How Alibaba’s Jack Ma Became the Richest Man in China

English teacher and Internet entrepreneur founded Alibaba 15 years ago in his tiny apartment in Hanzhou, China. On Friday, Ma became the richest man in China on the heels of the biggest IPO in U.S. and possibly world history.

With a market cap of $231 billion, the online retailer is nearly as valuable as Wal-Mart and bigger than Amazon and eBay combined.

And this is just the beginning. Alibaba plans to expand aggressively in America and Europe and has already invested nearly $1 billion in a host of U.S.-based startups, including Uber, Lyft, ShopRunner, Fanatics, Tango and Kabam.

Every current and aspiring entrepreneur and business leader should learn from how a Chinese English teacher turned a vision, a group of friends and $60,000 into untold riches and the world's most valuable Internet commerce company. It will no doubt be studied in business schools for generations.

Start here, go anywhere. Recognizing the importance of English, young Ma would ride his bike to a nearby hotel and guide foreigners around the city just to learn and practice the language. His passion for entrepreneurship in many ways parallels Masayoshi Son who grew up poor, followed his dream to Silicon Valley and graduated from U.C. Berkeley before founding Softbank. As chairman of Softbank and Sprint, Son is now the richest man in Japan.

He had vision … and he had help. Ma saw the Internet’s enormous potential to bridge businesses across China’s huge population early on. So he and his wife brought 17 friends together and pooled $60,000 to start the company. That formed the basis for the company’s dynamic partnership structure and unique culture designed to drive collaboration, diminish bureaucracy and promote accountability for long-term growth.

Go big or go home. Even if crowdfunding existed when Alibaba was founded, I doubt if Ma would have gone that route. He’s simply not a “dip your toe in the water” kind of guy. Instead he and his friends went all in, raising a $5 million angel round, $20 million from Softbank in 2000, $1 billion from Yahoo five years later, and $1.6 billion from Silver Lake Partners and DST Global in 2011. That’s how you make it big.

Big problems lead to big opportunities. China’s lack of brick and mortar infrastructure has always been an insurmountable hurdle for the enormous nation’s small business merchants. Alibaba solved that and now accounts for 80% of the country’s ecommerce – a whopping $248 billion last year and more than twice that of Amazon.

Innovation comes from unique individuals who think and act differently. Everyone talks about changing the world and making tons of money these days, but those who actually do it are exceptional individuals with breakthrough ideas, uncommon vision and a passion to do great work. Disruptive innovation comes from people who break from the status quo and carve their own path.

Stand on the shoulders of giants...................

To read full acticle Click on [b]KNOWBASE[/b]on my signature below

When u allow holders of certificates in islamic studies or christian religious studies to rule u or military mechanics et al to rule u, how do u expect them to know d importance of engineering profession? With these very people practicing nepotism, tell me why a sound engineer shud not seek solace in oil and gas when d substance inside of him would not be allowed to manifest? Without structures and money in d hands of d right people, there is no starting point for such worthwhile researches and development . We may continue to be end users for many more yrs to come.

Proudlychemicalengineer.org

bushdoc9919:
Another commonsense post on Nairaland!

If our engineers did what the OP is proposing...Nigeria will beome an industrial superpower.

But Nigerians want their share of the oil candy at eight am every morning, thank you very much.

Oil is a CURSE.

(p.s-1.2million naira a month? Are you kidding me?)

abeg go jare. oil is a curse ni. see ur antelope eye. it is a blessing to those who harness it

Flawless! I think it's kinda hard to do anything when 'power' remains comatose but it is not enough of an excuse. The average Nigerian is not fulfilled unless he/she is oppressing someone and you need money to do so, hence, our obsession with wealth as quickly as possible

bayulll01:
good write up bro,but u he forgotten something here there is no enably system that can make a young engineer fully achieve his potential in this country av u forgotten how our class rooms are dilipitated with audatd books,no funds for research no light,as q chemical engineering I wana do research,develop new technology majorly in nano technology or biomedical engineering, but they will won't kill my dream man go soon run out of the country,cos Nigeria is an insane society if mark,gates,Steve were a Nigerian,we will have a buried talent,on oil and gas what do u expect, they pay more without doing nothing,if u have or way op,jet out of nija,u can always come back and contribute or quota, Nigeria is not changing soon with those clueeeeeeleess leaders we have up there

