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Employers Don’t Have Indispensable Employees – Case Lesson of Real Madrid FC

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Employers don’t have indispensable employees.

Quite shocking, right? Yes, I repeat, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be indispensable to your employee.

Take Real Madrid FC, Spain, as a case study. The club is one of the most decorated clubs in Europe, no doubt. But when it comes to the culture and traditions, they are not the best at it.

Starting with how managers are being treated, it simply shows how they operate.
Carlo Ancelotti managed the team from 2013 – 2015 and won the prestigious award for the club, the UEFA Champions League Trophy. A trophy they’d never won for a long time.
Despite winning La Decima, the FIFA Club World Cup and Copa del Rey in the 2013-2014 campaign, he was shown the exit door for going trophy-less in the 2014-2015 campaign.

Jose Mourinho also got sacked at Real Madrid. This was a manager who ended the reign of the invincible champion, Barcelona FC. Jose Mourinho was brought to Madrid in 2010 to challenge Barcelona who has been dominating the Spanish football. The Portuguese started well with a Copa del Rey in his first tenure and a Spanish league in the second year. He was shown the exit door in 2013.

Zinedine Zidane won the UEFA Champions League trophy for three consecutive times (2016-2018) for Madrid in his two and a half years spell as a manager. He also won some major trophies as well. He resigned in May 2018, citing the club’s “need for change” as his rationale for departing. He is back to the club though after the club went through lost weeks.

Real Madrid is not only known for sacking managers, but they also treat their players poorly. Especially their club legends. We’ve seen the likes of Raul Gonzalez left in unfortunate circumstances despite hoping to retire at the club.

Iker Casillas was another club legend who left in tears, sitting alone on a stage as he gave his farewell press conference in 2015, no club presence to support the long-serving player. This was a player who joined Madrid’s Academy at age nine, played for the first team for 16 year and captained them.

Even Cristiano Ronaldo, the club’s finest ever player, left for Juventus in 2018. He later blamed the Club President, Perez, for his departure. The five-time Ballon d’Or claimed the President no longer see him as “indispensable’.

Other heroes like Alfred Di Stefano, David Beckham have all tasted the strange treatment by the club, questioning the club’s culture and traditions.

One player currently going through this poor treatment from his employer is Gareth Bale. The Welshman has been shown the exit door. Even the club manager, Zidane has made it known to the public that he doesn’t want Bale.

“We hope he leaves soon. It would be best for everyone,” said Zidane.

This is an utmost disrespect to the player who has delivered results to the club when called upon. His stats showed he had scored 102 goals in 231 games, adding 65 assists.

This simply means all employers do not remember past glories or judge employees by what they have done, you are expected to keep bringing results every time. Just like employees want to keep getting paid every time.

Get this straight, you are your employer’s best worker as long as you are bringing results. That stops the day you fail to do so. The only way forward is to keep bringing results if you want to remain relevant. Inasmuch you’ll not want to be judged by your employer for previous payments, stop blaming your employer for judging you based on the present result.

Likewise, employers should also know that you can’t always win every time. Give your workers time to adjust and implement new techniques. Things are always changing. No employee wants to underperform.

Bootstrapping – The Startup Powerful Tool

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I read a book last year; “The Bootstrappers Bible” by Seth Godin and I learned a lot from it. However, I had issues applying his principles to the African ecosystem. The western business ecosystem is totally different from the African ecosystem, so I thought to myself that the whole bootstrapping of a thing doesn’t really work for Africans. So, if you want to delve into entrepreneurship, you need to go secure a huge amount of money.

This post is written to explain that bootstrapping is very possible in Africa and that there are techniques to it. I call them secrets to bootstrapping and I will be explaining based on my experience, what works and what doesn’t work.

I have written several posts about how no investors will invest in you to start a poultry if you do not have a track record of selling eggs. So how do you sell eggs? In literal sense, how do you start a business when you do not have any capital?

  1. Ideas do not need money to run: If you do not understand this simple piece, then you cannot bootstrap. When the word bootstrap is used most times, it specifically refers to the early stage of the business, talking about from the moment the idea is conceived down to the point where it is trying to scale.

