EQUIPPING THE NEXT GENERATION: PROF. NDUBUISI EKEKWE – THE 8TH EDITION OF RECALP SUMMIT, 13TH JUNE, 2022.

THE 8TH EDITION OF RELATIONSHIP, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, CAREER, LEADERSHIP AND POLITICS (RECALP) SUMMIT 2022 (POWERED BY YAYA RCCG LP 19, REGION 11).

THEME: EQUIPPING THE NEXT GENERATION.

SPEAKER: PROF. NDUBUISI EKEKWE (FOUNDER OF AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND LEAD FACULTY FOR TEKEDIA INSTITUTE).

TOPIC: CAREER AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

DATE: 13TH JUNE, 2022

Thank you so much for having me for this conversation on: EQUIPPING THE NEXT GENERATION.

I would begin by sharing my slide. The Topic here is: CAREER AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP.

And I would approach this by basically looking at the State of our world – Especially looking at the Frictions in the Market Place.

WHAT ARE FRICTIONS?

Frictions are the challenges that Customers have; the challenges that the world Citizens have.

The problems with electricity, Clean water, good Education; the problem with Practically anything that you think of.

It turns out that Careers and Entrepreneurship are all encapsulated within the need of solving these Frictions.

Because, if you want to build a Career in Agriculture, there is this possiblity that you are building that career in Agriculture because, you want to produce food that can actually help people overcome hunger.

So we can see that the driving force that makes it possible for us to have Careers or even where necessary – To build Entrepreneurships in specific Market Sectors are largely driven by the facts that there are challenges, there are afflictions, there are challenges, and there are also opportunities for them.

So by the cause of those afflictions, we now have to do many things.

And I will begin by giving an Elemental Constructs that direct the missions of the Firms: because we are all going to work in Companies.

We are going to work on Companies – Either the Companies that we have started; or we are going to work in Companies that other people have started.

And it is as a result of those possibilities that we can now build Careers in them.

WHY DO WE EVEN NEED TO HAVE COMPANIES?

Why is it necessary that we have to build Companies?

… And I explain, as we recall the Nation Firms.

Why do we need to have Firms? – It turns out that Market Systems are inherently imperfect.

And because the Market Systems are inherently imperfect, there is the need to have Companies that can help us overcome those Frictions.

For instance – Assumed that Prof. Ndubuisi (The Speaker) has just landed in Lagos from the United States of America; and there is no family member I can go to eat food or there is no restaurant in the City of Lagos.

I have only one major option – That is to begin to knock at every doors in Lagos, looking for somebody who has food to sale. And I can knock at the first, second, third, fourth doors and may not even have somebody who has food.

And at the same time I am knocking at the doors – There is also somebody who has food, who is also expecting me to knock at his or her own door.

What is going on is what we call “Market Information Designatory.

A situation whereby you know you are hungry, but you cannot easily figure out somebody who has food to sale and the other person has food to sale but he may not easily know somebody who needs food.

So how do you overcome that problem? – You overcome that problem by setting up a Company.

In this case, a woman wakes up in the morning, she goes to set up a restaurant. And that restaurant is called “Mama Kemi’s restaurant.” Now, Mama Kemi’s restaurant becomes a Company!

And the purpose of that company is to overcome Information Designatory that makes it impossible for us to an equilibrium point.

So the next time Prof. Ndubuisi is hungry, he goes to Mama Kemi’s restaurant. And then he now asked for food; Mama Kemi serves him food. He pays her.

By paying her, I am compensating her for providing a solution to that friction of hungry which I had.

These Foundational Constructs cut across ordinance of Market Systems

Demands and Supplies; the Producers and the Consumers, Companies bring them together, so that Transactions can take place. And as those Transactions take place, the needs of the Consumers would be met by the Producer.

The same thing is applicable in Banking – You have got down money, you don’t have any News for it at the moment. But you are looking for somebody you can lend it over a period of time; at a certain Interest Rate.

At the same time you are are looking for that individual – There is somebody who is also looking for you.

