Most of my friends pre-ordered the Apple Watch and are super excited to start using a watch to read their texts and tell time. I’m not all that excited about the Apple Watch and other wearables out on the market because they miss the larger need and opportunity in the market.

The power of wearables and other internet of thing products is the ability to communicate with other products. It’s not about the device itself, but creating a network of products that add value to a users experience.

Take the Apple Watch for example. I know it can do a lot of other things but maybe instead of telling time on my watch… I want a wearable that can push information to a wall, mirror or my car. I’m not concerned about the wearable itself as much as I am concerned with the wearables ability to communicate with the world around me. The Apples and the Googles of the world should focus on building an ecosystem of products that will communicate with each other than competing on specific products….or maybe even compete on platform.

We’ll see what the future holds but I’m not going to be an early adopter until I see utility.

Politics aside, I’m glad that democracy worked in Nigeria’s election. The real MVPs this time around:

• Attahiru Jega, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
• Democracy…. Yep democracy won this time around
• INEC…From what it looks like, INEC managed the complexities of the Nigerian political system well. Hats off to them.

Good day for Nigeria and a great day to be Nigerian. Lets see what the next chapter holds.

There’s been a lot of talk over the last month or so about taking business models that were successful in a market and replicating the model in a different area. (Think Rocket Internet Group) From a 10,000 ft view, seems like a great idea. Human beings across the world have pretty similar needs. #Maslow

However, from an operational perspective, business models are a direct function of the customer, complimentary industries, and the firm’s competitive advantage. Ultimately, the business model is how a company responds to market forces to execute toward their business goals.

Customers

M-pesa is a great solution for the lack of access to banks and the mass availability of mobile of  in Kenya. Mobile money/wallet has become a key strategy for any payment geared business in Africa. However, mobile wallet adoption is slow in the Untied States. It is just recently that Apple launched Ipay, and Google Wallet has been around for ages, but customers in the United States are just so use to the current payment processes in place. Sometimes, your competition doesn’t come from a company but from user habit and that takes a while to wear down. Finding a significant customer pain point trumps user habit all the time, but user habits change based on market.

Complementary Industries 

There are complementary industries in particular markets that cause a business model to differ. E-commerce in the United States is a great example. As an e-commerce site like Ebay or Amazon, I can depend on a company like UPS or DHL to mitigate my cost for delivery and  get to my customer. Jumia, based in Nigeria, has to solve for the last mile (among other things) to get their products to consumers. It’s a larger investment but it creates a larger barrier for competitors. Companies that see critical gaps in the market often find themselves in one or more businesses to scale. Jumia is an e-commerce, delivery, sales company. Alibaba is an e-commerce, payment, bank, search engine company. In each example, the economics only makes sense once you scale multiple parts of the business which, once again depends on the market forces at work.

Competitive Advantage

An emerging competitive advantage can change a business model significantly. A company like Dangote Group can flood the market with products at low-cost because of standardized manufacturing processes and better established distribution networks. Companies that have great customer support have higher customer retention rates and don’t have to spend as much on customer acquisition. A sustainable competitive advantage can change the game when it comes to localizing a business model.

Moral of the story: Business models are not copy and paste. The best ones take into account the customer, complimentary industries, and the firm’s competitive advantage.

I’m currently testing his algorithm for this years bracket. His though process seems sound…. Let see what it can do!