Understanding Context & Trust - Video 4
Summary
TLDRThe transcript discusses the entrepreneurial journey of Kola Masha and Lola Masha, founders of Babban Gona, a Nigerian agricultural initiative addressing unemployment and violence by creating jobs for young people. The company tackles institutional voids faced by individual farmers, providing seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, and market access, thus enhancing productivity and societal stability. The speaker emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility in solving societal problems and the role of Babban Gona as a model for addressing these challenges.
Takeaways
- 🌏 Nigeria is recognized as the largest economy in Africa, with significant economic rebasing in recent years.
- 🏹 The country faces serious issues such as rampant violence and insurgencies, notably from Boko Haram, which has led to job scarcity and societal instability.
- 🎓 Kola Masha, an MBA graduate with an engineering background, and his wife Lola, with a technical degree from Berkeley, are highlighted as examples of individuals addressing Nigeria's challenges.
- 🛠️ The Mashas' company, Babangida, aims to tackle endemic violence by creating jobs, particularly in agriculture which is a major employer in Nigeria.
- 🌾 Agriculture is identified as a key sector for job creation and economic surplus, with the potential to improve productivity and interest among the young population.
- 🚜 Babangida addresses institutional voids faced by individual Nigerian farmers by providing access to better seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, and market access.
- 💡 The company serves multiple roles, including transaction facilitator, credibility enhancer, information analyzer, aggregator, and adjudicator, making farming easier for the poor farmer.
- 💰 Babangida helps farmers access risk capital, which is crucial for investments in farming but difficult to obtain due to lack of information and high perceived risk.
- 🏆 Entrepreneurship and taking responsibility for solving societal problems are emphasized, with the Mashas being recognized by the World Economic Forum as Social Entrepreneur of the Year.
- 📚 The importance of education and leadership in addressing long-standing societal issues is underscored, with the creation of programs like 'Aspiring' to reach a wider audience.
- 🔄 The script highlights the iterative nature of solving problems, acknowledging that failure is part of the process and that persistence is key to eventual success.
Q & A
What is the significance of Nigeria's economy in Africa?
-Nigeria is considered by most measures to be the largest economy in Africa, which was reinforced by a rebasing of GDP a few years ago.
What issue did Kola Masha and his wife Lola aim to address in Nigeria?
-Kola Masha and Lola aimed to address the endemic violence in Nigeria, which they believed could be mitigated by creating jobs for the young population.
What is the role of agriculture in Nigeria's economy according to the script?
-Agriculture is identified as the sector that employs the most males in Nigeria, making it a key area to focus on for job creation and economic stability.
What is the name of the company founded by Kola Masha and Lola to address the issues in Nigeria's agriculture sector?
-The company they founded is called Babangida, which means 'Great Farm' in one of the local languages of Nigeria.
How does Babangida address the institutional voids faced by individual Nigerian farmers?
-Babangida addresses the institutional voids by providing farmers with better seeds, fertilizer, irrigation, and market access, as well as dealing with intermediaries that complicate the process.
What are the categories of problems that Babangida aims to solve for farmers?
-Babangida addresses problems in the categories of transaction facilitator, credibility enhancer, information analyzer, aggregator, and adjudicator.
Why is it important for young males in developing countries to have jobs or activities to engage in?
-It is important for societal stability; young males without jobs or activities can lead to increased violence and instability.
What cognitive bias does the speaker mention that entrepreneurs should avoid?
-The speaker mentions the cognitive bias of assuming someone else will solve the problem, which entrepreneurs should avoid by taking responsibility and initiating action.
What is the significance of Babangida being named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the World Economic Forum?
-The recognition signifies that Babangida's efforts to solve intractable problems in Nigeria's agriculture sector have been acknowledged and appreciated on a global scale.
What did the speaker and his team decide to create after discussing the potential for expanding educational programs?
-They decided to create 'Aspiring', an initiative aimed at reaching a scale of a million students per year, to address the educational needs of disadvantaged youth.
What is the importance of taking responsibility and initiating action when addressing societal problems?
-Taking responsibility and initiating action is crucial because it can trigger a process of problem-solving and innovation, potentially leading to large-scale solutions and positive change.
Outlines
🌱 Addressing Nigeria's Insurgency and Unemployment Through Agriculture
The first paragraph discusses the challenges faced by Nigeria, including insurgency, rampant violence, and unemployment, particularly the impact of Boko Haram. It introduces Kola Masha and Lola, a couple with educational backgrounds from Harvard Business School and Berkeley, who aim to tackle endemic violence by creating jobs, specifically in agriculture. They founded a company called Babban Gona, which means 'Great Farm' in Hausa, one of Nigeria's local languages. The company addresses institutional voids faced by individual farmers by providing the necessary inputs and support to enhance agricultural productivity, thereby creating surplus and economic opportunities. Babban Gona serves as a multifaceted solution, acting as a transaction facilitator, credibility enhancer, information analyzer, aggregator, and adjudicator, making farming more accessible and productive for the youth, which is key to societal stability.