If you complain of an enabling environment while in nigeria , is it when you have gone and want to come back you will not complain of a worse enabling environment. there is no such thing as no enabling environment in true engineering ... thats why majority of the companies that take our contracts out are being forced to create the enabling environment. you made a great point tho , but travelling out is not a solution to an individual who has got no other motivation for pursueing a career because of money not what he hopes to create.....I have seen peeps resign from better paying jobs to lesser ones because they feel they arent achieving their dreams with the bigger jobs.

ukandi1:
[b]When u allow holders of certificates in islamic studies or christian religious studies [/b]to rule u or military mechanics et al to rule u, how do u expect them to know d importance of engineering profession? With these very people practicing nepotism, tell me why a sound engineer shud not seek solace in oil and gas when d substance inside of him would not be allowed to manifest? Without structures and money in d hands of d right people, there is no starting point for such worthwhile researches and development . We may continue to be end users for many more yrs to come.

Proudlychemicalengineer.org

@the bolded...when last was a graduate in Islamic studies or Christian religous knowledge our leader?

(And before you call Obasanjo...OBJ was an army engineer long before he enrolled to read CRK at NOUN.).

And the reason why you engineers have been sidelined in this country is because we are a country with a dutch diseased economy....a resource addict economy. Thus we use the revenue from the oil we sell to import...because the oil money is enough.

Meanwhile, local industries die because we are over-importing.

Oil is a curse.

dejavski:
Welldone Op!!!!
Lovely writeup. As a mechanical engineering graduate and I must confess the oil and gas mentality is also in me. I also have had a deep thought regarding this issue for some time I must say. The main issue at hand has to do with our Research and Development system. All they do is rely and rely and rely on Govt funding and when that comes in gbam!!!! We all know what happens to d fund.
Going to ur topic again, most of we youths in Nigeria especially the Engineers refuse on developing our mental capacity but rather focus on how to make a good life @ d end and when that doesn't go our way, we blame it on the Govt, aside from that some of us don't know how to go about developing our ideas. I for one have had big interest in renewable energy (Biotechnology), like creating a bio-refinery in Nigeria but don't even know how to go about it.

pls start by leaving this country or ur dream will die with you.If you doubt me visit National biotechnology development agency(NABDA) at lugbe,Abuja.

Chiscomax:



abeg go jare. oil is a curse ni. see ur antelope eye. it is a blessing to those who harness it

And in response.....

Economists have long known about “Dutch disease,” which happens when a country becomes so dependent on exporting natural resources that its currency soars in value and, as a result, its domestic manufacturing gets crushed as cheap imports flood in and exports become too expensive. What the PISA team is revealing is a related disease: societies that get addicted to their natural resources seem to develop parents and young people who lose some of the instincts, habits and incentives for doing homework and honing skills.

By, contrast, says Schleicher, “in countries with little in the way of natural resources — Finland, Singapore or Japan — education has strong outcomes and a high status, at least in part because the public at large has understood that the country must live by its knowledge and skills and that these depend on the quality of education. ... Every parent and child in these countries knows that skills will decide the life chances of the child and nothing else is going to rescue them, so they build a whole culture and education system around it.”

Or as my Indian-American friend K. R. Sridhar, the founder of the Silicon Valley fuel-cell company Bloom Energy, likes to say, “When you don’t have resources, you become resourceful.”

That’s why the foreign countries with the most companies listed on the Nasdaq are Israel, China/Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, South Korea and Singapore — none of which can live off natural resources.

Una don hear?

Source

And in addition...

