A HUNGER TO CONQUER – The ICT Leverage - By Matthew Ujah-Peter

Micro, Small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) are everywhere and on the rise in spite of the hard-biting and  unforgiving business environment we find ourselves in as a people. This is an indication that we are not just hard working people but resilient and die-hard in our quest for survival and success and a sure sign that Nigeria is set to take on the world by the time the right things begin to fall into places.

 Foreigners who visit Nigeria are often surprised to see so many opportunities to which Nigerians themselves are “blind” or appear to take for granted. Developing countries like Nigeria have so many issues that may be seen as problems but which in reality, are business opportunities. The unsolved economic problems in Nigeria are opportunities.  More Nigerians, however, are now becoming aware of and serious about this simple fact. Rather than complaining, many are now contemplating on and seeing private challenges and public frustrations as opportunities and consequently rolling up their sleeves and going to work tuning them into businesses. Hence there are so many micro, small and medium scale enterprises around the country. And more are coming. These MSMEs or cottage industries will help mop up unemployment and underemployment from the labour market when the needed atmosphere and incentives are provided eventually by listening and caring governments.

The ICT Leverage

According to the Bank of Industry (BOI) a micro scale enterprise is one with ten employees or less and whose total asset equals or is less than 5million naira. A small scale enterprise on the other hand is one with total employees of 11 – 50 people and with asset worth 5million naira to 100million naira. A medium scale business, however, is one with a total number of 51 – 200 employees and asset of 100 – 500m naira. However, there is yet no universally agreed definition due to differences across countries. But experts mostly use the numbers of employees to determine which enterprise is micro, small or medium.

One of the major reasons why the criteria above may fall short of adequately or accurately defining MSMEs in today’s world is the emergence of information and communications technologies - the Internet and the new media such as corporate websites and more particularly, the social media such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube channels etc. Today, the internet is handling the jobs that human employees would have been hired to do, more especially with the emergence of software robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

With just a few staffs a micro or small enterprise can achieve the results of an established firm. Corporate endeavours such as marketing, customer care, sales, public relations, advertising, leads generation, accounting and book keeping etc., can now be achieved with ease via the use of ICT automated systems. Many entrepreneurs with less than ten employees are taking on responsibilities and raking in far more than a micro scale enterprise is termed to be or tipped to be able to achieve by the BOI criteria. Thanks to the ICT revolutions. Operating with just two or three employees, many online or internet-based enterprises are leveraging the internet and information and communications technologies to excel beyond expectations.

Who would have thought 25 years ago that such an idea as Facebook would make its owner one of the world’s richest?! Facebook was only almost a playful idea but now it is beyond that!  Similar results are been replicated at home and abroad via technology and internet based start-ups that are riding the ICT tide raking in millions. Thus technology (specifically ICT) has now provided the leverage for hobbyists, freelancers, professionals, micro businesses and small businesses to leapfrog into global businesses with mind boggling net worths within a very short time with just a small start-up asset base.

And the land is still green for us in Nigeria! "If you can think it, you can Inc it." If you can imagine it, you can emerge with it. The field of software engineering is full of opportunities. Artificial Intelligence and robotics are other areas waiting for the right thinkers who will ask the right questions that would provide them with the billion-Dollar answers.

Again, cyber security, which is said to have millions of job vacancies worldwide, is a very, very important job and business opportunity that anyone who is willing can explore. Talk less of e-commerce opportunities in all their types, shapes and sizes! All it takes is a hunger to excel – a hunger to conquer!

EXAMINING MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS IN RELATIONS TO BUSINESS GOALS - Matthew Ujah-Peter

We are all climbing in life. And we each climb with the help of something. Let’s just call that something ‘’ladder’’. A ladder is an instrument used to reach a height one would not otherwise reach. Most ladders are useful only when they are leaning on a stronger structure, usually a wall. Let’s just say your ladder is your career. A career we are told, is a word that came from the same root word that such words as carriage, carrier, car, carry, etc came from. The root word is carrus, a Latin word that means conveyor or transporter.

 So you’ve got a transporter or a conveyor in life, namely your job or your business. But here is a question. On what wall is that ladder leaning? To help you answer that question we will attempt to list a number of things that can be a wall. But first let us highlight the functions or purposes of walls:

1.    Protection and defense: walls are good means of defense against unwanted elements.

2.    Security or safety: ours houses are combinations of walls. There are only a few kinds of houses that are not made of walls. Example, tents.

