BMS Business Leaders Hangout

2 Nigerian Billionaires Fight Harder....

Femi Otedola Tells His Side of the Story, Accuses Tony Elumelu of Backstabbing and Taking Advantage of his Bankruptcy in 2008...

Otedola's Strong claims: Otedola gave Elumelu $20 million in 2005 to buy UBA. In 2008, Otedola went Bankrupt and Elumelu took over his $20m shares in UBA to offset interests in his loans.

Read Otedola's words:
“In 2005, while Tony was the Managing Director of Standard Trust Bank he approached me to get funds to acquire UBA. I enthusiastically gave him $20million, which was N2billion at that time to buy the necessary shares in UBA for the acquisition. After a short period of time, the share price moved up and I decided it is was a good moment to sell and get out of the bank. However, Tony appealed to me to hold on to the shares as he was convinced that there were future prospects – so I kept the shares.
“I became Chairman of Transcorp Hotel in 2007 with a shareholding of 5% and unknowingly Tony gradually started buying shares quietly.
“By the following year in 2008 I went bankrupt in Nigeria. Tony proceeded to take my shares in UBA to service the interest on my loans and he also took over my shares in Africa Finance Corporation, where I was the largest shareholder.
“Shortly after, Albert Okumagba informed me that an American firm wanted to acquire my shares in Transcorp, which I then agreed to sell. However, this supposed American firm turned out to be Tony Elumelu. The revelation of this prompted me to resign as Chairman of the hotel.
“Years later in 2012 Tony said he wanted to see me so we met in my office where I had previously had a meeting with foreign investors who had not yet departed the premises. Curious to know, he asked what sort of meeting I had had and I disclosed that I wanted to go into the power business, specifically Ughelli Power Plant. Tony quietly went ahead to bid for Ughelli and he outbidded me by offering to buy the plant for $300million.
“And as a some would say: the rest is history.
“Fast forward to the present…
“I offered to buy Transcorp Plc for N250 billion, but unfortunately, my offer was rejected. My goal was to maximise the company’s potential as a Nigerian conglomerate with a market cap of at least N2 trillion instead of the current N40 billion, but it seems some shareholders have a different vision.
“As a businessman, I believe in healthy competition and market dynamics. Two captains cannot man a ship, and I respect the majority shareholder’s decision to buy me out. This is the nature of the game.
“But let me be clear: my offer was made with the best intentions for Transcorp Plc and its shareholders. I saw an opportunity to unlock the company’s full potential and create value for everyone involved.
“It’s important for investors to understand that free entry and free exit are crucial to healthy markets. The scramble for shares after my acquisition is a testament to the value that Transcorp Plc can offer, and I hope the company continues to thrive under new leadership.
“My message to Transcorp Plc and its shareholders is this: I remain committed to the growth and success of Nigerian businesses, and I will always be looking for ways to create value for all stakeholders. Stakeholders are unfortunately always shortchanged by getting stipends while the owners and managers of the business live a jet set lifestyle, which is detrimental to the stakeholders. Thank you for the opportunity to engage in this exciting chapter of Transcorp’s history.”

Elumelu has yet to officially react to the allegations levelled against him.

Source: Premium Times

The pix below shows USA's Anita Alvarez as she sank slowly to the bottom of the pool at the world championships in Budapest recently. Her coach Andrea Fuentes, scanned the pool deck and made a split-second decision: She dove in to save her.

This image should remind us of the importance of coaching and mentoring. This coach had the ability to recognize when Anita was under the water longer than she normally could. This coach had the desire to help. This coach had the willingness to save. This coach acted while others were still watching on the sideline We have too many young folks drowning right before us especially at work, in the church etc. We watch as many walk away & unfortunately, some, even taking their own lives due to the pressure that comes from navigating life's challenges Every Paul needs a Timothy and every Timothy needs a Paul. If you’re a young person that doesn’t have a mentor, find one Now. If you’re a seasoned vet and don’t have a mentee, find one Now There's no excuse for anyone to drown.

An entrepreneur is a creator of value, wether tangible or intangible. Succeeding in business is determine by your creative ability, who would have thought that anyone can manage a transport company without a fleet of cars, manage a media company where the subscribers are the content providers, run a retail store without inventory, provide accommodation without owning an estate and the list is endless. You can add more in the comment.

FIND A MENTOR

Few can do it all alone in whatever you’re looking to do.

In fact, you’d be crazy to try to take everything on by yourself without any guidance.

