‘You will not find a Japanese designer in a business class, let alone first class,’ Osinbajo cautions small business owners on self discipline

 

Former vice president of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo has emphasised the importance of resilience for business owners and organisations to succeed.

At the 23rd annual conference of Women in Management, Business and Public Service, WIMBIZ held in Lagos with the theme: ‘Dream, Dare, Do’, Osinbajo who was a keynote speaker said the challenge the theme throws is the question of how to build businesses and organisations of any kind that survive and thrive.

According to him, the chief problem is not a dream, not even to dare or do, but the steadfastness to remain, and be resilient.

“We are here today because some dreamt, some implemented the dream, but more importantly, kept it going year after year. Some wise person said something to the effect that the best and most visionary ideas lie in cemeteries all over the world. So the chief problem is not a dream because there are many dreams and great visions. It’s not even to start the enterprise. In other words, it’s not even to dare or do. The chief problem is staying in power, the ability to see a matter through, and the ability to see a business from start to finish. The attributes you need the most are not the will to start. It is the steadfastness to remain. It is not the capacity to dream. It is the courage to deal with the nightmares and still continue day after day. So the bottom line is resilience, the ability to execute and to see the enterprise through.”

The former vice president noted that the visioning, founding and continued growth of Wimbiz, exemplifies the theme of the conference, Dream, Dare, Do.

Pointing out how businesses can attain resilience, Osinbajo said understanding the market, strong work ethic, including the discipline to delay gratification and technology are very important.

Explaining these three points, he said whatever business one is doing, it is important to understand the market, “Whether it’s a business, a professional practice, or even a civil society organization that you are starting. Do the research and the hard work to understand the market and keep doing more research, even when the business is doing well. Let’s take the example of two enterprises, publishing and restaurants. And I have a bit of knowledge of both because, as I said, I was counsel to quite a few companies.”

He explained: “A very successful lawyer, a lady, wanted to start a monthly magazine. I think it was a Christian lifestyle magazine that she wanted to start. And she said to me at the time that she had prayed about it and was convinced that it was God’s will. I asked her, of course, to study the market carefully as I have seen many magazines start well and then fail.

“She said she was convinced that if she printed 10,000 copies of the amazing edition, she could sell at least 5,000 in a month. And she could break even after selling 3,000 copies. After all, according to her, there were at least one million Christians in Lagos alone.

“And from the proceeds of the first edition, she could print the next edition. She printed 10,000 copies, but she could barely sell 200 copies after almost six weeks. She struggled from month to month, barely able to sell 500 copies. Within a year, she packed it up. So she had dreamed, she had dared, but she had failed.

“What does the research on magazines and starting magazines shows? It shows that on average, between 50% to 60% of magazine publishing companies fail. Why is that? Because they fail within about five years. And it’s not a spiritual matter. The empirical evidence from industry data suggests that failure is largely due to the challenges of competing in a saturated market, the rise of digital media, and shifting consumer habits. Digital media has made it difficult for print magazines to be profitable, especially as advertisers tend to prefer online platforms. So failure doesn’t necessarily mean God is not behind it, or you didn’t pray or fast enough or anything like that. Failure is usually a function of the preparations you have made to surmount market and environmental challenges.

“How about restaurants, another example? It’s easy to imagine that in a city of 20 million people, that’s Lagos, you should be able to find at least 1,000 customers a day, of 20 million. I mean, surely there must be 1,000 people willing to eat the type of food that you’re making.

“However the industry data shows that the most frequent causes of failure of restaurants are poor location, undercapitalization, that’s not having enough money to start with, high operating costs, and thin profit margins. And that’s interesting because one would assume that you can make a good profit from food. But the profit margins are generally thin.

“Inconsistent quality or service, inexperienced or poor management, workforce issues, that’s the quality or calibre of people that you employ. Now all of these, of course, are important. But I want to take the second point, just to add to what I have just said.

