Sunday, October 5, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
6CS and T4:LETTERS TO MY BEST FRIEND
My best friend, 7 things are necessary if you really want us to work - Commitment: its not easy, i know.but it takes sheer guts and a strong desire to make it succeed against all odds. -Communication: arguably the most important.communication facilitates intimacy and trust.No communication, then we are as good as strangers. -Consideration: all our actions or inaction should be done bearing each other in mind.it takes two to tango.understanding our unique personalities,environmental workings and socio-cultural milieu is vital. -Character modification: i do not seek to change you as an individual.i love just the way u are.however, if u want best man in the world,try being the best woman you can be.u can sweetie -Courage: a timeless value.nothing great and spectacular ever happens without sheer guts and audacity.step out of your comfort zone and try out something new and innovative.the result will be different. -Conviction: which is the elder brother of belief.what the mind can conceive and believe,it can achieve.believe we will work,live it, breathe it and see.... -Trust/truth/transparency/tact: these four things in one are the crown jewels.trust lays a solid foundation for everything.it is continually reinforced by truth, made solid by transparency and tact enables an strong and worthy super-structure to be built. I hope i have said something.i eagerly look forward to hear from you.make that decision to join me on a timeless journey. u will not regret. just because its Sunday, Cogito Ergo Sum
Doctor of the month: Olajire Idowu M.D
Surgeon samaritan
It’s a long way from the noisy, messy port of Lagos, Nigeria to the port of Oakland. The gulf in wealth, culture and distance is vast. Yet one man leapt the gap when he came to work at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland as a surgeon in 1991.
Ever since he arrived in the United States more than 30 years ago, Olajire Idowu, MD, has looked for a way to take the healthcare skills he’s honed in America back to Nigeria.
Dr. Idowu exudes energy, laughs heartily and at 60, has only a hint of gray in his thick black hair, despite the challenge of 17 years working in Children’s Hospital’s surgery department. Two years ago, he was named chair of the department of surgery.
Dr. Idowu’s father was a trader and the first person he met who always gave of himself. Later, there were others — Nigerian students, white doctors in missionary hospitals and healthcare professionals in America. But his father was the first.
“When I was growing up (in Lagos) my dad was always helping people,” said Dr. Idowu. “If he has one dollar and somebody needs that one dollar, he gives it out, he doesn’t think twice about it. I just grew up trying to help people. And I decided being a doctor would mean I can help more people than doing anything else.”
A natural student, Dr. Idowu quickly determined in high school what he would need to know in his early college years and began studying those subjects. He completed his undergraduate education in record time by acing challenge exams.
By 1969, Dr. Idowu had graduated from the Government College in Ibadan and begun his studies at the University of Ibadan School of Medicine. About halfway through he did a training stint at a remote mission hospital in the jungle some 200 miles from Lagos.
There was only one surgeon and one intern at the Eku Baptist Hospital where Dr. Idowu got his first hands-on hospital experience. Watching that doctor moved him to take up surgery himself.
“(All the doctors) do the same thing, because at the mission hospital you have to do everything,” said Dr. Idowu, “but then the surgeon has longer hands for helping people than the internist. That’s when I decided I was going to do surgery.”
Dr. Idowu graduated and began his internship in 1973 at the Baptist Medical Center in Ogbomosho. The caring attitude of their white expatriate American clinicians impressed him, especially Martha Gilliland, MD.
“She was a gynecology doctor, but she can do brain surgery” said Dr. Idowu, “she can do trauma surgery, chest surgery, she was just a well-rounded missionary doctor.” The wife of the Baptist Seminary’s president, Dr. Gilliland had four children, two of whom went on to careers in medicine. Dr. Idowu considers himself her fifth child.
“She taught me how to hold the knife,” said Dr. Idowu. “The first person to do that determines what kind of surgeon you’re going to be. She was also a mother to me.”
Like any good mother, Dr. Gilliland looked out for Dr. Idowu, connecting him to a California surgery professor looking for promising young talent to join his hospital.
The 30-year-old Dr. Idowu and his wife landed at Los Angeles International Airport in 1976. Their life savings in Nigerian currency had netted them only $200. They walked to the curb looking for a car belonging to surgery professor Jerrold Longerbeam, MD. They expected to see a Cadillac or Rolls Royce. After all, Dr. Longerbeam was a professor and a surgeon, and this was America.
“So we took my box and I said to my wife, ‘Look over there,’ and we go to this car and it looks like a beaten down car from the jungles of Africa,” recalled Dr. Idowu laughing.
The modest and generous Dr. Longerbeam mentored Dr. Idowu through his five years of residency at Loma Linda University Medical Center. “(Dr. Longerbeam) took me to his house every two weeks and I had dinner with his family,” said Dr. Idowu.
In Loma Linda, a distant San Bernardino suburb of Los Angeles, Dr. Idowu decided to specialize in pediatric surgery because pediatric surgeons do a wider variety of procedures than general surgeons. After a fellowship at Detroit’s children’s hospital and another stint at Loma Linda as an attending surgeon, Dr. Idowu and his wife, Olufunmilayo Ogundipe, MSN, DPH, moved north, to the Central Valley city of Lodi.
