INSIDE MY HEAD

Forget all the other reasons, the main reason why I love to write is because writing allows me to document the thoughts in my head. Most times, I am awed by the many different thoughts that go through my head in a 24 hour day. Alarming sometimes, to say the least. I know for sure that if I manage to write down a third of the thoughts that are processed inside my head… lets hit the nail on its head and cut the chase.
Pardon me if the things in my head as I write this appear somewhat haphazard and disorganized. Don’t blame the text you read, for it is only a reflection of its source – my head. Hopefully, it will be a series. Hope I can keep up though.

1. Fuel subsidy, Baba suwe and NDLEA, National awards, PDP vs Sylva, Farida Waziri… and the list go on. Can I get a breather please? I mean, a day without any silly headline that will make me unprovoked? What one story that made headline in the dailies found a way to inspire me? The death of Alex Ibru. Exactly what is inspring about the death of Alex Ibru? Recall that on 2 February 1996 this man his car was sprayed with machine gun fire from unidentified men who had trailed him in a deep-blue Peugeot. Both Ibru and the editor-in-chief Femi Kusa were flown to England for treatment of their injuries. This man hung unto life and stunned the doctors who were skeptical of his chances of survival in the first place. Lesson: the man who will die is he who has been appointed and commissioned to die by the creator. A new sense of hope and joy came upon me as I read about his death. The Nigerian ruler who kills, loots, lies and lives off all manners of evil practices should know that death is inevitable. No amount of protection, whether physical or spiritual can shield you from death when it beckons. The Nigerian populace will cheat death for as long as it is necessary just as Alex Ibru did, against all odds until that day salvation steers us in the face. RIP Alex Ibru.


2. Once engaged in a discussion with a friend, he said: “but these Libyans were gullible and naïve. How could they allow one man to rule and dominate them for over 40 years?” well, my good friend, I hope you also classify Nigerians in that category as well. The PDP can boast of ruling Nigeria for 23 out of the 51 years of Nigeria’s self rule. Muammar Gaddafi on the other hand led Libya for 42 out of the 60 years of Libya’s self rule. Talking about the difference between 6 and half dozen. Remember who said this: ‘We will continue to make it and PDP will continue forever as the dominant political party in Nigeria?’ Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party {PDP}, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, Wednesday 7 September 2011. Maybe Libyans were naïve and gullible, but right now they have made a strong case for themselves. They have made a point. They set themselves from the shackles of torture and inequality. They demanded for independence and they got it. They wanted liberation and they got it. Can we say the same for Nigeria and her kwashiorkor stricken people? Can we say the same for the wailing Nigerians? Like the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti said: “we are suffering and smiling”. How long will this last? When will Nigerians decide to stop tweeting, writing, talking, wishing, hoping and start acting? Until that day the PDP can as well continue their jolly ride. I hope it won’t be forever though.

Nation Branding and Place Marketing

I. The Marketing Plan

In the decades since World War II, economics prowess replaced military power as the crucial geopolitical determinant. The resilience of a country is measured by its inflows of foreign investment and by the balance of its current account - not by the number of its tanks and brigades.

Inevitably, polities the world over - regions, states, countries, and multinational clubs - behave as only commercial businesses once did. They actively market themselves, their relative advantages, their history and culture, their endowments and assets, their mentality and affiliations. In short, they aggressively promote their brand names ("brands" throughout this article).

To cast countries in the role of brands implies that they act as "producers" to some "consumers" out there. But what do countries - as distinct from firms - produce? And who are the consumers enticed by said statal brand placement and regional location marketing? And how does the process of exchange take place - who gives what to whom and where?

Few governments know the answers to these economically crucial questions. Ministers of finance and industry the world over religiously repeat the mantras of "attracting foreign direct investment" and "encouraging entrepreneurship". They recite the list of advantages proffered by their country to the lucky investor, manager, scientist, expatriate, or businessman. But they lack a deep understanding of the process and meaning of nation branding.

Few countries - Britain being the notable exception in the past decade - conduct serious market research and bang heads together in think tanks or inter-ministerial committees to redesign the national brand. Even fewer maintain long-term, sustained branding campaigns supported by proper advertising. Only recently did a few pioneering polities hire the services of nation branding experts. None has in place the equivalent of a corporate "brand manager".

