THE MYTH OF FULL BUSINESS CONTROL
Mister Maple once gave his thoughts along this line. Mark Zuckerberg is the number one shareholder of Facebook with about 29.3% stake. Peter Thiel owns about 2.5% of Facebook that is worth about $2.5billion. Bill Gates owns about 1.3% of Facebook worth $1.3billion. Hong Kong Billionaire, Li Ka-Shing owns 0.8% of the same Facebook worth $800 million.
Vanguard Group Inc, one of the world’s largest investment management companies, and BlackRock Inc, one of the world’s leading asset and investment management firms amongst several others also have their shares in Facebook. In Nigeria, Tony Elumelu as of 2015, owned about 5.2% of UBA as the largest single significant shareholder according to a report by Nairametrics and according to Forbes, Jim Ovia is the largest individual shareholder of Zenith Bank. He owns about 9% stake.
What’s the point: The idea of keeping 50% of your company is myopic, and perhaps influenced by the stronghold of survival and superficial comfort. The percentage stake you own is not the most important thing, but the value of the company and the structure in place. 100% of your business is most likely nothing close to what 9% of Zenith Bank is worth or even 0.1% of Facebook. The control you need in your business is not the enthronement of your ego (this is a real mental battle for most entrepreneurs). The control you need is the consolidation of good corporate governance that will guarantee the continuous growth of the business and higher returns to you perpetually. Year 2021 is here. Won’t you take a bold step to increase your asset base and enlarge the horizon of your business by strategic partnership? When will your company be listed in the public market? Think expansion.