🍟 McDonald's in Russia: A Case of Adapting to Local Conditions
The second paragraph uses the example of McDonald's entering the Russian market to illustrate the importance of adapting to local conditions and creating a supply chain from scratch. McDonald's faced the challenge of not having the right type of potatoes for their fries in Russia, leading them to establish a 'potato university' to train farmers and invest in farms to develop the necessary supply chain. The paragraph emphasizes the need for taking initiative and responsibility in solving problems, as exemplified by Babban Gona's founders. It also touches on the idea of creating a roadmap for others to follow in addressing long-standing issues. The speaker reflects on their own experiences and the importance of leadership in driving change, mentioning their involvement in creating a program to educate disadvantaged youth, with the goal of scaling up to help millions of students per year.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡DAV I
💡Nigeria
💡Insurgency
💡Kola Masha
💡Agricultural Productivity
💡Babangida
💡Institutional Voids
💡Transaction Facilitator
💡Credibility Enhancer
💡Information Analyzer
💡Adjudicator
💡Social Entrepreneur
Highlights
Nigeria is considered the largest economy in Africa after a GDP rebasing.
Insurgency and violence, such as Boko Haram, have been major issues in Nigeria.
Kola Masha and Lola Masha, founders of Babban Gona, aim to address endemic violence in Nigeria through job creation.
Babban Gona focuses on making agriculture more productive to generate economic surplus and create jobs for young people.
Agriculture is identified as the sector employing the most males in Nigeria.
Babban Gona addresses institutional voids faced by individual Nigerian farmers.
The company provides farmers with better seeds, fertilizer, irrigation, and market access.
Babban Gona serves as a transaction facilitator, credibility enhancer, information analyzer, aggregator, and adjudicator.
Kola Masha has an engineering degree and an HBS MBA, while Lola has a technical degree from Berkeley.
The Mashas did not initially intend to become bankers to farmers but aimed to increase agricultural productivity.
Babban Gona helps farmers access risk capital and appropriately price the risks involved in farming.
The company's approach to solving the 'lemons problem' in the market by providing information and reducing information asymmetry.
Entrepreneurs should take responsibility for solving problems rather than waiting for someone else to act.
The importance of creating a roadmap for addressing societal and economic issues.
The story of McDonald's establishing a potato supply chain in Russia as an example of addressing institutional voids.
The recognition of Babban Gona's efforts by the World Economic Forum naming Kola Masha as Social Entrepreneur of the Year.
The idea of taking on responsibility for large-scale initiatives, such as educating millions of students annually.
The necessity of persistence and learning from failures in entrepreneurship and social initiatives.
Transcripts
so this one I have less visceral uh
understanding of because with DAV I
worked 20 years with Nigeria I work much
less uh but Nigeria big important
country uh I think by most measures the
largest economy in Africa in Africa uh
there was a rebasing of GDP a few years
ago and the South Africans got angry but
Nigeria uh so in the map you can see
that um uh places where there's
Insurgency rampant violence you saw boo
Haram a few years ago on CNN and BBC and
on where people were kidnapping young
girls in particular and locking them up
um insurgencies so no jobs
anywhere job spiraling yeah so we had a
MBA grad here who I was lucky enough to
meet and get to know Kola Masha um uh
who had some kind of engineering degree
from before I think and an HBS MBA and
his wife Lola who has a a technical
degree from Berkeley uh so Cola and Lola
uh decided that they wanted to address
um endemic violence in Nigeria and their
their thought process and I'm mimicking
it because obviously I wasn't there at
the time was that the key is to develop
jobs for young people it's a young
population like in many developing
countries and the last thing you want
for societal uh uh the thing you don't
want for societal stability um but you
want societal stability you don't want
young males wandering around with
nothing to do yes that's bad news
yes next step in the logic was
agriculture is the thing that employs
the most males so how do we make
agriculturally more productive and more
interesting and more economically
Surplus generated so that's how their
company babang gona which means Great
Farm in housea the local language one of
the local languages was
born um and I think babang Guna is
another great example of essentially
addressing the institutional voids that
the individual Nigerian farmer uh has to
deal with to produce um better crops
with the right seeds the right
fertilizer the light right irrigation
take it to Market deal with all the
intermediaries that are mucking things
up which you see again in every single
developing country in the world uh and
so at the end of the day address the
problem so that the Farmer's Life is
easier and if you go back to the
taxonomy we spoke about pretty much
every one of those categories
transaction facilitator credibility
enhancer information analyzer uh
aggregator adjudicator are being
addressed by babang not in a onetoone
basis but in a sense what cola and Lola
and their teams have figured out is that
all these problems have to be made easy
so that the poor farmer who left to his
or her own devices typically his devices
is not figuring out which seed do I use
