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Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, apologies if there are any interruptions to the recording. You know any interruptions coming in for the background. All right, now with that out of the way, let's get straight to the plan for today. OK. So what we have next on the list now that we're done with the folks in the curated hampers industry is how to define a strong business vision Now, OK, well, before we look into how to define the strong business vision, we have to kind of define what the business vision is in the 1st place.
So I like to keep it loose and simple because if you remember, I'm looking for working definitions. I want a definition that is easy to remember. You don't have to write it down. It's always in your head. You always have it at the back of your pocket so that when it comes time to make a decision you can pull out any of these definitions and just apply accordingly. So in my own opinion, even though you're going to find much more robust definitions, if you check your business textbook,
let's just say that the business vision is just a forward-looking statement that shows how you going to achieve your goals, how you're going to acquire customers and how you're going to grow. So for me I think those are the things that are essential in A to a business, to a business vision. How you going to get customers, how you going to grow. It doesn't matter whether your Facebook or IBM or Dangote cement or if you sell turkeys or if you sell pajamas.
It's always the same how are you going to get customers? How are you going to grow? So it doesn't matter what the business is, it doesn't matter which country you're in. The focus, I think it's that simple when it comes to putting up a business vision. But then again, for those of you who are listening to the podcast, who are MBAs, you know and you know you guys have fancy business education. Yes, feel free to say that that definition is unnecessarily limiting.
But I'm making this podcast for the everyday Nigerian guy and girl and I just want simple definitions that folks can remember and execute on the day-to-day. So what are the key characteristics of a business vision? Now remember that I always look at these things from a sales and business development point of view. Now the reason why I tackle these questions from a sales and business development point of view is not because that is the only point of view that matters.
In fact, at the end of the podcast, I'm going to look at different perspectives about how you come up with a strong business vision and how you can achieve business growth. I'm going to show you that there are other perspectives. It's just that since my area of specialty, my area of focus is sales and business development, especially when we're talking about personal selling, that is one-on-one situations, situations where you're 1
interacting, one-on-one with a potential customer. Since that is my focus, since that is my era of specialty, that is how I just choose to look at most business problems, you know, starting from that perspective. But there are other perspectives. So from a sales and business development perspective, the, oh, sorry, one moment. I have to take this. OK, sorry about that. We have a monumental problem in the estate where I live at the moment.
Now, of course, for those of you who are Nigerians listening to this podcast, if you're listening at the current date in March, then of course you know that there has been a series of national power outages. That's because the National Grid has collapsed several times. In fact, at this point, it's becoming kind of like a joke in Nigeria. You know, the power grid collapses. It's it's just another thing now. We expect it to happen, you know, four or five times every year.
So it's not the emergency that it used to be. Now, unfortunately for folks in my estate, not just my estate, but in my mom's estate and she lives in Makudi, that's another state. While the national outage was going on, our transformer was completely vandalized. Some people went in and totally ripped out every single thing from the transformer. They only left those metal standing things there, but they took all the cables, all the ceramic, all the mercury, all the absolutely everything.
As in they cleaned it out. In fact, they look like when they were done, they maybe even swept the place. They did a really thorough job. And the same thing with my mom, OK, well not the same thing because in her own case just a few items were taken away. So we find that there are some communities here in Nigeria currently at the time of this recording where you don't have power because the National Grid collapse thing happened, there was no power for a week.
But then you now find out that your own transformer was vandalized. And so because of that, you have to sort it out, you know, bureaucracy and everything. So there are some people that have gone effectively 2 weeks without power. So that's the reason why I had to stop the recording because the chairman of the estate was trying to call me because we're trying to last with Napa. Well, not Napa, PHC and the power holding corporation.
So trying to last with them to see how we can get the things fixed, replaced, you know, just basically just get passed so that we can get on with our lives. And yeah, anyway, so summary, if you're Nigerian and if you've been going through these sorts of issues in the past couple of days and weeks, you're not alone. We're all suffering together. And hopefully, and that's the reason why I talk about it on the podcast, about why those of us who are private sector have to keep an eye on being involved in politics at someday at some future point in time.