Assuming there is no Bank, you will agree with me that there is a possibility you can look, you can’t find any individual. And that individual may not also find you.

So what happens? Somebody now says, let me go into Banking Services – You take that money, go to the Bank, the Bank pays you the interest you want.

The other person who needs that money goes to the the Bank. The Bank now would add it’s small margin on that interest rate and now pays that person in form of a Loan.

That interest the bank added is the cost that they have incurred in the System – For helping overcome that frictional fault which existed between the person who has money and the person who needs money.

Companies bring these Buyers and Sellers together, making it possible for transactions to take place.

So it is within these Structure that we can now build Careers, build Entrepreneurships, take effect because these things happen within the Structures of a Companies.

So you have the Frictions – That problems that you want to solve in the Society and Markets; and you need to have the Capabilities.

Capabilities are the things that you need to have in terms of Skills set; in order for you to provide the Services that you can do; in order to overcome the Need of those customers.

In those Capabilities, that is where many of us fall into. That is where careers come in. That is where the skills of Entrepreneurships, and Building Productive Services that customers want.

So Frictions are challenges in the Market. Capabilities are things that you now Need to have in order to overcome those challenges of customers.

For Mama Kemi, she needs to know how to cook good food. Because those are the Capabilities that she needs to run a Restaurant.

For the Bank, they need to know how to run Treasury Services, Customer Services; they need to understand how to manage risks – These are their Capabilities.

And those Elemental pieces within the Companies become vistas for us to now participate in the Market Systems, by having our Careers within them.

So as we go into this conversation, we can now see that there are so many domains is these Careers, within these Capabilities.

I will explain the Three key Elements. In those Careers we have:

1. The Executors
2. Knowledge
3. Entrepreneurship Capitalism.
4. The Executors are the people that have the capacity to combine factors of production.
5. Knowledge, in terms of having Skills set to understand things that are necessary, in order to build any credible product that we need in the Market.
6. We will also look at the Entrepreneurship Capitalism. Now looking at becoming a real Staker; becoming Pioneers in Markets.

People that have the ability to look into Market Systems, take risks and now help to overcome challenges that customers have.

So looking at Executors of the Business world, when the knowledge has been formulated, are those that can also reorganize, in order for the Products to go round and apply everything that needs to be applied.

To make sure that those Products and Services which are needed to overcome frictions are provided to customers, Knowledge is key!

The Bible says that, as Moses appeared before Israelites, he was as a man who had studied under Pharoah.

If you do not have knowledge, there is really nothing that you can do.

So knowledge is also one thing that we can have to participate in that capability that we need in Career.

And some fall in the domain of labour, that are hired after the people have articulated the module in a company. But then, some are going to find New Paths, Pioneering New Things.

So all these things fall into Careers; they fall into the domain of Entrepreneurships. And they are all encapsulated between people, processes and tools.

And we are looking at everything that we need to bring together in order to now overcome the frictions that Customers have.

Because you need to give Products and Services. And the Process of doing these Products and Services is actually what we have to enjoy in Careers and Firms.

So doing those things show us two (2) great Paths:

1. The Elemental Frictions.
2. Some are going to become Extremely Zain Masters.

Understanding different Career Elements in building knowledge systems.

The knowledge of a Firm is the competitiveness of the firm;

The knowledge of a Nation is the wealth of a Nation.

So when you look at it, you also look at the Entrepreneurship because people are just very good in Pioneering New vistas, modules, Systems, Capabilities; which are also very necessary for them to drive Systems.

So, some people follow Careers, it is assumed working for other people. Some will also follow Entrepreneurships.

That means they want to start New Things, they want to become Pioneers in Markets, and they want to create New World.

But it is also key to understand that, as we work on this thing, Equipping the Next Generation becomes exceedingly clinical for us to understand that.

One thing that we have to do is that we have to be Innovators.

The Next Generation as they pursue their Careers and Entrepreneurship, they need to be Innovators.

WHAT DO I MEAN BY BECOMING INNOVATORS?

If you look at the Plots (on the Screen) – I Plotted a 2,000 years GDP of United States of America and China. The two (2) most dominance in Economics.

