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Segun Dada with Senior Manager, Financial Advisory Services KPMG, Temitope Odukoya, CFA, CAIA, ACA, MSc(FIN) after a training on Mergers&Acquisition and Valuation at Lagos Business School by the KPMG team lead by Dapo Okubadejo Partner & Head, Corporate Finance and Financial Advisory West Africa, Head Africa Mergers & Acquisition.

OPTION: A financial Instrument

Options are financial instruments used in managing or hedging risks.

In today's picture, Simon takes a risk in printing complementary cards only to be told by his master that his name had been changed to Peter. Life and business is full of risks andt our goal as managers is not to avoid risks but to effectively manage them.

The value and usefulness of "options" is that they provide managers with flexibility in decision making and a means of reducing the risk associated with such decisions.

An option is a financial instrument that provides the owner the right but not the obligation to buy or sell  an asset at a predetermined value, at a given date. All the buyer of the "option" needs to do is to pay an "option price".

The way it works is that as a manager, you can identify an asset and instead of buying it, you can buy an option to buy it on a later date at an agreed price. The buyer of the option gains the right, but not the obligation, to engage in that transaction, while the seller incurs the corresponding obligation to fulfill the transaction. 

So you pay a premium (an option fee) which is usually a small amount compared to the cost of the asset and if it turns out that the buying price at the call date is not favorable, you can decide not to buy the asset but if it is favorable, you can buy at the agreed price and sell off at a profit.

A strange work of art

I have passed by this piece of art every day for close to one year and for the first time today, it struck how powerful a meaning it holds.

Many people have walked by this piece for years and never got its meaning and many others will pass through and not have a clue. Fortunately for me, today the 9th of June 2012 at exactly 11:45am...the meaning struck me.

Your head and the potential it holds to imagine the unimaginable, the capacity it has to solve that which has been termed unsolvable, the tenacity it has to do the impossible and its unique ability to connect with inspiration from a higher realm.

The head is in a box (Tradition, Disability, Exposure, Network, Education...) and you have the keys to unlock the power that lies in that box and the interesting thing is that you have the keys.

It takes you to unlock such massive potentials and it takes you to keep it locked.

The Problem with the World...and a solution.

Eh! I thought I told you, no pictures...

The world we know today is plagued with abundant problems.

Uprisings, plane crashes, violence, corruption, hunger, poverty, pollution, bad governance, murder, robbery, protests, fraud, sectarian violence, suicide bombings, abuse, racism, discrimination, greed, to mention a few.

I listened to Nike Jemiyo give a speech at a Toastmasters session in Lagos Business School and it occurred to me that the problem with the world is that "too many people grow up".

If we all or at least most of us remained kids can you imagine what the world would be? Well, its easy, I can make a good guess by checking out the kids nearby.

1.) Kids are great at being serious without taking things too seriously. People call this the spirit of sportsmanship. Come to think of it, in the end, we are all dead so why take things so personal. Malice and terrible acts of violence occur when we take things too seriously, often times we do not realize how terrible and unnecessary an act of revenge is until it is done. So, learn from the kids, do not take things P.

2.) Kids ask questions. This is just phenomenal as simple as it sounds because in the world we live in today, virtually everyone jumps into conclusion. People rarely listen talk less of ask questions, they make up their minds and judge even before giving you a chance. Steve Covey said in his book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", seek first to understand and not to be understood. if we could all ask the right questions and patiently listen, the world would be a better place.

3.) Kids trust. A man once put his son on a high platform and asked him to jump down, the son asks why? and the man says I am your father and I will catch you. The boy jumps and the father lets him fall. The man now looks at his son and says, lesson one, trust no one, not even me.

I ask myself every now and then, what is this world turning into? the reason it takes ages to get a visa is lack of trust, the reason it takes days to confirm a cheque is the lack of trust, the reason there is a queue at the airport is lack of trust. Bosses do not trust their staff and the staff do not trust them either, citizens do not trust their leaders and the leaders do not trust their assistants, guys do not trust their girlfriends and ladies would not even give the men a chance, there is so much distrust everywhere and you know what, it makes everything slow. imagine if the airline trusted that only people that bought tickets would board the plane, there would be no need to check and if the passengers trusted that the airline would only charge fair prices, there would be no need to go into the airplane without a ticket and at the end, there would be no queue at the airport.

So you see, the real problem with the world is that too many people grow up and the solution is that we learn from the kids.

Aliko Dangote, the world's richest black man gets a copy of my book

Aliko Dangote receiving a copy of my book titled "From Idea to Venture Success"

Lagos Business School - MBA Student Launches New Book on Entrepreneurship

Lagos Business School - MBA Student Launches New Book on Entrepreneurship

Finding 'X'

This space is dedicated to all the times in my young life when I could not find 'X'.

Regardless of how simple it sounds now, it was hell back then. Some lousy math problems determined how well you were treated in the class by the teacher, how your fellow boys respected you, how the girls adored you, it determined everything..

Unfortunately, for every time I successfully found 'X' there was yet another 'X' to be found. Then one day as I looked through the window in my class, I said to myself, it would soon be over, I will one day be done with education.

The irony is that the day I finished my University education, I got out of the school walls to discover "X's" everywhere. Problems! Problems!! and more Problems!! Then it dawned on me that Life is made of problems and we can only get made by solving problems.

I soon had to learn that whenever I see a problem, I do not complain but ask 'Y' and find 'X'.

The humble origin of the Stock Market

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10. 

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. 

He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. 

The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $100! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf. 

In the man's absence, the assistant said to the villagers: Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $75 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell it to him for $100 each." The villagers brought out their life savings and bought all the monkeys. 

Thereafter the villagers never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!!!

Welcome to the "Stock" Market!

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