Because those of us who come from the private sector, we have a unique set of skills. We wake up every day, we're trying to solve problems. Problem solving is our nature. I mean, that is what we do. So I really do think that people who have a private sector orientation are best uniquely poised to solve problems that go on in the country. I think we have a better skill set than the politicians. The only problem is just that politicians are a lot better at breaking bread, building alliances, you know, things like that.
And so we have to get stronger at this game. And that's why I think personal selling is absolutely important and everybody should learn principles of sales and business development because it carries on into other avenues in society, I mean, even in politics. So bottom line, I was trying to tell you that the reason why I disappeared, because now that I'm back, you guys might notice maybe a difference in audio quality or a difference in volume.
You know, that happens because I don't have an audio editor. So when I go out and I come back, you know, something has changed and it might be a jarring experience for you guys. But yeah, so that's the reason why I ran away for for a bit. And now I'm back. And so if there's any interruption in the future, it most likely will be that. So we hear someone, you know, knocking on the door shouting through the window. It's those are the things that we're dealing with, all right.
So before I had to run away and try and see how we can get power back in the estate we were on. OK. I think we looked at what a business vision is. OK, yes. And I said it's just a forward-looking statement and it's preoccupied with how do you get customers, how do you grow? Because I think those are the primary goals that apply to every, every business person, whoever you are, whatever part of the world. If you sell sweets, it's the same.
How am I going to get new customers? How am I going to grow? If you sell indoor me by the street side, it's the same thing. How do I get customers? How do I grow? If you run a media conglomerate like Ebony Live TV, it's the same thing. How am I going to get customers? How am I going to grow? And I think I explained about why I always take things from a sales and business development perspective, so I won't repeat that.
But from a sales and business development perspective, one of the key things that we are focused on is that we have to be customer centric. We're always trying to look at the customer that we have before us or the customers that we're trying to chase. So how do we solve their problems better than the competition? I mean that is the Holy Grail. That is what we're trying to figure out because we can do that. And also if we improve our customer relations and marketing, communication skills,
then we should be able to keep them doing business with us longer. Remember, when it comes to sales and business development, we're always looking at repeat business and referrals. So that's the reason why I'm not bothered. Or at least back when I was in the wedding photography game, I wasn't bothered if I lost the bid to handle the wedding now because I knew it was possible for the bride to go and do business with someone else but for me to get the referrals.
And OK, in that case it's not repeat business, but they've been situations that have been able to do that where I lost out of the wedding, but then the bride comes to me for the baby stuff or corporate end of year stuff and I'm able to leverage that relationship to get more business opportunities out of that. So yeah, so from sales and business development perspective, we're always thinking repeat business and referrals.
So we have to be customer centric, we have to be market focused. We always have to be keeping an ear out what are the opportunities in the market. Those opportunities that we've seen Nigerian companies do quite well because during COVID there was this, this this company was called sure, I think sure, yes, sure as in SURE the started of making sanitizers and currently they make kitchen soaps, bathing soaps, carpet cleaning, no, I
mean not carpet cleaning, floor cleaning stuff, things like that. So there's been one company that has been able to keep a firm eye on that in the in the last you know three to four years I think well for me anyway I think of them as a shining example, they were able to come up with a strong vision. COVID has happened, business might suffer, but how are we going to acquire customers and how are we going to grow and you know of course they that's how they answered that questions then.
So apart from us being customer centric and market focused, when we're looking at things from a sales perspective, then we also have to be actionable because for those of us who have a background of sale sales, it's all about action. Those of you who like marketing, branding, you you guys sit down, you brainstorm, you come up with all fantastic ideas and then you stand up and everybody has a high 5 because you came up with some interesting ideas.
But that's not how it works with sales. So with sales is we sit down, we brainstorm, but until we go out and execute, nobody's going to get paid. If I don't sell something, I'm not going to get a Commission. If I don't get a Commission, then when the transformer gets stolen from the estate, I can't make my own contribution or I can't buy fuel for the car, or I can't get Internet or I can't buy, you know, meat for the kids to eat in the house.
So you kind of, you get the idea. So for sales, it's always about action at the end of the day. So we don't just high 5 when we come up with fantastic ideas, we sit down, come up with some ideas and then we agree on what the strategy or tactics are going to be. And then we head out to the field. This idea that we tried, did it work or didn't it work? OK, the Flyers didn't work. Why didn't it work? Maybe we need to change the copy.
