In the village during the Christmas, some people came to push me to run for the office of the governor, Abia State. I laughed. They were confused. Politely, I mentioned one word: Kogi. Yes, Nigeria is fading, politically. And the Supreme Court has joined the fray. Today, Imo state’s Emeka Ihedioha was kicked out as governor. But Supreme Court painfully found faults in the #2 and #3 candidates, by number of votes won, until it landed on #4. That #4 is APC’s Hope Uzodinma. Sure, this is not to say #4 got help as a ruling party candidate. But there are things lay people like me cannot understand.

But there is an explanation: ” Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun who delivered the judgment on Tuesday, declared that the votes due to Senator Uzodinma were unlawfully excluded from the 318 polling units and should be added to his votes”. Amazing!

Real magic in Imo state as APC’s Uzodinma goes to Government House even as PDP’s Emeka Ihedioha goes to his family’s house, Supreme Court of Nigeria directing.  I have never seen a miracle in politics like this one. Yes, #1 was faulty. #2 was no good. #3 was a bad guy. But #4 got votes but were excluded in an election conducted by his party.  You want to buy a bridge in Abia? Lol, Nigeria. A nation in motion.

When I ran the piece that Michael Puchercos, GMD/CEO of Lafarge Africa Plc, was leaving Lafarge to take the CEO role in Dangote Cement,  I expected one specific comment here. Unfortunately, in our LinkedIn Nation and Tekedia, that did not come. I was largely disappointed that we have not sharpened the antenna for people to have noticed that Lafarge Africa failed on one of the most important governance systems in corporate boards: non-compete clause for Senior Executives within a specific period, upon exit. Yes, a CEO cannot leave Lafarge and join a competitor the next day!

If I had served in Lafarge Africa board, that would not have happened. Mr. Puchercos would have signed a document that would have made it impossible for him to resign from Lafarge and join Dangote Cement within at least three years. That Lafarge does not have that in the process is a total failure, and I do think shareholders deserve an explanation.

Also, Mr. Puchercos, a beneficial of this obvious mess, has an explanation to offer. Possibly, under his watch, some executives could have departed Lafarge as he did not make sure the company has something to prevent them from joining a competitor immediately. You pay executives big money because their contracts are not typical like all of us. Part of the game is making sure they do not leave and join competitors with all the business secrets, proprietary information, etc which they have accumulated while working in a firm.

I serve on the boards of many companies. I have a playbook which becomes active when the CEO is not a Founder. A key requirement is that upon exit, the outside CEO cannot join a competitor within three years. That comes besides the typical non disclosures and confidentialities.

Lafarge Africa Board messed up big time. Of course, it could be possible that the board negotiated a monetary compensation with Puchercos/Dangote Cement which accelerated the lock-out period, from years to days. Yet, doing that does not make it better!

Michael Puchercos, CEO of Lafarge Cement, Joins Dangote Group

I just accepted the invitation of one of the world’s largest project management professional associations to serve as a Keynote Speaker in their 20th Annual Symposium and 35th anniversary of the organization in Ottawa, Canada. The date is October 20-21 2020 at Ottawa Conference and Event Center. I will be speaking on designing and managing projects in the age of agility where customer needs are constantly evolving, with technology drastically changing the ordinances of market systems. My working topic is Evolve: Beyond Project Output to Value Realization on Project Management. I will share more in the coming weeks as I prepare to co-share with global project management experts, coming from NASA, Harvard, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Goldman Sachs, etc. It is no more innovation; you need symphonic innovation to get leverageable value in project management.

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.

You Need Symphonic Innovation

For years, the automakers told the world that making an all-electric vehicle was hopeless and impossible. We accepted it. Then Toyota crawled with a hybrid (electric + petrol). That was a quintessential moment that electrons, not just hydrocarbons, would move cars. But a new era began with the best in his generation – Elon Musk – when he took over, and redesigned the automobile industry. Today, Tesla is worth more than GM and Ford combined. Samuel Nwite goes deeper in this piece on how it all began, and why the future belongs to electrons, and not hydrocarbons, when it comes to moving people from one spot to another.  Tesla is eclipsing competitors by moving beyond customer needs and expectations to customer perceptions. In the mini MBA which begins Feb 10 (register here), participants will read a flash case on Tesla.