I’ve lost years of my life building things that failed because I didn’t take the time to ask someone who did it how they did it.

Finding a mentor doesn’t necessarily mean spending thousands for a coach, though this can help propel you with the right person.

You can identify people who could help, find a way to help them collaboratively, and forge win-win relationships.

Why make endless mistakes when you can talk to people who already made those mistakes and have them show you the way?

Find one person to speak to today, and ask.

Lengdung

One of the travesty of life is when you make input in a life who expect you should always commend them, not ready to improve. Becareful, so you don't go mending fences on a faulty foundation

When we say an entrepreneur is a creator of value most people think it takes complicated strategies to provide complicated solutions. Well, entrepreneurs anywhere in the world can create simple strategical solution that will increase customers patronage.
Welcome to a solution filled week!
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When the King dies, I will be the next King.

Marcus Junius Brutus was a Roman senator and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar.

He was very close to Julius Ceaser the leader of the Roman Empire. Brutus eventually formed an ally with opposing faction to fight Ceaser but was defeated.

Ceaser granted him amnesty and also brought him closer to himself.

Second plot was planned to assasinate Ceaser and he (Brutus) led the plot which Ceaser was eventually assasinated.

Ceaser adoptive son became consul and declared Brutus and his coconspirators murderers which led to another war.

Brutus and his faction was defeated again.

After the defeated, Brutus committed su***de.

His name has since become synonymous with acts of intimate public betrayal or treason, and is perhaps only rivaled in this regard by the name of Judas.

Beware of those who always seek for your position

They are possessed by the greed of Lucifer

Most times they are close friends, brothers and relatives.

They will become king when you die. They are happy to see you dead.

Your mistake is their gain

Your failure is their success

They always find their ways close to your heart.

They want nothing other than your position.

Be careful of such men.

You made business fun for us in 2021 let's do it again in 2022.

May the joy and peace of Christmas be with you all through the Year.
Wishing you a season of blessings from heaven above. Happy Christmas.

O R G A N I C

How do you carry out your business? Does your surbodinate knows what goal to achieve? Does your management knows what passion drive the stakeholders?

The reason why there is an organisation is because people are expected to do things in an organise way. An organisation is a system were things are done in an organic way to achieve a corporate goal...

Watch this space for our monthly business seminar in 2022 and young professional forum in your neighbourhood. Your business will experience a dynamic change for good.

Thank you for being a part of our business in 2021, lets do it again in 2022!

For questions or further inquiry on how we can support your business team contact:
BMS Consultancy 08118856928 (WhatsApp only)

Ben K. Adams (Business Leadership Coach)

THE HUMAN TOUCH

"Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients"

“The greatest technology in the world hasn’t replaced the ultimate building tool between a customer and a business; THE HUMAN TOUCH”
— Shep Hyken

For questions or further inquiry on how we can support your business team contact,
BMS Consultancy

Ben K. Adams (Business Leadership Coach)

It's my season of gratitude and I testify that God has been good to me and my household I testify that the Lord is my helper I testify that I am a living testimony of God's goodness! I didn’t die. I lived! And now I’m telling the world what God did. God tested me, he pushed me hard, but he didn’t hand me over to Death. Swing wide the city gates—the righteous gates! I’ll walk right through and thank God! This Temple Gate belongs to God , so the victors can enter and praise. Psalm 118:17-20 MSG #30daysofgratitudechallenge #THANKSGIVINGALLTHEWAY

EFFORTS ARE GOOD BUT WE CELEBRATE RESULTS

One of my team member turn in his resignation yesterday because he felt his effort his not recognized and he thought he was not good enough after the backlash in the Business Review Meeting.

Well, his resignation letter was rejected and he we had a heartfully talk to let him understand that the way up his not always smooth but we must always accept the challenge of life as a trainee of greatness, discipline, dogged and committed drive makes champion. What makes the difference in an organization is not just efforts but results. Results can keep your competitors far behind you, results increase the company's profitability, results gives you the audacity to demand career growth or pay raise. Efforts is good but results is what people celebrate.

To all the young men and women out there who are giving in their best efforts keep at it because you may be closer to your results than you think. Don't throw in the towel because your team challenge you too much or because you look at the target to be too high! The hotter the fire the brightest the gold!

It's my season of gratitude and I am grateful to all that have hurt me and those that have helped me!

It's my season of gratitude and I am grateful to God Almighty who counted me worthy to receive his grace and mercy to be alive.