Here they raised their two children — a daughter, now in her fourth year of a surgery program at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, and a son, studying neuropsychology in New York.
Dr. Idowu honed his skills as chief of pediatric surgery at San Joaquin General Hospital in Stockton. Soon he began making long Saturday drives to Oakland to attend Grand Rounds lectures at Children’s Hospital. Here he met surgeons and other healthcare professionals who would one day become colleagues.
With some of them he would pursue his dream of bringing American-quality healthcare to countries where it is no more than a fantasy. He would finally build a bridge back across the gap he’d jumped in 1976.
But first, Dr. Idowu needed to establish himself at Children’s. In 1991, he joined the hospital’s surgery staff. While his wife and children continued their lives in Lodi, Dr. Idowu commuted to Oakland. To pass the long, lonely commute hours he listened to continuing education tapes about surgical techniques.
In 1995, Dr. Idowu began giving his dream more thought. He traveled to Africa many times. He invited Nigerian doctors to visit Children’s Hospital. He was on the lookout for kindred spirits at Children’s.
“I went around Africa one time with a group of missionaries, it wasn’t a pretty sight,” said Dr. Idowu. “I’ve been to Gabon, Nigeria, Cameroon, and it’s the same thing, 90 percent of the population doesn’t have an adequate healthcare system.”
That trip in 2000 finally made the spark inside Dr. Idowu burst into flame. He approached Katie Sabato, PRT, now a 20-year Children’s Hospital veteran and respiratory therapy expert. Sabato had just returned from Belize where she’d been helping a former Children’s doctor improve conditions at Karl Heusner Hospital.
“(Dr. Idowu) just has this aura around him,” said Sabato, “when you’re with him you feel safe, nothing’s going to happen, we’re going to do good work. When you meet someone like that you want to be around him and help him.”
The two teamed up to form Medical C.A.R.E. Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping “children of all races everywhere,” focusing for the moment on Belize and Nigeria. They found others to join them.
Katie, Dr. Idowu and several others, including Ziad Saba, MD, Children’s cardiology chief, went on the group’s first medical mission to Nigeria in 2002.
That trip proved frustrating when Nigerian customs held four valuable ventilators hostage at the docks. An echocardiogram machine made it through after $5,000 in shipping costs. But it was damaged before they could use it for surgery. Infrastructure problems at the hospital, including a lack of stable electricity, prevented them from doing the cardiac surgery they’d planned on. Dr. Idowu’s decades-long mission seemed on the verge of failure.
They did some training, but no surgery. Some Nigerian clinicians thought they’d come only for photographs, like so many before them. “You see all these diseases and you feel helpless,” said Dr. Saba. But they hadn’t counted on Dr. Idowu’s determination.
Early in 2006, Katie, Dr. Idowu and a new team returned to Nigeria. Needed equipment was shipped, including a powerful generator and a heart/lung machine. A cardio-thoracic surgeon and a perfusionist to operate the heart/lung machine joined them from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jonah Odim, MD, the surgeon, is of Nigerian and American ancestry had already been on one similar trip to Nigeria, as well as to many other countries. Aware of the “symphony of infrastructure” needed to do long, complex surgical procedures and the lack of those in Nigeria, he was still ready to return.
But this time Dr. Idowu and his colleagues tried to think of everything. The generator, donated by Lockheed Martin, ensured stable electricity. The heart/lung machine, donated by Children’s Hospital, helped keep patients alive during long cardio-thoracic surgical procedures. And a new team member helped train people to keep those and other key machines running long after the medical team has returned to California.
A highly skilled mechanic, engineer and all-around fix-it man, Bill Dessel, a bio-medical engineer, also went to Nigeria. Bill, an eight-year Children’s veteran with 12 previous years experience at hospitals in San Jose and San Leandro, knows how to keep medical machinery running under extreme conditions.
“We didn’t want to give them fish,” said Bill, “we wanted to teach them how to fish.” He brought technical manuals, spare parts, his ability to troubleshoot and resolve machinery problems, and the knowledge that there are always smart resourceful people around, eager to learn.
Bill shares with Dr. Idowu a sense of spiritual mission in his work. “We should all be helping each other with whatever abilities we have,” said Bill.
Dr. Idowu echoed Bill.
“I think my spirituality translates into my work, because I give myself to it, you know, as an extension of my caring attitude and my spiritual obligation,” said Dr. Idowu. “Because I think that’s what we’re here for, to care for each other.”
medipreneurs!
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Who a medipreneur is-
A medipreneur is a medic or paramedic who is medically enterprising.
A medipreneur is one who understands and appreciates the workings of the economy (both national and global), the structure of the financial sector, the stock market, the investment and business climate and, of course, the prevailing business opportunities in ICT, the inclinations of the political atmosphere, and the direction of the government policies.
A medipreneur is one whose financial intelligence provokes his/her mind to break away from the rituals and rigidity of the medical practice and makes him or her seek financial freedom outside the medical sector while still maintaining an impeccable medical career.
A medipreneur is one who appreciates the rudiments of medical economics and is able to identify and harness its benefits to his/her legally and morally profitable interest.
