SATURN (A Business Book For African Entrepreneurs)
ABOUT THE BOOK
Have you ever picked up a business book written by a foreign author whose thoughts and principles could not be applied in the African market? Have you ever been lost on the internet trying to find business ideas or advice on how and where to improve your business, only to discover that maybe you were not looking at the most reputable sources?
Coupled with his experience in the entrepreneurial field, Kingsley has consistently studied the African space and why most African businesses fail, and he has shared in this book lessons learned and proven strategies for Africans who are about to embark on the entrepreneurial journey and those who are already traveling through this adventure. These practical strategies have shown demonstrated records of significant success and have continued to help many African entrepreneurs build profitable and sustainable businesses.
The most outstanding feature about this book is that it discusses extensively challenges peculiar to most African businesses, and practical solutions to navigate through them have also been proffered. Even if you do not have a business, your personal life is a business. This book is a must-read for every African.
Why I wrote this book
On my first day as an intern at the Teaching and Research Farm at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, our farm manager made a profound statement that I can never forget. He said, “Forget about all those nonsense you have been fed with from textbooks of foreign authors. This is the Nigerian soil, and those theories you have been taught from your Part 1 to Part 3 do not work here."
I have heard several African entrepreneurs complain that most of the business books they read are written by foreign authors whose thoughts and strategies cannot be applied in the African market. Well, I do not disagree. I ran a poll lately where 78 percent of the respondents attested that most of Branson's and Tracy's principles do not work for African businesses.
Call me a racist for all I care; it really does not change the truth. I have said it before, and I am saying it again to all African entrepreneurs; if you must read a business book, read an African business book. You can only give what you have. These foreign authors do not live in Africa; neither do they have any business in Africa. Therefore, expecting a businessman who grew up, lived and owned a business in America to teach you how to run a business successfully in Africa is like putting a square peg in a round hole.
Believe it or not, the Western market is different from the African market. What works for the Europeans may never work for the Africans. The 7 + 3 = 10 in America may mean 5 + 5 = 10 in Africa. The same business strategy that made a Swiss company successful may send an African company packing. How come Xiaomi - a Chinese phone company that started operations in 2010 is became the third largest phone company in the world in 2020, whereas Uchenna & Sons Electronics Company is still struggling to gain stability after 25 years?
Think about it. If Mark Zuckerberg was an African entrepreneur, would he have scaled so fast in business? Would Elon Musk have had the same business opportunity if he was an African? Do the African environment and market conditions favour SMEs to compete globally? “Take risks. Fail often, fail fast and fail forward.” I’m sure this statement sounds familiar. Great strategy. Right? Before you adopt this strategy, think about the average African man who cannot afford to fail at all because failure means that his family will be hungry or homeless.
In terms of strategy of business growth and the survival rate in the market itself, Africa is not like Silicon Valley. Lose Money and Scale Fast is one strategy that Silicon Valley uses. This is because there is a lot of venture capital moving around in the Western Market - easy to access, cheap and long-term. There are also several innovative platforms and mentoring systems.
If not, one may wonder how Uber lost over $5 billion in just three months, yet it is still in business. Facebook did not generate any profit for its first five years of operation, yet it could pay salaries and even stay in business. For 12 years, Amazon recorded net losses from its inception (1995) through 2002. Who will believe that a company that still loses a huge amount of dollars every year is still the number 1 online retailer in the world?
If you try that in Africa, you are gone. I mean, no investor will hold on to you when your business is losing money. Any African company that adopts that Silicon Strategy is likely going to fail and go out of business. In Africa, you must learn how to make a profit from your business in the early stage while growing your business; else, your survival may not be guaranteed.
Electricity, rent, cost of capital, pressure to reduce the selling price, rising inflation, high interest rates and high exchange rate are the top economic issues affecting most African businesses. Most African entrepreneurs still struggle to access the internet. When you talk about the ease of doing business in Africa, what you read on paper is different from reality. Doing business in Africa is hard. The government policies alone will milk you dry. Just one policy, you are gone. This is why most African entrepreneurs start small, think big but remain small.
According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, there are over 41.5 million private enterprises in Nigeria alone, and they account for over 80 percent of the employment rate in the country, and they have contributed to 50 percent of the national GDP. Most of these enterprises are sole proprietorships. However, many die as survivalists. Only a few become successful businesses. This is my heart's cry.
Africa is a future frontier. Africa has a large startup ecosystem. According to the UN World Population Prospects 2019, Africa has the youngest population in the world with about 60 percent of the over 1.1 billion under the age of 25, yet there are only three unicorns in Africa out of the entire 266 unicorns in the world (a report by CB Insights as at 2020). Is there any hope for African entrepreneurs?
SATURN is not another book of vague business theories. It is a practical guide for African businesses, and every topic discussed in this book is relevant to the African ecosystem. In these times of endless information at our fingertips, it is hard to know what advice you should seek from the vast world of 'experts.'
This book is an alternative MBA for African entrepreneurs. It aims to educate you about the triumphs, travails and trials of being an entrepreneur in Africa.
It is my gift to the Black race.