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Nigerian businesses must move from founder-dependent operations to structured, data-driven systems if they are to achieve sustainable growth, the Regional Head, West Africa, Zoho Corporation, Kehinde Ogundare, has said.
Ogundare said many Nigerian businesses were constrained by operational inefficiencies, fragmented information and processes that depended heavily on founders’ memories, personal relationships and informal communication channels.
He made the observation in a recent thought-leadership article titled, “Formidable is not about size: Why structure is the secret to scaling Nigerian businesses.” The article was published on August 17, 2026.
According to him, Nigerian entrepreneurs have demonstrated remarkable resilience by building businesses despite infrastructure challenges, economic uncertainty and intense competition.
However, he noted that the skills required to launch a business were different from those needed to sustain and scale it.
“Put simply, hustle may launch a business, but structure is what allows it to scale,” Ogundare said.
He argued that businesses that rely excessively on information held in individuals’ memories, personal relationships and ad-hoc WhatsApp conversations become vulnerable as they grow.
“When critical information exists only in someone’s memory, customer relationships are managed through individual conversations, decisions are based on incomplete records, and the organisation becomes vulnerable,” he said.
Ogundare identified five major operational shifts Nigerian businesses need to make to move from survival to sustainable growth.
The first, he said, was a shift from memory to systems.
According to him, businesses should ensure that customer information, conversations and preferences are captured in permanent, searchable systems rather than being left with individual employees.
He said this would prevent businesses from losing valuable customer knowledge when key employees leave.
The second shift, he said, was from gut feeling to data.
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Ogundare said business leaders needed reliable data and real-time insights to make informed decisions rather than relying exclusively on intuition.
“The absence of data costs money,” he warned.
He also called for a shift from relationships to intelligence, noting that while personal relationships remained important in Nigeria’s business environment, companies needed systems that could turn those relationships into institutional knowledge.
With customer information properly captured, he said, businesses could anticipate customer needs and identify early signs of customer attrition.
The fourth shift, according to the Zoho executive, was from chasing revenue to actively managing it.
He said businesses should adopt disciplined sales pipelines, revenue forecasting and accountability rather than relying on uncertain expectations about potential customers.
Ogundare also urged businesses to break down operational silos by connecting sales, finance, customer service and operations.
He said customers should experience “one cohesive business” rather than disconnected departments operating with separate information.
The executive argued that technology could provide the architecture required to connect customer, financial and operational data as businesses expand.
“Just as every device relies on an operating system, your business requires one, too,” he said.
His comments come amid growing attention to the expansion of Nigeria’s digital economy and the opportunities available to businesses adopting digital technologies. Recent reporting on the article noted that Nigeria’s digital economy is projected to reach $18.3 billion in 2026.
Ogundare said the businesses best positioned to benefit from the next phase of Nigeria’s economic development would not necessarily be those with the biggest size or funding, but those with the systems and structures to sustain growth.
“Formidable is not a size; it is a structure, and you can start building it today,” he said.