If you look just before 1580 years, you will see that the GDP of China and that is the United States are both flat. And if you take the Gross world products – Aggregation of all the GDPs in the world, the shape is also the same.

So what is happening here, that the world was not making Progress?

The GDP is flat even when world Population is increasing.

And if the Population is increasing when the GDP is flat, it means that Par Capital Income was deserted

And if the Par Capital Income was deserted; it means that the people are getting poorer.

People were participating in Careers, but the Careers they were doing then we are not very, very innovative.

We say that those Careers were inventing so many ideas, but they lacked Productions and Services that can help them in Marketing Systems.

But after a period of time, things started changing – They started participating in Careers that help them now and it has significant impact in the lives of its citizenry.

And you can now see that the GDP has moved from being flattened into something that is even applicable in Market Systems.

So as that happens you see it; call it Inventive Society and Innovative Society.

So many brilliant people, so many great people, very influential people. But they did not produce something that is more significant.

We are also saying that, even as you move from that Inventive Society, you are going to see New Dimensions of Knowledge Systems – Moving into the Autonomous Systems, Intelligent Systems, as people build more high Systems like Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning Robots.

The world is going to change!

And all these are going to offer New Dimensions of Career, as Pioneers and Market Systems continue to share them.

Building, preparing and equipping us will now mean that it is not just being here; we also have to Plan for what is coming ahead.

So I do believe vividly that the opportunities of the future are going to be found in the Market Systems in Africa, in Nigeria:

Agriculture, Health Care, Financial Services, Real Estates, Education, Technology – These are areas we can find New Careers, New Opportunities. And we can Pioneer New Things as Entrepreneurs.

You know the GDP Nigeria is over 500 billion dollars today. And I so believe that at optimum level, Nigeria’s GDP should actually be above 3 Trillion dollars. And that means that every opportunity we have in Nigeria would be increased by a Capital of sixty.

Imagine what would have happened after six months – That means we would have multiplied what we have by six times.

As we are going through this, we are also going to see Changes in Market Systems because, Knowledge will continue to drive everything.

In the 1990’s we had the New Generation Banks as well as some of the finest Banking Institutions in Nigeria were established.

And then as we added extra more challenges we have the Voice Telephone Era – MTN and all the Telecommunication Companies came. Ten (10) years later we had the Voice Internet Era – Mobile Internet Era, where we now have to turn our Phones into end domains of connectivity. People now connect their Phones to the Internet.

Today we are now talking about the Age of Application Utility; that have become opportunities for us to create Companies.

We look at Logistics Companies, E-commerce Companies. We look at Oil Services Companies, Vin Techs, Financial Companies. We look at Real Estates Technological Companies.

These things would change our world. They are going to become domains where Careers of the future are going to be built.

The Pioneers, the Innovators, the Entrepreniuers, are all going into that domain. Because, in the Era of Application Utility we are going to build New things that we have not seen.

And New Species of Companies are going to emerge. Careers are all on there. And they are going to unlock New Vistas, building driving grounds in a way that we have never seen. Many Companies will see changes, and there will be many New Designs.

The total Market Capitalization of MTN, Nigeria is bigger than the Market Capitalization of all the Banks, all the Insurance companies and all other Financial Service Institutions.

In other words, if you want to see the Value in terms of Monetary Valuation that the Markets put into MTN and all these Banks, Insurance, etc; MTN alone is bigger than them.

So what is that telling you? – It is telling you that this thing called Digital System is going to be very, very big.

And if Digital System is going to be very, very big; it means that the Empires of the future are going to be built through them.

And I Predict that Africa would have about fifteen (15) Unicorns – Companies which shall award at least 1 billion US dollars this 2022. It is going to be big!

And that tells us that we can find Growth, we can find Opportunities in our Careers in this type of Company.

We already have some Companies we call the Unicorns. Companies like Flora Waves, Opay waves, among others. And we also see some Companies like my own – TEKEDIA Capital, coming up too.

