Professor Pat Utomi is a rear blend of a consummate academic, and a well rounded entrepreneur. Globally, he is acknowledged as a renowned Political Economist and Professor of Entrepreneurship. The Ibusa, Delta State-born scholar bagged the highest academic degree at a very young age of 26. Many in his shoes would bask in the euphoria and pick on job offers flying around them. Rather, he chose to go into business, and to try his hands in entrepreneurship. And because of the experiences he has garnered in both fields, his books and workshops have continued to serve as entrepreneurial road map for academic eggheads and aspiring entrepreneurs all over the world. Professor Utomi hosted VERA WISDOM BASSEY and HENRY OKONKWO recently in Lagos, where he granted this interview.
Excerpts…
You seem like an oracle in business and economy; it makes us ask if you’ve ever tasted the bitter pills of failing in business?
Oh my God! I deal with failure every day. I have many times not just in business but in everything; every life endeavour is definitely a learning experience. Those who make good will really have significant failures. And perhaps the greatest motivation is failing. It was John Maxwell that talked about failing forward. You learn from your mistake and try not to make the same mistake again.
There is a famous anecdotal reference to overnight success. That it is the man who hit it after 20 years of failing and people see him conclude that he is an overnight success. But he has been failing all along for years. Failure is not what people should fear, but I think it all depends on what one calls success.
But what I can tell you is that I keep crashing and picking up. I keep questioning myself that what I did yesterday, could I have done it differently today?
How exactly would you define success?
I wrote a book years ago titled ‘To serve, is to live’; many people that have attained the general material success that the society is looking for are living miserable lives. But think of anyone that torches lives and those other lives are richer for the contact. You will find that those kinds of people are never miserable people. Assisting and adding value in the lives of others makes you feel renewed as a human being no matter what’s in your pocket. So, I think the greatest wealth you can have is crossing the lives of other people and giving it a touch of joy.
What does it take to succeed doing business in a tough environment like Nigeria?
To excel can be seen in many different ways that is why this is important. There is a possibility that you can focus on the short term, then cut corners, bribe this person or that person to make it. But in the long run you find out that those kinds of successes are not sustainable. But the basis of success in anything you do is building sustainable ‘Relationships’. To build relationships would help you get things done; just because people respect you and know what you stand for. Relationships are really the key to excel in any business.
How would rate the level of entrepreneurial awareness among youths in the country?
It’s easy to blame this person or that person, but these things are rooted in culture. We have people who don’t follow the norm and I’m a classic example of someone who didn’t follow the norm. I was properly prepared as an academic; at 26 years old, I had my Ph.D. When I came home researching for my thesis, I managed to impress the then permanent secretary of Minister of Finance, Alhaji Abubarkar Alhaji. He wanted me to come and work for him. There were also more job offers from the private sector, etc. But I chose not to accept any position but to start my own business straight out after my Ph.D programme. The typical Nigerian has been socialized to be believe that going into school, their certification becomes their meal ticket.
But I believe that is beginning to change because I have see lots of efforts being made to spark an entrepreneurial mindset among youths. I have seen adverts put out by Professor Okogie and the NUC to have a conference about entrepreneurship education for universities. I think that is a new consciousness. Also, the NUC has also invited me a couple of years ago to run a workshop for vice-chancellors of universities on entrepreneurship in curriculums. When I finished speaking Professor Nurudeen Amale commented that my stuff is so original. And that the real difference is something that we don’t have much in our environment. We have a lot of pure academic research teaching in our universities. But my career involves going from industry to academia back to industry. My experience base and ability to speak and teach a class about entrepreneurship would not be the same as a guy who have only read lots of business books.
What major challenge militates against growth of entrepreneurial culture in Nigeria?
One of the challenges with the culture of entrepreneurship is that we need to allow more movement between the academia and the real world back to academia so that academics who are experienced in the field would excite their students more about the potentials and what they can do in the field, rather than somebody who has no experience outside teaching. For example, I would catch attention of students more, when I teach and tell them that I refused to accept any job from any sector the day I set out of the plane in 1982, after clinching a Ph.D and two Masters degrees. I can then start to tell how I started my first business with zero capital.
What business was that?
It was a publishing venture. An annual titled the ‘Nigerian Handbook and Review’. The story started when I was in the United States. I went to the Nigerian Consulate in New York to give a letter to the Librarian working in the consulate. There, I noticed an American wanted to get some information about the Nigerian shoes industry. He needed newspapers to go through shoe advertisements, so as to get a sense of the shoe industry in Nigeria. The librarian, being a typical Nigerian civil servant, felt the fellow was disturbing her peace. So, she just collected a few copies of New Nigeria newspaper and handed over to the American. And I know that New Nigeria newspaper, being a government funded paper, does not carry any advert. The newspaper that carried enough adverts in those days was Daily Times newspaper. I felt sorry for the man then searched for copies of Daily Times in the library and gave them to him.
At that point, it occurred to me that there is a significant opportunity in presenting to people outside Nigeria, pieces of economic and business information about Nigeria. So, I made up my mind that as soon as I return to my country, my first venture is to create a hand book that would enable anybody who comes to the Nigerian embassy to look up in the hand book for any information they would need about any sector of the economy they are interested in.
So how did you start it with zero capital?
During the day, I went to the Research Department of CBN and Federal Bureau of Statistics to gather all the information I could. Then I went scouting for adverts to make the package commercially viable. After I have collected a reasonable number of advert commitments, because many of the firms refused to pay cash up front.
The first hitch was not having money for printing the package. So, I went to take a loan at the New Arab Bank, located back then at Broad Street, Lagos. I tried to convince the manager to loan me some money. But the manager laughed at me and asked for my collateral. I tried to convince him about my publication, as I went on to tell him a story about how I took a loan of $2000 back when I was a graduate student in the US. I needed the money for some project and I had no collateral, but the American banker loaned my money just after going through my academic record, he didn’t ask even ask for the guarantor letters I got from my school professors.
But the Nigerian banker laughed out even more, but he gave me an idea. He said I should write a cheque to Daily Times- who are my publishers, and during the intervals it would take for the cheque to be cleared, and the money paid, they would have finished printing my publication and I can raise money during the delay.
I did as I was told, and came to understand the saying that ‘Luck smiles on the prepared’. When I presented the cheque to Time Express, they forgot to present it to the bank for clearing. I collected a few copies that they have printed, distributed it and got some money from firms that placed adverts. I was even getting ready to pay for the second instalment before they now realised that they are yet to clear the cheque I since brought to them. That was how the first Nigerian Handbook and Review was published.
Give a word of advice to youths of Nigeria.
Every day when I talk with young entrepreneurs, they complain about lack of access to capital. And I try to remember that it is true we have a dearth of access to capital in Nigeria, but it’s probably one of the last reasons why we don’t succeed in business.
The most important is the great idea that creates value. Identify that thing that creates value, that bridges that dissatisfaction gap, and somehow you’re likely to find the money. Once we are focused on creating values and passionately working on delivering that value, something would yield for good. It might not happen right now; that’s why it’s about delayed gratification; it’s about discipline, it’s about rigour. And ultimately it comes to you.
I see immense opportunities in our country. Nigeria’s need is to re-invent manufacturing, to diversify opportunities into agriculture. A country like Nigeria is not a place where you say, ‘where is opportunity?’ opportunities are everywhere! The thing is for us to work together to create an enabling environment to sustain engagement in any of the environments we get into.
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