Let me wish many traveling for Good Friday and Easter. I like the Good Friday/Easter because it reminds me what it means to move from the valley to the mountaintop. Anything can rise, including careers, and I am hoping the spirit of the season will unlock moments of hope – and glory, for many.
As you celebrate the season, find answers to this question: what are the 3 things I need to do to move from Good Friday to Easter in my career? The ecclesiastical translation from Good Friday to Easter required Action. If you want such, you need to take action also.
The key is taking action and working to do things that can impact your desired outcome. The Action is the Call to Mission.
This is a trailer announcing my upcoming talk in the Platform. I hope you will make it.
I will speak in the Platform, the extremely popular national live TV conversation, on May 1 2019. Prof Yemi Osinbajo (vice President of Nigeria), Dr Peter Obi (PDP 2019 vice presidential candidate), a Goldman Sachs Managing Director, and other leaders have spoken in the Platform. Few hours ago, I accepted to speak in this prestigious event. The invitation letter had, in part, included: “I am strongly convinced that your extensive work and contributions … will be of immeasurable benefit…”
Over the years, the Platform has emerged as an important platform for deep national conversations. With more than 35 million people watching live and online, I will present a redesign for our nation in a topic titled The Growth of Nations. Looking at drivers, enablers and other elements for economic prosperity, the talk will be a moment.
Amazon has done well in America. But Amazon is not a force in global retail – it represents a very low single-digit percentage of the total retail market. Jeff Bezos, the Founder and CEO of Amazon, knows that. You cannot have disruptive impacts in global retail unless you bring atoms in the playbook. So, besides the success of Amazon digital, Amazon has been going offline. It brought Whole Foods home. But the biggest that will happen is Amazon Go – automated and cashier-less retail shop. Simply, with Amazon Go, Amazon can become the operating system of modern retailing. In the company’s letter to shareholders, Jeff made that note.
Amazon today remains a small player in global retail. We represent a low single-digit percentage of the retail market, and there are much larger retailers in every country where we operate. And that’s largely because nearly 90% of retail remains offline, in brick and mortar stores. For many years, we considered how we might serve customers in physical stores, but felt we needed first to invent something that would really delight customers in that environment. With Amazon Go, we had a clear vision. Get rid of the worst thing about physical retail: checkout lines. No one likes to wait in line. Instead, we imagined a store where you could walk in, pick up what you wanted, and leave.
Getting there was hard. Technically hard. It required the efforts of hundreds of smart, dedicated computer scientists and engineers around the world. We had to design and build our own proprietary cameras and shelves and invent new computer vision algorithms, including the ability to stitch together imagery from hundreds of cooperating cameras. And we had to do it in a way where the technology worked so well that it simply receded into the background, invisible. The reward has been the response from customers, who’ve described the experience of shopping at Amazon Go as “magical.” We now have 10 stores in Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, and are excited about the future
Amazon Go is a new kind of store featuring the world’s most advanced shopping technology. No lines, no checkout – just grab and go! If it thrives, Amazon will license the technology to the world of retail. So, it is going to become like Amazon’s AWS (Amazon Web Services), the cloud computing business, which allows people to rent cloud computing spaces for their online solutions. Amazon Go will help retail stores to rent the technology to automate their stores at scale.
According to a promotional video published by Amazon, the store concept uses several technologies, including computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion to automate much of the purchase, checkout, and payment steps associated with a retail transaction. The store concept is seen as a revolutionary model that relies on the prevalence of smartphones and geofencing technology to streamline the customer experience, as well as supply chain and inventory management. However, public roll-out of the Seattle Amazon Go prototype location was delayed due to issues with the sensors’ ability to track multiple users or objects within the store, such as when children move items to other shelves or when more than one customer has a similar body habitus.
One Oasis Emerges
Amazon Go will evolve as a separate product even though at the moment, it is supporting Amazon commerce. As typical in the One Oasis Strategy, the original goal is to make the best product better, but over time, the solution can go alone in itself. The AWS was built for the ecommerce business. Today, it is a business of itself, delivering great value.
Indeed, oasis is very critical and every company has oasis. Your best product is the oasis in your business. Every other product feeds on that best product. If you build your investment around that main product, you will find success, because those investments will have a clear “customer”, and that reduces market risks. In other words, if your new business investments are geared to support the best product, and the best product is doing well, it means the risks on the new investments will be easily managed. Provided the best product continues to do well, demand on the new investment is assured. That is the One Oasis Strategy.