Maybe we're approaching the wrong ideal customer profile. We go out, we try again. And so that's it. So if you're looking at coming up with a compelling business vision, how do you acquire customers, how you, how do you grow from a sales and business development perspective, we're going to be thinking customer centric. You know, who are the customers that we solve? What are the problems that they have? How are we going to solve these problems better than the competition?
Are there other opportunities that are opening up in the market that we can take advantage on? And then what are the actionable things that we're going to do today, tomorrow, next week, next month to achieve those goals? So summary, in my own point of view, I think it's OK for you to have a sales perspective to tackle this problem. And that's enough to give you a strong business vision or a compelling business vision.
Because if you look at the questions that we have, we have asked so far, how are we going to get customers? Who are the customers we should be running after? How do we solve problems better than the competition? From the feedback we're getting, is there any way we can innovate on the product or take advantage of other opportunities in the market? And what are the things that we can do this week and next month to execute on all these fancy ideas?
If you start answering all these questions and you start reducing these things to writing, you know, in your notepad or in your Microsoft Word documents, you see that you're already beginning to have the workings of a strong business definition there, which can definitely lead you for the next year, two years, three years, you know. So like I said, apologies to my, to my Nigerian folks out there who have MBAs, you know, from fancy schools and stuff like that.
Now, yeah, it might not be the most technically robust thing that you have to chart your business growth, but it's a beginning. And most importantly, it is something that absolutely everybody can do, whether you sell sweets, whether you sell Indo me, whether you sell cement, whether you sell human hair or whether you sell mobile phones. So we can work for everyone. Now, I told you guys that even though I'm always coming at this from the angle of sales and business development, that is not the only perspective that is out there.
So when you hear folks like me talking and coming up with these ideas, we are not the only voice in the market. There are other people out there in the market. So let me just give you guys a sense of what else is out there. So when it comes to coming up with the strong business vision and looking, trying to come up with a statement for how you're going to get customers, how you're going to grow, how you're going to achieve business goals,
There are people that answer that question by coming at it from another angle. There are some people that look at it at the from a product development and innovation angle. These are the people who decide that, you know what, let's create an innovative product and then use that to drive demand. That's pretty much what our tech Bros and tech sisters do. So like Facebook, OK, well, before Facebook there was Myspace and all these other, all these other social, what are they called social networking websites.
So before them, there wasn't really a problem per SE, but you come up with an innovative product and then you can stir demand. And it's also the same thing with the development of the iPhone. Because before the iPhone, at least those of you who are Nigerians listening to the podcast, who were in university around the 90s, you remember, you know, 90s into the 2000s. You remember back then these fancy things that used to come from China because they used to be these, what are they called,
like flash drives? But some, you know, the Chinese boys came up with this interesting idea that if you take your flash drive and you put a media interface on top of it, people are going to be able to put lots of songs on it and then play. And people wouldn't need to have, what are these things called Walkmans anymore? Or is it Walkman? Because when, back when I was a kid that that was a reigning thing, so it was a Walkman or,
you know, Walkman. There was Sony Walkman, that was even this. This tennis tennis company, Wilson Wilson also had their own Walkman. Did Nike have or was it Adidas anyway? But a lot of these devices that were going on then, and so they were clunky. You have to buy batteries. You need to buy a tape recorder. So when innovations in technology were happening that you could just take a flash drive, something the size of a flash drive, and put a few dozen songs on it.
Because back then it wasn't much, you know, memory was expensive. You know, back then if you had a a flash drive that was 128 MB, you know, you are considered a big boy or a big girl. You know, you it shows that you had access to huge tech, you know, which is why I find it absolutely mind blowing that nowadays you have phones that have 500 gigabytes worth of space on their mobile phones. That's just mind blowing and it backs back from where I was coming from.
So, yeah, So there are people who thought about that, like, OK, this thing small, it's like a flash drive. We can put 20 songs on it if we just put an interface on it. And so the Chinese products were all over Nigeria at the time. Those of us who were in university at the time, that's how we used to listen to music. And so Steve Jobs and the others just basically took it one step forward. You know, the mobile phone already exists.