A medipreneur is a medic who is able to organize and profitably manage the talents and intellectual resources of others medics not just for self or collective interest but for the betterment and promotion of the health sector and mankind in general.
A medipreneur is one whose private or general practice is profitably optimized and fulfilling.
A medipreneur is one who recognizes the developmental needs of the health sector and seeks investment windows and avenues of developing and enhancing the health sector by plowing in funds and resources from other sectors of the economy.
A medipreneur is one who knows the partnership venture that works and knows when and how to pool resources together with counterparts or colleagues to achieve a collective goal for all participants to benefit and profit from.
Who a medipreneur is not-
A medipreneur is not one who depends solely on his average monthly salary or take-home check.
A medipreneur is not one who lives on the blood of his patients or clients by charging outrageous or ethically offensive fees.
A medipreneur is not one whose medical practice is steeped in illegalities or unethical endeavors so as to be above board or maintain the lifestyle he/she desires.
A medipreneur is not one who pursues profitable interests or undue advantages at the detriment of his/her patients or clients.
A medipreneur is definitely not one whose medical career or practice lacks vision, purpose and the sophistication that comes with professional management and the awareness of investment opportunities and how to take advantage of them.
A medipreneur is not necessarily one that has a prior degree in economics or business administration or an MBA but the medic or paramedic that possesses the hunger, drive and passion to find or create more financial opportunities and coverage for self and others outside the regular average medical take-home pay.
And a medipreneur is definitely not one who would allow his/her risk-taking tendencies or enterprise or business experimentations compromise or endanger his/her medical license.
Becoming a medipreneur
Becoming a medipreneur has little or nothing to do with parental genetic pool or pedigree. While it may be congenital (in-born) but it is essentially acquired and developed.
Medipreneurship is a matter of interest and passion.
Medipreneurship is the mental pre-occupation and the physical manifestation of a medical mind that is financially inclined.
Medipreneurship is more than throwing a few ‘careless’ funds into the stock market or dabbling into a business venture without a clear direction of where the venture will be in both short term and long term.
For the average medic (student or practitioner), medipreneurship may appear to be a deviation or worst still, a distraction from the normal. But a successful medipreneur will always be the envy of the other medics who live from paycheck to paycheck.
Please do stop by soon for more information on this novel concept in Medicine: Medipreneurship.
In subsequent postings I will dwell on the ‘Testimonies of practicing Medipreneurs, How and where to start, the Mindset of a Medipreneur, and Investment Opportunities and Potentials in the Health sector. Don’t miss a blog! Keep winning!
-Akpenyi Dennis.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
The Art if Innovation
The Art of Innovation
By Mark Fox
Thomas Edison once said, “Originality is the art of concealing your source.” Many of the greatest inventors and thinkers of our time did not create their famed inventions, but rather expanded upon what another innovator had already created.
Humphrey Davy designed the first light bulb - not Thomas Edison. Davy had the first patent on the bulb, but his design was not particularly popular because it was too bright. Davy’s basic technology is actually used today in search lights.
Edison’s first innovation was really the industrial research lab built in Menlo Park, New Jersey. What many people don’t realize is that while many of the inventions created at Menlo Park are legally attributed to Edison, his team was actually responsible for the majority of the research and development. Edison took hundreds of people from different industries and then mixed them into a huge cross reference of disciplines and fields. His team - not him - was responsible for expanding on Davy’s design to create the first indoor light bulb.
John Forbes Nash was an American mathematician who received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in game theory. Nash stumbled upon his prize-winning idea as a graduate student at Princeton chasing girls in a bar. Did you ever see the movie A Beautiful Mind?
Robert Fulton, a U.S. engineer and inventor who is credited as the creator of the steamboat, also got his idea from other sources. Fulton took two things that already existed: the sailboat and the steam engine, and created the steamboat.
Albert Einstein, another widely recognized innovator and inventor, won his Nobel Prize for his theory of photoelectric effect; however, he did not come up with the idea. Max Plank, another scientist, was the first person to discover photoelectric effect.
Einstein publicly asked Plank, “Can I borrow this idea and keep developing it?” Plank allowed Einstein to develop his theory further, and Einstein was ultimately awarded the Nobel Prize for his work.
Another little known Einstein fact involves his first wife, Mileva Maric. Albert and Mileva, who was also a physicist, were separated for most of their married lives. The couple’s love letters have recently been unveiled and in the letters, the couple writes back and forth about the Theory of Relativity. The letters reveal that Mileva wrote many of the equations leading up to the Theory of Relativity, but she is not credited for her contributions in any formal public record.
Einstein once said, “Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.” His words take on a new meaning when one considers the contributors to Einstein’s most-recognized inventions and theories.
Although Einstein, Fulton, Nash, and Edison did receive inspiration and contributions from outside sources, I am not disputing their genius. The fact remains that these brilliant individuals took something that already existed and built and expanded upon it to create something entirely new. Combination creativity is innovation.
