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How Big Is Your Circle?

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”The older I get, the more I understand the importance of the circle of people you choose to surround yourself with.”Lacey Abbacchi

Often times, we want to have everyone in our circle. The truth is, not everyone is meant for your circle. You’ve got to cultivate and nurture that circle and only let certain people in, because not everybody is on your side, although they may claim to be.

You can be open minded, honest and real while still understanding that not everyone deserves a seat at your table because you become like people you have in your circle.

  • How big is your circle?
  • Do you prefer to have many people a part of it, or only a select few?
  • And have you ever been betrayed by someone that you thought was your friend?

Here are different views from different schools of thought:

  • ”Some will smile to your face and try to tear you down behind your back. Others will stand by your side and celebrate your wins with you. ”Who you allow in and who you surround yourself with is crucial to creating your best life. That said, the wrong people usually have a way of cleansing themselves from your life. ”The key is to let those doors close so the right ones can open.”Tony Abbacchi
  • ”When you start on a journey of personal growth and awareness, you become more selective with the kind of people you surround yourself with. I have certainly lost people I thought were my friends during a period in my life. ”Those were never really friends. They had a purpose in My life- to teach me more about myself.” Veronica Owusu
  • ”I have a nice mix of people from here, there and everywhere but those within my inner “bubble” are fewer than they used to be. ”This is due to MANY betrayals, by my best long time friends even. Some of which eventually threatened my very existence. ”I ran around in fear and shame, hiding and hoping to shake all of the negativity and animosity that surrounded me. But when I turned to God in desperation, I slowly grow and begin to see light again.”TeriAnne
  • ”We have people whom we know and we have people who we can trust.”My circle is small because trust is something which needs to be earned and that circle whom we trust unconditionally is usually a close-knit one.”I know some people do have a big circle, but as we all know, not everybody is on our side and that is a painful realization that I have gone through and learned from.”Naheed Khan
  • ”One should stay clear of all laggards, losers, and naysayers. My mantra is to stay clear of ANYONE that does NOT respect, understand, support, or appreciate you. ”My “circle” is small and only educated, experienced, caring, loving professional people are part of my inner circle of friends. ”Those handful of people will NEVER turn their back on me. As I will NEVER turn my back on them. Why?  Because we built a trust and a relationship over time that is based in HONESTY, TRANSPARENCY and freedom of speech.  ”We don’t blow smoke up each other’s arse. We don’t sugarcoat or participate in being politically-correct (PC).”However, we DO participate in being respectful and helpful to each other. All those in my circle I trust with my life; as they trust me with theirs.” – Dr. Nick.
  •  ”My friends are less than the fingers. I can count on one hand, at the bottom of the pit I crawl out with my two hands before I could see the light and stand on my own two feet. ”When there is light, I have my shadow – my shadow is my friend who will always be faithful and keep me company until the end of time in this world. ”People will come and go, not everyone is going to like you and not everyone is going to be your friend. ”Hope you are doing great, people that leave our lives are sometimes a blessing. Sometimes we leave people because it is not possible to be together.”Janet NG

Life is too short to live with regrets or stay around naysayers. Your circle doesn’t have to be big, keep it short and simple, and everything will fall in place.

The Mastercard’s Double Play Strategy

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Mastercard is working to branch into health care, fintech and supply chain management. It’s a unified part of trying to “broaden the scope of what we do, and who we do it with,” Craig Vosburg, the company’s president of North America, told Fortune. The new strategy is anchored around “the notion of Mastercard being [about] more than just cards.

As part of its quest to push its business beyond the realm of electronic payments, Mastercard has unveiled a series of initiatives targeting an array of industries and services—including new platforms geared toward the healthcare and fintech sectors, and a blockchain-enabled partnership designed to increase the transparency of companies’ supply chains.

The initiatives are part of a concentrated effort by the payment services giant to “broaden the scope of what we do, and who we do it with,” Craig Vosburg, Mastercard’s president of North America, told Fortune.

That strategy is focused around “the notion of Mastercard being [about] more than just cards”—with Vosburg citing the company’s recent acquisition of European payment services firm Nets among investments aimed at “expanding the means by which we’re capable of moving money.”

But if you look deeper, Mastercard is simply working to have a double play. It needs to generate transaction volumes. Those healthcare and supply chain management businesses would deliver them. Then, upon those volumes, it will capture its commissions on using its cards. This is the same model OPay is using in Nigeria with its clusters of bus, keke, biking, etc units.

explained in the duality element that digital products which thrive are typically both products and platforms. It would be hopeless to build modern digital products without having a moat through platforms. Interestingly, the greatest digital ICT utilities have double plays in their business models: if Amazon decimates many brick-and-mortar stores, it would welcome many online to sell them cloud services. Alibaba welcomes you to its marketplace platforms, and you certainly have signed up for its (partly affiliated) payment processing solutions (Alipay) which command commissions.

The Expiration of Data Bundles in Nigeria

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The news is that Kenya’s leading telecom company has abolished expiration date on data bundles. As you begin to push for such in Nigeria, postulating “Why must data expire in this 21st century in Nigeria?”, I have some words for you.

