A few nights ago,  insomnia decided to visit me in the wee hours of the morning, surfing the net kept me busy and I stumbled on a very old article announcing Rosalind Brewer as the new COO of Starbucks and it held my interest for some reason.

Ms Rosalind had left her position as the CEO of Sam’s Club where her growth strategy included a focus on technology and innovation, and brand expansion. In very simple terms she drove large strides in e-commerce and helped to create a better shopper experience with technology.

Now her success with introducing technology for shoppers experience got my attention or more like got me thinking. During her time as CEO of Sam’s Club, she introduced the “curbside pickup service and e-commerce efforts, including introducing a process that allows customers to scan items with their phones in order to speed up checkout,” according to the guys at Fortune.

While they remained a physical giant store, Brewer’s team incorporated the digital  way of enhancing its customer’s experience while shopping with the club.

I  recently had the opportunity to do a company visit to Jebel Ali Port operated by  DP world  in Dubai, ranked the 9th largest container port worldwide. With its capacity (throughput of  21,000 containers per day and  102 cranes in operation) and number of  daily transactions you can imagine the chaos if not properly managed but then they made the right move (but hey its Dubai we are talking about here, nothing less expected ). Smart technology and innovation to the rescue. Its operations are being automated at every level. Case in point, Container trucks are  in and out to drop a container in 30 minutes or less!

I could not but  think, why can’t we have similar experiences? Since the awakening of the social/digital age, brands in the African market have paid attention and done the needful with incorporating everything social/digital  as part of  its  strategy. But somehow we seem to be stuck with defining digital  as activating social media conversations and engaging customers with influencer marketing. Ladies and Gentlemen, that ship has long ago sailed.

I believe we are long overdue for the next phase. Quite honestly we are more than ready for this. Yes, we have a number of other complimentary infrastructure that are lacking and should be fixed before we discuss this. But who says we cant work with what we have? If we keep waiting to get it all right, we would be left way behind.

The mobile and Internet usage statistics show the African eco system’s readiness to take up what I would define as enhancing the customers purchasing experience with technology or simply enhancing processes with smart technology.

We have begun the journey somewhat. E-commerce has taken the lead in the revolution of what or where we need to be and its successes in key African markets do not need to be re-told. I have personally contributed to the statistics of shoppers of groceries (plus other non perishable items) on e-commerce platform (roll your eyes all you want, If I don’t add to the statistics who would?).

But we are yet far from the promise land.

It starts with things  as simple as not having to fill a book register when I visit any office, can you take my fingerprints instead?

Garth Andrus, (principal @ Deloitte Consulting LLP) seems to have read my mind and captured my thoughts.

Shahar Markovitch  and Paul Willmott of McKinsey put together a piece 4 years ago that somewhat captures my thoughts.

We have done the good work of “doing Digital” but we need to become “Being digital”.

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It might not be news to some but I bet its news to others.

It goes without saying that these billions of people are accessing social with their mobile devices. Question for me (and you of course) is what can we do with these billions of people on the global scale.

Lets keep thinking……

NB – Just so you know, this is an attempt to clear the cobwebs that have grown here since my last post.  Got more reasons to be regular with updates. Stay with me.

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In the last few weeks I have been tasked with preparing a document that should contain a strategic direction for a business unit I work with at my day job. This therefore meant I had to spend a lot of time reading or more like brushing up my research skills. (I can tell you for free, the research consultants are the real MVPs. So much information and data to process and glean out for what you require).

As I spent time looking through a lot of reports and articles, it occurred to me the solutions to the many similar challenges of the 54 African countries can potentially be addressed with Mobile Technology. I know you are thinking I might be biased in my line of thoughts. “Hear” me out, I just might be awakening your  “senses” to the opportunities we are not paying attention to in Africa.

Lets take each one after the other in various write-ups I would focus on for the next few weeks.

Major Challenge No 1: Unemployment – Africa has one of the highest levels of unemployment in the world. With more than 70 percent of Africa’s population under the age of 25, there is a massive untapped workforce. But on the flip side, that in itself is an opportunity as Mobile Phone penetration increases in the various countries across the continent. Falling device prices are encouraging the rapid adoption of smartphones, with the region set to add more than 400 million new smartphone connections by 2020 (GSMA reports). Unconfirmed reports puts the Youths driving this increase in the adoption of the smartphones. I personally therefore look forward to the Solution that can be created/developed to potentially keep the African Youth mentally busy and valuable to its society.

A while back, I was in a meeting with a client in South Africa and he was telling us of the success of M4JAM in his country. He grabbed by attention and I paid significant attention to the innovators of a mobile solution that creates jobs for many. What did they do? It is a microjobbing service that allows brands, NGOs or the public sector to post a number of small tasks, which promoted by M4JAM and taken on by “jobbers” who complete them using their mobile phones. Once these micro jobs are complete, M4JAM collates and sends the finished package to the employer, with M4JAM and the jobber then getting paid.

