The Corvus | August 2018
buy. Yet the age of connectivity is not
just about the disruptions caused by
the aforementioned Non-Content
Generators; the real big deal is how
these businesses aptly reflect, in this
present time, the fine line between
the past and the future. Yellow taxis
in Lagos, increasingly inconvenient to
hail or ride in, have never looked more
like relics of the past; the same goes for
hotels that you cannot book online or,
increasingly, apparel-makers that you
cannot connect with via WhatsApp and
eateries that you cannot order from
online.
On the flip side, we are looking to
organizations that are leveraging
the power of connectivity as the
torchbearers of the future, even when
they have been around for aeons. Take
universities for example. Unsung heroes
in their adaptation to connectivity,
(some of) these “aged” institutions
quickly moved from the dogma of
learning in physical proximity which
had held sway for centuries, to learning
anywhere with any internet-enabled
device that you can lay your hands
on. That single action has expanded
the reach of these schools beyond
the levels their classrooms could ever
reach, revamped their interaction
with
students
and
prospective
students around the world and, most
5
importantly, ensured that they continue
to be looked at as centres of learning
for the future. The irony is perhaps,
that some organizations, formed or
blooming in the present (within the
last 15 years) are already fading away,
or looking like they just might soon.
Business Centres held sway across
Nigeria’s city centres not too long ago,
now they are increasingly difficult to
spot, and while Cable TV and Cinema
businesses are the in-things now
with streaming and movie download
services on the rise, it’s not difficult to
deduce that they might be on their way
out sooner than later. So what does all
of these mean for businesses today?
First, the obvious; the future is the best
source of competitive advantage for
businesses the world over. And then
the not so comforting; the future is also
a great threat to businesses, especially
those in the SME sector.
In Nigeria, it is estimated that nearly
7 in 10 small businesses go moribund
within five years of operation. In the
western world, the situation is only
marginally better with 5 in 10 small
businesses making it beyond the same
period. There are several reasons for
the struggles these small businesses
experience in Nigeria, ranging from
financing to infrastructural challenges,
but the future also plays a part. With
most small businesses built on short-
term strategies, and often run to satisfy
subsistence needs, the future - in the
context discussed above - isn’t what
many small businesses give so much
attention to. This makes such small
businesses not only unsustainable, but
also very prone and pliant to disruption,
which is all too rampant in this age of
connected systems.
Contrary to how we talk about
disruption, which is usually in the context
of big companies put out of business
by startups, the biggest victims of tech-
inspired disruptions, by numbers at
least, are small businesses. Think about
how many Business Centres have been
put out of business due to the greater
liberalization of internet services over
the last 10 years; the silent and gradual
disappearance of photo studios as
people depend more on their phones
to take and store their images; and
the gradual erasure of small publishing
houses as roadside magazines struggle
to pull the attention of road users
away from the articles on their mobile
phones. Certainly, the future poses an
even greater threat to small businesses
today, but leveraging its opportunities
is also the key to beating the threat.
While for big businesses, leveraging
the future could mean a systematic
Advertising the Future
6