Why did I raise that point? I raised it because if bootstrapping boils down to scaling, then you do not have an excuse to give when starting that lack of funds is a limiting factor. You can run idea phase with zero naira in your bank account. Let me quickly remind you that you’re an entrepreneur and your most important mission is to create possibilities where others claim is impossible. So, if others were to give an excuse that internet is the problem, what you need to do is get your device to sleepover at places where you could get internet access for free. Matter of fact, go out and search for the cheapest data plan with lots and lots of bonuses and use it. Subscribe to night plans and use the internet.

The idea of bootstrapping is that you are not spending huge so in any way possible you need to achieve that. Ideas involve getting more validation in what’s on your mind, it doesn’t require traveling around the world. You can get as many information as possible from your seat.

I was able to gather certain details from NYSC members without having to go to camp, all I needed was to push a call to a friend to help me meet with 50 NYSC members and get them to answer one basic question. She did, and I told some other friends. Altogether, without leaving the four corners of my room, I have gotten as many details as possible.

  1. Understand the power of leveraging: Collaboration is the new form of competition in this present era. The moment you begin to see everyone as a competitor, you begin to limit your progress. Here’s how I was able to assemble a team of six and sustain the team down to this point without having to pay anyone a “salary”.

I have certain skills that I developed along the journey, while I needed to learn as many skills as possible to handle so many things. I also realized that it was getting too much, so I went on a search to look for folks who needed to learn such skills and promised them mentorship in exchange for service for the vision. Well, it worked! I had so many people come onboard but had to stick to just a few that I began to prune till we’re now six altogether, each having their different roles. Are there times we needed some other skills set that isn’t within the team? Of course!

However, I was able to come up with a plan which was by seeking for professionals in such fields, and negotiating with them to exchange values for values. It worked for some, and for others, it didn’t. The whole point is that we are progressing whether or not we will now need a huge chunk of money.

These two pieces of advice are golden.

How To Win Big On Social Media

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People often whirl away their time on social media for fun. I bet only a few people are on social media for business. Many are not aware of the benefits social media can bring if used in the right way.

Even some companies in Nigeria are not intentional about the use of social media; they often see it as a time-waster.

I read an article written by a LinkedIn connection, Fabio Marrama. He talked about how to win big on Social Media. Here are some extracted contents from his article titled article, “I bet you hear this every day on social media. Just give value. Am I right?”

Social media is a hundred percent value. You need to give people a reason to always come to your page.

Fabio emphasized further, “You need to serve up “value” in order to grow a community online.”

  • Do people wonder what does “giving value” mean?
  • How do I “give value” when I have no basic or prior knowledge of the word value on social media.
  • Is it even possible to give value on social media?

Yes, it is possible.

First, you need to understand that people go to different places for different reasons. Same is also applicable to social media. Giving value is subjective and there are varying degrees of value. This boils down to understanding your “WHY” on social media.

If you can figure out your “WHY” on social media, then your contents would be structured around these 4 pillars of content creation:

EDUCATE

– “Content that teaches, trains or equips someone with the knowledge, skills, steps, strategies or mindsets to achieve a greater degree of success with something.” – Fabio Marrama

Your Content should always leave your audience with something new. When it comes to acquiring knowledge or skills, some people are not always aware of how to go about it. You’ll be doing them a lot of goodbye filling their needs.

Are you meeting the needs of content consumers?

INFORM

– “Content that informs, updates on or provides relevant information is so valuable to your audience. Especially for those who don’t have time to stay ‘in the know’.” – Fabio Marrama

In a world where everyone is trying to put a sumptuous meal on the table and pay bills, everyone seems to be busy. Some don’t really have the time to find out ‘what’s new.’

Most of these people miss out on what’s trending, especially when it is not in line with their daily activities. The little time they have is being spent on social media. You’ll be doing them a lot of good by bringing information in front of them.

MOTIVATE / INSPIRE

“Sometimes we all need a push. Content that motivates or inspires us to take action, encourage us to think differently or challenge us against the status quo is exactly what we need to feel.” – Fabio Marrama

Everyone needs a lift at a point in time. If your content is always pushing people to take action or make certain changes in their lives, you are going to make it big time.