they don't have the technological
wherewithal yes the Nigerian research
Enterprise Government research
Enterprise is not particularly investing
in seed banks yes so how do you access
the knowledge and then the actual seeds
so babang can help um I know that I need
to do uh this
irrigation uh for this particular kind
of crop in this uh field that requires
Capital yes where am I going to get the
risk Capital who's going to bet on me
yes um if you have an inter met like
baban gona who comes in and says we
understand your circumstances we
understand the risk that this investment
entails you can appropriately price the
risk yes somebody coming from the
outside who doesn't know is going to
price it in a aggregate way and there's
a very famous uh Nobel prize for the
given for the lemons problem right when
you don't have information it the market
collapses to the lemons um so these guys
would not have gotten Capital at
reasonable rates and ban ACC as a
financial intermed to do it now Cola and
Lola didn't set out to be Bankers to to
Farmers to Farmers uh but to get the
farmer more productive they've got an
initiate this process and so one of the
things I would say is that you you what
I've learned by watching interesting
entrepreneurs or building my own
Enterprises is that you you have to get
away from the cognitive bias that
someone else is going to do it yeah you
have to take responsibility you got to
start it you don't have you don't have
to do it but you have to trigger it
right maybe somebody else come in and
join you and great then you say okay
fine you do it that's great win-win you
guys do it you make a back off it you're
providing a productive service contract
with us and we're good to go or I do it
for a little while like DTI did his
insurance company for a little while and
he'll never agree with me but I never
thought it was viable right uh and
eventually I think it's sort of atrophy
but it doesn't matter because other
people are doing at scale Insurance
provided insurance that they need so the
problem is solved you look at McDonald's
going into Russia or something it was a
very famous uh case on this they uh you
know you eat those fries uh which I
don't mind eating ones I love those
fries bad for our cardiac health you dip
them in bad ketchup and you eat it it's
I like it in chili sauce so but those
fries have a lot of technology in there
they have to have the right potato the
right moisture content the right
consistency because it has to be just so
it has to boil in the right kind of oil
for the right amount of minutes the
right temperature and McDonald's went
into Russia and said they don't have
these potatoes here anywhere so you had
they had to create like a as I remember
a university for
potato potato
University train the farmers invest in
farms create the whole supply chain
right in Russia in Russia and then
eventually I think they sold it off yeah
so that's what you see babang gona uh
kind of going uh going through and you
know you know what I love about these
examples is that is that is that this
this is giving a road mapap to people
right to saying you you have to find the
problem that interests you and it comes
from your experience experience right uh
and then in all these circumstances they
didn't wait for somebody else cuz these
props have been allarm for a long time
but it requires the leader to show up
right and go I'm going to go I'm going
to take responsibility for fixing the
problem I'm going to M to do something
about it and make it happen I think
that's and I think the framework you
give it's like here are the things you
think about when you're going to go out
and solve these problems well it's when
you and I were sitting in my office in
2017 yes and saying you know we
literally we were looking out the same
window that Krishna I looked out of to
create institutional voids and I
remember you saying we have this amazing
program HBS has been running for 25
years for young kids from disadvantaged
high school backgrounds to come through
and you know a few tens of them come 50
hundred of them come and they go through
200 per year 200 per year great program
wonderful we've been doing one of my
favorite programs to teacher why don't
we have 20,000 come through right why
don't we have 2 million come through in
different places because our parts of
the world or Nigeria or Brazil or any
place
Indonesia have hundreds hundreds of
millions of people that need this so
that's how we decided to create what is
now aspiring so will we succeed we lucky
enough to have you know a team led by
the famous Mina son who's building this
um but the point is that we want to walk
the talk so we're saying we're going to
take responsibility for this and try to
do something and get to a scale in the
immediate term of a million uh students
per year participants per year uh and my
friends in Bangalore say that's cute
that's cute you should try to get to 10
million a year at least at which point
you know we're so much yes uh bigger
than anybody else and hopefully creating
a movement to so you're you're right
somebody to S responsibility the of
success are always low what I haven't
said with both these examples is it is
littered with failure yes littered with
failure right but you have to try
everything fails the first8 10 times you
to learn and then go from there so uh
but it's inspiring to see these uh see
these Cola just was named for Bona yeah
for babangon was named uh social
entrepreneur of the year of the world
economic Forum so it's nice when when
you know good people good good efforts
get recognized for solving attempting to
solve intractable problems
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