A LinkedIn update has something that looks like a real miracle: Aba is going to get a makeover just the way you want it. Yes, those things many have written including yours truly are about to happen in the Enyimba city. If this Leather City Park works, by 2030 Ibom Deep Seaport will be running. Yes, they are connected as building the seaport will become an urgent national project.
Three Ways To Realize The Value In Software
In this video, I describe three ways to build and monetize software systems. Essentially, these are the main three ways all software solutions are monetized.
Zenvus Loci Partners Are Responding GREATLY – Thank You
When I was starting my electronics business, I sent hundreds of business plans to investors, no help came; none wanted to hear about hardware business in Africa. Then, I stopped writing business plans and started working on Business Models, using small savings from scholarship support. One model I arrived for Africa was partner-driven strategy. With that model, you can enter markets without raising money as partners will help you fund the products, and also distribute them.
Loci which I announced here on Saturday now has hundreds of Partner applications. If these Partners place orders and we fulfill them, our products will be in the market. Magically, we will not need to raise any single kobo except the development cost which is largely minimal.
In Q2 2019, our business will launch a platform-anchored hardware product, named Loci, engineered for both consumer and enterprise markets. As a company built on partner-first go-to-market strategy, we are looking for partners across Africa.
Our solution will work in the following sectors: security, transportation, logistics, and general mobility. This product is coming out of a real market friction I faced when I visited Nigeria in October 2018. So, we do think many are experiencing the same challenges. Hence, we want to hit the market with a solution, using available proprietary technologies we have already developed in Zenvus.
The biggest challenge in hardware business is that it works on scale. Most times to get that scale, you raise tons of money which means you have huge inventory risk. I do not follow that path: I rather invest in the engineering and innovation and ask my first-level customers to INVEST in the product. Those customers are the partners.
Using that model, we can be in 30 countries without having to raise any money from investors. The partners do the business development, marketing, etc. We simply create contents, documents and systems to support them. Sure, we share the gains with them, and we are very generous in that space.
To all the potential partners who had sent emails, team will revert. We are still asking for partners to send emails and indicate interests (contact us here). The opportunity we are addressing is huge and the product we have is superb. It would be great moments for everyone: we want to work with you all.
LinkedIn Summary
First, thank you all the prospective partners who have applied to work with us on Zenvus Loci. This is highly appreciated. Interestingly, I am using this process to teach our young hardware entrepreneurs a business model lesson: investors rarely fund hardware startups in Africa. Over the years, I have developed a strategy to get products to market. That strategy is partner-driven strategy.
By the time we are done with this process, we will have all the funds we need for production run. Then, once we produce, we ship to partners who then distribute the products. Magically, the products are in the market even though no capital was raised in the usual way.
The key thing is building trust and relationship so that partners can give you a window to deliver. Without that, it would be challenging since electronics is a volume business. You need volume to reduce unit cost and when you do not have access to tons of capital, you struggle. But an alternative exists: do not eat alone, and if you have that philosophy, help will come.
I have said this always – the best investors are CUSTOMERS. They can give you money to build a business if your vision is great. Besides product innovation, business model innovation is catalytic.
Agents of Symphonic Innovation Arriving in Lagos, Feb/March
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 (say blockchain) only to be tripped by another (say 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.
I will be in Lagos in Feb and March 2019 to deliver visions, strategies and models to help firms architect disruptive (symphonic) innovations. Disruptive Innovation happens when new basis of competition has been created. It means you do not try to imitate, you simply create a new nexus, with a separated trajectory, that wins new markets and territories. Schedule moments with my team by clicking here.
- Discovery Innovation Workshop: To innovate is to set a new basis of competition in an economy, business sector or market. Typically, it results to disruption. This workshop will focus on innovation and growth because growth is the reward of innovation. Otherwise, that innovation is actually an invention. I will be the lead instructor with my supporting crew. The table below provides the workshop structure. We can adapt this workshop to two days.
- Founders Mentoring: We offer a service where we mentor emerging founders or business leaders as they build their companies. The founders /leaders would have direct access to our leaders, and we would guide them on business processes and systems. Through this service, they would email, speak, WhatsApp and Skype without restriction on issues affecting their companies. Simply, we become part of the ecosystem of the company.
- Innovation Presentation: This is a four-hour seminar where we will present what is happening in your market, customized for your company, and then offer insights on how you can plot your strategies to win. This goes beyond industry statistics and typical SWOT analysis. We work to help clients see their markets in new ways, providing roadmaps on how they can unlock opportunities. It is an intense talk, combining technology, finance, political economy and strategy. As technology redesigns markets, I break the implications in short, medium and long-terms.
- Development of Business Roadmap & Strategy: A business plan is not enough to anchor business execution. A Roadmap Document is required especially in a sector which is in a state of flux [changing market, changing model, startup, competition, regulation, etc]. To avoid pursuing many windy paths or dead ends, a roadmap helps to encapsulate a profitable path to the vision with pillars and enablers necessary for success.
Contact: tekedia@fasmicro.com
Nigeria, Match Saudi Arabia’s $425 Billion Infrastructure Plan
This is huge: Saudi Arabia wants to invest $425 billion in railways, airports, and industrial projects as it tries to become less reliant on oil. About 70 deals could be announced today.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, responsible for the biggest overhaul of the Saudi economy in its modern history, is preparing to roll out a sweeping plan for infrastructure and industry across the world’s leading oil-exporting nation.
Saudi Arabia is seeking 1.6 trillion riyals ($425 billion) of investment in railways, airports and industrial projects by 2030 as the biggest Arab economy looks to break its reliance on crude sales for government income. The kingdom could sign about 70 deals worth more than 200 billion riyals when Prince Mohammed presents the plan on Monday, according to Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih.
Can Nigeria orchestrate such deals, unlocking the next phase of our economic expansion through accelerated investment in infrastructure? As it stands now, Dangote Group has raised more money than the Nigerian government (on its capacity to attract capital on direct public projects) since 2014. We need to elevate the game with a massive infrastructure project that will transform Nigeria. I mean we need to go big.
We will be voting in days, but none of the presidential candidates have explained how they would build a modern Nigeria in a big way. From roads to airways to healthcare systems, Nigeria needs immersive injection of capital to redesign the economic architecture of the nation. We must take the Saudi Arabia challenge, at least go close to half of that plan. But ideally, we should match it since our GDP of $540 billion and that of Saudi Arabia are largely at parity.
While we welcome Google, Facebook, drug-drone-delivery startup, etc, their impacts will be marginal. We really need rail builders, road builders, and seaport builders to architect the platform upon which all entities (web and offline) will run. Nigeria must go BIG and plan for the future.