Thread by @transform2scale

How do we build an ambidextrous company out of Africa? #TransformationFriday

Great things start small... with intentionality. #TransformationFriday

Over the last year, we have been speaking with many business owners, read extensively as we try to establish @transform2scale: a consulting firm with a mandate to transform determined African companies to global institutions. #TransformationFriday

Most traditional businesses are set up for Profit First as against Solving Problems First. #TransformationFriday

Before starting @amazon @JeffBezos (an avid reader) found out the largest bookstore in America had only about 100 thousand titles in the late 1990s. Another exciting thing was happening at this time: the internet was growing at a rate of 2300%. 💡 #TransformationFriday

@JeffBezos identified a problem (limited availability of stocked books in location). With a background in computer science, he knew the internet will be the next shopping destination by the next decade.
The Linchpin. #TransformationFriday

GOAT: To build the company of the future, we need to understand - ’Business is an intellectual sport’ @keystothevault #TransformationFriday

How do you become a GOAT in a business world is governed by this acronym VUCA- Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous (This acronym was coined 32 years ago, and it is truer today than ever) #TransformationFriday

I often ask entrepreneurs and Business Decision Makers this simple question: What does the future of this business look like to you? #TransformationFriday

’Be stubborn on the vision and strategy and flexible on the details and tactics.” @JeffBezos #TransformationFriday

Culture.
Culture is based on a shared attitude, beliefs customs -written and unwritten rules that have been developed over time and considered valid. The Custodian is the Founder/CEO. It's on this foundation that bricks of innovation are laid. #TransfromationFriday

At the core of every visionary business is a culture that gives people the authority to be creative as well as the direction and focuses needed to deliver lucrative innovation. @facebook staff have a shared vision: qz.com/1443563/facebo… #TransformationFriday

Dabbawalas is a service legendary for its reliability. Founded in 1890,it has endured famines, wars, monsoons, Hindu-Muslim riots, and a series of terrorist attacks.The success is proof that with the right system in place, ordinary workers can achieve extraordinarily
results.

hbr.org/2012/11/mumbai… #TransformationFriday

People-Centered culture produces an Ownership Mindset. No matter the strategy, without the right culture in place, the playbook from all top consulting firms combined can’t take you to the desired future. Culture is at the heart of where you want to go. #TransformationFriday

Culture eats strategy for breakfast ~ Peter Drucker

According to several studies, 70-90% of mergers fail. Why? C-level execs focus on the products, bottom line technology advancement plus loads of other strategic imperatives but ignore the huge elephant in the room entrepreneur.com/article/233762 #TransformationFriday

Process vs Product. Our world is outcome driven? Don’t results matter?
Yes, results do matter. But if you optimize for the outcome, you win one time.
If you optimize a process that leads to great outcomes, you can win again and again @JamesClear #TransformtionFriday

Why focus on the process when
in today’s world cash is King. How do you get the cash?, by selling the product right. That’s why we have half-baked products and services. For a fully optimized process that constantly delivers the right product, you need more than 1+1 to get 2.

In @OvercomerMovie, a 15yr old girl signs up to be marathonist. She was assigned to a reluctant basketball coach. As fate will have it, the coach encounters her father who is presumed to have died in a hospital. The girl became his solo athlete as his career in basketball ended.

The coach together with his family trains and cheers the asthmatic athlete: a solo runner. The coach takes tips from her father who was also a marathonist in his time before falling by the wayside due to bad decisions. #TransformationFriday

Before the state championship competition, the coach was able to run the course of the marathon at speed the incumbent champion using a golf cart.With the aid of technology+ policy change, he was able to record the voice of her father, who has her guidance during the competition

She had engaged a rigorous training process even though she is asthmatic but with the right Coach, Perseverance, Technology and Policy Change she got to the finish line by the whiskers. #TransformationFriday

A Coach is behind every successful Star. #MichealJackson’s moonwalk was through Jeffery Daniel a member R&B group Shalamar Tiger Woods had Hank Haney. @serenawilliams had David Witt @billgates has Warren Buffet and Steve Jobs and other had Bill Campbell inc.com/martin-zwillin…

