Below is an article 7 REASONS BUSINESSES DON’T GO TRANS-GENERATIONAL IN NIGERIA by Yinka Ojo, senior Pastor Grace Family Churches, Lagos Nigeria.
Below is an article 7 REASONS BUSINESSES DON’T GO TRANS-GENERATIONAL IN NIGERIA by Yinka Ojo, senior Pastor Grace Family Churches, Lagos Nigeria.
The year was 2003. My wife and I made a trip to Cedar Point USA, branded as “The Rollercoaster Capital of the World”. It is a 147 -hectare sprawling amusement park in Ohio. Over 3.6 million visitors pass through its gates annually.
At the entrance, I was shocked to see the notice that this pristine-looking mega-park was opened in 1870! The business is over 130 years old! I began to wonder how come 80% of new businesses in our part of the world (Nigeria/Africa) fizzle out before the third year! 
Many youths in Nigeria are crazy about European football clubs. Yet, they are never sober enough to reflect on the fact that these clubs are well-run trans-generational businesses that have existed for many years.
A sample of some of these clubs and their years of establishment are as follows:
Barcelona FC (1899), Manchester United (1878), Arsenal (1886) Manchester City (1880), Everton (1878), Liverpool (1892). They are well over a hundred years old and are still going strong, in fact, impacting the globe and making good money.
Why is our case different? Where are our 100+-year-old businesses? The only exemptions I see in our clime are old companies with colonial roots.
And these two are so few that I can count on one hand. Yet, Coca-cola, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Ford are businesses that were formed over 100 years ago and have continued to grow and thrive globally for generations.
Many months ago, I participated in a two-day course at Harvard University, USA. Walking through the 210-acre university campus comprising 21,000 student body, I could not help but feel the effect of successive leadership that has spanned generations in its 380 years of existence as an institution!
Are there reasons why we do not find such legacies being bequeathed here? I think I have discovered seven important reasons why a company or organisation doesn’t stand a chance of multi-generational survival in Nigeria:
(1) Grasshopper Mentality
In 1998, my wife and I were given a tour of the main Ford Motor Corporation plant in Detroit Michigan, which was incorporated on June 16, 1903. Over 200 thousand employees work on the premises daily.
That year, the running budget of Ford Motor Corporation was roughly the budget of the nation of Nigeria! I was shocked. My initial thought was that we should get the directors of Ford to come and run NIGERIA for a year. They can easily make the country a profit-making entity!
Think about our mentality: we feel the budget is so large and the job of running our nation effectively too daunting. This is a grasshopper mentality. I got this from the children of Israel who were small thinkers. They saw themselves as grasshoppers while they saw the challenges facing them as giants (Num 13:33).
We lack a willingness to take on projects and allow our businesses to become worldwide ventures. Yes, by ilil means start small, but plan not to stay small. Think big. As a man thinks, so he is (Prov 23:7). Though your beginning may be small, your latter end shall greatly increase (Job 8:7)
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(2) Succession Planning Failure
There is a taboo in Nigeria: death! We don’t want to think nor talk about it. Many Nigerians in their mid-life years do not even consider putting together a simple Will. The superstitious grip of the fear of death makes the typical
Nigerian believe that dwelling on it to any degree is inviting it to come earlier than it plans too! Yet, nobody lives here forever! In the western world, they are more pragmatic about death, hence they make plans to deliberately determine what happens to the organisation when they are no more.
It is important to plan for your business to outlive you. Begin to think of a successor. It may be from your family or within the rank and file of your company. Both approaches have been proven to work out well, depending on the circumstances.
The key to success here is to put sentiments aside and put pragmatism to work. Begin to groom the person (or persons) without them initially knowing what you are doing.
(3) Lifestyle of Prodigality by Founders
The story of the prodigal son in the Bible is one that is fairly popular. This boy Is wasteful with resources. He abused the blessing of his privileged upbringing.
He saw the fact that his father was wealthy as an opportunity to live life on the fast lane, squandering the proceeds of his father’s hard toil. Businesses fail quickly when the founder(s) believes that he has paid his dues, hence must recklessly prove to others that he has “arrived”.
He wastes money on liabilities such as exotic cars, private jets, very expensive vacations, Rolex watches, designer shoes, etc.
In advanced countries, CEOs hardly step up their living standards just because their company is making a lot of money. They reinvest and plan for the future instead. An example is Warren Buffett-world’s richest man for many years.
I watched a documentary on his life recently; he has a simple office, drives a simple car, and has been living in the same house since 1957! Yet he is worth $73.3billion as of May 2017. Maturity is the ability to hold-off gratification until a later time.
