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Sieving Out the Good From the Bad

By
Ozioma Okey-Kalu
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0

What I am going to say here may sound crazy but it is quite achievable. The idea came to me as I was thinking about something eating deep into our society. So, I decided to pen it down. Hopefully, this will get to the right people that will use it to create wealth and employments.

Ok, let’s look at it. A few days ago, one of my classmates in secondary school posted something in our class WhatsApp chat group. The post was about an online game that encourages its players to commit suicide. I’ve heard about this type of game some years ago but I thought it was just stories released by someone that wants media attention. So, this post in our chat group was highly debated. The argument nearly divided the house if not for the timely intervention of one of us who is a psychologist. She told us she handled a case of a ten-year old who was Blue Whale (or Blue Dolphin) addict. The child in question has gotten to the level where he/she was excited about committing suicide. The argumentative me went to Google and found out that the game truly exists and is recording more victims by the day. In fact, Blue Dolphin isn’t the only game like this.

To say I was afraid for all the children and teenagers that may be exposed to this type of game is an understatement. Honestly, I found it hard to sleep that night. My mind kept wondering how games could do so much harm and why they haven’t been pulled out of the internet. Here is what my mind kept telling me – the internet is so vast that it couldn’t be controlled easily, and that these games must be using some strong strategies to be able to influence the young ones (who know nothing about the challenges of life) to see suicide as something exciting.

Well, as we continue pondering on these games and planning on how to warn children, teenagers and parents, let’s look at what we can pick up from these geniuses turned bad.

The first thing about the survival of these games is that they understood the power of the internet. When one of my students asked me why I always asked them to make great use the internet for their assignments, I told her that the internet is so wonderful because she can sit down in her small corner and access millions of computers all over the world. Understanding this advantage of the internet means that you can buy and sell to so many people all over the world. It means that your business can be accessed by many, same way you can access so many other businesses. You can also stay in your small corner and obtain online trainings, some of which issue certificates. Today, we have a lot of free online trainings which can help you in your businesses and jobs. That is one power of the internet.

Next thing I learnt from the survival of these games is that it is hard to control things that come in and leave the internet (at least to the best of my knowledge – I stand to be corrected, please. I am learning as well). These games wouldn’t be in existence if it is easy to control what is released into the internet. A lot of people see this as disadvantageous, but I am also seeing opportunities here. When you know that your competitors cannot block your contents on the internet, wouldn’t you be happy? So, what are you waiting for? Send out those contents now and watch them fly around.

Then, here is the major thing about these games – their power to influence. If a mere game can influence people to harm themselves, then influencing people to patronise goods and services that won’t harm them will not be that difficult. All that is needed is to employ the right strategies. Different businesses require unique strategies. Locate the strategies that will work for yours and apply it.

So, what is that business you have? Have you taken it into the internet yet? What type of content does it have? Does it have contents that will attract your targeted customers? (Those games actually have very colourful backgrounds and items that children like). What about your marketing skill? What new strategy have you tested today? What about your networks? What are you doing today that will help you to reach out to many people? In summary, have you been able to turn the strategies used by these games into greater use?

Ok, here is one more bomb I want to drop before I round off. If a game can influence people to commit suicide, is it not possible that there could be games that could influence people to become entrepreneurs? What about games that could help in teaching and learning difficult subjects (like Mathematics – we don’t really have them in Nigeria)? What about games that will discourage suicide, drug addiction, crime, corruption, and other vices? Is it possible we can have games that will show people the positive way out of poverty?

Alright, I know I’m sounding like Alice in Wonderland, but don’t blame me. After all I thought that a game couldn’t influence people to take their lives. So, let’s not think that these ideas are impossible to achieve. It is left for those in hi-tech to figure a way out. And for entrepreneurs to see that this dream comes true. Remember every invention started as something crazy. So, I am not crazy after all (lol).

Please, don’t watch someone else make your dream his reality.

One more thing, if games like these already exist, kindly spread the news because we don’t know about them in Nigeria. So, bring them to our knowledge so we can reduce the troubling rate of unemployment, insecurity and poverty in the country.

Fresh Graduates, Some Right Phrases to Use During Job Interviews

By
Chinedu Junior Ihekwoaba
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7

Interviews are always a step closer to landing that dream job. It is always the time to impress the recruiter or hiring manager.

However, I noticed some job seekers especially fresh graduates tend to blow their chances when it comes to answering interview questions. Most likened it to inexperience, the pressure to deliver or impress the interviewer (i.e. Recruiters/Hiring Managers).