At launch it posted 100,000 jobs, and at the end of the first day, 6,782 jobs had been completed with M4Jam paying out up to R101,730 ($ 7,300) in remunerations. In two weeks they were out of jobs.

Need we say more?

The need is right there, the opportunity sits right smack in our faces, and question therefore is what other solution can we bring on board to potentially solve this challenge that plagues the 54 countries in Africa.

We focus on Access to finance next………….

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A few days ago (honestly feels like many many many months ago…….year is breezing by fast), I could not resist the urge to comment, or would I say “raise an eyebrow” on the many articles clamouring for the Launch of Pokemon in Africa.

I really would like to know what you think. No, not about my raised eyebrows, I mean your thoughts on launching Pokemon in Africa. Read here………………..

I have chosen my birth month this year to share  the details of my Addiction. Yes I clocked a year older (yeah, a year older no need for more details. Lets focus on my addiction)  on the 2nd of July.

I choose to spend the day just as my mom does every year. Go incommunicado. All phones off, all access to reach me shut down. Be completely out of reach. (Don’t ask me why she does this or where she goes, we are tired of asking). It was supposed to be a time of self reflection. But I ended up spending half of the  day fighting my addiction. It was a battle I had fought for years, it was a war I had chosen to win this special day of my birth.

I could not do it, I struggled but I needed my Mobile phones (Yep, two of them. The Nigerian’s  dilemma). Wasn’t because of the calls and messages I would be receiving from family and friends. I just needed to stay in touch with the world!

Then it dawned on me, many businessmen and innovators ( ….ok  maybe not innovators, simply sharp guys) have cashed in on my addiction. They have recognized the average person globally is looking at and engaging with his/her device nothing less than 85times daily and  found a way to milk the benefits of OUR addiction. Yeah, its you and I.

Let me share some insights with you.  The innovators or sharp guys as you would prefer to call them  are in three categories:

– Mobile Content/Service/product Developers : the guys who have taken time to understand what keeps our interest and developed services/products that we would simply pay for.

– Mobile Content User acquisition aka Mobile Advertising  gurus : These guys have mastered our Mobile behavioural patterns and used systems and softwares to reach us on webpages, social media platforms and portals.  So imagine you are on your favourite webpage or blogs, you are playing that game that keeps you awake all night, or you are using that app that gives you that information, and then you see an ad that showcases that service/product that you have been looking for. These guys have been watching you in 3D, literally. We are trapped!

–Mobile Content Billing enablers: No need for details. They make the money happen.

In each of these are many facets and details. I would share details of each categories in the next write ups. Truth be told OUR addiction has opened up an industry that is a major contribution to the GDP of any economy. Telecommunications from Middle East and Africa contributes 8% to the global telecommunications activities.

I know your addiction is for a reason, you might just be the next set of sharp guys in a new Mobile business category yet to be discovered. Lets talk about it.

Come back soon…………

Nah……I am not about to go all motivational. I am clear headed enough to know thats not my forte.

I am talking about that thing that has become the most important thing in your life. It is the first thing that you must connect with immediately you open your eyelids in the morning (or afternoon or night. My point being anytime you are awake).

Not sure about you I am fascinated about the how this thing has become an integral part  of everything we do: social life, staying in touch with  current affairs ( including affairs of people we know ), income generator for some who have tapped into needs and provided solutions, e-office space for some; who needs a physical office when you have this thing. You can set meeting schedules, have meetings, take notes, share meeting minutes and deliverables.

Believe it or not you and I spend nothing less than 4.7hours daily on this thing.Doing what? Everything!  Little wonder in the last two weeks I have been in meetings where several brand managers across different industries are asking how do I steal your attention within that daily 4.7hours. Lets ditch calling it this thing; I am speaking about our Mobile Device(s).

I have been following quite a number of Core Mobile business owners in the last few months and one thing (no no not the Mobile device) is central to them all: they provide solution to needs of every Mobile Phone user and the user pays for it without qualms.

I am embarking on a journey, in search of the many answers of the Mobile world – what are people doing on Mobile, what needs can be solved via mobile, how do we create jobs with Mobile ( o yeah! today the Mobile phone is no longer luxury,its a must have) generate income via mobile. The whole works!

Of course I would be sharing my findings as I move along…….come back soon.

……Me and my ever dramatic self would start this off  by saying, I had ample notice I would be speaking at the Mobile West Africa Conference unlike the last time. Quite honestly  I was excited for two key reasons, I get to speak about something I  absolutely love to talk about, the Mobile Consumer. And I get to speak on the same stage as my “ogas at the top” . Individuals who have been in the game longer than I have.

I shared a couple of insights that I believe are key for any brand,advertiser or marketing executive to know if they are willing to connect and engage with the mobile consumer effectively.

I do believe the audience thought they were good points. Nah, am not hyping myself. I have the evidence:

–  The guys at Venture Africa thought so. 

–  Twitter went active!

It was a great outing and I look forward to more of this  where I can discuss  many opportunities that Mobile can deliver across Africa!

BTW: I think I was looking fly, hehehehe, yes if I might say so myself. I have to be proud about something: