Dr Chisom Ezeocha takes us through an amazing journey of building teams. Yet, I do not know if earning a doctoral degree and working in the oil industry made him a better team member; he has always been a great team person. As my undergraduate classmate in FUTO (and room mate at a time), he gave me a nickname “Brethren”. That Brethren was a demonstration of working and learning together as classmates. The other is now a General Manager (Network Operations) in MTN; Uche Osuji extends it with “Brethrennn” with an extended “n”. Then “Oshigida’, “Babaatu”, some mean really nothing but admiration for finding solutions to hard academic challenges.

Chisom has managed global technical teams in Africa and around the world. He served as the Head of Offshore Field Engineering for 6 years in Brunei Shell Petroleum. That is the zenith of leading teams where any dislocation on missions would cost your employer billions of dollars.

Dr. Ezeocha developed a novel team management methodology which he refined during his doctoral program. We are truly honoured that he shared the constructs of his model in his lecture.

Join us and learn how to build effective teams at Tekedia Mini-MBA; REGISTER.

Apple on Monday, during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) unveiled the iOS 14 for its devices that offer new features with more intelligent, more personal, and more private apps that will help users get things done faster and efficiently like never before.

The new features touch almost all existing apps in the iphones; from widgets to voice commands and the newly introduced CarKey, the redesign comes with a scintillating experience.

Apple also unveiled a new custom chip and announced it’s moving its Macs from Intel processors to its own chips, a milestone development that the CEO Tim Cook said “it’s the game changer.”

In the new features, widgets have been redesigned to give information at a glance – and can now be added to the home screen with such flexibility that gives users the ability to arrange them however they want.

Calls from your iphone, Facetime, and third-party apps display in all-new compact design that doesn’t take up the full screen. It means, you can keep watching videos or continue your Facetime call while making use of another app.

The iOS 14 is redesigned to help users stay connected to the conversations that matter most, keep track of group conversations, and express themselves how they like. The ability to pin up conversations has been elaborated that one can pin up to nine of his most important conversations to a list where he can easily access them.

You can create a group conversation and give it a visual identity by adding a memoji or emoji. To send a message to anyone in the group, type a name. When you are mentioned, your name is highlighted. And you have the ability to customize an active group where you can only receive notification when you are mentioned.

The emojis have been elaborated to accommodate diverse figures, face coverings, age, 20 new hair and headwear styles to reflect your hubby, profession, and personality.

The maps have been enhanced to help you to explore and navigate better. In iOS 14, you get cycling directions using bike lanes, paths and roads. You can also see elevation, busy streets, stairs, and steep passages when planning a trip.

Siri has been updated with 20x more facts than the past three years. It can now answer your questions using information from across the web. You can now send audio messages with Siri.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the iOS 14 is the CarKey and the CarPlay that has transformed the relationship between your iphone and your car. You can now unlock and start your car with your iphone. This is in addition to using your iphone as a credit card that was introduced before now.

The CarPlay technology will be available in 97% of new cars, starting with the 2021 BMW 5 Series. Apple is partnering with standards groups to pave the way for expanding the technology to other cars.

Apple has a plan to build its own cars, but it’s still a long shot and the company wants to delve into the auto industry now using its most lucrative market – the iphone.

Emily Schubert, Apple senior manager of car experience engineering demonstrated how the car key works. From tapping the car door with the card to unlock, the drivers place the iphone on the car’s charging pad and press the ignition button to start the car. Just like similar wireless car technologies, the Apple technology relies on what’s known as Near Field Communication that allows devices within a few centimeters to exchange data wirelessly.

Apple is working to reimagine the CarKey, which is considered big and bulky. Vice president of software engineering said: “They’ve been around for over 100 years but they’ve become big, bulky and ripe for reimagining.”

The virtual car key can be shared using iMessage for BMW users. Another company with such technology is Volvo; its world-first digital-key allows you to grant single use access to another user.

Federighi said Apple is expecting support for the new ultra wideband standard in new vehicles next year, as it works to expand the number of car models that CarKey technology can work with. Apple is also planning to switch to a different technology that will involve ultra-wideband, which will allow drivers to unlock the cars from longer distances while the iphone remains in the driver’s pocket or bag.

The new redesign is expected to take effect this fall.

On the other hand, the new chip, Apple Silicon, is a more powerful, desktop-sized version of processing chips that Apple built for iphones and ipads. The company said it is designed to allow Apple Silicon to run in the same environment, making it easier for developers to build apps that work across all Apple devices.

Cook said Apple’s first computer outfitted with Silicon will ship by the end of 2020, and that other Macs will be transitioned to Silicon in the next two years.

Apple said the Silicon’s CPU power’s new chips will make Macs better at running demanding programs like games, machine learning tools, and video editing software.

If Apple continues on its trajectory, its market cap would be bigger than the entire GDP of Africa. Apple is now worth more than $1.5 trillion and Africa is valued at close to $2.6 trillion. Apple added the equivalent of Nigeria’s GDP in less than three months! What a company, humans have built. But Apple is just starting; it has unveiled IOS 14 which promises to become a new basis of competition.

The iOS 14 is redesigned to help users stay connected to the conversations that matter most, keep track of group conversations, and express themselves how they like. The ability to pin up conversations has been elaborated that one can pin up to nine of his most important conversations to a list where he can easily access them.

You can create a group conversation and give it a visual identity by adding a memoji or emoji. To send a message to anyone in the group, type a name. When you are mentioned, your name is highlighted. And you have the ability to customize an active group where you can only receive notification when you are mentioned.

Yet, the biggest revelation is that Intel has lost the Apple chip business; Apple would be making its own chip, using ARM architecture, for its Mac business. This has been expected as I noted in the One Oasis Strategy; TSMC, a chip foundry, has advanced very well, and what made Intel special is no more exclusive to the chip giant. This mirrors Apple’s playbook with Samsung which makes the processors that power the iPhone.

Apple confirmed on Monday that it would design the processors inside its new Mac computers, ditching Intel, its partner of 15 years, and completing a years long effort to control the core components underpinning its main devices.

Apple said that the first Macs with Apple chips would arrive by year’s end, and that the full transition from Intel to Apple chips would take two years.

Apple’s move, announced at the start of its annual developers conference, is the latest sign of the growing power and independence of the biggest tech companies

Simply, TSMC produces advanced chips that can match, if not surpass, Intel’s foundry capabilities. With that, Apple thinks it can design the Mac chips, and get the outside contractor to manufacture them. That saves it a lot of money in a business known for relatively low margins when compared with Apple mobile business.

More so, having Apple mobile business and Mac within the same chip architecture opens a better interoperability where your Mac becomes an extension of your iPad and iPhone, and vice versa. It un-bundles the mobility business, and opens a new age in what Apple can do at homes, on the go and offices. This is the grand unification of Apple business and the beginning of a new dawn of fandom.

Innovation = invention + commercialization.

Our members in the Tekedia Mini-MBA are learning, and mastering the whole meaning of innovation, separating ideas and products. How do you turn inventive companies into innovation companies? How do you set a new basis of competition in your sector?

Register today and be part of Tekedia Mini-MBA.

How do we become a rich country? What is holding Nigeria & Africa? Why are we so much in ideas with no products and services? Why do we have so many think tanks and few do tanks?  Oh yes, we are an Inventive Society. We need to transition into an Innovation Society for Nigeria and Africa to rise.

This is a very serious matter: what happens if they close your precious department in college?  The news is that most U.S. schools are cutting costs and eliminating departments as money dries up, and enrollment drops. I mean, Covid-19 continues to distort the equilibrium of the global system. Now, schools will have to review their products and ascertain which ones make sense for the market (yes, students and parents as demand). Schools have operated without any regard to market fitness. Today, Covid-19 will get most of them to recalibrate what makes sense. Unfortunately, most Nigerian universities will not be exposed to such as they are evidently NOT part of the market systems with near-full government funding. So, those neglected departments remain with all the full rights to strike at will.

After thousands of students were forced to leave university in the middle of the school year due to lockdowns, the pandemic’s effect on higher education continues. With a drop in enrollment due to coronavirus, many institutions are facing budget shortfalls and having to cut programs and departments. The University of Alaska says it will cut 39 academic departments, while Elmira College in New York says it’s eliminating several academic programs, as well as reducing staff by 20%. Universities have had to furlough thousands of employees and announce revenue losses in the hundreds of millions, per CNBC.