There are two types of startups which any African entrepreneur could pursue in the digital ecosystem: advertisement-supported consumer and Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses. While the latter focuses largely on enterprise clients, the former is usually structured for consumer markets. In this piece, I explain how these businesses work and how entrepreneurs can structure […]
Zenvus Imaging Packaging Instructions
The best time in design is when the assembly manual is being created. Today, we finalized an assembly manual for a product. It is an enterprise product. It would be fully assembled when clients receive them. This is for our production line assemblers. I have given it APPROVED.
Do You Have a Business Roadmap?
Your business plan is not enough to anchor your business execution. Most times you need a Roadmap Document especially if your business is in a state of flux [changing market, changing model, startup, etc]. To avoid pursuing many windy paths or dead ends, it is always good to have a roadmap. That roadmap encapsulates the path to the vision with pillars and enablers which team members can understand.
Business leaders and practitioners need a framework for guiding the mobilization of an organization around its strategic plan. Such a roadmap enables business leaders and members to clearly understand each element for rolling out a strategy. It details what decisions need to be made, who needs to make them and when.
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A “roadmap” enables everyone in the business to clearly understand each action and what decisions need to be made, who needs to make them and when.
The reason why things are not working is simple: all the ideas and visions are in your head. But your team members have no way to pull them out. So, at the end, no one can help you build the business. The figure below offers a methodological way to execute a roadmap.
Even without Coding, You have a Role in Tech Sector
In a piece where I noted that opportunities abound in the technology industry even for those who do not code, someone commented on LinkedIn thus:
“Not everyone must code” I’m taking that with me. I’m a Sage Software Consultant, many a times my friends when I’m with friends, they’re always saying “Guy, develop your own business management software” but they don’t understand it’s not just developing, you need to sell too. Make money from it, that’s when it makes sense.
The point made in that comment is huge. Most times, the greatest value is not created in the technology but in the services which the technology powers. As I noted in the earlier piece which was actually from an old piece in the Harvard Business Review, you can have a great career if you excel in the other elements besides coding.
Before “Intel Inside”, Intel chips were just like other microprocessors in the world. In a world of slow dot matrix printers, someone coined HP LaserJet, giving that illusion that printing could be fast.
As you pursue your career, always remember that not everyone needs to be a techie. The guy that coined “Intel Inside” transformed Intel and made it the undisputed leader because people actually wanted the PCs and laptops with Intel inside. The world of microprocessor became Intel’s. HP became the printer company.
I will explain that point by using the smiling curve. Accenture derives more value from digital technology than most companies that make computers [check the revenues and gross margins]. Accenture is playing at the edges of the smiling curve. If you use farming for illustration, the best farmers are not those in the farms but the commodity traders who are waging billions of dollars in Wall Street with commissions that can buy any farm they want. Yes, they are not farmers but they are getting the best out of farming. The same applies in technology. That you do not code does not mean there is no opportunity [sure, if you code, you have an edge at the entry level].
In this videocast, I make a case why Nigeria must look beyond the center as it works to develop a homegrown manufacturing plan. Manufacturing is critical for job creation but using the Smiling Curves, there are many other elements in commerce that must be enabled for a strong economic system. If you neglect those elements, you just keep being busy while other countries get all the values. We use cases of banking and publishing to support our thesis for a new plan that is wholistic, beyond the ability to make just pencils and toothpicks in Nigeria. We need to build brands and create original ideas.
All together, the key is to find something you can do better than many. If you passionately elevate the game, your world will discover you and you will find success.
Why Nigeria Will Experience Immersive Broadband Connectivity by 2022
I had noted that by 2022, Africa would enter the era of affordable and immersive connectivity. With the approval by FCC for SpaceX to launch global broadband service, you would experience total crash in the price of broadband services by 2022 in Nigeria.
SpaceX has a green light from the FCC to launch a network of thousands of satellites blanketing the globe with broadband. And you won’t have too long to wait — on a cosmic scale, anyway. Part of the agreement is that SpaceX launch half of its proposed satellites within six years.
The approval of SpaceX’s application was not seriously in doubt after last month’s memo from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who was excited at the prospect of the first U.S.-based company being authorized to launch a constellation like this.
I expect SpaceX to offer a new level of competition against companies like MTN, Glo and Airtel in Nigeria. Though NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) would like to regulate the use of satellite connectivity in Nigeria, it could be a tough challenge. While WhatsApp is complementary [you need to pay for data to use WhatsApp with say MTN], satellite is a product displacement threat [you have nothing to do with terrestrial mobile operators]. Companies like MTN would see massive threats in coming years from satellite providers.
The biggest threat will come from satellite companies like ConnectAfrica which will reach communities at cost model that can keep the terrestrial players looking for cover. Elon Musk, not Glo or Airtel or Etisalat, may be the biggest competitor to all telecom operators in Africa in 5-10 years, with satellite broadband. He can crash broadband cost by 90% and suddenly GSM will be recorded only in museums. But that will happen if MTN Nigeria and others do not take action today.
At the end of this emerging rivalry, I expect customers to benefit. The fact is this: providing Internet services in Africa would become increasingly satellite-based to overcome most of the legal [right of passage] and infrastructural challenges operators face today. If SpaceX takes this up, it could change the ecosystem.