand has become more strategic.

In 2021, I challenge you to look deeper into the business model you are running. How has the web changed the fundamental constructs?

Always remember that modern empires are going to be those who control demand, not supply. That is the grand playbook of the web economy. Upgrade as I have noted in my courseware of the same title in Tekedia Institute.

In the digital age, what matters is not who controls supply, but who controls demand. Supply is largely infinite as there are many ways to get to the web, and because it is infinite, users congregate to platforms to help them navigate and make sense of the web.

In 1980, before the digital age as we have it today, the most powerful people in media were newspaper publishers. They were the people you needed to reach to get your message to the world. They decided what everyone read on the dailies and they were powerful. They controlled supply and by controlling supply, they shaped everything including advertising.

Good People, I want to thank Corporate Nigeria for your response to Tekedia Mini-MBA. Today has been fascinating with registrations. When I see insurers, banks, retailers and even a university sending their staff, I am overwhelmed with appreciation. The thinking has been: everything has to be imported to be accepted in Nigeria. 

But we are learning that if you provide quality and value, Nigeria responds. To our business leaders, we will keep justifying your confidence. Thank you for your support. 

As Admin has noted, I am available for a short speech of 30-45 minutes to your team as you begin to plan the year.  We have provided The 2021 Outlook: Growth After A Redesign already, and are now available for The 2021 Winning Playbook. 2021 is a year of accelerated growth and we have indicators to make that happen. Contact Admin, calendar is open until classes begin Feb 8.

Again, we appreciate how you all have responded. Thank you again.

I have since expanded it since I put it out in 2018. Some of our members might have read the updated version in Tekedia Mini-MBA courseware. But let me share this first draft, published in 2018. The One Oasis Strategy provides a really brilliant way to allocate factors of production in companies. Banks, fintechs and great companies have deployed the thesis. It will be part of my first work of 2021 in the Harvard Business Review, coming later this month.

Registration for 4th edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 8 – May 3, 2021) begins. Tekedia Mini-MBA, from Tekedia Institute, is 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.

‘Simply, if you build your investment around that main product, you will find success, because those investments will have a clear internal “customer”, and that reduces market risks’. The best product is the oasis in your business upon which other products (inhabitants) will feed on and depend on, as in the oasis in the desert. If you make it a clear category-king, the oasis will last long to support other inhabitants in your firm. N.E.

Read the draft here.

Tekedia Mini-MBA Edition 4

Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group are about to finalize their merger: “ Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and PSA Group are poised to get shareholders’ sign-off on a combination that’s endured two years of extraordinary drama, marked by on-again off-again talks, the transformation of their industry and a global pandemic.” Possibly, this deal will help them pool resources together for the future of automobiles which to a large extent includes electric and self-driving vehicles.

Fiat Chrysler and PSA executives reckon they’ll boost returns with scale more closely resembling Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp., and have greater resources to compete with electric-car upstarts and tech-industry interlopers. But plenty of challenges await once the deal is done. Stellantis will be an amalgam of model lines with enviable positions in certain segments and areas of the world, but neither company has much of a foothold in the luxury-car business or China’s vast auto market.

“Stellantis will be a sort of conglomerate of brands, some great and some not so good and most very regional,” said Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois. “The merger will be a good opportunity for a reset.”

They need to learn from Tesla which has transformed its industry by becoming a software company which makes cars! And it has also used the double play strategy to unlock massive value in the system. Yes, Tesla makes billions of dollars just by selling emission credits.

But Tesla is even the finest software & services company in the automobile sector. The fact is this: Tesla does not need to be overly valued just on the number of cars it has sold, just as we are not counting how many iPhones Apple has sold recently. Apple has moved into the services era, well beyond a life tethered on hardware.

I see Tesla as the only current “automobile” company in the world that has a clear playbook to make, possibly, more money on software and services than actually on sales of metals packaged as cars. First, the company is piling tons of money from regulatory credits: “In their most recent shareholder update, Fiat Chrysler Auto disclosed that as of March 31, 2020, its agreements represent total commitments of €1.1 billion”. Yes, that was how much Tesla made from FCA for selling credits which could have expired!

Besides all, Tesla plays the perception game which means it would be hard for any car company to easily catch up as it changes the basis of competition on the fly. So, for Fiat and PSA, this deal must go beyond making cars, it needs to find ways to make fans out of customers since perception is now a big component in the game of automobiles.

The new template for the industry is evident: a software company which ships cars since for Tesla you need to be on subscriptions to get some updates and some software systems are not transferable on sales.

Absolutely. We will release FSD subscription early next year.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2020

This business model where someone can buy a car and still be paying a subscription on the car for some features is something Fiat and PSA must think deep into.