I’m curious as to what percentage of Nobel Prize winners got their inspiration from somewhere else. I don’t have a conclusive answer, but I estimate that up to 90% of award winners got their idea from an outside source. I am estimating this number based on reading their own biographies - they admit they got the idea elsewhere. These great men and women were recognized for taking an innovation to the next level, not on the basis of how they created the idea.
After all, there is no such thing as a truly unique idea. If you think you’ve got one, you’re kidding yourself. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do something fantastic with it.
Mark L. Fox |
Thursday, September 4, 2008
The Entrepreneurial spirit in Latin America
| The Entrepreneurial Spirit in Latin America Hernán Herrera and Daniel Brown are two Chilean entrepreneurs involved in the technology, real estate and education sectors. They have written several books about management, are active as educators and are well-known lecturers. Together, they founded the Institute for Entrepreneurial Development, through which they have promoted the creation of new businesses in
Universia-Knowledge@Wharton: In
Hernán Herrera/Daniel Brown: We can’t say that a particular group of people are more or less entrepreneurial than another one. In fact, we believe that the entrepreneurial spirit is essential for human beings and that, like all seeds, its development basically depends on the characteristics of the soil. In this context, the question is very interesting but you have to see the conditions that each country provides so that its people take on an entrepreneurial attitude and have the skills and knowledge that are necessary for carrying out their goals.
Clearly, first of all,
Although
In
It would be a mistake not to clarify that those are merely the cases that appear most noteworthy to us at this time. However, we believe that all of
UK@W: What are the main problems that an entrepreneur faces when it is time to start up a business?
H.H./D.B.: We don’t think that the big problems are a shortage of capital, insufficient governmental support and things of that sort. The true entrepreneur understands that the limits and problems that affect his ability to create are what he brings to the process.
Generally speaking, entrepreneurial skill is associated with a spirit that is romantic, passionate, very ambitious and innovative. While that’s quite true, we nevertheless believe that this very fact paradoxically poses the greatest problems when it is time to put plans into practice.
The impact is on the problems and challenges that the entrepreneur feels he faces along the road; a lack of preparation, knowledge and development of skills. As we say frequently, people talk a lot about “come on, we can do it,” but it is more important to say “how we can” do it.
You may have a great desire to swim in the sea but if you don’t know how to swim and you just throw yourself in the water, two things can happen: Either you move forward with great difficulty, guided by your instincts, or you simply drown. Statistics show that the second possibility happens more often, not only among careless swimmers but also, unfortunately, in the business world.
Statistics show that more than 85% of all new companies close down before one year, which is disgraceful if we want to create an entrepreneurial culture. How can we solve this problem? By creating simple, continuous education programs. We also need to make it possible for entrepreneurs to run their own businesses for some time, which permits them to have real experiences before moving up to other projects.
UK@W: In which countries are there greater obstacles for creating a business? And of what sort are they?
H.H./D.B.:
UK@W: What steps does an entrepreneur have to take from the time he or she gets the idea until the time when it is put into practice? Is there a trick for speeding up the process?
H.H./D.B.: The first step is to show in practice that the idea is viable. That means that you have to create a prototype of the business – an action plan that you carry out. The business model will be valid only if it produces sales in the volume and at the speed that you forecast. In this respect, you have to be as creative as possible; your tests must involve conditions that are as close to reality as possible. Some people will say, “For my business idea, it isn’t possible to create a prototype.” We think that is just an excuse. There is always a way to create a prototype and sell it.
In the
In that example, would it have been worth the trouble to go through every step and make all the investments, only to realize that the business plan would work? When a model is validated through a prototype, the costs of registration and financing and all the other costs that you need will be much easier to get. So you should never risk what you don’t have without having proved the validity of your business model.
UK@W: What sorts of new businesses offer the most opportunities in
H.H./D.B.: Without doubt, tourism and real estate are the sectors that will shine the most in coming years. There is a great deal of space for innovation, and a lot of capital is coming in to finance those projects. Except for a few exceptions,
UK@W: In your new book, Re-invent Yourself, which was just published in
H.H./D.B.: Our concept of creativity is that it is a “method” for designing formulas that enable us to achieve our goals with as little funding, effort and risks as possible. For this reason, what we call innovation is the result of this creativity -- a more efficient formula than what we currently use. In that sense, there are no limits for reinventing yourself. As we say in the book, everything will depend on the proposals that you have and on how much you can utilize your awareness of the energy that is available.
We are convinced that the concept of “available energy,” which we develop in our book The Entrepreneur’s Guide, is fundamental for understanding and really practicing creativity. Ask yourself the following: How much value does 30 minutes of wind have? For most of us, no value at all. But the aeronautical industry will say wind is valuable if it is a tail wind, but it has negative value if it is a headwind. When it comes to generating electricity, wind also has value today, and most likely we will continue to find ways to use the [wind] energy that is there but we only have to learn how to channel. The thesis of Re-invent Yourself is to “discover the available energies that operate within you, within your organization, and in your environment. Then, channel those energies toward your intentions.”
UK@W: What are the prospects for Latin American firms that want to globalize their activities in Europe and the
H.H./D.B.: We believe that except for some exceptions, the “average” Latin American company still has a long way to go in order to get established and be successful in Europe and the
UK@W: Do you believe that nationalist movements are helping or hurting the creation of new companies?
