Ezekiel Adamu is an entrepreneur, CEO of Balmoral Event Centers, and son of Amos Adamu, foremost Nigerian sports’ administrator. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, he talks about his entrepreneurial journey, commitment to innovation, and spearheading groundbreaking initiatives.
What inspired the idea of running an event center?
I started my journey with an Event company in France called GL Events. GL has a Network of venues. Apart from having a Network of venues, they also create their own events from Conferences to different things. They are actually the biggest in the world and they are listed on the stock exchange. They have over 300 events every year on their own. They don’t have to wait for people to come and use their venue. So, working with them was inspiring. Then, I started with my first venue which was Balmoral on Kudirat Abiola Way. From there, we moved on to a different Network of venues.
Tell us about the first venue and how it all started.
We started that venue in 2006. Then it was mainly people going to parks or schools for their events. It took us one year to get our first customer. You can imagine the experience of running the place for a year without customers. People thought it was too expensive and back then it was 420,000 naira. They felt why I should pay that much when I can just go to a school, rent canopies, and all that. People even parked on the streets and did their parents on the streets then. Fashola was the governor then and he stopped parties on the streets. That was how people started going to event venues and some people advised me to drop my price. But, I was consistent and didn’t drop my price. When you have something good, you must value it. If you don’t value it, other people won’t value it for you.
What has been your experience in business?
My experience has been a worthwhile journey. I understand something with events and generally, I discovered that problems are there for you to look for solutions. And when you find those solutions, then you become a champion. So, I am constantly looking for where problems are, so that I can come up with solutions and monetize that.
There is a book on your table titled Mindset, what message did you get from it?
There are different mindsets. There is the mindset of a winner and the Mindset of those who aren’t. Someone can say I don’t want to go into this because there is traffic or problems here. That is when you have a regular mindset.
But a growth mindset would say that there are problems here but I would go there. I will use the example of salespeople who have a target to buttress my point. So you have a target and on a day you wake up in the morning and everywhere is cloudy and rain wants to fall. The regular person would say rain is falling today, don’t let me go out. But someone with a growth mindset would say let me go out today because every other person would give an excuse. I also learned from a book about 2 salespeople sent to a town to do research on how to sell shoes. The first person went and said this is a dead end because they don’t even know anything about shoes. The second person went there and said this is a goldmine. They don’t know anything about shoes which means I would sell a lot of shoes. It just means that your mindset is what takes you to where you want to where you want to get to.
How are you thriving in the business with the changing economy?
These are excuses, everybody has excuses about fuel increase and other things that are changing. But, you also have people that are thriving in Business. To me, I look at things differently, especially how I can give value during this period. So, if you give value it means that you are also preferred. Every other person would say fuel is going up; this is going up, how we increase our prices. For me, on the other hand, I am thinking about how I reduce prices. So, for me, it is just the mindset and there is always a solution to everything in this world.
What prepared you for this journey?
My books. I read for the best. Also, my dad. Sometimes, he would call me and say why don’t do this or that. Most times, I go to the books in the area. So, I read a lot and learn and unlearn. When people also cite examples and say things like Donald Trump is a bad person but I tell them his story. He has gone through different challenges in life and he put it in a book. When you see it, you will understand. Even if he says he wants to be President again, he will still win. He understands what other people don’t get.
Now, that you mentioned your dad, he was popular in sports, why didn’t you go into that sector?
Events are sports. There is an event that we do that is called Copper Lagos, a football event. For every world cup event, we work on the viewing center.
What are the other things that you share in common with your dad?
Work ethics. He is a hard-working man. I don’t understand how somebody would commit to you to deliver something and you give an excuse not to deliver it, no matter what. For example, if I agree with you that we are going to do this at a certain cost, even if circumstances and everything changes, I will still do what we agreed. Later on, I may tell you that this is what happened. If you deal with people with integrity, they will listen to you. Every other person would say, he gave me this thing, by the time I charged him, it was N20, 000 but now it is N30,000. But, these same people would never come to you. If the charged N20, 000 and that thing becomes N10. So, for me, I think those ethics keep you in business for a while. It’s the currency that you keep, so if you have been in business for the past 15 years, then it means that we have been doing something right. But, if you are cutting corners, you can’t go far. I remember that there are so many people that I started this business with that are not here today.
Still on your dad, he’s Amos and you are Ezekiel, tell us about the religious factor.We believe in God. We believe that faith is very important. I was saying earlier on that when you have an imagination or idea in your head, it’s just an idea. It’s faith that makes you take the first step. Faith also makes you take the second step and before you know it, it keeps moving.
How can we improve the tourism and hospitality industry in Nigeria?
I don’t even think that we have started yet. For me, I got into the business mainly because I felt like the tourism part of the business is great. I am still at it because I feel that we are not there yet. Lagos should be a place where you can spend dollars on the street to buy things like boli. When you go to the Dominican Republic, they don’t even have the infrastructure but because they have positioned themselves as a tourist place, they have positioned themselves and accept those currencies. So, I feel like we are not there yet. Definitely, tourism is a major part of entertainment. What is World Cup, it is tourism. That is why they give four years and within those four years, you build capacity. People come in and everybody becomes enriched. The best way to bring tourism in is through event because it is experiential. That is where we come in. We did Wonderland last December and we just keep creating events ourselves.
Tell us about LIFE.
Lagos Independence Festival of Excellence (LIFE). We came together last year, Balmoral and TEMPO group. They have a studio and we have venues. Idris Olorunnibe and I are friends and we came together to come up with the event. On October first, after the speech, everybody is always looking for where to go to. We decided to come up with an event for Lagos the center of excellence. We came up with an idea but on October first, when it was supposed to happen, we discovered that last year was a political season. There was going to be a million man march by Peter Obi and I remember that there was a lot of warning then, warning people to stay at home. We had done a lot of work but then safety was very important and to hold on because LIFE was supposed to be a family event. So, we pushed it to 2023.
Talking about safety, you once had a fire accident at Balmoral, what are you doing about this?
Yes, we had a fire accident about 10 years ago. For me, that fire incident was a turning point. It happened and showed everyone that this is a company that has come to stay. We had only one venue and with that fire incident, you could have gone down completely. But we rebuilt back immediately. That gave investors and people confidence that we are here to stay. From there we got the opportunity to start another event center, the Haven in GRA, then went on to Eko Hotel where we set up a venue inside Eko ocean view, and then we started the venue inside Federal palace hotel. Now, we are building one inside the Sheraton hotel, Ikeja.
How has your family background influenced your growth?
I won’t hide the fact that I grew up in a privileged home. But growing up as well my dad was a very hard worker. So, I learned the discipline of working hard. I also know that overnight success takes 20 years. Nowadays, on social media, they behave like you can start a business and be successful right away. We are not even there yet. For me, on a scale of 1 to 10, we are on 5, and still, a long way to go, the business world keeps evolving. What you did two years ago is not what you can do this year. For us as leaders, we need to keep innovating and people tell me that I get bored easily. I don’t get bored easily, I tend to travel a lot and when I travel a lot, I see things that people are doing. I would come in and break it down, even if we just did it last year. That is how we have been able to stay relevant all these years. For me, innovation and keep innovating is the way to go. Now, we are delving into the tech part of things, now we are moving into an experienced tech and you find out that everywhere in the world it is tech that we are using to enable what we are doing. We are championing how to use tech to enhance events.
What advice do you have for young people who want to Japa?
Last year, I was a victim. Five of my management staff left at the same time. However, maybe because I have lived abroad, I know that it is not easy on the other side.
