How Insight Communications Set the Industry on Fire ( 2 )

What I had in mind when we started was to be number one. I did not have any plan that said after five years I will achieve this, 10 years I will achieve that. What I said was that I wanted to be number one. I was clear. We didn’t see ourselves fashioning whatever we were going to do after any Nigerian company even though we respected the other companies, we admired them because they were very big. But we were clear in our minds that we wanted to fight for the number one position. Like I said earlier, nobody has a birthright to the number one position. For too long everybody just queued up behind everybody. Historically this was number one, this was number two, etc but I don’t believe in things like that.

When I started my career 40 years ago, I didn’t even know what I was going to become. The greatest shock of my life was that working for this American company, and I started as the most junior executive trainee level and four and half years later, they invited me to join the board. I was made a director. How could that be? I was just cutting my teeth in the profession and I was invited to join the board. It was unheard of at that time and what was I supposed to do?

I had to learn how to succeed. And you need to understand that pulling me out from the midst of people who were my seniors was a challenge. Suddenly, my ogas had to queue behind me. That was difficult. But by the time I felt I was not maximizing my potential – it was one thing to make me a deputy managing director but was I happy at what I was doing and that was another challenge for me.

Most people would have been carried away by the perks of office and stayed there whether the company was moving ahead or not. But for me as a young man, that was a challenge. I had to drop everything and start all over again. That was a turning point in my life and in my career as well because when you look at it, anybody may say, well, it is not a big deal to walk away from two company cars, a whole company house with houseboy and generator in addition to other perks. And you were being paid a very nice salary in 1979 when money was still money. To throw all of those things away and say I am going to start with nothing and you have to understand that when I walked away from that job, I was already married and I didn’t even have a personal car. I left not because I had any client. I had no client. That was very tough.

Forty years on the job, I find it tough to tell the toughest decision I have made. It’s been very tough. It has not been a bed of roses. One decision I took many years ago was on the Nigerian Breweries account. After 19 years of trying to get the account, they gave us an opportunity to show what we can do.

This was a company that wouldn’t even listen to us and then they said they were giving the business out on a condition that any company that eventually won the business must have very nice office, in a manner that they must be able to communicate with such an office by telephone and fax, and the office must be accessible. And we used to be in a place called Akanbi Onitiri Street, Off Eric Moore Road. We occupied five floors of the building but it was not accessible because close by on that same street was Tate and Lyle. The company produced sugar. When the trucks came to offload sugar, they blocked the office and they could do that for three days each week and there was also one warehouse nearby that further compounded the situation. The underground cable in the days of NITEL could be cut and then you can’t reach us by phone. The whole process was going to run for about three months and so they gave us these conditions. And I said to myself look, ‘I’ve been trying to get this business for 19 years and these guys have given these conditions. I must relocate from this place.’

Take a look at that decision. I was taking a gamble. I wasn’t sure I would get the business and I said to myself that I had better fulfill the conditions first. Then I asked myself, what will be the cost of relocating to another office? Where could I find the office? How long will it take to put the office together? I sat down and I said okay, I am going to do fine. That was how I found where Insight Communications is now and that office when I found it, it was totally beaten down, bedbugs, cockroaches and so on. I put workers there (builders) working day and night, 24 hours everyday.

I put a generator there and supervised the work. I got the office ready. The day we went to pitch the Nigerian Brewery account, we had moved into that building. The only thing was that there was no water in the building, so I told the staff that anybody who wants to ‘pee’ should go to Sheraton but it was a very difficult decision because it involved a lot of money. Having done all this, I said to myself if Nigeria Breweries was going to take the fair and just decision there is no way we won’t get the business because we gave it everything. And, of course, as we moved in, we were able to dig a borehole in the premises. Thank God we won the brief and the funny thing was that Nigerian Breweries didn’t even come to inspect the building!

Today, Insight is one of the nicest offices anybody can find in this country, by far. One of the very tough decisions that managers also take is firing employees. When I did the Apprentice on TV, I was firing people and some people asked whether that was how I fired people in my organizations. I told them in my entire working life, I have only fired two people because I always try to hire people that are competent. The people that were fired were not fired for incompetence; they were fired for putting their hands in the till.

We have no plans, whether now or in the future to hire any expatriate to head our business. It is part of our strategy to develop our talent. Anybody in our organisation who leaves for another company should deliver. In fact, when others come here to poach any of our senior staff, they go there to head the organisation. No client dictates who we hire.

Man must use machines, they cannot replace man. So, one must come to the realization that these are aids to enhance productivity and performance. One of the areas in which we spend a lot of money is technology. Sometimes I wonder if we are spending too much but if we don’t we cannot be in touch with modernity. The pace at which things change is just incredible. In fact, you will find that if you don’t work with technology you can’t even do much anyway.

Second point is that if you are inadequate with technology, the kind of clients that we work for, we will not be able to service them. Number three, we have always believed that the world is a small village and for that reason we must constantly benchmark ourselves in whatever we do with global best practices. We have partners from different parts of the world that we are constantly dealing with. That, in itself, helps in improving the standard that we deliver to our clients. We have had to hire expatriates in the past as line managers and they reported to Nigerian CEOs. That must tell something that the Nigerian must be superior to the expatriate. If you want to kill an organisation, make someone who is not the best the boss. That is the fastest way to kill an organisation.

I don’t have. I don’t understand that. Leadership, for me, is by example. I told you that the man who made a strong impression on my life is Dr. Christopher Kolade. I am not so sure that he would tell you anything if you ask him about his leadership style. It’s not something you find in textbooks. Since Alex Ibru died, many people have passed comments. Even his stewards made comments about him. People will judge you and rate you the way that you lead them. For me, the company goes beyond an individual. What is the vision and mission of the company? What strategy do you have? Does everybody in the company understand the vision and mission? If they do, are they living that vision and mission? Those are the critical issues. It is not about an individual.

I can’t recall that we lost a pitch. But of the businesses that we lost West African Milk Company (Peak Milk) pained me the most because the client just told us we have lost the business. There was no pitch. There was nothing. They just told us to leave and I think that at the time, we were doing a wonderful job. I think it was a personality thing. That one really pained me.

Read first part of this interview here {jcomments on}

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