When the original company owners are immature, the company usually will not survive that generation (Eccl.1 0: 16, 17).
(4) Weak or absent Systems and Structures
Strong personalities have been idolised in Africa since time immemorial. This aspect of our culture suppresses the need to create systems and structures that will keep an organisation moving, whether the founding leader is present or not.
It seems we have a leadership paradigm that feeds its insecurity on the validation of being the main reason for the success of the establishment. The developed world has moved away from such a mindset. As a business owner, when you are out of town, ill or on vacation, does the company shut down?
Can things run at the same level as when you are on your seat? Can your business function independently of you, the owner?
For a business to have the chance of lasting for many generations, the leader(s) must quickly put in place systems that will make it outlast them and function well regardless of its physical absence. You can get a clearer picture of the meaning of System by using each letter of the word to form a sentence: S.Y.S.T.E.M. Saves You Stress, Time, Energy & Money.
Create a process that can be utilised by anyone in the organisation in order to save time, energy and money. You have created a company that will last and last. Build around Systems, not personalities.
(5) Culture of Purloining
Many companies are wreaked because of wide-scale purloining going on within the system.
This refers to steady and systemic stealing going on within an organisation.
This includes embezzling company funds, holding back balances as well as diverting company products and clients.
The word of God is clearly against this evil act (Tit 2:10). It was common knowledge a few years ago that Aliko Dangote had to sack a lot of his workers and replace them with imported hands from Asia. Reason: the Nigerian staff were almost stealing his organisation blind!
It seems that employees of corporations have an unspoken code that whatever pilfering they can get away with is okay, so long as they are not discovered.
Sometimes, family members and close friends of the business owner may develop a sacred-cow mentality, whereby they feel they are untouchable.
Some may even boast that as they carry out these indiscretions, heaven will not fall. This is a dangerous attitude that may end up eating up the organization like cancer.
Often times when left unchecked, it becomes the incurable disease that sends the organisation to the great beyond, untimely. Businesses that do not clamp down on purloining will suffer for it, and actually, they should be planning their own soon-to-come funeral.
After reading the riot act to all employees, I recommend that a disciplinary committee should be set up within your business to carry out preliminary investigations of such matters.
Then, whoever is found to be stealing company property can be handed over to the law enforcement agencies.
(6) Insensitivity to Emerging Trends
While growing up, the Polaroid company produced cameras that gave us instantly printed pictures. These cameras were the in-thing. Yet, today the Polaroid brand is virtually dead. The company went bankrupt. Things changed! Digital phones are now our cameras!
Someone took a regular cab from his home to the airport. On the way, he asked the cab driver how business was. The answer was, “Fine”. He then prodded further, by asking him why he had not considered making money by joining UBER.
The taxi driver snickered and said with a derogatory tone: “By the time Uber has come and gone, we will still be here, doing things the old way”.
In a few months, a lot of his customers would not need his services anymore, since Uber and Taxify’s fares are already half his own! The Internet is not going away!
The world has changed for good. The migration of businesses into cyberspace is irreversible. 85% of Nigerians are below age 35 years.
They are the “Tech” generation. When businesses don’t factor in these evolving trends, they have signed their own death certificate.
Do you know that the world is now so interconnected that a trend or ripple in a developed country, half a world away can affect us in Nigeria within a few hours? Are you able to adapt?
(7) Unpredictability of Government Policies
Let us face it, the environment in Nigeria is not the friendliest in the world to start and nurture a trans-generational business model. Everyone seems to be interested in short term results.
We can learn from countries like New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, Australia & Hong Kong-these are the five top-ranked nations for ease of starting and running a business. (I am hoping someone in authority will get to read this).
With successive government changes in Nigeria, new policies, rules of engagement and vision for business are promulgated. The good plans of the previous governments are jettisoned, just because of huge egos at play.
Continuity is virtually an unknown word to these policymakers. In many parts of Africa, violent, unexpected change of government via coup de tats has bedevilled most of these young nations, creating a climate of insecurity, and aversion for visionary, long-range business planning.
This stuttering approach to governance does not help the psyche of the average entrepreneur. The hostility of the entire process has an adverse effect whether directly or indirectly on long-range planning by business owners.
Let me conclude by saying that we can begin a new trend of turning businesses into legacies in our country. But advanced 11eliberate planning is key. Good intentions alone won’t cut it.
My prayer is that as you consider and implement the ideas shared above, you can expect to be a trailblazer in the new trend of multi-generational businesses dotting our land.
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