Recruiters/Hiring Managers are definitely looking for candidates that are bold in their expression and can also solve organizations’ problems. Otherwise, there won’t be any reason to consider such a candidate. But knowing the right phrases to use in an interview, can sometimes boost the confidence of any job seeker and express their knowledge in a professional manner.

According to Tracie Murray, “we all struggle to come up with the right phrase to use in an interview, especially school leavers.”

I attended an interview at United Bank for Africa (UBA), Marina, Lagos; the recruiter asked me, “Who are you?”

I muttered some words and looked so boring. I don’t need anyone to tell me I have failed as I stuttered while trying to find the appropriate phrases to express myself.

  • Why did I fail a simple question?
  • Was it lack of confidence?
  • Was it lack of knowledge?
  • Was it because I wasn’t prepared?

It was neither a lack of confidence nor a lack of knowledge. I was well prepared. But it was due to the lack of right phrases to buttress my knowledge and boost my confidence. I never made it to the next round.

Instead of playing the blame game, I decided to look into the mirror. Playing the blame game will not take me far. So I decided to find the right phrases to use during interviews. Perhaps, many job seekers can benefit from them.

However, Tracie Murray came up with some phrases that might be helpful during a job interview. These phrases can be used when expressing yourself to an interviewer. It will help in defining yourself clearly and concisely.

Positive English Phrases to Use at Interview

  • I am incredibly ambitious, and this role would be an excellent opportunity for me.
  • I’m confident I would make a valuable asset to your team.
  • I am conscientious and make sure I take care when doing a task.
  • I am easy-going and find it benefits me to be kind and helpful.
  • I pride myself in being honest and loyal because I believe it’s essential.
  • I’m very motivated and love what I do.

“Using phrases and keywords in your interview will increase your chances of success. Try writing more and use them at your next interview. It could be your day.” – Tracie Murray

What Matters in Business – Hype vs. Heart

By
Ajayi Joel
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0

What really makes a business successful? Many factors, I must note. Then, what do you think is the reason for the continuous progress of your company, that’s if you’re already running one, or if you want to venture into one, have you really figured out what makes a business succeed? That is a very critical question you need to figure an answer for.

Over time, I have seen a lot of successful start-ups, and I try to trace their histories way back, and I wasn’t surprised they were successful. The qualities of the founders or CEOs are always key factors.

There are two ways businesses position themselves in Nigeria and I will quickly say this; you might not agree with me but with time, you’d understand what I’m saying. The two positions are HYPE and HEART.

A lot of times, we play a game of hype; we play a game of “more means more” that we tend to forget that business thrives on something really different.

Here’s what I mean and this is an example: I traveled to my sister’s school to pay a visit, coincidentally, a bank came around to hold an event. The event was a massive one and even a popular Nigerian artiste was invited for the event. There were lots of freebies to be won. To participate, simply open a bank account, deposit a sum of ten thousand Naira and you qualify to win a Grand Prize. That was easy; I simply transferred from one of my bank accounts, registered immediately and I got my chance to have an account in the qualification for the prizes, and I won a prize.

That same day, I transferred my money back and that was the last day I used that bank. Funny enough, I don’t know the account number or any other thing related. I wrote a post earlier on why we need to measure metrics, and one of the reasons I mentioned that was because if some banks really do metrics, they will not hold some huge events they organize. If an event is held and over one thousand people attended, then just one person is converted, the money spent to get the remaining nine hundred and ninety nine person was wasted.

Now, you may say, the goal was eventually achieved right. It was but based on metrics, the money spent for advertising was to convert one thousand people directly, and it got just one person which makes it wasted. Fine, you may have a good point saying some of such events are for awareness. Awareness for what? Just awareness or conversion?

Now, let’s take another example. I was in my early days as an undergraduate when GTBank came to my campus to give zero accounts. Every student needed a bank account but most of them do not have money to start one. When GTBank gave the opportunity for students to do it with zero money, it was a Heart connection. Did, it pull numbers? Yes! However, the connection was based on heart and not hype. Students remain loyal to GT Bank because subtly they feel the bank was made for them. They feel the bank came in to save them from the non banking life. Now, that’s heart, that’s emotions.

I must quickly say that hype and numbers are not equal to conversion. I established this on a group I belong to yesterday that some brands spend so much money to get attention, creative ads and all. Creativity can sometimes not be equal to emotions. If there’s any game that will always win, it is a game of heart. So what should be your focus? It should be on how.