[b]Corden and Neary (1982) have demonstrated how Dutch disease occurs in an economy. According to them, in a country experiencing "boom" in the export of a commodity, the economy can be divided into three sectors: the "booming" export sector, the "lagging' traditional export sector and the non-export sector. The Dutch disease occurs when the traditional export (tradable goods) sector is crowded out by the booming export sector and the non-tradable goods sector. The lagging traditional tradable goods sector may include cocoa, palm produce, cotton, rubber, coal, copper, textiles and some manufactured goods while the booming export sector may be crude oil, coffee, gold, etc. The non-tradable (non-export) goods sector covers all those goods that are produced for domestic consumption only, e.g. staple food items, clothing, building materials, locally-assembled cars. Where crude oil (and gas) is the booming export sector, the non-oil export sector may be crowded out by the oil sector and the non-tradable goods sector of the economy. This can happen when the oil revenue windfall increases domestic demand for non-tradable goods and pushes up domestic prices leading to an appreciation of the real exchange rate which in turn reduces the competitiveness of the non-oil export sector. This will in turn lead to a reduction in non-oil exports in both quantum and value terms. The oil windfall may also lead to movement of the factors of production in the economy. For instance, capital and labor (and land) may shift from the non-oil export sector to the oil sector (in order to maintain or increase reserves and production) and the non-tradable goods sector (to take advantage of the growing domestic demand). This explains why the increase in oil prices and the subsequent oil revenue windfall in many oil-exporting countries have tended to depress their non-oil export sector while at the same time generating a boom in both the oil and the non-tradable goods sectors. With capital and labor shifting from the non-oil export sector to the oil-sector and non-traded goods sector, firms in the non-oil export sector are forced to either close down or reduce their scale of operation. The boom in the oil and non-traded goods sector increases the demand for imported goods. This may not be a problem in the short-term so long as the country has enough foreign exchange to pay for the imports. The depression in the non-oil export sector and the boom in the other two sectors have medium to long term implications for the economy because the oil windfall will not be permanent given the volatility, unpredictability and exhaustibility of crude oil. For instance, if there is a decline in oil prices and oil revenue, the lagging and collapsing non-oil export sector will not be able to compensate for the drop in oil revenue while domestic demand for the non-traded goods and imports remain sticky. Consequently, the country will be forced to borrow from the international financial market to compensate for the decline in oil revenue. Over time, external debts will increase and so will the debt service obligations. Even when oil prices go up later and there is another round of oil windfall, it is difficult to correct the earlier damage or distortions created by the initial or previous oil windfall. In some cases, the oil exporting country may be forced to adopt some form of structural adjustment program (SAP) to correct such distortions or imbalances. Some of these SAPs are painful and may increase the prevalence, depth and severity of poverty. [/b]

Oya now...sing along with me....[size=18pt]OIL IS A CURSE![/size]

hollandis:
The op is copy and paste guru,plagiarism specialty

eleyi gidi gan o. Are you serious?

naijababe:
Flawless! I think it's kinda hard to do anything when 'power' remains comatose but it is not enough of an excuse. The average Nigerian is not fulfilled unless he/she is oppressing someone and you need money to do so, hence, our obsession with wealth as quickly as possible

lols , so true ... until he is opressing . no true love ..... u were at tenaris AC sometime this year right ?

baggylips:
pls start by leaving this country or ur dream will die with you.If you doubt me visit National biotechnology development agency(NABDA) at lugbe,Abuja.

and when he runs out , will he achieve it immensely.... every individual has got a dream , people that left this country 20 years all had dreams , we all have dreams and ambitions ... the question is do we truly have this zeal to bring the dreams and ambitions to reality ?

majekdom2:
If you complain of an enabling environment while in nigeria , is it when you have gone and want to come back you will not complain of a worse enabling environment. there is no such thing as no enabling environment in true engineering ... thats why majority of the companies that take our contracts out are being forced to create the enabling environment. you made a great point tho , but travelling out is not a solution to an individual who has got no other motivation for pursueing a career because of money not what he hopes to create.....I have seen peeps resign from better paying jobs to lesser ones because they feel they arent achieving their dreams with the bigger jobs.

majek u again abi,I Dont wanna argue with u again,u are so blinded and myopic abt the state of this nation to start with where do u work

Feraz:
Exactly why I made mention of the two Engineering bodies in the write-up. How do we go about it and make them realise they're not living up to what they claim they stand for?