This technology is here. We can shrink it into the phone. And then, you know, so that's another way of achieving business growth, product development and innovation. How do we create a product, drive some demand and let's see how we can make some money. So tech Bros and tech sisters, that's what they do. Then there's also the operational excellence and perspective. That is where people say, look, we're running this business at X
amount of this is costing us 10,000 every month to run this business. How do we reduce waste? Can we reduce the cost of running the business? So instead of spending 10,000 every month, let us spend 75 every month because if you save 7500 naira, no, OK, no 75, that means you save 2500. So 2500 * 10, is that 25 grand plus an extra 5? Is that 25? Not 30 grand? Anyway, my math is correct. You should be saving 30 grand at the end of the year if you're able to reduce the cost of running your business every month.
So that's the math that these operational excellence people do. So when accountants take over business, that's the sort of thing that they do. They come in and say, OK, where are we spending money? You're spending too much money here. Cut this. You're spending too much money there, cut this, this looks wasteful. We can improve efficiency. So those are the sorts of things that could be done like I know someone who is into luxury leather goods in Abuja.
And so those are the conversations that they're having right now, especially with the with the way the economy has turned. So before now, they would have leather artisans do everything by hand. So you go to the store and it's some artisans doing everything by hand and then they charge a premium price. But now that the economy has taking a huge nosedive in Nigeria, fuel costs have more than quadrupled that. We need to have that conversation now.
Look, instead of having 10 artisans in the store and we're producing this number of items, how about we only have two or three artisans and then we automate the rest. You know, machines do this and then the artisans only responsible for this and this and that and that. So we do that and then we're all going to be able to produce more items and at less cost because artisans, you know, they are master Craftsman. But you know unfortunately artisans are slow at least compared to machines.
You put the machine there. If there's power, you flick on the on switch and machine just keeps working. Machine doesn't need to stop and pee. The machine doesn't need to eat. Let's see what else. Machine is not going to complain that it's hot or noisy or whatever. So some businesses are currently looking at those sorts of solutions. Now not just in Abuja, but I'm sure also in Lagos that people that are also considering these things, operational excellence,
how are we going to reduce cost? We're spending too much money on this, spending too much money on this. How are we going to improve efficiency? Are we going to bring a machine here to do this? You know, those sorts of questions. Then there's also the perspective of marketing and customer acquisition. That's basically people who believe in brand awareness. You know, all these people that run around using social media campaigns to grow their business.
For instance, the people that my wife buys pajamas for pajamas for the for the children, you know, novelty pajamas, you know, when Christmas comes around and stuff like that, you know, so those people, they don't have a store. So for them it's all about brand awareness, things like that. So they're doing a lot on LinkedIn, their advertising, so not LinkedIn, Instagram and then the advertising and things like that. So that's another perspective,
the marketing and customer acquisition people who believe in brand. Then there's also the financial management or the OR the resource allocation people sort of. Those are people who are look for financial opportunities to invest in. So what's his name? I was going to say Rupert Murdoch, but no, not Murdoch. Murdoch is that media guy. It's this old guy as well. His partner just died. Charlie Monga, that's his partner that died.
What's his name? Buffett. Yeah, Warren Buffett. Yeah. So there's that kind of setup. You're growing the company because you look at how much money you have like, OK, I have 10,000 naira in the bank. Where can I take that 10,000 naira and put it into another business where can I move around resources and then invest in this and then get returns and invest in that and get returns. So there are businesses that grow that way.
So you can see that is another perspective. The financial management and resource allocation people, you can see how very different they are from we sales and business development people. So for we sales and business environment people, we're always starting with the customer. So who are we trying to serve, What problem do they have, what can, what product can we create, How are we going to sell it? How are we going to price it,
how are we going to start the conversation. But you see that these financial management people, it's all about moving around money. So I have thousands here, I have millions here. Where am I going to move this? Where am I going to move that to get returns on the money? Then another perspective I was able to find, in fact that was the first one that came to my mind was mergers and acquisitions that people who believe in growing the business by buying assets and buying the customer base of our competitors.
Now those of us in Nigeria, it's something that we are familiar with even paying attention to the business news because Access Bank used to be retail banking, but now they have bought over some other businesses insurance activity. So Axis Bank, you can now get insurance products through Axis Bank, you know, so they did that not because they created a product of their own, but they went out and bought, bought AAI think it was Sigma Pensions that they bought.