We believe a trained eye will always see what an untrained eye will overlook.
‘A pro takes several pictures of a flower, an amateur take only one’ ~ @SethGodinBlog

Technology.
Strategy gives direction, Technology lights the way.
Today, we have a previously unimaginable computing power without complexities of emotion at our fingertips. #TransformationFriday

As we know, technology is a moving train that crushes anything in its way. How did the fax machine 📠 go extinct? A scanner came with an email functionality. Today a smartphone has a camera, the App Store has a scanner and my email is available once I’m connected to the internet

Let's imagine the amount of data we generate weekly from our debit/credit usage.Location, amount, frequency, purchase. Since human beings are creatures of habit, a computer will be able to predict my purchasing behavior over a space of time- What I'm most likely to buy over time.

Today, the a channel has been able to predict the weather with a degree of accuracy after studying the climate of an area for about 35 years.The rain, sunshine times etc is the Big Data. Think for a sec the data available to Google services about us. It's unbelievable.

Once the Data is fed into a computer with the right algorithms, it starts to look for patterns. That is #MachineLearning. The predictive output from what the computer was given produces #ArtificialInteligence~simply the capacity that comes from ’if this- then that’ in lay terms.

Technology aids hyper-deflation of costs and services from phone calls, Ride-hailing, tourism, banking, etc has been massified with the aid of technology. From the home in Nigeria, you can open a UK Bank account with @monzo. That is technology on duty.

Asking the right questions. Why, What if, Why Not, What is?
We have come to understand that the smartest people don’t always have the right answers. They ask the oddest questions. What if people could swim like a fish or fly like a bird? #TransformationFriday

The course of the world has been changed by challenging questions. Questions like ’Why Not’ gives way to innovation. It makes already existing products better. When the mainframe computer was invented, Steve Woz asked why not build a personal computer for everyone. Enter Apple 1

Today, across Asia, Europe, and North America, the MacBook adorns most tables and laps. In fact, some company’s tech companies now add it as part of the perks of employment. If you have a bias against Apple products, please read amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Wal…

How was @nike able to achieve its current brand status? They crystalized the aspiration and passion of the athletes from various questions into a simple phrase “Just Do It”. Today, Nike continues it's brand story wrapped around these three words.

To learn at the feet of The masters read (You will thank us later) goodreads.com/book/show/2722…

Focus
It’s easy to identify a company not focused on the future. They lack the desire for invention and long-term thinking. They are competition obsessed. Unfortunately, obsession about on competition is like a rocking chair, it adds nothing valuable to your bottom line.

To be an ambitious company our strategy must be people-centered: Staff because they are the ultimate creator of value for the business, Customer: because their adoption of our product gives the business it’s life. Zero to One is humanly impossible

Creation must always have a base that is add this plus that to get something. This is why people plus other resources must always take the pole position. #TransformationFriday

Innovative Transformation.
Think about financial literacy. Most of us are all extremely poor at keeping an account of spend. Innovative transformation is the best defense against the future. We must anticipate our customer’s needs before they think it is necessary

As a financial services company think about this:
1. Geotagged Statement of account Google already provided the platform. Pug into it. This is called sustaining innovation. Typically, incumbents win because they are constantly in a ’Think Value’ mode. #TransformationFriday

2) NFC powered feature phone. Even though the tele-density of Nigeria is over 100%. 60% of phone users have a feature phone. One of the buzz words for the later part of this decade is financial inclusion- how do we make almost the same service available to some available to all

The feature phone can have an inbuilt NFC technology to make payments, have accounts, etc. Now that’s another form of mobile money. This is a form of new market disruption that empowers low end-users to engage technology. #TransformationFriday

If @tecnomobile and @NokiaMobile can think of using this initiative, (NFC on feature phones) it will specifically transform their business models and empower billions of people across 3rd World Countries #TransformationFriday.

We hope we got your thinking juices flowing. We keep thinking about transforming your business one day at a time. Till next time. Continue to think about Possibilities and Sustainability.