Circle of Influence, simple truth is you cannot.

Unless it is driven from government, it is a waste of time to try. There are outliers of course but by and large Nigerians are not ready. There is really no need to try when a huge percentage of people going to school are doing so to come out and hammer

bayulll01:
majek u again abi,I Dont wanna argue with u again,u are so blinded and myopic abt the state of this nation to start with where do u work

am not blinded with the state of the nation , its a very bad situation , I know that , the argument is what motivation have we engineers got in Nigeria. like I agreed with you the educational system is wack , but with this wack system , some come out in flying colors while some make a pass and third class ... and we all are called engineers.travelling out to gain knowledge and skills is never a bad idea as long as there is a positive motivation. its about ideas and innovations , thats why these companies screen out candidates at interviews. if our engineers truly have got a developmental motivation, I dont see a reason why an individual with some years abroad with a masters degree would still be competing for jobs open to bachelor degree holders ... going through the same process someone from this wack educational system has just gone thru ... you get my point now.

@Feraz... Nice write up, arguments well thought through and should be the ideal picture for a forward thinking society.

I would like to advise you. There is a real world out there, outside UGBOWO, where people make ends meet and fulfill other personal goals. You are getting an education so you can provide. Above all things try to get your grades up (if they not up at the moment). You would understand when you finally get out of school. I don't see the structure you seek falling in place in another 5years, so brace yourself. You may join the bandwagon too, unless you find yourself outside the shores of this country.

Just to correct the notion, people in the oil and gas industry don't just sit in the office and get paid. Engineering project and project execution encompasses alot. The industry has both the operator end and the service end. There are design engineers, project engineers, interface engineers,etc. These ones make mental input to the engineering solution being provided. You don't have to do the dirty jobs all the time before you consider yourself an engineer.

P.S: The handy men are actually technicians

Feraz... Nice Topic

But i have a few questions for you

1. |Did you finish from a school of technology or just a conventional engineering school?
2. If u did, have you ever taken time to go to the workshop archives of your school
3. what did you design or invent as your final year project
4. Do you think it is lack of innovation that push people into oil and gas
5. For the time you spent in school, has a government ever paid attention to your school final projects


I know your write up is deep and consciously you want to make a difference... But have you asked yourself what it takes to make a difference. The INNOSON you sited as example, Are u aware of the economic hardship he went through, during Obasanjos tenure. Do you know how long ago he would have started his plant. Do you know the hardship people who wants to make a difference (like those you mentioned across the Niger) go through before they become self employed and sustained.
In fact, do you know how much is budgeted for research and whose pocket it ends up in NIGERIA, in comparison to India.

The enabling environment has to be created, If u have to create one....then you must lean the ropes

N.B. A faculty mate created a fridge and an oven combo....they work inter-changeably using the just one power source, today it lies in the store of my schools workshop.

Nice write up

One of the best write up ever on NL.
pls include ur phone number next time.

@ bushdoc9919

Oil is not a curse...........it is our mentality, lack of true and selfless leaders that is a curse. If we didn't have oil, our case will be sorrier than it is. Nigeria will in fact be a mirror image of Haiti!!! Comparing resource poor nations like Singapore and Finland is comparing apples and oranges.

Nigeria in many ways is like medieval Europe, humour me a bit and read some accounts of how people lived then compare with present day Nigeria, the similarities are so striking that it is shameful to admit.