But one thing that is evidence is that, Abundance is going to be Part of the future.

If Abundance is going to be Part of the future; people that shape their Careers and prepare their careers along these lines are going to be some of the Major Beneficiaries because the Application Utility Era is going to be huge!

New Species of Banks are going to be born. New Species of Insurance are going to be born.

The Insurance Companies of the future are not going to be Companies that use Technology; they are going to be Technological Companies that offer Insurance.

HOW ARE WE GOING TO PREPARE FOR THEM?

… We need to think deeply, because all Unicorns will Produce.

And when we are talking about these Unicorns, I need to give you an insight – The largest Company in the Financial Sectors is not even a Bank. It is a Company that was started six (6) years ago.

When you talk about these Companies, they are growing at a very ridiculous and fast space.

So the Good News is – If you are looking for the Careers of the future, you can find them there.

But you need to have the Capabilities which are necessary for you to thrive there.

Also, I want to give you some Key Drawings for this from the Holy Bible.

Because, to a large extents, it is not only by using Mark Zuckerberg (of Facebook) and Stock Markets that you can learn. You can also leave from the Holy Bible.

One thing that is evident is, rising to that better Leadership had many dimensions – in Business, Technology, Politics and facts. But I am focusing on Technology, Careers and Business.

There are so many Player Attributes you need to have:

1. You need to Prepare for that Career, that call of Entrepreneurship.

You need to have a clear Mission and be Result-Oriented.

2. You have to accumulate Capacities.

These are the things you need to have Skills set that helps you to build those Career Services we would need in the Markets.

3. And of course, you need to grow a New Frontier.

Pioneering New Things which are necessary for you to go into the Market and solve the problems of Customers.

… I will give you a one Phase Course Study:

Look at JESUS CHRIST – He called to Commission of Twelve (12) Apostles.

Jesus trained those Apostles, equipped them, prepared them such that even Paralysis came in 1867; when Jerusalem came under riff with General Titus and Apostle Peter came to Jerusalem, and many things happened.

Because Jesus had prepared and gotten them ready before He left, they were able to continue that Mission that He called them.

That is how Entrepreneurs are to prepare their Workers:

• You need to give them a very clear Mission.
• You need to Prepare them;
• And you need to Equip them.

So that when they go into the Market, they have the necessary tools they need to accomplish whatever you want them to accomplish.

You need to build and prepare an extremely committed people, just like Jesus Christ prepared the Disciples. So that by preparing them, they go in, help you accomplish the Mission that you have been called in that Particular Business.

… That is what it takes!

Let us also look at: WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES THAT YOU NEED?

I am taking you through the Case of Nehemiah.

… He was called to go and Rebuild the Wall of Jerusalem.

To Rebuild the Wall, Nehemiah was asked one thing by the King of Shushan – “What do you Need?”

Nehemiah said, I want to use the Timber from the King’s Forest.

He is a very Strategic man – Because, he understood that the Timber from the King’s Forest; which if approved (according to the Old Persia world) that Project is as Good as done!

You do not waste any Timber from the King’s Forest. Because wasting any Timber from the King’s Forest Physically means the person would die.

The Timber from the King’s Forest will go with the best Bricklayers, the best Masons, the best Security because you don’t waste it.

1. So you need to have this Spirit to understand what is Key and what is Important.

You need to have the Capacity as you are being equipped with Attributes for the Next Generation Moments and activate them; to understand what is important and what is really key.

Nehemiah understood what was important as he was trying to build the Wall of Jerusalem. He asked for the Timber from the King’s Forest;

And because he received the Timber from the King’s Forest, he was able to overcome, execute and accomplish the Mission he was called to do.

2. We also need Awareness, observation and Attentiveness. It is very key for us to also know that as Opportunity emerges, challenges are constantly moving around; we need to have awareness, observation and be attentive to wherever the Opportunities are coming.

Because if you don’t have those things, caterers won’t pause for you to have them.

I will take you back to the time of Moses:

As he was working, he saw the Burning Bush. In the Burning Bush God was trying to call the attention of Moses for a very important Message that He was going to send him (Moses).

