BUILD YOUR BUSINESS MODEL AROUND A DECENTRALIZED OR SILO MODEL.

Everything in the world is becoming decentralized. Everything!!!

Before, every business had a HQ. Now, SBUs are being sited based on proximity to raw materials, skilled staff and functional operations. In fact, many companies in Nigeria have staff who japa and are still staff. Which means their ‘offices’ are scattered abroad (in USA and Europe).

Before now, every lady who got married felt mandated to bear the Husband’s surname as hers. The closest compromise was to have compound surnames. Now, more wives are maintaining their maiden names and there’s no much fuss to it. Immigration laws are becoming more open and flexible to accommodate the complexities of family life and family structures. Businesses must also adapt to this.

Some top businesses in Nigeria (I know 2) are already recognizing the spouses of their staff as their associate staff. They are paying a percentage of their staff’s salary to the spouses as ‘Spousal Allowance’. A company in Lagos pays every spouse 40% of the Basic Salary of their Employee. Aside this, they place the Spouse on an independent HMO programme with 2-4 kids inclusive. This increases the loyalty, commitment and retainer-ship of these staff. Gone are the days of ‘you’re our staff and whatever happens in your home is not our business’. Actually, this is called “The Socially Complex Business Model”.

Many companies are partnering with tertiary schools to provide custom postgraduate education for their staff. They are partnering with these schools to make MSc, MBA and PGD courses for their staff so that their staff are able to build a career and advance credentials while working for them. My former employer has a special degree programme with UniLag strictly for their Staff and they are positioning to provide a POOL OF TRAINED PROFESSIONALS FOR THEIR INDUSTRY. This also increases loyalty and longevity of work-life with the company.

Many companies have given their staff consent to work multiple jobs. They figured that they don’t have the means to pay a staff what they’re really worth so they agree on the specific KPIs, DELIVERABLES and MINIMUM WORK HOURS TO PAY FOR. The extra hours are RELEASED and provided the staff meets his/her KPI, it doesn’t matter where the staff works and who they work for, EXCEPT FOR THE COMPETITION.

BUSINESS IS NOT A ONE-WAY STRATEGY ANYMORE. PLEASE START THINKING.

Gone are the days of:

• “I can fire you and hire someone else immediately”. Employers are the endangered species these days. Be wise.
• “We can’t pay you so just bear what we can or leave.”
• “Every business is suffering so it’s not our fault.”

A LOT HAS CHANGED. Business is far more decentralized and parallel in silos now. Start adapting and maximizing your own share of your employee time.

I am available to provide a 90-minute STRATEGY TALK on this for any business. So if you are interested, ask Stella on 07035953367.

Please THINK FOR YOUR BUSINESS. Please do.

m a k t u b !!!

The Octopus 🐙