While I commend you for bringing this issues on the average engineer mentality, you must not dissociate this mentality from the peculiarity of our environment.
1.The average Nigerian is driven by money in most of his endeavours and as such will most likely make a choice for something more lucrative than something less lucrative. This endemic factor is due to the fact that the oil and gas industry is the most highly paying industry in Nigeria.For instance If you as a mechanical engineer have an option to work in Exxon as a Project Engineer or in GE as a project Engineer, I need no prophet to tell me what option you will choose.
2.The Environment in Nigeria is not developed to support innovation.As a matter of fact it is more easier to be innovative in the west than here because of the environment.we have had many instances where some folks have come up with innovations for power and energy generation, but the innovation just has not made headway.I did my M.Sc in an Engineering Schoool in Europe and the system is designed to support and develop innovations, then it was common experience to witness the student display of innovation to companies.
3 . The different Engineering field especially for Electrical, Mechanical as taught in some schools which should pilot our industrial and Manufacturing system is flawed compared to the west.some obsolete things are still being taught.This also should be corrected.
4.The Industry to accommodate the innovation for the Engineering field is still a far cry as to what it should.Nigerian Engineers are talented folks and can get the job done, but the dearth of opportunities in the Industry with respect to capacity and the peculiarities of our environment has contributed to this kind of mentality.

bezimo:
While I commend you for bringing this issues on the average engineer mentality, you must not dissociate this mentality from the peculiarity of our environment.
1.The average Nigerian is driven by money in most of his endeavours and as such will most likely make a choice for something more lucrative than something less lucrative. This endemic factor is due to the fact that the oil and gas industry is the most highly paying industry in Nigeria.For instance If you as a mechanical engineer have an option to work in Exxon as a Project Engineer or in GE as a project Engineer, I need no prophet to tell me what option you will choose.

2.The Environment in Nigeria is not developed to support innovation.As a matter of fact it is more easier to be innovative in the west than here because of the environment.we have had many instances where some folks have come up with innovations for power and energy generation, but the innovation just has not made headway.I did my M.Sc in an Engineering Schoool in Europe and the system is designed to support and develops innovations, then it was common experience to witness the student display of innovation to companies.
3 . The different Engineering field especially for Electrical, Mechanical as taught in some schools which should pilot our industrial and Manufacturing system is flawed compared to the west.some obsolete things are still being taught.This also should be corrected.
4.The Industry to accommodate the innovation for the Engineering field is still a far cry as to what it should.Nigerian Engineers are talented folks and can get the job done, but the opportunities in the Industry and peculiarities of our environment has contributed to this kind of mentality.

great points , but please some of these service companies pay some positions better than IOCs, if your plan is to go with exxon , it may be a wrong option ... GE is better diversified , not into energy alone... thats if you wanna go with exxon.

naijababe:
@ bushdoc9919

Oil is not a curse...........it is our mentality, lack of true and selfless leaders that is a curse. If we didn't have oil, our case will be sorrier than it is. Nigeria will in fact be a mirror image of Haiti!!! Comparing a resource poor nations like Singapore and Finland is comparing apples and oranges.

Nigeria in many ways is like medieval Europe, humour me a bit and read some accounts of how people lived then compare with present day Nigeria, the similarities are so striking that is shameful to admit.

And we can change that poor mentality by spending our oil money on rail , road and power infrastructure...and finally completing Ajaokuta...so that at least we can have the beginnings of an industrial society.

And while bad leaders play a big role in our mess...bad followers too are there as well.

Most of you educated Nigerians prefer to work in offices, rather than to devise innovative solutions to problems that directly influence you.

Like, for example...all those chemical engineers cannot develop a machine that would extract chemicals from waste/refuse...that could be used in industry and farming?

And all the argument over who gets the oil money...indeed you Nigerians are far too concerned about how to share oil money, or how to keep the Hausas from getting your oil money....that you refuse to invest in local industrial growth.

Because, local industrial growth's rewards are long term , not the short term thing that you Nigerians love. You want your reward here and now...you do not want to wait. You want to share the oil money now...you don't want to hear 'Long term planning'.You want to build your mansion now., ranter than twenty years later. And you people protect corrupt leaders for the price of a few notes of oil money.

Me, I think it is high time we made our governors and LGA chairmen and even the Federal Govt invest more in power, education(especially technical education) and the supporting infrastructure needed to develop a strong industrial base. And a lot of the funding can be got by removing that thing called fuel subsidy.

That is why oil is a curse. It stifles local development. Why make cars....when you can import them with oil money?

Engineers just upped the ante.


Nice piece though. All those shouting too long to read I feel sorry for you all. I am not an engineer but I was enlightened and inspired We can all think and innovate.

bushdoc9919:


And in response.....

