‘Women
need to work more hard to get noticed’
By OLA AGBAJE
Monday, January 2, 2006
 |
•
Mrs. Uche Obi
Photo: The Sun News Publishing |
|
Her feminine grace and gentle look belie the steel beneath.
In a male dominated business environment, she holds sway as
the chief executive officer of a fast growing courier service
outfit.
Popularly known as Madam courier, Uche Obi, Managing Director
and CEO of Courier Masters International (CMI), does not see
anything special in her job or feel any intimidation from
her male counterparts in the fierce and often cut throat competition
for market share.
However, she said that in order to favourably compete with
their men counterparts, women need to work harder for their
efforts to be noticed and recognised by the male chauvinistic
society.
In a brief encounter with Daily Sun recently in Lagos, she
spoke on Nigerian business environment, the daunting task
of surviving the harsh environment among other business related
issues.
Advice to other business executives
We must be honest in our dealings and make sure we operate
within the scope of the laid down rules and regulations by
the government. When we are not satisfied with certain provisions
of such regulations, we should channel our grievances to appropriate
quarters.At present we have an outfit, which is the regulator
of courier business in the country. If I say I don’t
like any of their policies, would they change them? No. They
won’t change them because of me. The licence fee for
the new entrant is N1 million, while to renew your licence,
you’ll have to pay N250,000.
Anywhere you go in the world, whether in U.K, USA, they must
have their policies and regulations which operators must comply
with. So the bottom line is that you must be a law-abiding
citizen in whatever you’re doing.
On the other hand, what the government must do to enable business
organisations to succeed is to provide an enabling environment
to help businesses to succeed. If we are serious about solving
the unemployment problem, then government must support businesses
to succeed by providing infrastructure and incentives to enable
them employ more persons and reduce unemployment. It is my
candid opinion that the more businesses we have in the country,
the better for the all of us.
Cost implication
Certainly, the economy would be more attractive if the cost
of doing business is reasonable. When the cost of business
is high and unreasonable, the implication is that the consumer
would suffer because the manufacturer or service provider
would normally pass whatever anomaly in the cost to the consumer.
For example, in courier business, we need logistics such as
vehicles, motorcycles, electricity and other infrastructure
to make us grow.
NIPOST as regulator of courier business
I was one of those who advocated that we should have an autonomous
and independent body to regulate activities of courier businesses
in Nigeria. You tell them that it is body to regulate the
activities of courier businesses in Nigeria but when you point
out that it is not proper for a co-competitor to be the regulator,
they will tell you that EMS is just like other courier outfits
in the country. But if I must state my opinion, I would insist
that a neutral body should be the regulator.
Movement to new office
Well, by October 2, 2000, when we opened our doors, we’ve
had over 5,000 shipments for us to deliver. But you know we
had to start somewhere as the Bible says, do not despise an
humble beginning. So we started lowly but over the years we
have grown to such a level that we now moved to this new corporate
office. This new office has given us the much needed impetus
to compete favourably and effectively with competitors in
the market. We’ve been able to undertake more businesses
and our customers are quite impressed about the movement.
And the easily accessible location had been an added advantage.
Partnership in business
You cannot under-estimate the importance of partnership in
business, especially, in a country like Nigeria where there
is a lot of inefficiency all over the place. For example,
in a courier services business like ours, you’re expected
to have outlets everywhere in Nigeria. And how can you cope
managing the whole outlets if you must have branches in all
the cities across the country. But if you don’t have
such branches, then you’ll have to depend on a third
party to help in delivering your shipments.
But the big players in the market would not like to help in
such a situation because it is a way of helping and promoting
younger companies to grow. In fact, some would go to the extent
of running such younger outfits down by advertising the assistance
rendered to customers by telling them: “Oh! We’re
doing it for them they cannot do it.We are the main players.”
So, by the time they run you down, you’ll
start losing clients.
But if you go into partnership with an open, honest and transparent
mind, if the parties have valid and binding contract in such
a way that would help them to join forces, co-operate and
collaborate effectively for the purpose of making greater
impact on the market, then the sky is the limit. For example,
our partnership with the Young Shall Grow has made it possible
for CMI to grow in leaps and bounds. We are interested more
in such partnership because there is no need for all of us
to go into business and then fail. If you know my strength
and I understand yours, then we can always pool resources
for effective participation in the market.
Our competitive market edge
Here, we believe in going extra mile to satisfy our customers’
needs. For us, we must be there always for customers.
Bonanza package for customer
We believe in giving back part of what we have taken from
them as a way of saying thank you. And we are satisfied with
the response so far. The customers look forward to it and
our cash flow increases a great deal when we do bonanza. So,
we are encouraged to even do more bonanza in the future. It
stimulates market and business environment.
Challenges as a female CEO
They encourage me more to know that a lady or woman can equally
make it among men. It is by nature that I’m a woman,
I could as well be a man. It is the society that needs to
change its attitude towards women. The society needs to give
more prominence and support to women. With experience, I can
tell you that women do give their very best when they are
given responsibility.
Intimidation
I don’t usually get intimidated by men for any reason
at all because I know their make up. Rather, it encourages
me more to compete with them. However, I must say that sometimes
they tend to look down on you with that feeling of ‘why
must this woman be talking to me like that’. But it
doesn’t really bother me. Any point I want to make as
long as I’m fair, I drive it home and ensure that I
get it done.
I don’t mince words and I make you to understand why
certain things would have to be the way I want it. So, I would
say being a woman has its own advantages. I’m glad that
I’m a woman. It is an edge. It opens doors. But it also
makes you to stand on your toes in order to excel in whatever
you’re doing. Because as a woman you need to work triple
time more than the man to really make the desired impact and
meet up with the usually high expectations.
|