“The second point is a strong work ethic, including the discipline to delay gratification. And I am sure you hear that very often. Why do Lebanese-owned restaurants do so well and last so long? Strong work ethic. They’re always at their business from the start to the end of the day. They don’t go anywhere else. They’re just there every day.

“Several of those restaurants, and I am talking of those Lebanese restaurants, have been around for upwards of 30 years. Double Four in Lagos, I mean, I don’t know whether those of you who are here know about Double Four. I mean, it started in the 90s, but it’s still there.

“Double Four is still there. City View in Abuja is another that’s lasted almost 30 years. Why? Because these guys just stick to their business. They are there every day, from morning till evening. They start and close their business. On this issue of delayed gratification, I think this is an issue that we should talk about a bit more.

“Delayed gratification. How trying to keep up an image of affluence affects a major plank of business success. Keeping up just looking good. The lifestyle of the business owner is a problem, in my own opinion, for Nigerian businesses. There’s a huge pressure that a Nigerian business person has, which probably other business people elsewhere don’t have. To maintain a perception of success that is usually above the means of the business, the business can’t support your lifestyle. So there’s pressure to look and spend as though you’re very successful, even when your business is only a few years old. And the pressure is worsened by the unrealistic lifestyles of allegedly successful people on social media. And there are many of them.

“And also an environment where most wealth is unexplained or unexplainable. And where so many people are rich before becoming business persons. So there are many people who have money already from somewhere else. And then they become business people. And then you are looking at those people and thinking, surely I should be like these people. Consequently, every CEO or even middle-cadre business enterprise feels the need to buy the best cars. The same cars that the richest man in Africa drives. So you find people driving the same cars as Dangote. And then she or he must travel first class or business class.

“So a lot of investable resources are spent on just maintaining appearances. I was speaking to my daughter who runs a clothing store. And we were looking at her turnover and profit. And she was saying to me, ‘dad, I’m a CEO, but even to travel business class to London is an issue. It’s a problem.’

“My son also is a business person and has the same experience. He says, ‘Dad, I can indulge in one or two luxurious items because I’m not yet married. But it isn’t easy.’

“And my response to them is, your businesses are barely five years old. Too early to live large. Nobody travels and lives like the Nigerian business person and succeeds. You will not find a Japanese designer or small business owner in a business class. No way. Let alone first class. The moral of the story is that to see your business successfully through and not become frustrated or discouraged, you have to ignore the noise and chatter. The pressure to look successful when you can’t afford it. You’ve got to ignore that,” he said.

Lastly, he hinted on importance for business owners to adopt technology, “My last but one point is on technology. No matter what your business is, technology, especially AI, is going to affect it dramatically for good or ill. And if you’re an employee, particularly a well-paid one, you must ask yourself, how can I prepare myself to take advantage of AI or let it throw me out of work? Even two years ago, nobody could understand the threat and the opportunities presented by AI. Two years ago, it wasn’t even anywhere close to what we are seeing today.

“Last year, I sat at a meeting with some new members of the management of my former law firm, and they were telling me of the prospects of their new AI interface. Now, this is a law firm, and these are young people who have taken over management of the firm. And they were describing to me their AI interface, a new tool which they have. And I simply couldn’t believe how it has simply consumed aspects of what the firm does and is able to do, from research to brief writing to legal drafting, analysis of contracts, writing of opinions, and is able to do it even using our firm’s house style and standards. I mean, it’s just incredible that in a few short years, what we used to make money from, writing opinions, writing all sorts of legal analysis, a tool, a machine, can do it more accurately, by the way, than we can do it. So, for me, it’s just frightening, and I imagine that for those who are coming into legal practice for the first time, it must be very frightening because these were easy ways of making money. All of a sudden, that isn’t looking so easy anymore, because anybody can just go and do it using AI.

“I spoke to the umbrella body of land surveyors a few weeks ago, and we were all struck by how AI is redefining land surveying, almost beyond recognition. In medicine, AI now models X-rays, it can now analyze X-rays, it can analyze MRI, CT scans with greater accuracy than human radiologists.

