BusinessDay, one of Nigeria’s leading publications, pioneered the Millennials Hangout show on its YouTube channel in August 2024 with the primary aim of living up to its long-standing objectives of informing, educating, and sensitising the public on matters including business, economy, finance, and market trends, allowing them to make informed and credible decisions around these areas.
The Millennial Hangout show is an interactive programme that takes on a series of insightful conversations among young Nigerian millennial professionals and entrepreneurs, discussing topics around entrepreneurship, career development, financial literacy, governmental policies, investment plans and opportunities, and cutting-edge business innovation within and beyond the African context. The show is designed to inspire and empower the younger populace on skills needed to navigate the Nigerian business landscape, utilizing opportunities and breaking through challenges associated with the millennial generation.
In an era where digitalisation has transformed most businesses, the September edition of the Millennial Hangout show focused on the theme, “Digital Transformation and Startups for Millennials,” and as usual, featured a panel of prominent speakers who are successful entrepreneurs and professionals in different fields. They include Miss. Success Ajilore, Mr Obianuju Phillip, Mr Eyitayo Ogunmola, and Mr Babajide Aregbesola, all submitted their scholarly inputs to the theme; sharing experiences, offering tips, and pointing the millennial audience in the right direction.
The live discussion started with the contributions of Miss. Success Ajilore is a seasoned accounting and business analysis professional who has used her exceptional skills to manage client portfolios and solve complex audit technicalities for multiple brands. She’s also the founder of the Success Transformation Network (STN), which provides entrepreneurial mentorship for sustainable growth and expansion of businesses.
Success centred her contributions on the magnanimous scope of digital transformation, where she described it as an integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, and emphatically spoke on how the world has shrunk into a global village where technology is the window that enforces this transition; hence, digital transformation isn’t all about technologies anymore but also about the mindset. “The world has burgeoned into a global village, It’s your responsibility as a millennial to refuse being local champions,” she added.
This mindset shift is based on the idea of creating value and innovation for businesses, as that’s the only way technology can be integrated. She further outlined credible steps for startups to take for digital transformation. These steps include accessing digital maturity, envisioning the future, building a strategy, implementing tools, and repeating the cycle. According to success, when these steps are followed, the benefits afterwards would be overwhelming, therefore concluding that millennials should stick to their skills, continually evolve and learn to bring new solutions for existing problems whilst utilizing technology to secure relevance for their respective businesses.
Building from Success’ insights Babajide Aregbesola, from Flint, Inc., provided practical insights for businesses to launch and sustain their business value in Nigeria through the integration of technology. Babajide emphasized that startups can no longer rely on traditional mechanisms and must adopt full-blown digitization to remain relevant and competitive. In this regard, Babajide believed that millennials are the beneficiaries of digital transformation, given that it not only transforms their businesses but also their personal lives.
Babjide highlighted the importance of digital transformation on businesses by citing Airbnb as a prime example, explaining that they build a multi-billion dollar brand just by leveraging technologies without any physical outlet. He moved on to explain how technology transcends businesses from local audiences to global reach through different tools some of which include Artificial Intelligence (AI), Social media, Cloud computing, Zoho and Data analytics, making the work of businesses easy and seamless. He said, “If it were years ago, BusinessDay would have expended cost to put up this show together, but with the help of technology, organizing a show like the Millennials Hangout show has become easy.”
Babajide advised millennials to harness the opportunities digitization has presented, which includes the advancement of freelancing, where people get hooked up with jobs from the comfort of their homes. During the question and answer session, Babajide suggested that startups can overcome funding challenges by participating in crowdfunding platforms, accelerators and incubators, and obtaining traditional bank loans.
Obianuju Phillip, a senior executive in digital technology, pointed out that while millennials are often tagged as the “entrepreneurial generation,” many are not fully capitalizing on the opportunities presented by technology. He stressed that there are now more business owners than consumers, but the big question is how many of these business owners are actually at the forefront, benefiting from their ventures through technology. Phillip urged millennial startups and existing business owners to tap on the train, as technology has occupied the business world, crucially shaping how people think and live. He charged the public to continually learn and improve to change the status quo. “Digital transformation is not a distant future but a present necessity; we must be at the forefront of the wave, using the right tools and creativity to leave an impactful legacy for the next generation; it’s therefore a must to take up digital transformation,” Phillip asserted.
Mr. Eyitayo Ogunmola, CEO of Utiva, floated into the discourse by presenting recent statistics, which hold that only 8-10% of the value creation industry in Nigeria is digitized, and this includes all sectors from education, finance, technology, business, etc. Eyitayo asserted that the percentage is disturbing and that he knows that the majority of Nigerian millennials own businesses, but it’s unfortunate that their value creation processes are not integrated digitally. According to him, this lack of digital integration hampers the potential growth of startups in the country.
He implored that digital transformation relies on these three keys: Technology, Business Model and Sharing Formular. Eyitayo explained that startups must first discover technologies that help streamline their business processes, and then tweak their business models to possess new ideas that follow the integration of new technology. Finally, startups should design appropriate sharing formulas that create a link between the millennials and Gen Z, gearing efforts towards designing strategies that would help drive digital adoption.
Eyitayo believes that digital transformation is tied to continuous innovation to meet the evolutionary demands of the market. And with this, he stressed that one cannot survive digital transformation without believing that Artificial Intelligence is tied to everything, every sector or industry. Learning how the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and a list of other digital tools work is a necessity.
Eyitayo also shared that there are two forces behind digital transformation; the compulsion of external force and internal motivation. He cautioned startups to always make sure they are internally motivated for digital transformation because when they are compelled by external forces, they might end up getting lost in the process.
The speakers concluded with a unified remark: digital transformation is not optional; it’s essential for survival, growth, and to stay relevant amidst competitors. Millennials must be intentional about adopting the right mindset as therein the adoption secures their business a long-term position in the global marketplace.
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