ENTERTAIN

“Content that draws your attention, tells a story, stirs a feeling, and makes you laugh, cry, smile, share and enjoy.
– This pillar coupled with any of the first 3 is a winning formula.” – Fabio Marrama

Diana Nguyen, popularly known as ’Dancing Diana’ is a good example of entertaining contents. She brings something different to a professional platform, LinkedIn. She simply shows why we need relaxation at work.

My conclusion, contents on social media could be texts, videos or pictures, but always ensure that your contents are in line with the following pillars shared above.

People want value for their time. People want their problems to be solved. People want their needs to be satisfied.

Once you can identify what you can offer to the people, it becomes easier to build a niche. Then you can start thinking of monetization.

  • Are you also stuck on what to produce on saturated social media platforms?
  • Is your company finding it difficult to break even on social media?
  • Are you finding it difficult to connect with your target audience?

Remember, any brand or company that’s not taking the maximum advantage of social media platforms is still operating in the crude business environment.

Paying Attention to Emerging Trends Will Help Your Business Grow

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Rwanda is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and it is a pride to Africa. I decided to take a study on some of the growing economies in Africa.

So, I was watched some documentaries on a few countries few days ago.

It is very important to know the economic trend of your country to align your business.

Small business owners in Nigeria fail at this a lot. I know several of them that just start businesses without any market research, talk less of watching the economic trend.

There are some things peculiar to the world of business that are worth of note and should be kept at the back of the mind in 2019.

Some of them are already evident, but I feel I should lay more emphasis on them.

  1. Growing population: What have you thought about the population of your country in Africa in 2019 and 2020. Well, the population of countries in Africa would be on a rise.

This would make it a very big consumer market. The population of Nigeria by 2020 would take a big rise and this is the best time to produce products that matter to consumers.

Now think about it, if Nigeria’s population would increase, what would be the basic needs and are they in abundance to meet up to the number that would be demanded?

  1. Increase in internet access: If there’s an increase in internet access, then there would an increase in the number of those who would be online.

Matter of fact, Africa has very high active internet users. Nigeria to be precise. The number of smartphone users also is quite high despite the expensive data cost. This can mean one thing as well: if Africa’s population keeps increasing and they have access to the internet, there would be lots of potential customers. You need to be sensitive to know how to position yourself.

  1. Increase in skilled labour force as well as technology: If businesses would emerge spontaneously, then there would be a huge demand for labour force; skilled labour force to me precise.

This is another avenue to position yourself either in technological advancements or training of the labour force.

There are others like agricultural demand which would be very high.

What is your business doing to position itself for the coming years?

Have you taken your time to observe the trend?

It’s quite important you take time to observe it and align your businesses with it.

Second half of 2019 would be an awesome half-year, when small businesses would boom if they are well positioned.

How well are you positioned?

Tekedia Contributors, Thousands Are Reading You. Send Your Articles.

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Dear Tekedia Contributors,

I want to thank all our contributors. My team had noted that some have asked how their articles are doing (i.e. traffic) on Tekedia. Unfortunately, we do not have traffic trackers on articles. I made that decision to avoid pursuing click-baits of things people click only to regret. So, no one knows how your posts are doing.

Nonetheless, they have been sending Alexa ranking which shows that Tekedia is around 93,000 in global ranking. Typically, for that to happen, it means a site receives thousands of visitors daily.

Source: Alexa.com ranking for Tekedia.com

Yet, I am confident you will understand. Our focus is professionals and nothing but professionals. We have no Facebook and Twitter strategy, and I do encourage my team not to bother sharing in those places. Ten professionals reading are better than 100 passersby. Amazon AWS through a $20,000 credit support means we do not need even intrusive terrible adverts.

We are building a mini-MBA in our ecosystem. Many have read articles therein and went to interviews and got offers. Many have used the works for academic seminars, and parliament has referenced it in Bills. And the blog is now evidently popular, according to Alexa.

Always remember: “Your most useful talent is the one people know you have”. Publish on Tekedia (send articles). From board positions to jobs, many have been rewarded for writing here.