“Even mental health screening is being done with superior results by AI. At the current rate of improvement of big data, of quantum computing, I don’t think there’s any aspect of human life and livelihood that will not be affected. Even designing clothes, anything, writing, whatever it is.

“So today, it will be a great mistake not to have a detailed profile of how AI will impact your business, and how you can take optimal advantage to develop your business before your competition does.”

Osinbajo, however, urged business owners and WIMBIZ to go beyond profit, to collaborate with others, “To be ultimately impactful, a business person has to see the bigger picture.”

According to him, every business has an ecosystem, and that ecosystem has to be strengthened. Otherwise, each individual business is threatened, especially by government policies or laws.

“A strong ecosystem can be an effective lobby against laws or policies that could adversely affect the businesses in the sector that you are a part of. There’s a lot of safety and clout in numbers. Be an active member of your trade or professional or business association. The one thing that politicians respect, whether in the legislature or executive, is numbers. So, there is a great deal of strength in numbers. By joining others and ensuring that your organization has a voice in policy formulation, you will do each individual business and your business a great deal of good.”

Concluding, he said he would like to see Wimbiz write an annual report on the business environment for SMEs, including issues of inclusivity and women’s participation to be submitted to the Honorable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, and the Minister of Finance, before the Finance Bill and Budget are passed every year. “That Wimbiz report will be an important reference for business reforms that you want to see.”

Also, Omowunmi Akingbohungbe, Executive Director, WIMBIZ said one of the challenges women face, especially in attaining leadership positions is stereotype, noting that the theme, ‘Dream, Dare, Do’, was born out of the research made on how successful people made it through. “We have researched and found out that the successful people that you see today, a lot of these successes happened in their mind first before it became reality. So, the conference is charged with an agenda that is supposed to get women, and even men, inspired to explore their dreams, inspired with the strategies that they can actually use to implement these dreams, and of course, excel in what they desire to do.”

Reacting to Osinbajo’s words on numbers, inclusivity, she said, “I dare say that even at this conference today, we are empowering five businesswomen with grants of N9 million after they have been able to justify their business strategy and how they are not only impacting the society, but also impacting other people by creating jobs.”

In numbers, she said with the high net worth and influential women of about 2000 or more in attendance, WIMBIZ is changing the narrative in terms of national impact, engaging governments to support inclusion in certain policy engagements of the nation through one of the major strengths of WIMBIZ which is advocacy.

“We are constantly advocating for a minimum of 35% representation of women in leadership roles. Now, this is not about gender against the other. It’s about knowing the fact that when both parties come together, they have strengths that they bring to the leadership of such organizations. Now, we ensure that we have our WIM board program, which the network of women that you see here today is what we leverage.

“We leverage on the experienced women who have been there, done that, been on board, sit on boards, to also mentor and train upcoming women on boardroom dynamics. The success that we see in the financial sector today of having over 30% women as CEOs of the bank only came to reality because we had the central bank governor about 10 years ago take a position that instilled a policy in place that there should be a minimum of 30% board representation in the financial services sector. And that is coming to reality now because now the financial institutions have to be deliberate about ensuring that they empower their women, train them if they do need training, and let them have the opportunity to prove themselves.,” she said.

Also, she said, “We did celebrate the female CEOs today because it’s also part of our advocacy campaign. We hope to have the same replicated across all the other sectors. In fact, I have very interesting statistics to share with you about that.

“In Nigeria, the representation of women in the national parliament is about 6%. Then I did a research with other African countries. Senegal, Rwanda, and South Africa have over 45% women representation.

“Why do they have that? Take South Africa for instance. Their electoral committee put a policy in place that the political parties must have 50% equal representation of women candidates that they are going to present. So the issue of having a shortage of women at the electoral level was resolved.

“And that’s why we see over 45% representation across these other African countries that we mentioned. If we have the same in Nigeria if we have INEC take a position that there’s a policy in place where even if we start with 35% representation for women candidates to be presented at the party levels and then let them prove themselves by people voting for them, it will give them an opportunity.”