How Backward Integration Works — And Why I Use It to Build a Media Company

Recently, I stumbled upon a Swahili Nation Network interview with Nigerian billionaire industrialist and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

In the interview, Dangote shared his reflections on building across cement, sugar, and oil refining, and explained how backward integration was the reason these businesses became self-sufficient and globally competitive.

Backward integration is a growth strategy where a company takes control of activities that were previously handled by suppliers. So instead of only buying services from outside vendors, the company moves upstream in the supply chain.

We see this strategy in many big tech companies.

For example, Tesla controlling its battery and manufacturing systems, Apple designing its own chips, and Netflix producing original content instead of relying only on studios.