I think Axis Bank bought Sigma Pensions. And so through Sigma Pensions they now do insurance, they now do that arm of business basically. So it's not something that was home grown. So at least that's the gist that I received. Some people say that Access Bank had those kinds of businesses but then just went out and inquired sorry acquired Sigma Pensions any way to grow that side of the business. But you you get the gist that's how some businesses that's how they grow by mergers and acquisitions.
Who can I buy, what can I acquire to grow. And then of course, for those of us from Benue State, there was the very famous one maybe like 2 decades ago or when Dangote Cement bought over all the assets of Binwa Cement in Boku. And the environment at the time was not a politically, what's the word, was not a politically palatable idea to have Dangote buying over certain assets of Binwa cement. But anyway, that has come and that has gone.
So there are businesses that grow that way. So the reason why I showed this, all these other perspectives was not to confuse you guys or to bamboozle you guys, but was just to show you that there are other options out there. So the things I talk about over here on the podcast are not necessarily gospel truth for everybody at all times. There are people who can. When they're coming up with their business vision, they're going to decide that you know what, for 2024 into 2025, we're going to grow by merging.
We're going to grow by acquiring or we're going to look at financial management. We're going to move resources. But then these options are usually available to only the big boys and big girls in the space. And so far, looking at the analytics that we get from the podcast, I don't think I have a bunch of big boys and big girls listening to the podcast. So that's why I don't talk about these sorts of things. I'm a whole bunch.
So I choose to focus on the easy levers that people can execute for business growth and come up with a strong business vision. And of course, I will start off with the sales and business development perspective because everybody can do it. If you sell Indomi, you can do it. If you sell TomTom, you can do it. If you sell safety equipment like these gloves and masks that people sell in the hospitals, you can do it. If you sell pajamas on the Internet, you can do it.
If you're a business consultant, you can do it. Everybody can do sales. Everybody can do business development. In fact, I don't like the term business development. I've just given in and I'm using the term now because everybody now is biz dev, biz dev. Everywhere you go, people are saying, oh, I'm biz deving this, I'm biz deving that. My own opinion, stop saying biz dev, it's just sales. So everybody can do sales. Product innovation is something everybody can do.
Especially if you're listening to your customers, you'll be able to get a sense of, oh, they don't like this, they don't like that. The ones that they like, let's do more. The ones that they don't like, let's do less. That is product innovation in a very simple sense. Then the then is then the marketing and customer acquisition, that whole branding thing, you know everybody can can do that as well. You can advertise on Instagram or you can create a post for LinkedIn.
So those are easy stuff, easy levels that the everyday guys and girls like me and you can do. So the summary, we need to have a strong vision in answer to the question, we need to have a strong vision for business growth and we can do that by focusing on the customers, creating innovative products. Of course, we also have to do branding, advertising on social media. Then let's also take the perspective of our accountant friends and let's be lean, let's not waste money, there's no need spending 10,000 are doing something.
If 7500 is going to achieve the same effect, then let's see what else. Basically, don't waste money. So that's it. Focus on the customers, innovate on the products. Don't waste money in your business and you should be fine. So thank you very much for your time and attention. Remember to connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +2344 Nigeria. Also connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
I'm the host of the show. Don't worry about the spelling of my strange name. Once you're done listening to this episode, check the link where you listen to this audio and you will find the correct spelling of my name and my e-mail address. So reach out to me, let's have a chat. Always love hearing from you guys. Thanks for your time and attention. I will catch you guys at the next episode and hopefully by then my power was would have been resolved.
But if they haven't and if yours have not been resolved as well, Please remember that this is a reason why those of us who are involved in private sector now, we may not be big boys or big girls. Now you know, you're 30, you're 40, maybe you're 45. You know, you never hope, as in your pocket is not strong. You can't do politics yet. But eventually it's a good idea to keep your mind on these sorts of things because those of us in the private sector, we are primarily problem solvers.
We are what our societies need, and I think problem solvers are what Nigeria in particular at this moment needs. So thanks for your time and attention. It's not a political podcast. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.