When you go for the numbers, you lose on the long run. When you go for the hype, you fade with time. Now, I’m saying this because I have really seen Wantpreneurs come up with strategies that will help them get their names out, their brands visible but no customers eventually because there’s nobody that can connect emotionally with them. 

People connect emotionally when you intervene in their problems; you show care, you have empathy. The issue is that in the Nigerian business ecosystem, people have been made to believe that hype is the best shot. That a game of numbers always wins. I beg to disagree – that is false and such people do not measure metrics.

Two basic reasons why the game of hype may not work for you on the long term.

  1. Hype is short-lived:

The problem with hype is that it cannot be forever. The excitement, the rush of adrenaline, the pulse to keep wanting more has a short life span. I basically didn’t see a need to open a bank account that day but I was excited because there was a prize up for me to win so I jumped on the offer without giving it a second thought. When I got it, the motivation ended. This is the same thing that happens to every customer. People basically buy products or get services because they see the need not really because there was a bait. If there was bait, fine, but you need to create a structure for them to see the need else you’d lose.

  1. Humans are comfortable with old things.

The law of physics applies here. People will keep using that old product unless an external force stronger than their purchasing decisions influences them to go for another product. People will keep being customers to that bank unless the bank messes up or another bank provides a value that is better than the former and the customers can see this not just some bait process. This is why the hype approach in business needs to be checkmated so as not to run at a loss in the long run and a handful of businesses make this mistake and that’s because like I always emphasize, we don’t apply metrics to processes.

Yet, I must acknowledge that you need numbers. Numbers is the business. But to get the numbers, you may need to get emotions to package your strategy. A hybrid (combination of numbers and emotions) is optimal to have a sustained result.

REJOINDER: Bigi Cola Is Not At Price War with Coca Cola In Nigeria

By
Kelechi Kalu
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0

I read the piece referring Bigi Cola’s low pricing by my friend,Joel Ajayi, last week. My friend questioned the sustainability of Bigi Cola’s choice of low pricing and made some assumptions of what could or would have happened to Bigi if Coca Cola were to react by lowering their price at Bigi’s level, or a new mega-buck competitor decides to take them on a price war. I must commend my friend for raising such a thought provoking discourse on price, a topic not many are comfortable discussing. I also agree with him that low price is not a sustainable tactics in the soft drink market where giants hold sway and competition intense. 

On a closer look, however, it seems to me there was little attempt to appreciate the fundamental objectives and the limited options available to them. Also, there was what seemed to me like an unverified assumption that Coca Cola had set her RRP (recommended retail price) at N150 and not somewhere between N100 and N150. I may be wrong but I am inclined to think that Coca Cola’s recommended retail price may be slightly below the actual market rate but higher than Bigi choice of entry price.

That said, permit me now to highlight other perspectives.

Have we considered if there exists a clear and consumer compelling differential advantage in the cola drink market. A new product usually needs a differential advantage to position itself apart from entrenched competition. Bigi Cola had none.  Size can only lead to a switch by less than 5% of the consumers. 

The choice of price as a second differential point makes sense for Bigi Cola only in the short run – this for me, was their objective? Had they tried to launch at the going rate, they would have required more distribution or promotional efforts. Achieving distributional depth does not automatically guarantee consumer off-take neither can they match Coca Cola on promotion. So, what other alternative incentive could Bigi realistically have given the consumers as an incentive to switch?

The other perspective is that Bigi Cola’s marketing team may have noted the fact that their market leader, Coca Cola, does not have a recent history of frontal price reaction. Therefore, it is safe to say there is no price war between both brands.

The foregoing points simply tell me that Bigi Cola’s choice of size and price differentials were a short-term  strategy to gain presence and not dominance. They were obviously not seeking market dominance in which case you will expect Coca Cola to react. They only sought to gain market presence with the intent to increase price as soon as their market share reaches a satisfactory level.

The question of low price sustainability will arise if Bigi Cola’s market entry objective is dominance.

Bigi was simply one of the little Chihuahuas nibbling at the heels of the elephant. Dominance is not possible for them in the short-term especially given the market saturation and the massive positive brand perception Coca Cola had achieved. The truth is, without significance differential advantage, everyone else had to queue behind and that is what Bigi did. Their relative success, which caught our attention, is attributable to their ability to combine bigger size, astute distribution and lower price. This also may not have happened if retailers were not selling above Coca Cola’s RRP.  

