Our Reporter
The Founder/GMD of the Interswitch Group, Mitchell Elegbe, has said though money is necessary, it is not sufficient to make a business thrive.
He explained that it was more important for entrepreneurs to identify the problems they were trying to solve before venturing into any business.
Elegbe spoke at the yearly Lagos Business School MBA Entrepreneurship expo and contest with the theme: ‘Entrepreneurship and business innovation’.
He highlighted that the more value customers perceived, the more they were willing to pay for goods and services.
He also spoke about various entrepreneurs: the hustler-preneur, life-styler, dealer-preneur, maker-preneur, jack-of-all preneur, slugger-preneur, travel-preneur, side-preneur, Do-side preneur, geek-preneur, and incubator-preneur.
He noted that the knowledge one had as an entrepreneur determined the kind of problem one was expected to solve.
He advised business owners not to make business plans based on time, but rather on seasons. He said: “Do not work so hard climbing a ladder only to discover it is resting on the wrong wall.
Don’t get too busy with your day-to-day activities that you forget the main reason/objectives for starting that activity in the first place. Beware of activity hype andremember that there is a lot of disruptive hype.”
Elegbe emphasised the correlation between problems and opportunities. He urged budding entrepreneurs to see problems as opportunities to create solutions, businesses and employment.
Read Also: Importers, agents berate NPA, NSC over N150b charges
The keynote address was followed by a panel session of four panelists reviewing it, sharing their business experiences as well as giving tips for new opportunities.
All the sessions of the Expo were moderated by Dr. Henrietta Onwuegbuzie who isthe Academic Director for the Owner-Manager Programme and Project Director for the Impact Investing policy initiative at the Lagos Business School.
Panelists at the LBS MBA Entrepreneurship Expo and Contest included Paul Orujiaka, CEO of Auldon; Richmond Okafor, CEO of Cleanmax Industries Limited; Stephanie Obi, Business & Marketing Strategist, ST HUB LIMITED and Lawrence Egunjobi, an Entrepreneur.
The Lagos Business School MBA Entrepreneurship Expo and Contest is a project aimed at empowering entrepreneurs across Africa with business acumen and soft skills, building sustainable businesses, giving free business advisory, providing training and pairing them with relevant life-long mentors.
This Expoended with a pitch where some entrepreneurs pitched their business plans to selected judges and had an entrepreneurship exhibition.
The criteria for participation included: the nature of the problems being solved, quality of the solution proposed, business model, sustainability plan and operational effectiveness.
Professor EnaseOkonedo, Lagos Business School Dean, in her closing remarks, disclosed that the Lagos Business School will continue to give entrepreneurship in Africa all the support it can, to tackle the looming issue of unemployment in Africa.
Leave a Reply