One of the critical mistakes of countries the world over is the self-centered lack of emphasis on customer satisfaction. Meeting and exceeding the "client's" expectations is merely an afterthought - rather than the axis around which the planning, evaluation, control, and revision of the marketing mix revolve. At best, countries concentrate on concluding specific transactions instead of on the development and cultivation of long-term relationships with their "clients".

It is as though countries arrogantly refuse to acknowledge their dependence on the goodwill of individuals and firms the world over. The traditional and impregnable supremacy of the sovereign nation-state has gone the way of the dodo - but decision-makers still have to be appraised of this startling development. Most countries - and nowadays there is a surfeit  of sovereigns - are nothing more than bit players in the global marketplace. It takes getting used to.

Many politicians mentally equate self-marketing with humiliating mendicancy.

Instead, decision makers should hire marketing (and, more specifically, brand name) experts to prepare a thorough and comprehensive place marketing and nation branding plan for them:

Strategic Marketing Analysis

I. Identify what needs and whose needs can the country meet and satisfy. What preference groups (of investors, for instance) or even market niches (e.g., stem cell scientists) should be targeted to optimize economic outcomes?

II. Compile databases of past clients of the state, its resources, offerings, laws, regulations, international treaties, and economic opportunities (e.g., state companies to be privatized). These allow for micro-branding (or segment branding as opposed to mass branding): tweaking the national brand to suit the preferences, likes, dislikes, and wishes of specific target groups, down to single, important, individuals.

III. Position the country in relation to its competitors, emphasizing its natural and human endowments and its relative advantages. The process of positioning aims to identify the nation with an image, perception, concept, or trait which capture its essence and further its appeal to the clients it had identified in stage I above (investors, other countries, diplomats, scientists, and so on). Great care should be taken to align the positioning messages with realities on the ground. Anything perceived by the preference groups as being a lie or an exaggeration will backfire.

IV. Marketing is about optimal allocation of resources in view of objectives and opportunities.

The classic STP model calls for:

I. Segmentation - Identify potential customers - for instance, foreign direct investors, or expatriates and the diaspora.

II. Targeting - Concentrate on those "clients" you can serve most effectively, to whom you are most valuable and thus can "charge" the most for your offerings

III. Positioning - Communicate effectively the main benefits you offer to the targeted group.

The marketing mix comprises 4 P's which are perfectly applicable to nations as they are to businesses:

Product - Your "products" as a country being tax incentives, infrastructure, natural endowments, human resources, a geographic vantage point, helpful laws and regulations (or absence thereof), etc.

Price - Demonstrate a relative or absolute advantage in terms of return on investment

Place - Facilitate the unhindered exchange of goods, services, and capital (tax holidays, free processing zones, no red tape, double taxation treaties and free trade agreements with other countries, etc.)

Promotion - The advertising and dissemination of news and information, lobbying, public relations, media campaigns, etc.

But what products do countries offer and market and how are they tailored to the needs of specific market segments?

This is the topic of our next article.

Speed up your PC/Laptop ( Boot Faster )

~*-*~

There are few basic ( Manual ) tips to make your PC/laptop run faster.
Follow all the steps given below one after another

First Step :

Click on Start button
Click on Run or under START TYPE HERE type the command "%temp%" without quotes (")
Click OK
A Window will pop-up ( Temporary folder )
Click on Edit from Menu bar and click Select All ( or short cut method to select all the files is Press CRTL + A
Press Shift + Del key to delete the files
Few files may not get deleted so skip those files as you can delete them later

( The files and folder listed in the folder will not harm any data/document/files on your PC as they are just temporary files and can be deleted )

Second Step :

Click on Start button
Click on Run or under START TYPE HERE type the command "prefetch" without quotes (")
Click OK
A Window will pop-up ( Prefetch Folder )
Click on Edit from Menu bar and click Select All ( or short cut method to select all the files is Press CRTL + A
Press Shift + Del key to delete the files

Third Step :

Open Internet Explorer

Click on Tools on right side of window and select Internet Options
OR
Click on TOOLS from Menu bar on top and click on Internet Options
Under General TAB - Click on Delete button
Click on Delete Files button and click Yes for the message
Likewise Click on Delete Cookies, Delete History ( if you do not want the list of websites to be displayed when you type www and the website name in address bar ), Click on Delete forms
Click Close

  ( By doing this you will be able to get rid of any unwanted files and website data that is stored on your pc to make you access Internet much faster )

For Mozilla Firefox
Click on TOOLS
Click on Clear Recent History
Select Everything from RECENT TIME
Click Clear Now to clear the temporary files and folder

