THE founder, Eleanor Thompson Staff Solutions Limited (Service Excellence Consultants), Izehi Anuge, has urged government and corporate organisations to institute value policies that make it possible for entrepreneurship to thrive.
Speaking in Lagos during the fifth graduation ceremony for students of the Eleanor Thompson Staff Solutions Limited on Service Excellence Professionalism, she explained that part of the solutions to Nigeria’s economic crisis lies in value driven entrepreneurship/career development.
She said Eleanor Thompson provides professional and service excellence training that help small and medium enterprises, entrepreneurs and corporate bodies raise earnings and add value that drive premium.
For her, the country needs to start looking into value system which is driving force behind the choices we make and the things we put as priority, because government and corporate bodies alone cannot solve all the economic challenges facing the economy given the size of Nigeria’s population.
“We need to put more emphasis on Values and productivity and facilitate more programs that help young individual see the role they play in restructuring and revamping the economy, by understanding value adding mindset, positioning themselves as problem solvers and solution providers in all spheres of their chosen profession. We need to get our priority straight and say, what our value in the country is. What is driving us? If money is our value, then we will continue to breed people, who are empty, devoid of the passion or desire to use their brain and become creative thinking, productive members of the society .All they think about are schemes, and tricks, and ways by which they can grab the money, take the money, rob the economy but give nothing back. As a country, we need to reevaluate our value system,” she advised.
She said her company has already secured approval from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Lagos Zone to train 30 corp members for every batch in beginners’ course on service excellence and professionalism. The first course, she said, will run in April for the youth corpers.
“The corporate bodies and government should create more policies that will allow young brains thrive. A country is only as good as the values its citizens uphold amongst other factors. We need to invest in the people that are willing and able to fill the needs of the society, proffer solutions, dig deep and start to contribute in their natural given capacity, harnessing it with required training and self improvement. When we do that, we are creating more opportunities for alternative sources of income, innovations, research, creativity and youths that are less redundant,” she said.
She said the institute teaches professionals and individuals about adding value because it is the value you add that drives the premium for both the staff and company creating a multiplying effect on the economy.
The Visionary said that valuable employees are indispensable. “People do not want to get rid of people that add value to them, but are in a hurry to disengage those that are invaluable to them in other words (unproductive individuals). At Eleanor Thompson Staff Solutions, we believe in driving the spirit of excellence and service in any capacity,” she emphasized.
The service excellence professional said: “We have some companies that contact us telling us that they want to raise their staff productivity. And we also have individuals and entrepreneurs that say to themselves that they want to do more. We need to get more employers of labour as well as companies and individuals who understand service, giving back, value adding and productivity. So, we need more people to dig into themselves and find new ways of solve problem and eliminate mediocrity, idleness and mindlessness,” she said.
Anuge said her clientele cut across different segments of the economy including banking, insurance, oil and gas as well as entrepreneurs that want to improve on their service excellence capabilities.
Speaking on the courses available in the institute, she said: “Our very first course is centered on understanding what value is. Then we ask our students, what are their values? As we understand when you do not understand the use of a thing, abuse is inevitable. Understanding your personal values will help our trainee align with the right values in whatever field of their endeavor. Many of them do not understand where they can add value or how significant their small contribution can spill into the big picture, but that is addressed by the end of the course. This course helps them desire to serve and give back from a place of understanding and helps them rise above mediocrity”.
Also speaking at the event, Managing Director, Multi-shield Limited, Dr. ‘Leke Oshunniyi, who is one of the facilitators in the institute, said he taught the participants client services and expectations. The participants, he added, passed through mock-real life setting during which they experienced the feeling of being a client as well as value adding conscious employee/entrepreneur.