You Have To Be Prudent To Ride Over Turbulent Periods In Nigeria – Michael Ade-Ojo-How He Sustained 38 Years Of Business In Nigeria

Chief Michael Ade-Ojo The chairman, Toyota Nigeria Limited and founder, Elizade Motors, Chief Michael Ade-Ojo, Nigeria’s highest distributor of Toyota vehicles, recently marked his 38 years of business in Nigeria. In this interview with SEYI GESINDE, he speaks about how he started, his driving force, challenges, why he inaugurated a multi-million naira office complex, Elizade Tower, in Abuja, among other issues. Excerpts:

On the journey thus far. We have to thank God. We are obviously happy and delighted that there is a mark of progress in the company. We are happy that this is taking place in my own life time. We give all the praise to God and of course, to the human beings behind it the board, management and staff and, most especially, to our customers, because if they don’t buy, we cannot make any income.

So, it is a celebration of success; also, it is a mark that Nigerian enterprises can be successful with great efforts and with hardwork, because we are getting there, not by any dishonest means. We have been in this business for the past 38 years and for this kind of millstone, we have been able to see that progress can be made in human efforts.

In the beginning.
The present conditions are quite different from what we started with. The attitude to work, commitment to one’s duties and the atmosphere in which we started were quite different from what we’re seeing now.

Challenges encountered.
It’s not that we have not had downturns in business; in fact, there has to be ups and downs in business for it to thrive. You can’t continue to thrive without meeting some challenges that may throw you off-balance. But when you’re thrown off-balance, you have to restructure, re-strategise, retool and rethink and do things that will make you survive the bad times.

Principles adopted.
Over time, we have learnt to be very prudent with what we earn. We don’t waste resources; we tried to manage things in such a way that we were able to ride over turbulent times.

Effect of the current global economic meltdown on the business.
In 1983, we had something like this vehicles were totally banned from coming into the country. We had to find other ways of surviving; for example, facing the aftersales services.

And of course, we had to reduce our staff strength in order to get over bad periods. Definitely, it is the disequilibrium and equilibrium of economic activities that actually prompt progress, because when you fall, you must learn how to stand up and move on.

Of course, as a Christian, I have always believed in God. Whatever I do, I pray and ask God to guide me; and so far so good, I have no regret about that. During bad times, you have to know how you manage the scarce resources and live prudently until the storm is over, then you can relax a bit not that you’ll relax and waste things.

Maybe you heard President (Barack) Obama talking recently about the first year of Layman Brothers’ fold up, saying that we must liaise but learn from the mistakes of the past. It’s not that when they (Layman Brothers) do things now, they will go back again the way they were doing before, so that the same result does not come up.

We should always learn that when you fall, you must learn from it. If you don’t learn from it,you will follow your normal lifestyle and that may end you.

Why inaugurating a multi-million naira office complex.
You see, when you are running a business, and it is doing fine, you should do everything to improve that business for the future because times are not stable.

When the plan started and target.
It was about four years ago when we started this project, and it is because we wanted to take a firm position in the automobile industry in Nigeria. So Elizade had planned long before this time to have a befitting structure in Abuja.

Disparity between Elizade and Toyota Nigeria Limited.
Elizade and Toyota Nigeria Limited are separate companies, even though the ownership may look the same, we belong to the same Elizade group. Toyota Nigeria Limited is the distributor, that is, the company that is resposible for bringing in the cars and selling them to dealers.

Elizade Nigeria Limited is a much older organisation that started 38 years ago, whereas Toyota Limited is just 11 years old.

Encouragement for others in business.
Its only natural that when we see someone doing things like this, people can either imitate or do something to raise the standard of their own operations.