Today, I received feedback that MSC (Agricultural Economics) students of the University of Ibadan are using the One Oasis Strategy to design new models for agricultural development. Yusuf sent me a solid presentation on how they have analysed the strategy and then integrated it into some core pillars in their MSC Forum programs.
A company’s position in the largely imperfect market is determined by its products which help to remove market frictions. The best product in a firm anchors its survival, just as oasis does in a desert. And every business must discover its oasis, if it hopes to thrive. Discovering the oasis is very important because it would help the company to pursue optimal allocation of the factors of production.
For competitiveness, there is a way a company can allocate the factors of production to make sure it supports the best product (the oasis which anchors the firm). If that is done, effectively, that best product will blossom, and other products in the business will also do well, as they will feed from the best product.
Simply, if you build your investment around that main product, you will find success, because those investments will have a clear internal “customer”, and that reduces market risks. In other words, if your new business investments are geared to support the best product, and the best product is doing well, it implies the risks on the new investments will be easily managed. Provided the best product continues to do well, demand on the new investment is assured (i.e. the customer exists, irrespective of the external market). That is the One Oasis Strategy.
The students extrapolated the work into competitive advantages of firms. The slide notes in parts “Although Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe did not mention this, I suppose that the supporting node must be a strategic resource to prevent the drying up of the oasis (competitive edge)”. They went ahead to make new cases, focusing on agricultural chain. It is a very impressive work.
Sure, I cannot post the slides since this is possibly going to be part of postgraduate theses.
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Meanwhile, I would be publishing the One Oasis Strategy Toolkit and also a Harvard Business Review piece is coming with research works we have done in three Nigerian companies on this.
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