3.   Support: Walls act as supports for so many important things. Walls are structures that the most important structures are supported by in life.

4.    Separation: most fences and many defense mechanisms in life are walls.

5.    Blockage or barrier: Walls block and protect from adverse weathers and even floods.

And here are things that can either be or build a wall:

1.      Faith

2.      Fear

3.      Laws/Polities (legal protection that is)

4.      god-fathers/Human being

5.      Money (i.e., wealth)

6.      Skills, experiences and expertise

7.      Talent

8.      Knowledge

9.      Certificates

10. Etc

Now, just one of these may not be enough to be or build a wall with. To have a real strong wall, many of these factors may need to mix. In what degree or proportion? That is a decision left to the individual to make. Many or all of these factors may have to come together as building blocks. Some may appear good on the surface but weak on the long run due to wrong combination or not been combined with others. On the long run this makes walls wreckage under the weight of life.

Now, check the wall your ladder is leaning on again. What (types) of materials make that wall? if your ladder is leaning on the wrong wall, you may eventually climb to its top but finds out at the end that you did not come to the top you were meant to come to . In other words, you may succeed on the wrong wall, even if it is with speed. If your ladder is leaning on the wrong, wrongly or badly built wall – wall built with substandard materials - it may not be a bad idea to reposition it now, even if that means, starting from the bottom rung on  a different or differently built wall. If your ladder is leaning on the wrong wall It is not too late to remove it from that wall. If you know the wall is wrong or the wall is bad or badly built. And even if the wall is not bad,  as yourself, “ is it the right wall?”

 WHAT ABOUT THE LADDER?

The thing about a career is that it carries you. And you can change career anytime you want while still maintaining the journey just as you can change the vehicle you travel in while still maintaining the trip and the focus of your original destination. Careers can be changed, but destination should not, if it is the right one.

WHAT ABOUT SUCCESS?

You may succeed on the wrong wall. That is like a successful failure! This is why the motive behind your business idea matters. Business should not be about just earning incomes. It should be about making impacts. Business should be just about selling things to people. It should include service to humanity. What you are offering people must improve their lives whiles it brings you money. This is the fair exchange in life that brings wealth – which is prosperity with posterity.

 

WHAT ARE YOUR MOTIVES FOR DOING BUSINESS?

Motivation means motive for an action. And motive means reason behind an action. It also means the push for an action. Some synonyms of motive are drive, intention, purpose, goal etc. Passion on the same hand means power for action. It is also a push or energy for an action. We can safely conclude that passion is the drive, power, desire or energy behind actions. Other synonyms of passion are zeal, excitement, fervour; enthusiasm, obsession etc. Therefore, we can conclude both motive and passion in the same light.

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Desire is the common thread that connects both words together. A person’s motive has a lot to do with his desires. Passion is the highest form of desire in man. If one’s motive for business does not run on passion the business will grind to a halt in the face of barrage of challenges and oppositions after a few ground is covered in the business adventures. Only passion keeps you weathering the storms in the midst of challenges and oppositions in business. These challenges and oppositions can come in the forms of criticisms, mockery, rejections, lack of resources, temporal failure etc.

And there are different kinds of motives behind every business under the sun. When you go into business ventures with the right motives your entrepreneurial spirit is further energized because the right motives for business will stimulate and provoke your hidden strengths and as well enable you put the right skills, resources and structures in place. And with the right structures and systems your enthusiasm will soar. 

 

MOTIVE OR MOTIVATION FOR BUSINESS

People venture into business because they are propelled by one or more of the followings motivations or desires:

·        Desire to make ends meets or the drive for survival

·        Desire for security or the drive for safety

·        Desire for social relevance, respect and acceptance

·        Desire for monetary or financial rewards (popularly called ‘’success’’) and

·        Desire to make a difference, (which is what should be called success).

These are the five kinds of energies or push that carry an entrepreneur through storms and trials that may arise in business “ad-ventures”. And these energies are not the same in strength levels. It is not all of them that can carry you through certain storms. Most of them will wane in the face of certain business and life’s challenges. These five motives are the five levels of needs in the popular Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs which we will be looking at in later articles. A critical examination of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs will not only help you spot good motive for business enterprise but also help you re-prioritize your present business idea(s) or ongoing business and by course, help you design or redesign and build excellent structures for the enterprise.

See you in the next post.