At 23, Globacom’s most remarkable achievement is not simply that it has survived in one of Nigeria’s most competitive industries. It is that a late entrant managed to challenge an established market, alter some of its assumptions and invest in infrastructure with a long-term view. More than the mythology surrounding the company or the wealth of its founder, this offers a more useful way to understand Michael Adeniyi Agbolade Ishola Adenuga Jr and the business philosophy behind the nickname that has followed him for decades: the Bull.
The metaphor fits, but perhaps not for the reason usually assumed. The Bull is not simply about aggression, risk-taking or the instinct to charge. In Adenuga’s case, it is more revealing as a metaphor for persistence: the willingness to return after a setback, enter difficult territory after others have established themselves and remain committed long enough to see whether a difficult bet can work.
The telecommunications story provides perhaps the clearest evidence. In 1999, a company associated with Adenuga was among those awarded a GSM licence during Nigeria’s first telecommunications licensing process. The licence was subsequently revoked. The setback could have ended his telecommunications ambitions. Instead, he returned to the sector, bidding through Globacom for the Second National Operator licence in 2002. This time, he won.
At 23, Globacom’s most remarkable achievement is not simply that it has survived in one of Nigeria’s most competitive industries. It is that a late entrant managed to challenge an established market, alter some of its assumptions and invest in infrastructure with a long-term view. More than the mythology surrounding the company or the wealth of its founder, this offers a more useful way to understand Michael Adeniyi Agbolade Ishola Adenuga Jr and the business philosophy behind the nickname that has followed him for decades: the Bull.
The metaphor fits, but perhaps not for the reason usually assumed. The Bull is not simply about aggression, risk-taking or the instinct to charge. In Adenuga’s case, it is more revealing as a metaphor for persistence: the willingness to return after a setback, enter difficult territory after others have established themselves and remain committed long enough to see whether a difficult bet can work.
The telecommunications story provides perhaps the clearest evidence. In 1999, a company associated with Adenuga was among those awarded a GSM licence during Nigeria’s first telecommunications licensing process. The licence was subsequently revoked. The setback could have ended his telecommunications ambitions. Instead, he returned to the sector, bidding through Globacom for the Second National Operator licence in 2002. This time, he won.
The significance of that episode extends beyond telecommunications tariffs. A newcomer without the advantage of being first needed another way to compete. Glo found one by questioning something the market had largely accepted.
That may be the first real charge of the Bull. It was also not an isolated feature of Adenuga’s business career. His interests have extended across sectors, including oil and gas and banking, before telecommunications became one of the most visible expressions of his entrepreneurial ambitions. The common thread is not that every venture followed an identical formula, but that Adenuga repeatedly showed a willingness to commit to opportunities whose rewards were unlikely to be immediate.
That helps explain why the Glo story should not be reduced to per-second billing. The larger bet came with Glo-1, the company’s investment in an approximately 9,800-kilometre submarine fibre-optic cable connecting Lagos with international landing points including Accra and Bude in the United Kingdom. The cable entered service in 2010 and represented an investment in the infrastructure beneath telecommunications rather than simply another attempt to attract mobile subscribers.
There is a significant difference between competing through prices and promotions and committing capital to infrastructure whose value depends on the future growth of an industry. Glo-1 suggested that the company was prepared to think beyond the immediate contest for subscribers and invest in the foundations of connectivity itself.
The Bull, in that sense, was not merely charging at the market. He was also digging beneath it. There is an interesting contrast between the scale of Adenuga’s business ambitions and the relative restraint of his personal public profile. His companies have often been more visible than the man himself. Glo’s sustained association with football and entertainment illustrates this distinction and also reflects an important reality about telecommunications: people do not connect merely because they want a network. They connect to family, business, information, sport, entertainment and opportunity.