Economists have long known about “Dutch disease,” which happens when a country becomes so dependent on exporting natural resources that its currency soars in value and, as a result, its domestic manufacturing gets crushed as cheap imports flood in and exports become too expensive. What the PISA team is revealing is a related disease: societies that get addicted to their natural resources seem to develop parents and young people who lose some of the instincts, habits and incentives for doing homework and honing skills.

By, contrast, says Schleicher, “in countries with little in the way of natural resources — Finland, Singapore or Japan — education has strong outcomes and a high status, at least in part because the public at large has understood that the country must live by its knowledge and skills and that these depend on the quality of education. ... Every parent and child in these countries knows that skills will decide the life chances of the child and nothing else is going to rescue them, so they build a whole culture and education system around it.”

Or as my Indian-American friend K. R. Sridhar, the founder of the Silicon Valley fuel-cell company Bloom Energy, likes to say, “When you don’t have resources, you become resourceful.”

That’s why the foreign countries with the most companies listed on the Nasdaq are Israel, China/Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, South Korea and Singapore — none of which can live off natural resources.

Una don hear?

Source

And in addition...

[b]Corden and Neary (1982) have demonstrated how Dutch disease occurs in an economy. According to them, in a country experiencing "boom" in the export of a commodity, the economy can be divided into three sectors: the "booming" export sector, the "lagging' traditional export sector and the non-export sector. The Dutch disease occurs when the traditional export (tradable goods) sector is crowded out by the booming export sector and the non-tradable goods sector. The lagging traditional tradable goods sector may include cocoa, palm produce, cotton, rubber, coal, copper, textiles and some manufactured goods while the booming export sector may be crude oil, coffee, gold, etc. The non-tradable (non-export) goods sector covers all those goods that are produced for domestic consumption only, e.g. staple food items, clothing, building materials, locally-assembled cars. Where crude oil (and gas) is the booming export sector, the non-oil export sector may be crowded out by the oil sector and the non-tradable goods sector of the economy. This can happen when the oil revenue windfall increases domestic demand for non-tradable goods and pushes up domestic prices leading to an appreciation of the real exchange rate which in turn reduces the competitiveness of the non-oil export sector. This will in turn lead to a reduction in non-oil exports in both quantum and value terms. The oil windfall may also lead to movement of the factors of production in the economy. For instance, capital and labor (and land) may shift from the non-oil export sector to the oil sector (in order to maintain or increase reserves and production) and the non-tradable goods sector (to take advantage of the growing domestic demand). This explains why the increase in oil prices and the subsequent oil revenue windfall in many oil-exporting countries have tended to depress their non-oil export sector while at the same time generating a boom in both the oil and the non-tradable goods sectors. With capital and labor shifting from the non-oil export sector to the oil-sector and non-traded goods sector, firms in the non-oil export sector are forced to either close down or reduce their scale of operation. The boom in the oil and non-traded goods sector increases the demand for imported goods. This may not be a problem in the short-term so long as the country has enough foreign exchange to pay for the imports. The depression in the non-oil export sector and the boom in the other two sectors have medium to long term implications for the economy because the oil windfall will not be permanent given the volatility, unpredictability and exhaustibility of crude oil. For instance, if there is a decline in oil prices and oil revenue, the lagging and collapsing non-oil export sector will not be able to compensate for the drop in oil revenue while domestic demand for the non-traded goods and imports remain sticky. Consequently, the country will be forced to borrow from the international financial market to compensate for the decline in oil revenue. Over time, external debts will increase and so will the debt service obligations. Even when oil prices go up later and there is another round of oil windfall, it is difficult to correct the earlier damage or distortions created by the initial or previous oil windfall. In some cases, the oil exporting country may be forced to adopt some form of structural adjustment program (SAP) to correct such distortions or imbalances. Some of these SAPs are painful and may increase the prevalence, depth and severity of poverty. [/b]