Another factor that may have prompted Bigi Cola’s adoption of penetration pricing that is often overlooked is what is called ‘the experience curve effect.’ Bigi may have sought to bring down cost by using increase in production arising from the resultant higher sales owing to low pricing. Survey shows that many products unit cost decline by about one-fifth when production doubles. Consider also the fact that the actual cost of the actual product is in reality far less than 20% of the going rate. The carbonated soft drink industry bulk costs are in human, machinery and marketing costs rather than on the actual product. Bigi may have pursued higher sales with the aim of achieving cost advantage. Although I doubt if this were the case, if it were, then they could as well dream of dominance. I also don’t see them achieving better cost economies owing to volume than Coca Cola.

Now we come to the other point – the assumption on what may have happened to Bigi if Coca Cola dropped its price to match Bigi or another mega-buck competitor taking further complicating the price war by offering lower that Bigi’s N100. Aside from Coca Cola not being reactionary, their market position posits that they can only use low pricing as a market entry barrier by making it difficult for others to enter the competition.  That too is not feasible. Lower price isn’t in tandem with their brand positioning as the top industry brand. 

If Coca Cola are to react they will do so in other way, not on price. This, I believe, they may have done.

In the same vein, ORide may be charging below Gokada to gain market footing and not to snuff others out. Joel, I hope you understand that this is a continuation of your discourse and not a call out?

How Conflicts Evolve and How to Manage Them

By
Nicholas Oluwaseyi
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0

A conflict is a clash of opinions. The basis of conflict varies but, it is a concept we will always have with us as part of society. The basis of conflict could be personal, racial, class, caste, political and international.

Conflict exists everyday and everywhere. Anger flies in the air even when the atmosphere seems calm.

Conflict has broken many relationships, organization and a lot of coexistence between humans. It’s a concept less touched in the society but it leads to a lot of consequences affecting the society.

The number one way to tackle conflict and get to its end is to understand the stages of conflict.

There are five stages of conflict, and they can be resolved by learning how each works.

In 1967, Pondy developed a process model of conflict which is very useful in understanding how conflicts start and their stages. Pondy highlighted the five conflict episodes :

  1. Latent stage
  2. Perceived stage
  3. Felt stage
  4. Manifestation stage
  5. Aftermath stage

Latent Stage

At this stage, factors which could lead to conflict are in place. People may be in conflict without knowing. The basics of this stage are :

  1. Competition for scarce resources
  2. Drive for autonomy
  3. Divergence of goals
  4. Role conflict

A server at a restaurant may have inputted an order incorrectly and the food being made for a table is the wrong food. The manager and persons involved do not know this yet. But every tool needed for conflict is on ground. This is the latent stage.

Perceived Stage

At this stage, one party perceives the other to be likely frustrating his or her goals. The person at the table now knows the wrong order has been inputted. The best solution to conflict at this stage is communication.

Felt Stage

At this stage, the conflict is not only perceived but it is actually felt and recognized. The two parties at this point recognize there is a serious disagreement between them. One party might be coping while the second is already tensed. It is already affecting his or her affection to the first party.

The personalization of conflict is the mechanism which causes many people to be concerned with dysfunction of conflict.

Manifestation Stage

The felt stage will lead to a situation in which the conflict can be observed. It might take different means – face to face meetings, phone messages and others. When the manager pulls that server aside to speak with her, the others perceive conflict and it has manifested. The two parties involved in behaviors that invoke responses from each other – open aggression, apathy, etc. Violence is a leading manifestation of conflict in an uncivilized society.

Aftermath Stage

This takes place when there is an outcome of conflict such as resolution or dissolution to a problem. This maybe a positive or negative one.

Most of the times, recognizing and addressing issues that cause conflict will lead to fast resolution and a better relationship and workplace existence. The problem lies in the fact that both parties feel wronged and expect their demands to be met. At this point conflict escalate.

Families are melting pots of conflict. Most times neither party grew up the same way, and this heightened stress of learning to accept differences leads to conflict.

It is expedient to know, and understand conflict at a psychological level if we all hope to live in peace and harmony.

All Together

In handling conflicts, we must all be democratic and address our differences openly and without fear. Conflict sometimes leads to escalation stage; at this stage neither party can win but neither side is ready to accept loss either. Most times, conflict that has been in the latent stage for long often leads to violence.

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