Have
the “billionaire years” that once upon a time were evident in the North West
Region been replaced with a new era of self-destructive businessmen?
This question lingers on the minds of the
inhabitants of the region who for years to come will mourn the deaths of some
of Bamenda’s finest and wealthiest tycoons like Pa Nanga, Puwo Jonas and Jean
Tatsa. These were some of the few businessmen who made the region proud.
Looking around these days, it is difficult to
predict who would carry on the torch of entrepreneurship that these fallen
giants held so high most of the days of their lives.
We can’t help but marvel at how some of these
men who arose from backgrounds of hardship, limited education and even poor
health (note that Jean Tatsa died with his vision impaired), built business
empires on such solid foundations that at the time of their demise were among
the biggest in the country. Time alone will tell whether their children will be
able to keep them going.
It is often said that these men built their
businesses relying on luck and practicing monopoly at a time when the
opportunities for growth were still there. Luck, monopoly, opportunity... these terms may
seem to conjure negative connotations, but they are actually what smart
businessmen the world over have employed to advantage, and they still work till
date. Opportunity simply means strategically positioning your business so that
you are repeatedly able and ready to fill a need when it arises. Monopoly means
dominating rival businesses by encroaching on their market share and this can
only happen if you constantly strive to be the best at what you do. The days when businessmen relied more on luck than
on strategy to make a buck are long gone. Somebody defined “LUCK as Laboring
Under Correct Knowledge”. Failure to harness luck and opportunity and running
your shop with a “monopoly mentality” is like laboring with no strategy. More
often than not in these parts, such businessmen start accusing their rivals of
practicing voodoo on them when they see their business spiraling into thin air
for no apparent reason. Tycoons have become a rare breed in these parts not only
to death, but to mental stagnation. A lack of a spirit of innovation has led to
the demise of businesses that once upon a time were flourishing.
However, as Norman Peale said, “Every
problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don’t have any
problems, you don’t get any seeds.” Let us examine some of the factors inhibiting growth in the region.
1) Financial
Literacy.
Recently, I was
talking with my long time friend and Coach Edison Fru Ndi and I realized that
in his early years in business, he faced the same problem that I am currently
facing on the question of the proper time to invest in a car. He had to decide
whether to lay out cash on a car or invest in the growth of what is now
Dreamland Holdings. He chose the latter not because a car was not important but
because the timing was not right. He had to build a solid foundation for his
business. A car at that time would have been a liability to the growth of his
business so he postponed it. Some would think that he was being selfish to himself,
but he was just being financially literate, better explained in building
construction. Constructing a 9 storey building like the new CAMCCUL structure
at the Commercial Avenue requires that you dig a deep hole and pour in a concrete
foundation. On the contrary, if you are
to build a three-bedroom house in the neighborhood, all you need do is pour a
six inch layer of concrete and you are good to go. Most people in their drive
to get rich are building a CAMCCUL-type structure on a six inch foundation.
The businessmen
mentioned above built solid foundations that enabled their businesses to grow
into empires. The only education that all of them exhibited was in nurturing
what they had made. They followed the golden principle of “it’s not how much
money you can make, but how much money you can make and keep”. As Robert T.
Kiyosaki puts it in his book RICH DAD, POOR DAD, ‘‘most people struggle
financially because they do not know the difference between a liability and an asset’’.
According to him, financial literacy is differentiating between assets and
liabilities and knowing which to acquire at every given time. He believes that ‘‘rich
people acquire assets and the poor and middle class acquire liabilities’’.
An
asset is whatever a businessman acquires that makes his business grow with a
commensurate growth in income. On the other hand, liabilities are those things
he acquires that make his expenses seem to always keep up with the income,
never allowing him to invest in assets. Most businessmen nowadays treat their
liabilities as their primary assets instead of pruning them and investing in
income-generating assets.
This is because
most business practices in Bamenda are not tailored towards the kind of growth
that produces millionaires, but are considered as ‘high risk’ ventures due to poor
financial education.
2) Marketing.
Once upon a time,
there was an all-round limited supply of goods and services in this region.
During that period, marketing was so easy such that all a marketer had to do was
transport goods and services to a waiting market. This period was known as
product oriented period where there were more consumers chasing the few
available goods and services.
This cycle brought
things to a period when there was an influx of goods and services and in such
variety that the consumer had more than one option in making the buying
decision. During this period, producers and service providers tried to force
consumers to buy what they had already produced. This “product oriented” period
was characterized by exaggerated claims on the part of the marketers.
In this day and
age, marketing has completely evolved to the level where goods and services are
designed and produced to meet the exact needs of the consumers. This is what
economists call the “market oriented” era, which is characterized by research
and sample survey so as not to produce what consumers will not buy.
If we were to
categorize these periods into phases and where the average businessman in
Bamenda falls, you will realize that marketing in this region is still at the
level of the early period of the second phase, the product oriented period. For
a proper business incubation and growth, entrepreneurs and would-be
entrepreneurs in the region and beyond need to evolve to the marketing oriented
style of business operations which is the appropriate business practice for
winning ventures.
3) Business
copycats.
It is difficult to do something well if you don't feel
passionate about it. Most entrepreneurs in the North West region enter into
ventures just because they have seen some enterprising persons make a success
of it. In the last two years, there has been a proliferation of cabarets in
Bamenda after Dreamland cabaret was opened. Before the cabaret boom, there was
the hair salon, taxi, “bend-skin”, restaurant, car parts etc. The most recent has
been the hotel boom. All these ventures shut down even faster than they started
because the financial numbers proved not to pan out as well as was anticipated.
This influx of copycats vulgarizes the business and stalls the growth of the
pioneers because they diminish their market share.
This observation is not to
discourage competition in the business. Rather, I want to challenge and
persuade would-be investors to put their money in a business that they love,
and they will find themselves prospering. If what they want to venture into is
what they truly love doing, then so be it. After all, competition is good for
both the businessman and the consumer.
To really make money demands growing a business
and this takes patience and time. Be sure it's something you want to do.
Something related to a life-long hobby or interest is ideal.
In addition, the
business you venture into must be something you are psychologically and
physically suited to do. This is not the same as loving it. Some people are more outgoing
and social than others. Other people are more reserved. Each is suited to
building different types of businesses. Needless to say, a business that
demands much person-to-person contact with customers might not be ideal for the
introvert. Yet, such a person could very successfully run a courier or
Internet-based company.
To be continued.....
Read Part II of this post below
