SEASON 1 Business in Africa. The basics. Made by an African, for everyone…

E03 What is a disruptive business?

Hello, my name is SERGE BINDZI and welcome to this series of articles where I show you everything you need to setup DISRUPTIVES businesses in Africa. In case you wander why I’m doing this shit; I strongly believe that Africa is where the last problems of humanity will be solved. It’s the fucking place to be. If you will just consider that idea, sign up on everything I write.

Ok today, I will like to talk about disruptive business. What is a disruptive business? what are some of their characteristics? and why am I advocating those kinds of businesses In Africa? That’s the agenda of this series of articles.

There are fundamentally two types of businesses, in a nutshell: a SME (small and medium sized enterprise), and an entrepreneurial business. The SME is regional (albeit it can grow to be international and being listed in fortunes 400), it’s aimed to solve a known problem, in a known way. It does not add anything else to the society, as It just multiply a business model that is already known. This is the case of a restaurant, or even a cosmetic industry. All these are SMEs.

And entrepreneurial business which I call a Disruptive business, is a Peter Thiel “ZERO to ONE” kind of business, a business that does solve a big problem, but also leave a network effect, a technology heritage or both.

If you are repeating something that is already known, you are creating an SME. but if you are creating a disruptive business, you are taking us from ZERO to ONE meaning that you are creating something new, something that have never been seen in the world and this is where progress really comes from.

Think about the difference between IKEA, and a cosmetic factory. The former is disruptive business, solving a huge problem and nearly impossible to replicate. And the later is just a well-known manufacturing process that can be replicated. This is the difference I’m talking about.

So, before we continue this discussion in other articles, I will like to tell you that what is good with Africa is that, the big majority of ZERO to ONE kind of businesses are still replicable. In fact, Africa is the Only place on earth, where you can succeed Setting up a perfect replica of some well-known disruptive companies.

Yes, you cannot succeed setting up another Facebook or google type of disruptive business in AFRICA, BUT listen to me closely, YOU CAN SUCCEED IN SETTING UP ANOTHER IKEA in Africa, another STARBUCK, another UBER and AIRBNB, another AMAZON, another LOUIS VUITTON, and many other disruptive companies well known business model. This is the only place on earth where you can actually do it. But better yet, you can do the Google of FOOD in Africa, you can do the Google of energy in Africa. In fact, I’m convinced, that the last problems of humanity will be solved in Africa with these kind of disruptive businesses.

In the next episode, I will go deep in everything you need to know about a disruptive business. If I’m talking to you, Sign up for everything I write, you can also register my WhatsApp number (+237 690635599) on your phone and contact me directly, watch my WhatsApp stories and connect with me.

See you at the top!