One Oasis and Double Play Strategy – Tekedia Case Study [video]

Yesterday, a learner in Tekedia Mini-MBA program asked me to provide an example where a Nigerian company implemented the One Oasis and Double Play Business Strategy which I had postulated in Harvard Business Review. In my response, I used Tekedia Institute, the home of Tekedia Mini-MBA.

My thesis is that in the digital age where supply is unbounded and unconstrained, you cannot win via just supply (there is no business-focused video you cannot find a substitute free on YouTube or somewhere online). If that is the case, focusing on influencing demand becomes strategic. Tekedia.com is the one oasis while school.tekedia.com is our double play!

What is your one oasis? And what is your double play? Shine ya eyes because where people make money may not come from their most popular or visible products. Ask Amazon (ecommerce is popular, but money comes from AWS); Samsung (Galaxy is popular, but money comes from chip business); etc. If you focus on copying that visible and popular product without the supporting double play elements, success may not come.

In the past, business was about controlling supply to move prices. Manufacturers had control of supply but they had limited direct control on the consumers [you can control how many newspapers you produce but you have no definite control on how many people would buy]. So, winning markets was really about managing and controlling distribution as most businesses were bounded and constrained by geography, creating advantages which were largely localized [the largest newspaper in a region controlled the top news of the day].

But today, the game has shifted from control of supply to control of demand for web-anchored consumer firms. And only companies with capabilities to control demand are going to win big. Indeed, most of the greatest internet companies are simply controlling demand and that means controlling how supplies reach users and consumers.

If you plan to run an internet business, think about how you can control demand. You have already lost the power and capacity to control supply. Through tekedia.com, we influence demand which now opens the doors for the school.tekedia.com supplies.

Demand Chain Is Key

Rachel Dove provided the summary of yesterday’s lecture, in a comment: “Yessss, Sir!! My golden takeaway from yesterday’s class with Ndubuisi Ekekwe, ? It is not a matter of perfecting the supply only, we must also influence the demand!?” Indeed, most times, we invest all efforts to perfect the supply chain, while we neglect the demand chain. Yes, it cannot be only the supply chain, we need to work on the demand chain! Lol.

Later in the program, I will explain how demand chain efficiency improves marginal cost and unit economics, and advances the capacity of  firms to grow and thrive. The fundamental thing is to find the mechanics on how to build category-king companies through innovation, growth and top-grade operational execution.

Tekedia Mini-MBA – #advanceTogether

 

Source

Comment: “I was taken aback with that answer last night. Considering that in focusing on demand you undermined the importance of the content of the course over visibility of the school.”

My Response: We have the best content and our program quality is the best. I hope I can make that point before you. Yet, even if we have the best content and no one knows about it, we will fail. There is no topic in business that someone has not provided FREE on YouTube. The deal now is How Do You Break Through for people to pay attention? That is where the strategy comes in because in digital, supply of quality content is unbounded (many of them) and if you do not help demand narrow down, you fail.

If you need a paytech fintech, there are more than 200 companies that can help you collect money online in Nigeria. The one which influences you will get your attention. You will not have enrolled in Tekedia if not that you have read a post I wrote or watched my video. By doing that, I am influencing you, giving you confidence to go ahead and pay, trusting that quality will be high. That is influencing demand.

Open your mind because Tekedia is structured to bring new perspectives to our learners.

Read this document https://tkcdn.tekedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/06172423/One-Oasis-Strategy.pdf . You can also read this piece I wrote in Harvard https://hbr.org/2021/02/is-your-startup-doing-everything-it-can-to-capture-value .

Of course as that happens, we expect questions/exploratories from our learners. But our goal is not to just teach the boring standard things. That is why we work hard to develop new frameworks. More than 15 companies have cloned Tekedia Mini-MBA, but all failed. Why? They do not have tekedia.com which makes it very hard for them to even tell people what they have.

But tekedia.com is not required in all businesses; my point is that you need to understand what drives your strategy. Elon Musk’s reputation is more than 50% of Tesla’s value. If he resigns from Tesla, the company will lose more than 50% of its value in 5 days. So, he has used his genius perception to influence demand even though other car companies may be closing on on Tesla car quality.

Comment 2: Unbounded opportunities abound to those who can look deeper beyond what is visible.

Like I said yesterday afternoon that for every lecture at Tekedia Institute one will not want to miss the next one. It was an awesome experience yesterday at the lecture.

Comment 3: I started thinking deeply after last night meeting, on how to implement such efficacious strategy in my space. Another good example of the one Oasis and double play is McDonald’s fast food.

While its restaurant serve food and is popular, they make most of their earning in real estate.
Thanks alot Prof.

Comment 4: How about MTN? Its key products have to decide amongst themselves which should be the oasis: voice, data, mobile mobile? They are on a march to reach an unbeatable self reinforcing equilibrium. Something to watch out for…

My Response: Yes, the greatest of companies can have many oases, not just an oasis. Microsoft has Windows, Office Suite as oases as those are money-makers.

Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.