The Remaking of nTEL and Why Quality and Affordability Must Be Considered

Let me wish nTel the best of luck as a business miracle begins in Nigeria. Yes, a former boss of MTN Nigeria wants to reborn the telecom company: “Ntel, the embattled Nigerian telecom company, is preparing for a major comeback, driven by the strategic leadership of Adrian Wood, the former CEO of MTN Nigeria. Since taking over as CEO in January 2024, Wood has been on a mission to revive Ntel’s fortunes, which have waned over the years owing to many challenges.”

I will leave a note for Mr. Wood: do not be fixated that only improved quality will save nTel. Get this from me: the old Etisalat offered the best quality in Nigeria but its price was at 3x industry average. Etisalat failed and morphed into 9Mobile. So, you cannot just focus on quality without a construct of pricing; I have called this construct Product Minimum Viable Quality:

“The deal is this: the construct of quality has no meaning until the price of the product is put into considerations. I always ask entrepreneurs to build for the Minimum Viable Quality (MVQ) bounded by the product target price which market will respond. You can build rockets to fly around the world: that is an engineering possibility. But does that make a business sense if no one can afford it? Ask the makers of Concorde for answers.”

A product Minimum Viable Quality (MVQ) is that version of a new product which allows a team to sell the maximum amount of products to customers with the least effort and at the best optimized price even when delivering value. That is where you need to build as you launch your product, and even at product maturity, do not deviate from it.

Last words: do not lose focus on affordability in the world of quality as you work to fix nTel!

New Ntel Boss, Adrian Wood, Unveils Plan to Revitalize the Embattled Telco

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