H.H./D.B.: Nationalist movements are irrelevant for the entrepreneur. Innovations move forward without having anyone asking for permits or visas. The globalization of small firms is already a fact that must make tax authorities and regulatory agencies in each country nervous, since those agencies are falling further and further behind. When it comes to social movements that promote nationalism, it is hard for them to succeed in their attempts to put a stop to cultural and commercial integration. What is a fact, however, is that commercial barriers obviously impose higher costs, which consumers wind up paying. However, like all artificial barriers, they will wind up falling down all by themselves.
UK@W: What are the main competitive advantages that Latin American companies with respect to their foreign competitors?
H.H./D.B.: To be frank, apart from knowledge of the market and its regulations, and psychological proximity to consumers and their idiosyncrasies, there aren’t a lot of other competitive advantages to point out. As we said in response to an earlier question, we believe that we are less and less citizens of a single country, and more and more citizens of the world. In that sense, in one of our own companies there are professionals who come from |
Publish Date: Mar 19, 2008 |
Hockey moms and Pit Bulls ( part 1)
Hockey moms and Pit Bulls
By
Kayode Makinde.
I saw Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech as the vice-presidential candidate of the GOP on Thursday. She struck a chord with me, as she was forthright, down-to-earth, and unabashedly feminine without a streak of weakness. Her entire story epitomises the much touted American dream. She is woman who is about to smash the glass ceiling in which Hilary Clinton made 18 million cracks.
Here is a woman who barely two weeks ago was the relatively unknown governor of the 49th state of the United States-Alaska. She reportedly resumed work three days after the delivery of her last child that is just 5 months old. Her nomination to be the vice-presidential candidate of John McCain might just be the tonic the Republican Party needs to get up and running in this season of political jousting. This piece is not to examine the political undertones and possible consequences of her nomination; rather I want to draw out a thing or two from her well crafted and powerfully delivered acceptance speech.
In her speech, the mother of five made mention that “the difference between a hockey mom and pit bull is lipstick”. Meaning that nursing are fiercely protective of their wards just like a pit bull. Her identification with this unique group of women might prove instrumental later on. She spoke about her love for her family, family values and her family struggles viz-a-viz teenage pregnancy and downs syndrome. She sounded like a typical everyday American mom, and I am sure the women love that!
Mrs Palin was so proud of her ancestry as she spoke glowingly about her parents and upbringing which laid the foundation for her meaningful life. In responding to critics, she mentioned that though she is not a Washington insider, her role as mayor of her hometown and governor of Alaska has endowed her with leadership qualities and experience which will serve her well at the national level…………..to be continued
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Aliko Dangote`s interview with FT
Some 400 vessels were lolling offshore when Mr Dangote got his break in the cement market – thanks to a well-placed uncle with a government import licence, he recalls in a rare interview at his representative office in London.
Unscrupulous officials were squeezing personal fortunes from proliferating construction projects. Yet the bonanza did not last. Nigeria wound up indebted when oil prices fell. It was a cocktail of poor central planning and corruption of a kind that has befuddled Nigeria to varying degrees since then and betrayed its promise as Africa’s largest and most dynamic market.
It also provided a vital earlylesson in diversification for the young merchant, now, at 50, one of Africa’s wealthiest businessmen. On his journey from small-time haulier, shifting five trucks of cement a day, to Nigeria’s largest private sector employer, Mr Dangote has thrived by spreading risk across a range of commodities.
For many in Nigeria’s elite, oil and the opportunity to trade contracts and secure concessions have proved an easy route to riches. Mr Dangote’s fortune is built on more humble fare. When the cement boom stalled, he moved into sugar, flour, salt and, at one point, fish to build the Dangote Group into a trading empire unrivalled in West Africa by the late 1990s.
Optimism among foreign investors about Nigeria’s potential to drive regional growth has been growing, not only because of oil prices but also because more Nigerians have been betting on their country’s future. For Mr Dangote, this has meant ploughing capital from his trading enterprises into fixed asset production, making the transition to industry that the country failed to do when the state ran the economy. He has also raised funds on the Lagos stock market in a partial listing of some of his divisions.
Pioneer aims to make multi-billion dollar markNigerian traders can be found in most corners of Africa. But until recently, formal cross-border investments by Nigerian businesses have been a rarity.
That is changing. Awash with petrodollars and foreign capital, Nigeria’s banks are rapidly extending their reach. Aliko Dangote’s multi-billion dollar plans to expand his cement empire are on a different scale, however. This has made him something of a pioneer as well as an ambassador for a growing trend. He has been restructuring management, bringing in foreign expertise to drive his group’s cement production across the continent to 50m tonnes by 2012. He is investing in new plants in east, west and southern Africa.
Experience in Nigeria must count among the toughest for any industrialist. In some respects it also adds an extra hurdle, concedes Mr Dangote. “In the majority of these African countries, they’ve been used to Europeans or Chinese going in there,” he says.
As a Nigerian it has proved difficult at times to be taken as seriously. “Always they will be looking at you at a distance, saying, ‘Hey, these Nigerians, we don’t know what they’re up to.’”