Fourth Step :

Click on START -> ALL PROGRAMS -> ACCESSORIES -> System Tools
Click on Disk Cleanup

It will display the Local C: drive
Click OK
Wait for sometime
It will analyze the unwanted data to be removed from your pc
Click on to Delete

To Make PC open faster after you login ( there is delay in accessing the PC after you login and see the desktop or till you are able to access your PC files )

Fifth Step :

Click on Start button
Click on Run or under START TYPE HERE type the command "msconfig" without quotes (")
Click OK
A Window will popup ( Microsoft Configuration )
Click on STARTUP tab
You will find list of programs with check mark on left side
uncheck any program listed which is related to Update or Software ( for ex. Adobe, Java, MSN, Yahoo, Google talk, etc )
UNCHECK these programs
( Do not uncheck any program you are not sure or is related to your PC like Wireless/router etc )
Click OK
You will get a message to Restart the PC - Click OK to Restart
You will observe change in speed the PC boots
Incase you find any trouble after you have unchecked, follow the same process to open MSCONFIG and put check mark back on the programs that gives you Error

Sixth Step :

If you still find your pc running slow after following all these steps, this is final step to make it work faster

Click on START -> ALL PROGRAMS -> ACCESSORIES -> System Tools
Click on Disk Defragmenter

You will find a Disk Defragmenter window open
click on Defragment and leave the PC idle till it completes the process

Defragmenter will check for any unwanted space created on the hard disk and stores the Files back to their original position in hard disk for quick access.
This is helpful when the PC takes lot of time to open a file or when it makes noise while accessing the hard drive to open/launch software/files

  Incase you find trouble to follow any instructions please consult ME.

THE EARTH, MAN, LIFE; CYCLE

…Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday… that’s all there is to the life we live on earth. Seven (7) days, and it’s a cycle; so we have to do it again.

Each day, we have an opportunity to do something different on a day we once lived in. Simply put: in the past one month, if you were alive then and still alive now, you would have lived in 4 Mondays. You would have witnessed 4 Sundays (if you are a Christian and you go to church, you would have gone to church 4 times). You would have observed 4 Fridays (translating to 4 Jumat if you are Islam).

Deriving the best out of our lives and living each day as a happy being is borne out of what we make off each day. We live in a world where we go back and forth. We live in a world where nothing is really new. We live in a world of Déjà vu.

We cope and avoid a state of insanity by getting involved in diverse activities. Try we may, but the fact is ‘we have to face each day knowing that we are in a cycle’. The Earth rotates around its own axis. It rotates with us in it. The truth is that at the end of the day, we are all on a conveyor belt of life. You will come and go. We are at different portions of the conveyor belt. We drop at different points.

…Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday… that’s all there is to the life we live on earth. Seven (7) days, and it’s a cycle; so we have to do it again.

You Win: Ponzo illusion; They Win, We lose

A man with focus knows where he is headed and will move in the direction of his goal irrespective of what others have to say. Conviction is key to achieving a set target.

With every passing day I wail in agony for my dear country Nigeria. The Goodluck Jonathan Administration has been attacked from all corners of the nation. Some have called him unprintable names. I believed and still hold unto the belief that dissipating our energy in the direction of one man, especially one who occupies the highest possible position of our dear country is not enough to move our country forward.

Yes, he may be the commander in chief of the armed forces, and so wields a lot of power, but we are a nation of over 140 million people and we should see ourselves as crucial to the achievement of the Nigeria of our dreams.

Having said that, I must quickly add that my major concern for the Goodluck jonathan Administration is the attempt to become a listening ruler (I insist that the world ruler is more appropriate than a leader for the majority of the people who are supposed to be our leaders) by trying to gratify a section of the Nigerian populace; The youths, with phony policies and projects.

Attempting to write down the many challenges the average Nigerian youth has to contend with on a daily basis is like trying to search for a needle in a haystack. The president has made some good intentioned attempts to move our country in the right direction. My major focal point will be The Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (You WiN!), an idea borne of a collaboration of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Communication Technology (CT), and the Ministry of Youth Development. This innovative concept recently commissioned by the Nigerian government “will launch an annual Business Plan Competition (BPC) for aspiring young entrepreneurs in Nigeria, in line with the Federal Government’s drive to create more jobs for Nigerians. The programme will be implemented in partnership with Nigeria’s private sector, who will be requested to provide funding support” (sic).

