Business News

Wednesday, 01 June 2022 06:15

Delivery apps ignored business basics to supercharge growth — and now they're facing layoffs, stock crashes, and a brutal war for survival

Delivery apps ran on an unsustainable business for years, but the tech industry crash and economic slowdown may finally spell their doom. Entertain a thought experiment: In this day and age, how would you build the world's biggest lemonade-stand business? The business of lemonade should be simple: You need the raw goods (lemons, sugar, water) and a sales platform (table, cardboard signs, and coolers). Using this model, you might eke out $0.10 in profit for each $1 cup sold — not bad, but hardly a high-growth, paradigm-shifting business. Suppose you become more ambitious. You sprinkle some caffeine into your concoction,…

Wednesday, 01 June 2022 06:13

Yuan-Ruble trading surges as America’s rivals rebuff dollar - Bloomberg

The emerging multi-polar world now includes foreign-exchange markets -- as China and Russia, the biggest challengers to U.S. supremacy, boost direct trading between their currencies. Monthly volumes on the ruble-yuan pair have surged 1,067% to almost $4 billion since the start of the war in Ukraine as the two nations seek to reduce their reliance on the dollar and boost bilateral trade to overcome current and potential U.S sanctions. The spike coincides with a rally in the ruble to a five-year high against the yuan. That’s a sign Russians are increasingly turning to Chinese goods to replace stalled Western imports…

Wednesday, 01 June 2022 06:09

How to find and groom your successor

One of the responsibilities that can be difficult, even for great CEOS, is to make the time to consider their succession plan. While it's human nature not to think too far into the future, you owe it to your organization to groom prime talent to replace you, regardless of how invincible you still feel. Think of it as a contingency plan. Great organizations build successor plans deep into their organization as well. The idea is that if a lower-level manager wants a promotion, they'd better have someone ready to take over for them. But, for this article, let's focus on…

Tuesday, 31 May 2022 06:36

Analysis: ‘Satchetisation’ and Nigeria’s economy

In February 2019, Eat’n’Go, the Nigerian franchisee of popular pizza maker Domino’s, introduced a miniature version of the pizza boxes the market was familiar with, for 550 naira ($1.50). Smaller in size and far cheaper than the medium-sized pizza which costs N3,900 ($9), this new version was designed to be affordable for everyone. It was a necessary decision given the economic instability at the time, CEO Patrick Michael told Al Jazeera. “The Nigerian market is diverse, and the potential for profit remains high,” he said. “However, we can’t overlook the economic instability [which] has, in some way, affected purchasing power.…

Monday, 30 May 2022 07:10

Successful founders offer insight into the best company values

Your company's values are everything. They're the cornerstone of the most successful ventures. The very foundation of every business decision you make. Actually, not just the foundation. They are the mortar holding the bricks. The grout between the tiles. The caulk and paint, too. All that stuff. So it's reasonable to start considering what your company stands for the moment you launch, right? Wrong. That's too late. Not only must you establish your values before day one, you must also refine them throughout the life of your venture. You actually needed to start yesterday. And, also, start now. And then…

Monday, 30 May 2022 06:21

Citibank targets Nigerian smallholder farmers with new facility

Citigroup Inc. has entered a partnership with Lagos-based social enterprise Babban Gona to increase lending to local smallholder farmers in a bid to boost agricultural output in Africa’s most populous country. Babban Gona will administer a $10 million Citigroup Inc. financing to about 41,000 small farmers in the West African nation, it says in an emailed statement. Even though agriculture contributes a third of Nigeria’s economic output, it attracts less than 5% of bank loans. The facility will enable farmers improve income by 350% per hectare, Babban Gona said. The organization has extended nearly $200 million in loans to over…

Monday, 30 May 2022 06:15

Failing to win: A page-turner for entrepreneurs

I am no stranger to failure. In fact, one might say it’s my one constant success factor, so when I had the opportunity to review this book, I jumped at the chance. Failing to Win by Mike Quinn is a well-written codification of the success and failure of a FinTech business. Mike Quinn was the co-founder and CEO of Zoona. In this book, he has done a deep dive into the anatomy of why he believes that the company “failed to win.” The business, an early play in the payments transfer space, was a success and was undoubtedly the darling…