Oya now...sing along with me....[size=18pt]OIL IS A CURSE![/size]

it is a good thing you have mademention of countries like the japan, china, india, etc with a low amount of natural resources and how they put more effort in their educational system. I know you probably think you have won the argument by writing long posts. ok, let us talk about other countrie with low amount of natural resources too. are you now saying based on your theory that country like congo with a low amount of natural resource is better than Nigerial in terms of educational system?

bezimo:
While I commend you for bringing this issues on the average engineer mentality, you must not dissociate this mentality from the peculiarity of our environment.
1.The average Nigerian is driven by money in most of his endeavours and as such will most likely make a choice for something more lucrative than something less lucrative. This endemic factor is due to the fact that the oil and gas industry is the most highly paying industry in Nigeria.For instance If you as a mechanical engineer have an option to work in Exxon as a Project Engineer or in GE as a project Engineer, I need no prophet to tell me what option you will choose.
2.The Environment in Nigeria is not developed to support innovation.As a matter of fact it is more easier to be innovative in the west than here because of the environment.we have had many instances where some folks have come up with innovations for power and energy generation, but the innovation just has not made headway.I did my M.Sc in an Engineering Schoool in Europe and the system is designed to support and develop innovations, then it was common experience to witness the student display of innovation to companies.
3 . The different Engineering field especially for Electrical, Mechanical as taught in some schools which should pilot our industrial and Manufacturing system is flawed compared to the west.some obsolete things are still being taught.This also should be corrected.
4.The Industry to accommodate the innovation for the Engineering field is still a far cry as to what it should.Nigerian Engineers are talented folks and can get the job done, but the dearth of opportunities in the Industry with respect to capacity and the peculiarities of our environment has contributed to this kind of mentality.

which school did u get the msc from?

Chiscomax:





it is a good thing you have mademention of countries like the japan, china, india, etc with a low amount of natural resources and how they put more effort in their educational system. I know you probably think you have won the argument by writing long posts. ok, let us talk about other countrie with low amount of natural resources too. are you now saying based on your theory that country like congo with a low amount of natural resource is better than Nigerial in terms of educational system?

you didnt get his point ? he is not in anyway saying low amount of natural resources equals growth ... theere is the human resource that needs to be developed before any development can come.

coming from a ministerian......boss may the smoke around you lift you higher.....you suppose know who dey hail..

U235weapongrade:
My brother well articulated.
If only SEUN can tell you, I gave you one of the likes in your post...


Reminds me of a lecturer who taught me Solid Mechanics in school. He always complained about how all our lecturers (Mechanical Engineering) were trying to get an office at the Energy Centre in my school and neglecting the space Centre for Physics And Astronomy Lecturers.

Here is my take on this: most people in Nigeria study to get good jobs in the telcos or oil and gas firms....but i will say: "be like elon musk", that has founded two of the most innovative companies in the world.We have too many problems to keep our engineers busy!

majekdom2:
you didnt get his point ? he is not in anyway saying low amount of natural resources equals growth ... theere is the human resource that needs to be developed before any development can come.

you want to judge now shey. what he is bluntly saying is that countries without crude/natural resources put more effort in their educational system. read his post again abeg




according to what he posted, he said;



"By, contrast, says Schleicher, “in countries with little in the way of natural resources — Finland, Singapore or Japan — education has strong outcomes and a high status, at least in part because the public at large has understood that the country must live by its knowledge and skills and that these depend on the quality of education. ... Every parent and child in these countries knows that skills will decide the life chances of the child and nothing else is going to rescue them, so they build a whole culture and education system around it.”

Like kickstarter, right?, i endorse having creative competitions for students than beauty pageant events

Suley316:
This might seem a bad idea.

Well, you said COREN and the other coys are a complete waste

So I was wondering, for God's sake someone earns N1.2-above a month.

And you have that motivation, interest and knowledge to move the country forward in the area of technology and engineering.

Well my point is; While you earn such amount at month ends for just sitting in an office.

Why don't youths create their own group or association aided by sponsorships, their free time and some contribution, to help youths interested in these areas, or to fund and work on a project.

You should get my idea, it should be a private thing.

I'm not good at putting my thoughts together, well I tried.