According to the statement on the official website of You Win, “Specific Objectives of the Programme include to:

• ·    Attract ideas and innovations from young entrepreneurial aspirants from Universities, Polytechnics, Technical colleges, and other post-Secondary institutions in Nigeria;

• ·     Provide a one time Equity grant for 1,200 selected aspiring entrepreneurs to start or expand their business concepts and mitigate start up risks;

• ·         Generate 80,000 to 110,000 new jobs for currently unemployed Nigerian youth over the three years during which the three cycles will be implemented;

• ·         Provide business training for up to 6,000 aspiring youth entrepreneurs spread across all geo-political zones in Nigeria;

• ·         Encourage expansion, specialization and spin-offs of existing businesses in Nigeria; and,

• ·         Enable young entrepreneurs to access a wide business professional network and improve their visibility.” (sic).

In my humble opinion, You Win is a lofty idea. A holistic look at this idea reminds me of the story of foolish man who decided to convert his bedroom into a farmland. Having unearthed the concrete materials on the floor, he proceeded to cultivate the crops of his choice, being maize and okra. He suddenly realizes that there was need, in the first place, for sunlight as the crops will refuse to germinate without exposure to sunlight. The man had a good idea, but his greatest undoing was his failure to reflect on the most important aspect of any project; PLANNING.

With proper planning, the pitfalls in a project will be seen beforehand and checks and balances put in place to arrest them if/when they arise.  Note that the effectiveness and relevance of a project of this type is the impact it has on the long run. No matter how inspiring and impressive an idea is, it is naught if it fails meet the purpose for which it was set up for in the first instance.

I am not conscious of the planning process that bred the You Win project but its objectives have been dented by the realities of the Nigerian business climate. Who has any doubt as to how SME’s struggle to stay afloat in the Nigerian business environment? Who doesn’t know that established businesses are running away from Nigeria? Who doesn’t know that Nigeria is ranked 137 out of 181 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index? A nation's ranking on the index is based on the average of 10 subindices: (sic)

• 1.      Starting a Business - Procedures, time, cost and minimum capital to open a new business

• 2.      Dealing with construction permits - Procedures, time and cost to build a warehouse

• 3.      Employing workers - Difficulty of hiring index, rigidity of hours of index, difficulty of redundancy index, rigidity of employment index, redundancy costs

• 4.      Registering property - Procedures, time and cost to register commercial real estate

• 5.      Getting credit - Strength of legal rights index, depth of credit information index

• 6.      Protecting investors - Indices on the extent of disclosure, extent of director liability and ease of shareholder suits

• 7.      Paying taxes - Number of taxes paid, hours per year spent preparing tax returns and total tax payable as share of gross profit

• 8.      Trading across borders - Number of documents, cost and time necessary to export and import

• 9.      Enforcing contracts - Procedures, time and cost to enforce a debt contract

• 10.  Closing a business - Index of recovery rate which is a function of time, cost and other factors such as lending rate and the likelihood of the company continuing to operate

The simplest explanation of this index is thus: a prospective investor will only consider Nigeria as a viable business options after considering the 130 other nations ahead of her. Gloomy reality! You Win appears to be a very good initiative but were the following realities considered properly:

Lack of Capital

Yes, we know that Lack of Capital is a major issue with SME’s in Nigeria. You Win attempts to arrest this problem by providing the winners of the competition with cash incentives to start up their businesses. Impressive!

Epileptic Power Supply

Who needs a clairvoyant mind to know that we have an epileptic power supply in Nigeria? How will the winners of You Win bypass the high cost of running their business with an independent and private generating transformer (Generator)?

Insecurity

We all knew we lived in an unsafe country, in the exception of the ruling class who can afford to buy bullet proof cars with our money, and allocate to themselves, millions of naira as security votes, but the recent rise in militancy and suicide bombings has increased the state of insecurity in our country. Will businesses, the ones bankrolled by You Win particularly, be exempted from the harsh security uncertainties in Nigeria?

Government Policies

The frequent change in Government has resulted in change in Government policies.

Business friendly policies are alien to the Nigerian ruling class. Multiple taxation and goods delay in ports and due to change in Government policies are everyday issues that businesses have to contend with.

Add to the above, bribery and corruption, the sky rocketing cost and prices of goods and services etc. these are the many challenges that existing businesses in Nigeria have to contend with daily. These are the challenges that have driven a good number of businesses out of Nigeria. And these are the same challenges that the winners of You Win will have to contend with.

