Pan-Atlantic University held its 22nd inaugural lecture on October 10 at the Honeywell Auditorium, Lagos Business School. Professor Nkemdilim Iheanachor, professor of strategic management at the university, delivered the lecture titled "From Firms to Ecosystems: Rethinking Strategy and Value Creation in Africa's Digital Economies." Iheanachor urged African businesses to stop avoiding institutional gaps and instead build strategies that exploit them. She stated, "It is high time for African firms to build strategies around institutional voids and leverage on these strategies they have built to compete and survive." Ownership, she added, is no longer a sufficient competitive advantage. "Your real competitive advantage is no longer what you own. It's who you can connect, coordinate, and enable at scale." The three key strategies she outlined were the death of the solo firm, ecosystem orchestration, and the paradox of constraint. Vice-Chancellor Enase Okonedo introduced the lecturer and later acknowledged her contribution to strategic management discourse in Africa.
Nigerian students, especially those studying business, management, or entrepreneurship, should pay attention to the shift from ownership-based to ecosystem-driven models of success, as highlighted by Professor Iheanachor's lecture. This reframing suggests that future career and business opportunities will depend less on individual resources and more on the ability to build networks, collaborate across platforms, and create value through partnerships—skills that should be prioritised in academic training.
In a country where access to capital and formal institutions remains uneven, the idea of leveraging institutional gaps could resonate strongly with young graduates navigating an unstable job market or launching startups. This aligns with growing trends in Nigeria's tech and creative sectors, where digital platforms are enabling youth to bypass traditional structures. Students should seek out courses and extracurricular opportunities that develop coordination, digital literacy, and systems thinking.
Those in business-related disciplines should consider internships or projects that involve ecosystem building, such as working with startups, incubators, or innovation hubs.