REWARD, FOR EFFORT OR RESULT?

What Mr Agada told me.
Thursday, March 22, 2007 at about 11AM, I sat in front of a man I have come to have tremendous respects for. He was responsible to determine if I was suitable for employment in the company. And we got talking. After several questions, he said:

IN OUR COMPANY, WE DON'T REWARD EFFORTS. WE REWARD RESULTS.

It's 9 years after that encounter and friend, I can relate to that.

You see, all of us attempt efforts. We can safely say NOBODY IS LAZY with efforts. But I do not know where efforts COMPEL OVATION. Only results do.

Do you want your brand to be taken seriously? Don't whine about who seems to have 'grace' or 'favour'. Get results in your field.

Do you have challenges keeping customers? Don't whine about what you said and what they said. Fix it.

Do you have blocks and difficult deadlines or very uncertain ambitions? Don't whine about the government or your spouse or your team or your boss or your company policies. Bring your best game on.

I believe in results. It may be slow. It may be small but with multiple 'small' results, you will grow capacity for big results.

Like Mr Agada Apochi put it to me, I share it with you: I CELEBRATE RESULTS. I DO NOT PAMPER EFFORTS.

For questions or further inquiry on how we can support your business team, buzz BMS Consultancy

Ben K. Adams (Business Leadership Coach)

COMMON MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE WHEN CHOOSING A JOB
Choosing a job is a very serious and responsible step that determines not only the level of income of the future employee, but also regulates the career prospects and opportunities for professional fulfillment.

The main condition is to make the right decision not to be disappointed in the employer and save the valuable time. Nevertheless, everybody makes mistakes, but sometimes such failures force to look for another company for the employment again and again. What every job seeker should remember in order to achieve effective results in the job search?

Bad awareness of the company:
Increasingly, there are situations when the future employee has insufficient data on the types of activities of the enterprise or what spheres of the production it includes. The fundamental mistake of such a candidate is a bad and insufficient preparation for the job interview. Before the beginning of the interview, read the information about the company, its leaders and competitors. To do this you may use special websites, forums, and social networks. The time spent can be very helpful because you may find reviews about the employer, to ensure his/her honesty and protect yourself from scams.Write a list of the topics you want to discuss with the management. This will help not to miss necessary information and to stand out among the other candidates. Employers value employees who show initiative and interest to the work.Some questions are desirable to ask in order to understand the suitability of the post offered: "What future professional responsibilities and duties should be performed?”, “What are the conditions of the probationary period?”, “Are there opportunities for the self-development?”, “What is the procedure of registration at job?”, “What social guarantees are offered by the company?» (e.g., vacation, health insurance),” Are there any internal regulations in the company? “(e.g., dress code or the rules in the team).

Incorrect career assumptions:
The second most common mistake is the heightened expectations that not always correspond to the reality. Working in a known or rapidly growing company does not always guarantee that soon your career begins to develop at a rapid pace. In order to avoid vexatious disappointment, try to clarify the possible career prospects and conditions for career growth in the job interview. Clearly assign the tasks you want to accomplish in this organization.

Overestimation of your own capabilities:
The revaluation of personal skills is a common occurrence among all age categories of the candidates. The wrong idea about the level of personal knowledge threatens by the fact that the employer may start checking you during the job interview or simply you will not cope with work responsibilities. Is it worth to pretend for a higher position if it can turn into a bad recommendation and dismissal in the future for the candidate? Assess your professional skills, as well as determine the amount of work you can perform at the desired post before placing the resume online on the site.The neglect of other deficiencies. Sometimes the job seeker wishes to change the job or the post because of the single and the particular reason – for example, due to the insufficient wages. The desire of the employee to obtain a high and stable income is understandable and logical, but in order to avoid serious mistakes when choosing a company or the employer, you need to take into account other several factors –what professional duties are to be performed, possible career growth, personal schedule, the distance from home to the office, the existence of fines, bonuses, the duration of probationary period.