At the same time, he is confronting dilemmas familiar to any multinational. “We are dealing with 10 different African governments and some of them change their laws midway.”
Forbes this year estimated his fortune conservatively at $3.3bn – above black business people such as US chat show hostess Oprah Winfrey and South African mining magnate Patrice Motsepe. Nigerian estimates, which account for unlisted companies in Mr Dangote’s portfolio, suggest the group president and CEO is already worth at least $10bn.
In person, he does not come across as a member of the super-rich. Mr Dangote hails from an establishment Muslim family in the ancient city of Kano but has assimilated into the torrid city of Lagos, where his headquarters are based. He appears shrewd and ambitious but unassuming.
The decisive moment for his company came a decade ago, he says, when he moved from trading basic commodities to processing them, following an inspiring trip to Brazil. It was then that he began building flour mills, a pasta factory and a sugar refinery, which became the principal supplier to Nigerian beverage groups. Until then, other than family seed capital, the Dangote group had “never taken out a loan”.
The timing of his subsequent multibillion dollar investments in cement production, now his fastest growing business, was bold. Nigeria, with its ailing power grid, sharp bankers and political instability, is a tough environment for manufacturers. It was far from clear that industry on the scale envisaged by the Dangote group would be commercially viable.
Circumstances have turned in the group’s favour. The privatisation of state enterprises allowed it to buy up and turn round cement plants relatively cheaply. At the same time, Nigeria’s banks have been consolidating. Flush with liquidity from the oil boom, they are more willing to lend.
Meanwhile, recent soaring oil prices began driving up freight costs just as global demand for cement was surging. “The only way you can get a very cheap price of cement now is by local production,” Mr Dangote says.
With that in mind, he has been quick to seize on China’s growing engagement with Africa and the low-cost services its companies can provide. This year, he signed a $1.85bn agreement with Sinoma International for the construction of four new cement plants, three in Nigeria and one in Senegal. Ultimately, he envisages reversing the armada to make Nigeria a net cement exporter.
“If you had told me before 2000 that the Dangote group could be valued at more than $1bn, I would have said it was impossible,” Mr Dangote says.
Today his group is expanding production across at least half a dozen African countries, preparing listings for its cement division in Lagos and London, and working with McKinsey, the consultancy, on a strategy to achieve a market capitalisation of $100bn.
It is the scale of his companies, their dominant market share in basic commodities and influence over Nigerian prices that has given Mr Dangote the leverage to invest in manufacturing.
This dominance, however, unsettles some of his compatriots. Mr Dangote’s critics believe his modest manner masks the ruthless instincts of a monopolist, ready to manipulate markets and milk political connections to force out rivals.
Mr Dangote played a prominent role in funding the 1999 and 2003 election campaigns of Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president, who saw the emergence of a handful of “oligarchs” as central to transforming Nigeria’s economy. Policy changes under his government, such as restricting cement imports to companies investing in domestic production, supported Mr Dangote’s rationale for expansion.
Mr Dangote is unapologetic about the close relations he has cultivated with successive military and civilian administrations. Anyone prepared to risk the kind of money he has in an environment where governments can prove so fickle and long-term capital so hard to find is compelled to seek influence over policy, he argues.
“We have been willing to put our money where our mouth is on a significant scale. We have seen the potential in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria, and the rest of Africa and grasped it?.?.?.?when others were unwilling to do so.”
Yet, even for the best-connected tycoon, the state can be an unreliable partner. To supply his latest plant, Mr Dangote had to finance a 180km gas pipeline, an independent power plant and build a dam.
Most analysts believe the group’s control over markets will counter a perceived loss of influence with the current government of Umaru Yar’Adua. Mr Dangote does not mask his frustration, though, at recent moves to license more cement importers in an effort to drive prices down.
He suggests that his planned expansion across Africa – and beyond – is motivated partly by a need to spread his exposure. “The risk of having too many assets in one market is certainly a driver.”
Redefining Entrepreneurship in Africa- The Top30under30 way
By
Kayode Makinde
I write this piece on a day which marks the 45th anniversary of that famous speech by the late civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King (jnr), delivered at the Lincoln memorial in Washington D.C.i have a dream that one day sons of slaves and sons of slave owners will……………45 years after, that dream is being fulfilled as Barack Obama, a black man accepts the nomination of the democratic party to run for arguably the most important office in the world- president of the United States of America.
I equally have a dream, a dream for the continent of Africa, a dream which is a direct antithesis of the status quo, a gigantic dream fuelled by sheer optimism, passion, uncommon zeal and a belief in the capability of Africans to raise their game and take on the world. It’s a dream in which an economic revolution for good, birthed by sheer entrepreneurial wizardry will herald a dawn of prosperity for the continent. This might look far-fetched, given the endemic poverty levels and various socio-economic maladies bedevilling the continent.
For mother Africa to break loose from the shackles and manacles of poverty and underdevelopment, the essence and spirit of entrepreneurship must be embraced by all and sundry, especially by young people who represent the vibrancy and energy of Africa. Gone are the days where tailor-made employment will await fresh graduates, as the public sector is grappling with an over bloated civil service and its attendant maladies. Even in the private sector, survival is hinged on being entrepreneurial in nature.