Moses saw the Burning Bush because he was attentive.

Somebody would have been there without seeing the Burning Bush.

Because there is need to see a Burning Bush before a very great Message has to come.

Would you be attentive to see the Burning Bush coming from your CEO? Would you be attentive to see the Burning Bush coming from your Supervisor?

So that they can now get your attention and to give you that Promotion that you need in your life?

3. And you also need to be Bold.

Many people will see the Burning Bush and run away from the Market.

But Moses saw the Burning Bush, instead of running away; he said, let me go and see what is going on there – Why the bush is burning, but it is not being consumed.

That is what the Entrepreniuers do – they go head on and they see risk. But they want to find out whether there are opportunities.

4. You also need to have the Visionary Spirit Mindset.

… As I take you through the Story of John, the Beloved; who wrote the Book of Revelation.

As he has been Prosecuted in Rome, they put him in a burning oil, he didn’t die.

They said – Whenever we bring this man to the Colosea to destroy him, he ends up converting many people.

Their Leaders now said – What I am going to do here, I am going to send him to the house of Paphlus so that he would be forgotten.

They wanted to demote home, so that he will not be speaking to many people. They wanted to take him out of Colosea in Rome, where he was actually converted. Now into the house of Paphlus, and then to an Island where he would be forgotten.

But do you know something? – Right there in the Island, he had a Revelation. And that Revelation made it possible that he wrote the Book.of Revelation.

And there he was no longer converting Romans, he was no more speaking only to the Colossians. Because of that, he now speaks to the whole world.

You are going to be a Visioner that can see a Revelation into your Market. Opportunities that are driving your Career, driving everything that you build.

5. And then, you need to have Competence.

That when you are called to do something, you get it done!

Remember the King Belshazzar?

The father (King Nebuchadnezzar) had just passed over the Throne unto him. He changed the Leadership of his Members, began to make merry with the vessels taken from the Temple of God.

As they were making merry, a Hand showed up, wrote something on the wall. None of the Astrologers of his days could interpret it.

The mother came and said, there is a Hebrew Boy called Daniel. When your father was on the Throne, he was very Faithful and Useful.

He said: Go and get me Daniel.

Fortunately, the Message for Belshazzar was interpreted.

But one thing I am saying here is that, Daniel had demonstrated Competence. And when they called him, he was prepared.

And of course he was bold enough to give a very, very, unfortunate Message to the King.

But one point that is clear is that he had a Capability.

It is a good thing that we have Capability in our Career; we also have Competence and be Prepared;

So that when we are called, we have to come and Execute, and Deliver, just like Daniel did.

Of course, before Moses was called, he had studied under Pharaoh; attended some of the finest Systems in the world.

Relatively at that time, Egypt had the best Astrologers, the best Leaders. Egypt rules and dominated the works.

Remember, just before the time of famine, Egypt prepared, unlike other Countries of the world.

Moses had lived in the world of so much Knowledge in the house of Pharoah. And when God called him, he led with Competence and Preparedness.

6. And as you do all these things, I also want you to stop the career of elevating others.

… Taking the Message of Jesus Christ at the Pool of Bethesda.

As He came, He saw a man at the Pool who had been looking for help for so many years (38 years to be Precise). Jesus asked home: “What should I do for you?”

And instead of the man saying: “Sir, I want to be healed”; the man was giving reasons; making excuses – Nobody to take me to the Pool of water after the Angel stired it.

Just as you are giving excuses – “I made a 2:2 (Second Class Lower); I made a Third Class, forth Class (whatever it is).

… That is elevating others!

7. And there are even cases in our Careers when people may not merit so many things we think that they deserve

Never ever lose your act of kindness and the Grace you are showing in the lives of people.

8. And also be Part of their Message.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:19: – To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the Word of Reconciliation.

And I believe that in the world today, as we do these things, we will be EQUIPPED for the Opportunities of the NEXT GENERATION.

And as we do them, our Careers, Entrepreneurship, Pioneering New Systems will become more evident – Amen.

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