Picture this: You as a fish farmer decide to buy new fingerlings and then throw them into a pond with debris and big fishes who struggle to stay alive. I know you are sane, so please answer this:  do you think the fingerlings will survive, and will you consider your decision sensible?

I see how the GEJ Administration is dissipating a lot of energy to be remembered as the Nigerian president who gave Chukwudi Taiwo Onome the opportunity and leverage to be the Nigerian version of Steve Jobs. Well, Mr. President, please know that Steve Jobs wasn’t presented with a fat check by the American government before he revolutionized the world. This is what they did:

1.      They ensured that the USA is ranked 4^th on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index.

2.      They ensured that power supply is not a worry.

3.      They ensured that infrastructural decay is alien to Steve Jobs and the likes.

4.      They ensured that Healthcare is a no-issue.

5.    They ensured that there was a conducive and enabling environment for Steve Jobs to implement his ideas.

6.      They ensured that was a level playing field for entrepreneurs and their ideas to blossom.

7.      They ensured that corruption is reduced to barest minimum.

Mr. President, please don’t try to impress us, the youths of Nigeria. Just provide us the above mentioned, and shelve this Ponzo illusion/ Ponzi scheme that is already sinking before it sails offshore.

God Bless Nigeria!

God Bless You!

God bless me!

QUESTIONNAIRE

Hello.

Thank you for taking some time off your busy schedule to visit this blog.

In order to ascertain the true status of certain assumptions which are relevant to one of our up-coming project, we have decided to ask you to respond to this questionnaire.

We solicit your candid answers to the following questions. Kindly fill them up.

This you can do via any of the following:

1.                  Send your answers to these question to our email address: crigconsult@live.com

2.                  Post your answers as a comment to this post

3.                  Tweet your answers on twitter with the hashtag #CRIGCONSULT.

Thank you.

FOR CRIG CONSULT:

IFADA I. JOHNSON

1.                 Sex:          

2.                 Age:         

3.                 Location:                                    

4.                 What is your best sport?                                            

5.                 If football, state the team you support                                                  

6.                 How much do you spend weekly to watch this team?                           

6.         How can you contribute to the success of this team?                            

                                                                                                                               

WHO BANNED OLIVER TWIST?

News of the ban first came from popular rapper Ruggedman who spread the news via Twitter saying: “NBC strikes again. 1st @IAM2SHOTZ Supermandead is banned. Now its @iamdbanj Oliver Twist. Na wah o cc @DONJAZZY’, @Ruggedybaba tweeted. The rapper further disclosed that he got the information on the ban from radio station Cool FM Abuja.

Reacting to the news, Don Jazzy said: “The truth is that the person that banned this song will hear this song till he is sick of it. He will hear it at almost every party he goes to. He will hear it from the cars that will drive pass him. He will hum the melody even in his sleep.

He’ll probably record his own version of the Oliver video sef lol. He is doing his job so let’s allow him exercise his power. It’s allowed. May God bless him and his hustle? No long thing”.

The NBC has come up to air their thoughts on the issue by saying: "We have no reason to ban any song that has no tendency to cause turmoil, crisis or affects the integrity of persons, individuals, groups or society at large" spokesperson to the National Broadcasting Commission says.

"There are many other rules and regulations which govern airplays on Nigerian broadcasting media and as far as I am concerned the song has not breached any and such reports indicating it was banned are untrue"

So, my question: who banned Oliver Twist? was there a ban in the first place? if there was a ban what did Mohits do to confirm the story?

A very short correspondence would have saved us all these theatrics. Something like:

Mo Hits Musical Records,

Lagos, Nigeria.

Head of Public Relations Unit,

Nigeria broadcasting corporation,

Nigeria.

ALLEGED BAN OF OLIVER TWIST BY THE NBC

Information reaching us indicates that several radio stations have been ordered to immediately discontinue airing a song titled ‘oliver twist’ by D’Banj. This instruction, we hear was dished out by the NBC.

Kindly confirm this story.

If true, indicate the reason(s) for the ban.

Thanks in anticipation.

Yours sincerely,

DON JAZZY

FOR: MO HITS RECORDS.

The Nigerian music industry is growing and we have to learn the rudiments. Communication is key and i hope that lessons have been learnt. Don't be too quick to speak without confirming the authenticity of a story.