Wisdom Tales From Made Entrepreneurs, Mrs. Ibukun Awosika (CEO) Sokoa Nigeria Ltd

Everything I needed was in the system. The carpenters came with their tools. So I didn’t even need to buy tools. All I needed was to have a place to operate from. I noticed that furniture making company need basically three divisions -carpentry, upholstery and spraying. So I engaged three carpenters, two upholsterers and two sprayers. We were seven. So where do we start from? The chief carpenter said there was an uncompleted building close to his house. The man lives in Ejigbo. I had never gone to Ejigbo but I had to go because what I needed was there. The next thing was where do we get jobs from? When people heard that one of our first customers was Prime Merchant Bank, it sounded so big and great. But I had handled the transaction in my former place of work. I went there to see if there was any extra job that they could offer me. I treated them well. But how do you give a bank’s major furniture work to a 25 year-old girl who had nothing? All the same, I went there and they felt it would be nice to also be nice to me. The first order I got was to supply wooden trays and wooden dust bins. I took it because I wanted a foot in the door. I just needed a starting point. We worked on that like our lives depended on it. They had a lot of young staff who were just starting life so I took all manners of jobs – people who wanted stools in their houses, bed and all sorts. Every job was a big job and so we plugged ourselves into it. Six months later, there was a furniture show at the National Theatre and I decided we were going to go there. All the big guys, of course, were there. I needed to showcase that we can also do it. We have the skills, what we lacked was the network. So I scrounged all the monies we have to pay for space at the show.

My guys made assorted furniture and for the one week period of the show, we went there and we had to close workshop. Whilst we were there, Texaco Nigeria was building a new factory at McCarthy, and they came to scout for a company that would supply their furniture. We were there among the big guys, but nobody realised that we were a tiny, little dot. We made our paper work and had a good presentation. Our attention to details was different from theirs. By the time we did the samples, we were shortlisted among the best. You can image how hard we worked on it. At that point nobody was dealing with me. They were dealing with the quality of our work. By the time TEXACO awarded the contract, they had given it to a tiny, little company that had nothing.

Now the difficult part. Oil companies do not pay down payment for their jobs. You have to go and look for money to do the job. In 1989, the value of the 66 chairs and tables was N166, 000. I had to look for N50,000 to add to the savings we had made over time. The bank that I had worked for could not risk their money on us. I looked for the N50,000 all over Lagos, but nobody offered a helping hand. It was one person who was starting a finance company and believed in me that offered me a loan. We were able to prove that we could do excellent jobs if we are given the opportunity.

But TEXACO didn’t move into the building and for five months, we were paying interest on a loan that we could have paid off in two months. Did we have problems? Yes. Two weeks after we delivered those chairs, 28 of them were broken. Not because of us but the base of the chairs were not too good. I had done my research and got warranty on the base from a Syrian or Lebanese company at Oshodi, but the warranty didn’t work. For a company of our size, it was a big loss. We could abandon the customer and move on. But my name is more important than even the money. I however choose to maintain our integrity and retain our credibility. We replaced them. It was a killer. But I realised that we stood to benefit more if we do the right things at all times. That job produced many other jobs. It will be 21 years in January since that 25 year old girl started her entrepreneurship. As at today, the company I run makes turn-over in hundreds of millions of naira. We have the largest office furniture factory in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa set up with the largest French furniture manufacturing company here in Nigeria. The factory is at Ileje in Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos. Our second factory is at PUNCH premises in Ikeja here. I have an expatriate as Factory Manager. Apart from him, every other person is a Nigerian.

On Monday, I will be jetting out to sign a strategic partnership agreement with one of the top three furniture companies in the world. They came to the West coast of Africa to look for us. It’s an American company, a big player in the global furniture market. I know them by reputation and name. It’s an awesome deal, I tell you. Your starting point is irrelevant. If you insist on doing the right things and doing it well. Don’t give me the crab that this is Nigeria. That is things are done in certain ways. That is not a sustainable theory. No, Nigerians have value and it’s not right that Nigerians are corrupt people. There may be some corrupt people in Nigeria. Nigerians have integrity and value it. There could be some people without integrity, but such people also exist in other countries of the world - It’s not peculiar to Nigeria. Who you are is who you choose to be. Tell me a Yoruba or an Igbo or a Hausa man who knows where a thief is celebrated? Where is it honourable to do what is wrong in Nigeria? We need to change the image of the country from the bad image that the corrupt minority do. Every one of us should know that we need to seek knowledge to whatever extent possible.

Take a personal decision to be excellent in whatever you do. The only reason a French company will concede 21per cent equity to a Nigerian company is because we have a track record. The only reason the company that I’m signing strategic partnership agreement with in the US is because when they were looking for information, one of our clients, an international bank said we are the best. It is the way we relate with them. What makes the difference in whatever you choose to do as an enterprise is to make the first one look the best. You also ensure that when you get to the 1000th, you remain the best. Take whatever knowledge you have learnt here seriously. Seek knowledge to whatever extent possible. Take a personal decision to be excellent in whatever you do. My commitment is to deliver international standard and topmost quality business within Nigeria with pride without saying this is Nigeria. A time would come when the guy who knows the right thing would come up and when he does, he would judge by what he sees. It doesn’t matter if you can do better, he will judge you by what you have presented to him.

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