Top30under30 is an initiative by Thoughtworks, which seeks to ignite, fan and cause a conflagration of the flame of entrepreneurship among young people in Africa under the age of 30.it is more than just an initiative it seeks to redefine entrepreneurship in Africa through the creation of an entrepreneurship ecosystem which comprises of The top30under30 awards, the innovative entrepreneurs exhibition and the business innovation hubs. With the overall focus being to give birth to African brands that will take on the world.
These three components represent a paradigm shift concerning the concept of entrepreneurship. the Top30under30 awards seeks to recognise, reward and showcase existing young entrepreneurs, who have defied the status quo, taking their destiny in their hands, in a bid to be economic change agents. Three key criteria will be assessed viz: the spirit of enterprise, growth potential and social returns. Being mega rich is not the driving force for the awards; rather the social impact of the venture carries a lot of weight. Nominations are being accepted via the top30under30 website www.Top30under30.com and via sms.
The innovative entrepreneurs’ exhibition (IN-EX) is platform for potential entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality. it has been aptly tagged “ideas meet capital”.20 African entrepreneurs with innovative, cutting-edge and socially responsible ideas will have the opportunity to pitch to an audience of venture capitalists, angel investors, banks and other financial institutions from around the world. it will be a mind blowing, eye opening and history making occasion, as dreams will literarily come true.
The business innovation hubs (I-HUB) will be located on selected African universities. History has proved that universities are a fertile ground for entrepreneurs. Just think about Microsoft, dell, google e.t.c. The I-HUB will serve as an incubator for budding businesses, to guide and ensure their transformation and maturation into flourishing brands. The Top30under30 team together with technical partners which include multilateral institutions and outstanding bodies in the organized private sector will provide “hard” and “soft” support services such as business advisory services, information technology infrastructure, mentoring, all in bid to ensure the surivial, success and eventual significance of the business.
All these components are intricately interrelated and will encourage more young people to venture into new endeavours, increase the survival rate of new businesses and eventually there will be a critical mass of entrepreneurial young people who will cause an economic revolution on the continent. Africa has the potential of becoming great and prosperous and actualizing that greatness is not dependent alone on harnessing natural or physical resources, rather the development of human capital coupled with an uncommon zeal to be fiercely entrepreneurial is key to achieving this greatness. Young people, who are the future must tap into this, make the best use of it and be part of a movement where dreams come true.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
My thoughts on electoral reform in Nigeria
I count it highly commendable that the organizers of this essay competition deem it fit and proper to give young people a chance and a voice to contribute their own quota to the ongoing national debate on electoral reform. I have actively participated as a registered voter in two general elections, 2003 and 2007.Although this has not conferred on me sufficient experience and expertise to be an authority on electoral reform, however, from the little experience I have, coupled with historical anecdotes of the electioneering process in Nigeria and my own insatiable thirst for knowledge and information through reading and research I will contribute as a young person to this germane issue.
I am tempted at this juncture to ask a couple of questions ,inspired by reading a Sunday article of one of my favourite columnists, Tunde Adegboyega of the nation newspaper that what is the big deal about elections? Is it not just about people casting their votes and for the votes to be sorted, counted and the results announced? Why then has Nigeria persistently failed to get this seemingly simple and straight forward process right? Though electoral misadventures, flaws and outright failures are not peculiar only to Nigeria, it is important to note that advanced countries with well established democracies such as the United States of America have their own Achilles’ heel in the process of conducting elections. Remember the Florida debacle of the hotly disputed 2000 American presidential elections. However, one is apt to conclude that Nigeria has a penchant for getting it wrong all the time. This is precarious because true democracy cannot thrive without well conducted elections.
Credible elections are a constant feature of a vibrant democracy. It is the means where the people of a nation, province or society collectively determine their destiny. They troop to the polling station to elect leaders and representatives for a stipulated period of time. These leaders are expected to deliver on the numerous promises made during campaigning. Simply put, elections give the masses a voice, a chance to critically appraise future representatives and to put those who survive the test into positions of responsibility for a specified period of time. This sacrosanct process is governed by laws containing certain provisions enshrined in a nation’s constitution- the electoral law
The story of elections in Nigeria is a sad one indeed. It is one fraught with numerous twists and irregularities which include outright bias by the “non-independent” electoral umpire (FEDECO, NEC, INEC e.t.c.), rigging, voter intimidation, weak political party structures and other shenanigans. Going down memory lane the election adjudged to be the “freest and fairest” in the annals of Nigeria is that of the 1993 presidential elections won by the late business mogul turned politician Chief Moshood Kashimamwo Olawale Abiola.14 million Nigerian voters trooped out to perform their civic duty, only for the elections to be spuriously annulled by the then military regime led by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd).This rape of democracy in broad day light plummeted the nation into the cesspool of civil unrest and political instability. More recently, the 2007 general elections has been adjudged to be probably the worst in the nation’s history. Numerous tales about gross irregularities and blatant falsification of results have emerged from the various elections petition tribunals sitting all over the federation
To this effect, the President Umaru Musa Yaradua decided to set up an electoral reform committee comprising of eminent Nigerians to fashion out workable electoral reforms with considerable input from the general public.
