VALUE, BRANDING AND ENTREPRENEUR – NUGGETS FROM PASTOR (MRS) IBUKUN AWOSIKA’S TEACHING

So, when we are talking about “Brand”; you need to understand that at the end of the day the essence of your Business is communicated by the Integrity of your Brand.

And when People trust the name of your company, they trust it not for the name alone – They trust it based on the Character that the name represents.

They trust it based on the “Value Systems” that the name bring to you.

We are not in Business for the short run, we are in Business for the long run.

And if we want Customers to be able to look at us in the eye ten (10) Years down the line and still find a Good reason to do Business with us; we have to do it right.

We have to deliver the Right Quality because over time sometimes, there is a Part of the “Value Change” where it will seems like you are loosing because you are doing those things right.

But there would be “Harvest Time” when the Seed of doing things right would facilitate your Growth and Put you in a “Major Speed Growth”.

And in my Business experience; I have had many Circles of going through that.

And in all of those things that you do everyday that combines together to represent what your Brand is evaluated as; you need to decide from the onset what kind of Company you want to build? What kind of Message you want to attach to your Brand?

I mean you look at First Bank as an Institution – It is one hundred and twenty one (121) Years old Company.

There is no other Corporate Company in Nigeria that has that kind of age and tenacity and that has stayed the length of time.

… One hundred and twenty one (121) Years of massive Institution that has translated from Private Enterprise when the British People who started it owned it; to becoming the Government Institution over time to the Period where it went back to the Private Sectors hands.

And it is going through a Process in itself responding to Changing in time and Season.

The reality is what back that – It is what you do everyday:

1. It is in the way you deal with your Customers.
2. It is in the way you keep to your Words.
3. It is in the way you deliver Quality and Services to the Customers.
4. It is in the kind of Message that your Customers can communicate on your behalf based on their experience of you.

You know you can run all the advert in the world in order to sell your Brand – If everybody hears about your Company everyday, People will say I want to experience it.

Don’t let the trust of the Customers shift.

Don’t Position your Product to be nice to the rich alone that they will come and buy from you.

… Because the guy you look at as “Ordinarily” today will have a “Change of Status” tomorrow and his experience will impact on how he will rate you or deal with you when his Status has changed.

Referral is bigger than ten million (10,000,000) of Advertisement Project.

That is the truth because the business grew on the back of that.

There is no Product that is the biggest in the Market that People don’t know.

When you walk through the entrance of any bank, those “Bullet Proof Security Doors” that you walk in through; I have been doing it for twenty (20) Years – We introduced it into this Country.

Also Read: The Mindset of Victory – Ibukun Awosika’s teaching

We are the largest and the biggest.

As at two (2) or three (3) Years ago, I went into Italy. The company that was Producing them for us went bankruptcy and I took over the whole Operations and we owned the Company back in Italy now.

Brand is not the Name of the Company in my understanding – It is the Value and Identity that the Company delivers back to the customers and is backed up by the things you do everyday.

And it is not about the size of your Company – It is about the experience you delivers to the Customers.

What you don’t learn to do in your early days, it becomes more difficult for you to do even as you grow bigger.

Infact, when you are small and cute that is when you can be “Engaging with the Customers”.

One of the biggest opportunities that I used to grow my Business came from my Customers.

In my twenty’s (20’s); there is a Point where I was so frustrated with the Business – We were doing everything we could but we couldn’t do things satisfactorily because there was so much things against us and so many things within us.

I was a young girl in my twenty’s (20’s) – Which bank will give you money?

… Interestingly, look at life now!

So, at fifty two (52) Years, I feel like I have already lived my life.

But I can’t stop thinking.

I need to still keep growing and all the things I learnt became tools that attracted People to write me to join all the Multiple Boards that I belong to because People are watching you.

So, you have got the “Business Brand”, you have got your “Personal Brand”.

And your “Personal Brand” is you – Your words, your Conduct, your Integrity.

People are watching; they are listening and observing – They see where you start, they see where you end!

Everybody thought young woman can’t Prosper except they sleep with guys.

I made two (2) decisions when I was starting my business as a young skinny girl:

1. I was never going to sleep with any man to get a job.
2. Nor was I ever going to Pay a bribe.

They told me it was a Perfect Formula for failure.

Well, twenty seven (27) Years after; I have Proved the Perfect Formula to succeed and to succeed sustainably.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ibukunoluwa Abiodun Awosika (born Bilkisu Abiodun Motunrayo Omobolanle Adekola on December 24, 1962) is a Nigerian Business Woman, an Entrepreneur, Motivational Speaker, Author, Mother and a Pastor.

She is a survivor and has set a standard for young women in Africa!

*Ibukun has shown that “What a man can do, a woman can do even better” by succeeding in the Furniture Industry – An Industry dominated by the male folks.

Ibukun Awosika has a few 1st’s, one of which is that she is the first female Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria

Ibukun Awosika is a Multiple Award-Winning Entrepreneur and the First Nigerian recipient of the Prestigious International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge Award (IWEC) as a Nominee of the US Department of State in 2008.

Among other various hobbies; she loves to watch Investigative and Legal Series in her leisure time.

DISCOVERY MEDIA CREW REACHING THE WORLD THROUGH THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL.

Yours Always
MOSES DURODOLA, TITILAYOMI AJAYI AND AYODELE OLALEYE.
©DMC 2020.