The technology will bring the unification that will help Amazon pursue a bigger share of the global retail market. Yes, hybrid commerce is important as most nations still do retail offline. The Amazon Go will help in accelerating the mission, not just to sell more things for Amazon, but to collect “taxes” as Amazon currently does, in taking companies online, via AWS. Yes, as companies license the tech, on the global retail space, they will pay fees to Amazon. The acceleration of 5G will make this redesign happen faster.
I wrote about Lambda School two days ago, and in the LinkedIn update, I asked if someone could get a version in Nigeria. Magically, today, Paystack announced a deal with Lambda School. The general model is this: you will get the training free but when you get a job, a small part of your salary will be sent to the company. That means they really have to do a good job to ensure you get a job – I will vote for that model any day. Paystack plans to hire many that get in or connect them with its merchant partners.
Lambda School is opening applications for the first time to students from Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. This is what you get:
An intensive full-time, 9 month full stack software development training program, at no upfront cost
During the program, Paystack will pay for membership to a co-work space near you so you have access to reliable electricity and internet
After the program, you’ll have the chance to be hired by Paystack, and we’re also happy to introduce you to the many Paystack merchants (including some of the best companies in Nigeria) who’re looking for development talent
Apply to the Lambda School Africa Pilot
California-based Lambda School is a 9 month immersive training program that gives you the tools and training you need to launch a new career. The program trains people online to be software engineers at no up-front cost. Instead, students have the option to opt into an Income Share Agreement where they pay a fraction of future income.
Paystack is a technology company powering growth for incredible businesses in Africa. We help businesses in Africa of all sizes – from startups to government agencies to global brands collect online and offline payments securely, and to provide a modern, delightful payments experience
Guaranty Trust Bank plc has released its unaudited Financial Results for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 to the Nigerian and London Stock Exchanges.
The Bank recorded positive performance across all financial metrics with gross earnings for the period growing by 1.2% to ?110.3billion from ?109.0billion posted in March 2018. Profit before tax improved to ?57.0billion from ?52.6billion recorded in the corresponding period of March 2018, representing a growth of 8.3%. Customers’ deposits also rose by 6.0% to ?2.410trillion in March 2019 from ?2.274trillion in December 2018, whilst the Bank’s Loan book grew by 1.6% from ?1.262trillion as at December 2018 to ?1.282trillion in March 2019.
Balance sheet remained strong with the Bank closing the quarter ended March 31, 2019 with Total Assets of ?3.556trillion and Shareholders’ Funds of ?627.2Billion. In terms of Assets quality, NPL ratio and Cost of Risk closed 7.03% and 0.05% in March 2019 from 7.30% and 0.34% in December 2018 respectively. In addition, coverage for NPL stood at 90.12% while Full Impact Capital adequacy ratio remained very strong, closing at 22.25%. On the backdrop of this result, Post Tax Return on Equity (ROAE) and Return on Assets (ROAA) closed at 32.79% and 5.76% respectively. These indices are pointer to GTBank’s strategic positioning in Nigeria and other Countries where the Group operates.
Commenting on the first quarter results, the Managing Director/CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank plc, Mr Segun Agbaje, said; “Going into 2019, we knew that it would be a challenging year, but our strategy and unwavering focus on delivering value for our customers and shareholders continues to underpin our ability to consistently deliver solid results despite changing market variables. We carried on the momentum of the previous year, posting strong growth in earnings, effectively managing costs and leveraging our digital-first customer-centric strategy to deliver world-class services that are simple, cheap and easily accessible.”
He further stated that; “Whilst ensuring the long-term growth of our business is the greatest value that we can create for our communities, we are also leveraging our resources, expertise and network to help people thrive. That’s why, from April 28 to May 1, 2019, we are organizing the biggest food and drink festival in Africa to give small businesses in the food industry the platform, network and access to the markets that they need to grow.”
GTBank has continued to be best in class in terms of Profitability, Efficiency and Capital among Peers and other Financial Institutions in Nigeria. This is evidenced by its Earnings per Share of ?1.74, Return on Equity (ROAE) of 32.79%, Cost to Income Ratio of 38.64% and Capital Adequacy of 22.25%. These metrics are a testament to the efficient management of the Bank. In recognition of the Bank’s bias for world class corporate governance standards, excellent service delivery and innovation, GTBank has been a recipient of numerous awards over the years. Some of the Bank’s recent awards include 2018 Bank of the Year – Nigeria from the Banker Magazine and 2018 Best Banking Group and Best Retail Bank Nigeria from World Finance Magazine.
