Yomi Badejo-Okusanya says money can be made while solving problems
By Sun News Publishing
Monday, Aprill 16, 2007

•Yomi Badejo-Okunsanya Pix: Sun Publishing

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Who is Yomi Badejo-Okunsanya?
Yomi Badejo-Okunsanya is a public relations officer with a difference. He is problem seeker and problem solver. Cut his PR teeth working with CT&A, an advertising company which later set up a direct marketing subsidiary which Badejo Okunsanya headed.

He moved from there to set up CMC Connect. He is the immediate past chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Lagos chapter.

What about CMC Connect?
CMC Connect is a PR consulting firm which started in 1992 but was repackaged in 1997 to accommodate other investors.
This has widened the horizon of the company. Badejo-Okunsanya says our desire is to reposition the practice of PR in Nigeria, we would like to become the reference point for that practice, not only in Nigeria but actually on the West Africa coast.

How is money made in PR practice?
This profession can be a money spinner. It just requires that you follow certain age-long principles. I believe the first thing is to ensure that you establish reputation for excellence and integrity. You must be seen and perceived by the public as a firm that delivers on its promise. I have found that if you are consistence in what you do, money would always come, it may take sometime. Once you start making money, you have to think of how to use that money to generate more money. Don’t be restricted by what you do or your training. For instance, we are considering going into mortuary business. It sounds very funny, but I understand that some good money can be made from it. When we make money, we deiversify by investing in other things. We will be known as a PR company but that won’t be where we are making the money from. This is the approach I suggests that people take. Strive to be known very well in one area and then use that as a launch pad to generate streams of income. I can confirm that it works.

What are the tips for success in PR?
PR is a jack of all trade and master of all, as a PR practitioner, you must have knowledge about everything. The area I think we have failed in the practice is that many of us are successful professionals but not successful businessmen. Being a successful PR practitioner should go beyond knowing how to run good campaigns, it should involve learning how to set up a good business system that would enable you make money whether you are around or not. I believe that people like Biodun Shobanjo fit into this model. You should study what he has done with PR communications.

How would you differentiate PR and journalism.
The truth of the matter is that PR in Nigeria is still largely media-centre, it is a world which we have trained to create the impression that PR is all about the media, but this is not true, media is just an outlet for either PR tools, it is one of the tools of PR. Some people think that when you know about the media, it makes you a PR person, PR goes beyond the media, there are other aspects of the profession such as crisis management, corporate social responsibility and lately people are talking about investor relations etc. All these aspects of PR are there which, as a journalist, you don’t have the experiences to cover. Therefore, media relations is different from PR, it is just one subject of PR.

What is investors relations in PR?
It is an aspect of PR where the main focus is to ensure there is a constant flow of information between the investors and the organization that they have invested in. People want to know what their company is doing and so on. Moreover, you don’t have to wait until an Annual General Meeting (AGM) for you to communicate with your stakeholders. And more importantly, most shareholders don’t even come to AGMs , it is good that an investor is a shareholder in your business and it is good for him to be aware of the state of health of his organization or the company he has invested in.

What has been your best investment decision?
I don’t know whether I can call it best, I can only say that you should do what is required of you at the right time to take your business to the next level in order to remain very competitive. I think one of the smartest moves we have made is relocating our offices from Ilupeju to GRA. It cost us some fortunes but I can begin to see the dividends of this effort.

How do you deal with workers?
We have our remuneration package and one of the thing we have evolved here is a form of interest to the workers. This is a well run company, we have a structural board and in another six or seven days we will be having our AGM, the staff also share in the profit when the investors are also taking their profit.

What are the challenges of running a PR firm?
It has to do with proper positioning of PR, so many people misconstrue what we do, and they have equated it to all kinds of mundane activities, including bribe giving or arranging for ladies to accompany men, receiving people at the airport, which I call protocol services. Therefore, the major challenges are trying to properly position the profession, so that people don’t look down on what you do. Also associated with this is the fact that it has become an all comers business, because people have the wrong perception of what it is or what it is not, they then bring all kinds of people into it, and that has lowered the level of professionalism for the business.

Why do we need marketing?
There is hardly anything you can achieve in life without doing a marketing job. As an individual, when you are going to school for the first time and you appear for an interview, you are selling yourself. Starting from there, whatever you do, you have got to market yourself. You have to bring out what you have for people to know, because they have no way of knowing what is inside you unless you are able to demonstrate it. And that is marketing.

Is marketing peculiar to an environment?
Yes, most of marketing is about understanding the environment and being able to interpret it in a language that people can understand. Mostly, you use a word that people would use their imagination to interpret in marketing, this makes it more interesting.

How would you define marketing?
Marketing is the ability to identify the needs and wants of your customers and making sure that the products and services are readily available. You equally make sure you satisfy them for you to remain in the market. It is just about satisfying the customers. We have found out what our customers need, i.e. products of high quality and durable and we will stop at nothing to making sure that they are satisfied all the time, this is the reason we are here. By doing this, we would have carved a niche for ourselves. It is also about people, its about knowing their habits, identifying their needs and trying to satisfy those needs through a product or a service at a price that would give you a reasonable profit and give the customer utmost satisfaction. Such that he comes back to buy from you again and again.