Saturday, 28 May 2022 06:15

The three monkeys of strategy

We are all familiar with the three monkeys advising against evil—‘See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil.’—but what do the three monkeys of strategy advocate? Unlike the three monkeys who recommend passive avoidance, the three monkeys of strategy urge contributory action: ‘See Unusual. Hear Uncut. Speak Uncommon.’ When you see unusual, you see opportunity—in situations such as: What the customer could accomplish, even if the customer didn’t realise that—as smartphone makers foresaw. What the customer might outsource—as task-runner companies noticed. What the customer wants to use but not own—as ride-sharing companies espied. What the customer doesn’t want to…

Friday, 27 May 2022 06:43

4 tips to help you get what you want in any negotiation

Back in the days before Amazon's retail dominance, I went into bookstores to see which titles the store managers opted to display. I often noticed that there were many copies of Herb Cohen's "You Can Negotiate Anything: How to Get What You Want" and no copies of mine. That made me feel sad that my book was not popular and curious about why Cohen's book was so appealing to people. To some extent the appeal was obvious -- everybody wants things that they can't get and reading the book might help them win more often. Recently. Herb's son Rich wrote…

Thursday, 26 May 2022 06:30

Don't hire the devil you know

You need resources quickly. Should you reach out to friends and family? Let me make it clear up front that I'm not calling anyone a devil. But at what point does your employee become your friend and at what point does your friend become your employee? This is one of my least favorite questions. And I get it more often than you'd think. My own work history isn't any different than most. One of my best friends in the world is someone I hired almost 25 years ago. And one of the worst enemies from my past is someone who…

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Wednesday, 25 May 2022 06:30

Startups can’t succeed on ideas alone: Why deep market knowledge is key

There is a common misunderstanding that a successful startup equates to a great idea executed—or sold—well. However, countless companies based on excellent ideas have failed because they lack one key attribute: deep knowledge and expertise about their market. You can see this in media companies that don’t quite understand how or why people consume content, healthcare startups that focus more on sleek technological offerings over actual needs and consumer goods companies that overvalue what customers are willing to pay. While it seems simple, I’ve been surprised by the number of startups I’ve encountered over the years that have jumped headfirst…

Tuesday, 24 May 2022 06:32

70 percent of all businesses fail. This is how to ensure yours isn’t one of them

If you watch the news, read a paper, or go online, you will hear about the big box stores daily; Toy R Us, Pier One, Stein Mart, and many more public companies that are all going under after being in business for decades. What you don't hear about are the small business owners going out of business across our nation. Small businesses are the majority of all businesses and 70% of them will go out of business withing 10 years of founding, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's out of a sampling of 27,600 businesses, and these…

Monday, 23 May 2022 06:16

Why entrepreneurs shouldn't expect loyalty from their staff

Many entrepreneurs talk of loyalty in business partnerships, staff loyalty (or lack of) and loyalty in relationships. These founders expect people to be loyal to them and often get upset when they are not. If this sounds like you, think of how much frustration or pain it caused you to hold on to the fantasy that people are loyal to you. How disappointed you've been in others when they did not live up to your expectations. Well, sorry to point out the harsh reality, but no one was born to please you and live up to your unrealistic expectations of…

Saturday, 21 May 2022 06:58

Naira slides further, crosses the 600 mark to dollar at parallel market

Naira, on Friday, weakened to N607 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market amid increased demand. The figure represents a drop of N7 or 1.2 percent from the N600 it traded earlier this week. Currency traders known as Bureaux De Change operators (BDCs), who spoke to our correspondent in Lagos, quoted the buying rate of the greenback at N598 and the selling price at N607 per dollar. A parallel market (street market) is characterised by noncompliant behaviour with an institutional set of rules. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has consistently maintained that the parallel…

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