Try to find all the necessary information before the official employment.
Evaluate all “pros” and “cons” of the previous post and compare with the advantages and disadvantages of the desired work. Such comparison will help determine more beneficial and successful decision.The absence of specific goals The presence of professional aspirations is one of the main components of any employee who wants to move up the career ladder. But often people do not have the slightest idea of what he/she needs and desires. Such nuances make your job responsibilities to get bored quickly and the work will become a daily routine. Define the goals which under force to be carried out, and make a plan that will help to achieve success. The efforts will certainly make you indispensable and valuable employee for the company.Hasty decision If dismissal in the previous job was due to a bad relationship with the company management, conflicts with colleagues, long-term nonpayment or delayed wages, heavy work loads, the employees often seek to change the employer as soon as possible. However, such haste will not give good results, because the choice of the vacancies is to be very attentive and careful. Having solved one problem, you can get entirely different troubles. Think well about the decision made and do not succumb to emotions. Perhaps there are alternative ways to solve this issue – for example, ask the assistant for the division of responsibilities, or to discuss the increase to the salary?

Perfect job does not exist, but in a really difficult situation where you cannot find a way out or make concessions, to change the job is the most favorable variant.

So glad to be doing business with what the Lord has given me till He comes. I celebrate the giver and the gift. Glory be to God in the highest!

In a business class yesterday, I shared how I realised the most craziest risk I have always taken are business risk.

I can't tell if I short down my emotional system, but I can tell they were calculated risk. If you can't take risk you don't have any business doing business...

I spent the whole day trying to fathom the best way to explain this but couldn't. I just asked my assistant to explain it in simple term and she said "if any one tell you to give them your life long earning to invest in a get rich scheme, invest and go and sleep while your money work for you, it's not in your interest at all". So what do you do? Your money is like a horse that respond to you for maximum speed in the race so whip it yourself and get the result yourself. Own a business no matter how small or difficult it's your own.

Am sure you already know this is the second to the last month of the year, still having some uncertainty lying here or there? Well no matter how difficult it spells out for business leaders, you have no other alternative to business success than to keep at it! To every entrepreneur hustling out there I wish you success this month. I look forward to popping champagne with you.



Kiyosaki

Q C S
Quality Customer Service is a must for every business success. It guaranteed continous market leadership.

Therefore, a customer complaint is nothing more than a gorgeous opportunity to wow someone!

For questions or further inquiry on how we can support your business team,
Contact
BMS Consultancy 08118856928

Ben K. Adams (Business Leadership Coach)

..."we don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services" (Mark Zuckerberg)

FOUNDER'S LETTER, 2021 FROM FACEBOOK FOUNDER, MARK ZUCKERBERG.
28/10/2021

*In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents' living room to catch up. This will open up more opportunity no matter where you live. You'll be able to spend more time on what matters to you, cut down time in traffic, and reduce your carbon footprint.

We are at the beginning of the next chapter for the internet, and it's the next chapter for our company too.

In recent decades, technology has given people the power to connect and express ourselves more naturally. When I started Facebook, we mostly typed text on websites. When we got phones with cameras, the internet became more visual and mobile. As connections got faster, video became a richer way to share experiences. We've gone from desktop to web to mobile; from text to photos to video. But this isn't the end of the line.

The next platform will be even more immersive -- an embodied internet where you're in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.

The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence -- like you are right there with another person or in another place. Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. That is why we are focused on building this.

In the metaverse, you'll be able to do almost anything you can imagine -- get together with friends and family, work, learn, play, shop, create -- as well as completely new experiences that don't really fit how we think about computers or phones today.

We made a film that explores how you might use the metaverse one day.

In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents' living room to catch up. This will open up more opportunity no matter where you live. You'll be able to spend more time on what matters to you, cut down time in traffic, and reduce your carbon footprint.

Think about how many physical things you have today that could just be holograms in the future. Your TV, your perfect work setup with multiple monitors, your board games and more -- instead of physical things assembled in factories, they'll be holograms designed by creators around the world.

You'll move across these experiences on different devices -- augmented reality glasses to stay present in the physical world, virtual reality to be fully immersed, and phones and computers to jump in from existing platforms. This isn't about spending more time on screens; it's about making the time we already spend better.

OUR ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY

The metaverse will not be created by one company. It will be built by creators and developers making new experiences and digital items that are interoperable and unlock a massively larger creative economy than the one constrained by today's platforms and their policies.

Our role in this journey is to accelerate the development of the fundamental technologies, social platforms and creative tools to bring the metaverse to life, and to weave these technologies through our social media apps. We believe the metaverse can enable better social experiences than anything that exists today, and we will dedicate our energy to helping achieve its potential.

As I wrote in our original founder's letter: "we don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services."

This approach has served us well. We've built our business to support very large and long term investments to build better services, and that's what we plan to do here.

The last five years have been humbling for me and our company in many ways. One of the main lessons I've learned is that building products people love isn't enough.