Safaricom has abolished the expiry of data, calling and SMS bundles as part of the firm’s plan to be simple, transparent and honest across all its products and operations.

The firm announced the move today as it celebrated 19 years of operation since launch in Kenya. This new development just comes days after the firm was taken to court to end data expiry plans.

Both Data bundles, and Calls and SMS with no expiry are immediately available on *544#

“Today, we are starting afresh and going forward we aim to be even more Simple, Transparent and Honest in everything that we do. For our customers, we are a Safaricom that is there, For You,” said Michael Joseph, CEO, Safaricom

Yes, you paid for it and it is now your property, yet it can expire because the telcos make it so. A Kenyan lawyer took it all the way to the court, suing Airtel Kenya, Safaricom and Telkom. But do not be confused, it is very complicated. I will explain – keep reading.

A lawyer and ICT practitioner has sued three mobile telephone operators, arguing that they are illegally depriving consumers of their unused data bundles.

In a complaint filed before the Communications and Multimedia Appeals Tribunal, Mr Adrian Kamotho said he was aggrieved by the high cost of data and frustrated by the arbitrary expiry of hard-earned bundles.

This is the business logic – by making  data bundle expirable, it becomes cheaper for all, since most will never use the fully paid products before they expire! Airlines do the same; by making tickets nonrefundable, ticket prices drop since not many will use all sold tickets, freeing seats for last deal sales. The fact is this: if tickets are refundable, the prices rise!

Yes, airlines will book “seat commitments” on the tickets knowing that the seats could be lost before the planes take off. By raising the price, they cover losses from the cancellations. In other words, if there are ten sold tickets with probability that 2 may cancel, they would ensure that the eight remaining passengers will cover the costs for the ten seats.

But where ticket is nonrefundable, they can make the prices for the ten seats to be low knowing there are no surprises ahead since once a seat is purchased, the revenue is guaranteed.

My point is this: if you make data non-expirable, you will end up forcing telcos to increase the bundle price (or reduce the value at the current price). That may not be a better outcome.

Of course, Safaricom will not be a good case study since its influence in the Kenyan market makes it a monopolist and consequently its pricing cannot be used as a benchmark for a free market. It may simply decide to give away 5% of its revenue since it can afford to do so! But for others, if they have to follow the non-expirable policy, there would be pain at the bottomline.

The Convocation Guest Lecture

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I will have an opportunity to speak to graduating class of Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) students. This is my first ever convocation guest lecture. I do watch Obama, Bill Gates, etc do this ritual yearly. On Dec 6, I will have the opportunity before some of Nigeria’s finest.

To our Vice Chancellor (Prof Eze), the Governing Council, the Senate, the Committee of Deans, our Professors, the leaders of our alumni association, the FUTO alumni anywhere, and the very best – current FUTO students, I am truly honoured. Selecting who speaks to graduating students is an academic ritual, and to be invited to mount that podium is a moment.

People, I have a question: what do I tell these young people?

If possible, email or share below. I desire to deliver a speech that would inspire them for years!

Ndubuisi Ekekwe Will Deliver 2019 FUTO Convocation Lecture

Google Defines The Manufacturers’ Path with GO

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In a piece, I noted that Google Pixel is an attempt for Google to define what a real Android (and Chrome) hardware would be just as Microsoft Surface has done for Windows products, blunting the rise of Mac.

This is exactly the reason why Google continues to make Android mobile devices (the Pixel series). Simply, it wants to match iPhone quality and in the process help Android to be seen as an OS that can power great mobile devices of the future. Leaving that work alone to Android OEM partners could affect Android, in the long-term, if the partners fail on execution. Largely, if Google Pixel succeeds, the Pixel will become the benchmark for Android devices. Yes, Google does not need to make money from Pixel – merely inspiring the Android OEMs will be good enough!

In this article, TechCrunch made the same point. Simply, our analysis cannot lead astray!

The Go is clearly Google’s attempt to lead the way for manufacturers looking to explore Chromebook life outside the classroom. It has some nice hardware perks, but it’s not the revolution or revelation ChromeOS needs.

[…]

Google’s recent hardware event was, perhaps, something of a referendum on the play. The original Pixelbook, while not discontinued, has yet to get a refresh two years after launch. Heck, even the troubled Pixel Buds got a reprieve as the company previewed their successor. The Pixelbook, on the other hand, got the Go.

The new device isn’t a Pixelbook replacement — at the very least, Google’s looking to sell through its back stock, with some deep discounts earlier this year. Rather, the device seems to be more a tacit admission that the company was shooting a bit too high the first two times around.

The bottomline is thus: there is a time when outsourcers cannot define your product vision. You need to step up and take charge, just as this comment postulated.

You get to a point where you realise that there are certain things you cannot outsource, if you want to tell stories that are consistent with your values…

Once you figure out that your partners cannot measure up with your level of innovation, you simply take over and show them how it should be done.

There’s no guarantee that you will be successful in the new domain, but if you eventually succeed, you become a reference point, the new benchmark!

The Microsoft Satya Nadella’s Interview on Surface