Electoral reform refers to effort to eliminate undemocratic or corrupt practices in the conduct of public elections. This process is brought about by laws that contain certain provisions to accomplish various ends which include criteria for formation and registration of political parties, regulating how campaign contributions are raised and utilized, outlawing corrupt practices that seek to influence the outcome of elections, process of determination of electoral dispute and how to ensure the true independence of the electoral umpire.
This critical process of electoral reform poses surmountable challenges and prime opportunities for the Nigerian polity. Arguably, the most important challenge is that of ensuring the true independence, fairness and integrity of the electoral umpire. Methinks this is very important because it helps to build the confidence of the electorate in the whole process, thereby stimulating interest and participation. To achieve this I opine that head of this body should be a man or woman of respect and proven integrity whose appointment should be at the behest of the national judicial council or selected from within the rank of judges of the Supreme Court. Also, representatives of registered political parties, labour, civil society and security agencies should have representatives in the electoral commission.
Additionally, there is the challenge of having political parties with a national outlook, which will harmonise the diversity of Nigeria with well defined political ideologies. History has a lesson to teach here. The “freest and fairest” election in our chequered history was within the context of two political parties with a national outlook and well known ideologies- The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Party (NRC).Though I am not a rigid advocate for an enforced two-party system, I believe there should be a restricted number of political parties with provisions for independent candidates. There should be laid down criteria for the formation and registration of political parties, such criteria should include a national outlook and a well defined ideology.
Our geography, especially the expanse of our land mass poses a challenge worthy of consideration. How? It presents logistical and organizational challenges in the conduct of elections. At present multiple elections are conducted on the same day across the nation. Our present level of technology and infrastructural base can not accommodate this, hence incidents of failure or late delivery of electoral materials, inadequacy of electoral officers and deficient security arrangement. The challenge can be surmounted by holding elections in each geo-political zone on separate days. This will enhance planning, execution and monitoring of elections.
Financing elections and electoral campaigns are knotty issues as well. The Electoral commission should not be tied to the apron strings of the executive through finance. Disbursement of money for the smooth running of elections should not be at the whims and caprices of the executive, rather constitutional provision should be made for its deduction from the federation account. It will go a long way in granting autonomy to the electoral commission. Also, contributions of individuals and corporate bodies to political parties should be pegged at certain figures. Moreover, the overall campaign budget for respective political parties for each contested position should be pegged, and funding of political parties by the government should be dissuaded entirely.
One the glaring fallouts of the last general elections are the spate of election petitions being determined by various tribunals across the country. This has resulted in the loss of uniformity in the duration of time spent in office by similar political office holders. Election petitions should be swiftly determined uniformly across the country within a stipulated period before swearing-in of winners. A case in point is the swift determination of disputed 2000 American presidential election by the United States Supreme Court.
The enactment of proper electoral laws and guidelines alone do not translate to the conduct of proper elections. Rather it is the enforcement of such laws coupled with the will and drive of all stakeholders to abide and live by such laws that counts. Without a resolute resolve to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections by politicians and major stakeholders, the whole process of electoral reform will be futile. This must be backed by motivated, unbiased law enforcement agencies and the judiciary to implement. This challenge must be surmounted before the electoral reform process can be a success.
However, amidst these gargantuan challenges lie golden opportunities to build a virile democracy on the solid foundation of proper elections. Opportunities come usually disguised as hard work. Hard work is required by all and sundry to unearth these opportunities and to tap into them for a brighter rewarding future.
The electoral reform process presents a golden chance to re-ignite the interest of Nigerians in participating in future elections. Many Nigerians are disenchanted and do not see a need to vote, since the belief is that their votes do not count is widespread. This all embracing process of electoral reform will stimulate debate and ginger Nigerians to contribute, thereby enhancing interest. Interest can be further reinforced through the implementation of various submissions made by Nigerians. The Nigerian polity will be better of for this and we would all be winners.
Furthermore, electoral reform will set the country on the path of political stability, which is a prerequisite for the overall socio-economic development. It boosts the confidence of investors, both local and foreign and it will send positive signals about our desire to do business to the international community. Moreover, the battered reputation of the country within the international community will be laundered and we will draw closer in taking our rightful leadership role in Africa and the world.
Electoral reform present a unique opportunities to address and redress past injustice and to correct previous mistakes and misdeeds, while laying a foundation to prevent the re-occurrence of such in future. It represents a chance to give minority ethnic groups to contribute and be heard in issues that determine their destiny. It also presents a chance to lay a foundation of hope for future generations out the ashes and ruin of the past. Generations yet unborn will celebrate us and be thankful if we get this process right. Enough motivation, isn’t it?
The conclusion of the whole matter is this; Nigeria is at crossroads, at a tipping point in our collective history. We have to get this process of electoral reform right. Unparallel unity of purpose is vital and uncommon drive to implement is critical. Failure is not an option. Nigeria must win. so help us God.