I've gained more appreciation that the internet's story isn't straightforward. Every chapter brings new voices and new ideas, but also new challenges, risks, and disruption of established interests. We'll need to work together, from the beginning, to bring the best possible version of this future to life.

Privacy and safety need to be built into the metaverse from day one. So do open standards and interoperability. This will require not just novel technical work -- like supporting crypto and NFT projects in the community -- but also new forms of governance. Most of all, we need to help build ecosystems so that more people have a stake in the future and can benefit not just as consumers but as creators.

This period has also been humbling because as big of a company as we are, we've also learned what it's like to build on other platforms. Living under their rules has profoundly shaped my views on the tech industry. I've come to believe that the lack of choice for consumers and high fees for developers are stifling innovation and holding back the internet economy.

We've tried to take a different approach. We want our services to be accessible to as many people as possible, which means working to make them cost less, not more. Our mobile apps are free. Our ads model is designed to provide businesses the lowest prices. Our commerce tools are available at cost or with modest fees. As a result, billions of people love our services and hundreds of millions of businesses rely on our tools.

That's the approach we want to bring to helping to build the metaverse. We plan to sell our devices at cost or subsidized to make them available to more people. We'll continue supporting side-loading and streaming from PCs so people have choice, rather than forcing them to use the Quest Store to find apps or reach customers. And we'll aim to offer developer and creator services with low fees in as many cases as possible so we can maximize the overall creative economy. We'll need to make sure we don't lose too much money along the way though.

Our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers.

WHO WE ARE

As we embark on this next chapter, I've thought a lot about what this means for our company and our identity.

We're a company that focuses on connecting people. While most tech companies focus on how people interact with technology, we've always focused on building technology so people can interact with each other.

Today we're seen as a social media company. Facebook is one of the most used technology products in the history of the world. It's an iconic social media brand.

Building social apps will always be important for us, and there's a lot more to build. But increasingly, it's not all we do. In our DNA, we build technology to bring people together. The metaverse is the next frontier in connecting people, just like social networking was when we got started.

Right now our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can't possibly represent everything we're doing today, let alone in the future. Over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we're building towards.

We just announced that we're making a fundamental change to our company. We're now looking at and reporting on our business as two different segments: one for our family of apps and one for our work on future platforms. Our work on the metaverse is not just one of these segments. The metaverse encompasses both the social experiences and future technology. As we broaden our vision, it's time for us to adopt a new brand.

To reflect who we are and the future we hope to build, I'm proud to share that our company is now Meta.

Our mission remains the same -- it's still about bringing people together. Our apps and their brands aren't changing either. We're still the company that designs technology around people.

But all of our products, including our apps, now share a new vision: to help bring the metaverse to life. And now we have a name that reflects the breadth of what we do.

From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first. That means that over time you won't need a Facebook account to use our other services. As our new brand starts showing up in our products, I hope people around the world come to know the Meta brand and the future we stand for.

I used to study Classics, and the word "meta" comes from the Greek word meaning "beyond". For me, it symbolizes that there is always more to build, and there is always a next chapter to the story. Ours is a story that started in a dorm room and grew beyond anything we imagined; into a family of apps that people use to connect with one another, to find their voice, and to start businesses, communities, and movements that have changed the world.

I'm proud of what we've built so far, and I'm excited about what comes next -- as we move beyond what's possible today, beyond the constraints of screens, beyond the limits of distance and physics, and towards a future where everyone can be present with each other, create new opportunities and experience new things. It is a future that is beyond any one company and that will be made by all of us.

We have built things that have brought people together in new ways. We've learned from struggling with difficult social issues and living under closed platforms. Now it is time to take everything we've learned and help build the next chapter.

I'm dedicating our energy to this -- more than any other company in the world. If this is the future you want to see, I hope you'll join us. The future is going to be beyond anything we can imagine.

©Mark Zuckerberg

The job of a coach/manager is like a pressure cooker, it comes with varying levels of challenges!

One confident I have to keep hustling is the fact that no matter how long it takes, I will succeed. If not in the morning, it will happen by noon or by night. As we recognize the almighty in our business, mighty things will happen!

O P E N U P

I have observed most business owners stressed up because they worry over everything and lose control of most things.

Overlook people's weaknesses. Celebrate people's strengths; they will then step into the space of greatness you have opened up for them.

For question or further inquiry on how we can support your business team buzz BMS Consultancy 08118856928.

Ben K. Adams (Business Leadership Coach)