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  • Firm begins innovation contest

    Schneider Electric has launched a new edition of its Go Green in the City Challenge.

    The competition, which has run for three years, is aimed at supporting energy management for more sustainable cities through innovation. It is open to students in tertiary institutions.

    With Go Green in the City, Schneider Electric said it is bringing together and sharing its extensive knowledge on sustainable energy with students, who are future engineers and managers of energy. Using innovative case studies, the group is showing the students that the world is at a critical stage where all must look for effective and innovative ways of reducing energy consumption, for both economic and environmental reasons.

    Entry for the fourth edition opened on November 15, 2013 and will end in February 15. Those eligible are business and engineering bachelor degree students from second year and above, master students as well as MBA students from all over the world. Each contestant must belong to a two member team; one of the members must be female.

    Mrs. Anne Ezeh, Communication Manager, Schneider Electric Nigeria, said: “This competition embodies Schneider Electric’s desire to raise the younger generation’s awareness of the challenges facing the energy sector. Schneider Electric also wants to encourage interaction between the students and its employees. To achieve this, each of the chosen teams is assigned a Schneider Electric employee as their mentor, who works with them during the various selection stages. By doing this, the company wants to prepare student who are passionate about energy issues for their forthcoming working lives and make them more employable.

    “By insisting on selecting teams with at least one woman, the Go Green in the City competition is keen to incorporate a woman’s perspective and approach in the Group’s environmentally-friendly initiatives.”

    The firm portance of gender equality through its diversity policy, because this is the best way to develop the values and skills needed to meet the economic and social challenges of the 21st century.

    2014 as the definitive global student competition for green energy solution. Nigeria, alongside a dozen other countries, is participating in this expanded edition, bringing the total number of countries participating to 31.

    On February 28, 2014, the top 100 teams will be announced and will have a month to begin to work with the help of a mentor from Schneider Electric in order to create a synopsis and a video business case for their idea. The 12 best teams will then be flown to Paris in June 2014 to compete in the final.

    As part of the competition, the students, working in pairs, have to devise innovative, viable and marketable energy management solutions for a more sustainable city, using a case study. The case study must cover the five basic sectors: residential, university, business, water and hospitals. The teams will work for 10 weeks, developing their practical proposals, which must take the current global energy and environmental context into account. Their proposals must combine increased energy demand, protection of resources and social progress, while remaining economically and socially viable.

    The two eventual winners will be given a world tour of Schneider Electric’s sites. On this trip they will meet the Group’s employees and managers and they will also be offered jobs within the company. Since inception in 2010, Go Green in the City has received a total of over 1600 entries from colleges and universities all over the world.

     

  • Embracing ethics and creativity management in your firm(3)

    Last week, we said you need to give employees time to dream and remember that creative employees need downtime to recharge. We added that you should ensure that your employees are given time and room to think, explore, question, even play.

    We educated that another strategy for managing creative staff is to stress the importance of balance by surrounding them with semi-boring people, especially that the worst thing you can do to creative employees is to force them to work with someone like they are, a situation that can lead competition for ideas, eternal brainstorming, etc.

    We submitted that creative people need to spend time working without being micromanaged, meaning giving freedom to spend time developing uncommon ideas without having to constantly report on their progress.

    We said another thing is to direct creative staff at your actual problems and provide them with information and direction so that they grasp the big picture rather than becoming obsessed with the smaller details.

     

    Never put pressure on creative people

    Creativity is usually enhanced by giving people more freedom and flexibility at work. If you like structure, order and predictability, you are probably not creative. However, we are all more likely to perform more creatively in spontaneous, unpredictable circumstances — because we cannot rely on our habits. So do not constrain your creative employees by forcing them to follow processes or structures. Let them work remotely and outside normal hours. This is the secret to managing Don Draper, and why he never went to work for a bigger competitor. This is also why so many top athletes fail to make the transition from a small to a big team, and why business founders are usually unhappy to remain in charge of their ventures once they are acquired by a bigger company.

     

    Poor pay

    There is a paradox about motivating creative people. This is that you need to pay them poorly. There is a longstanding debate about the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of Business Psychology at the University College London (UCL) and vice president of Research and Innovation at Hogan Assessment Systems says over the past two decades, psychologists have provided compelling evidence for the so-called “over-justification” effect, namely the process whereby higher external rewards impair performance by depressing a person’s genuine or intrinsic interest.

    Most notably, two large-scale meta-analyses reported that, when tasks are inherently meaningful (and creative tasks are certainly in this condition), external rewards diminish engagement. Chamorro-Premuzic stresses that this is true in both adults and children, especially when people are rewarded merely for performing a task. However, providing positive feedback (praises) does not harm intrinsic motivation, so long as the feedback is perceived as genuine.

     

    Moral of the story

    Chamorro-Premuzic says the moral of the story is that the more you pay people to do what they love, the less they will love it. I am sure this assertion may not hold here in Nigeria because of desperation for survival. In the words of Czikszentmihalyi, “The most important quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creative individuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake.” More importantly, people with a talent for innovation are not driven by money. Research on over 50,000 managers from 20 different countries indicates that the more imaginative and inquisitive people are, the more they are driven by recognition and sheer scientific curiosity rather than commercial needs.

     

    Building a team

    Employees want the respect of their peers; peer recognition and the power of the team are great motivators. Find ways to ensure that your workers can earn the respect of their peers, and if necessary employ group pressure to hold them accountable for their work. Ensure that people’s productivity is measured in terms of more meaningful criteria than mere hours spent working.

    According to T.S. Eliot, “Most of the trouble in this world is caused by people wanting to be important”. And the reason is that others fail to recognise them. Fairness is not treating everyone the same, but like they deserve. Every organisation has high and low potential employees, but only competent managers can identify them. If you fail to recognise your employees’ creative potential, they will go somewhere where they feel more valued.

     

    Surprising them

    Few things are as aggravating to creative people as boredom. Creative people seek constant change, even when it is counterproductive. They take a different route to work every day, even if it gets them lost. Creativity is linked to higher tolerance of ambiguity. Creative people love complexity and enjoy making simple things complex rather than vice-versa. Chamorro-Premuzic asserts that instead of looking for the answer to a problem, they prefer to find a million answers. It is therefore essential that you keep surprising your creative employees or at least let them create enough chaos to make their own lives less predictable.

     

    Final note

    Even when you are able to manage your creative employees, it does not mean that you should let them manage others. Research shows that natural innovators are rarely gifted with leadership skills. There is a profile for good leaders, and a profile for creative people and they are rather different. Chamorro-Premuzic says Steve Jobs had better relationships with gadgets than people, and most Google engineers are utterly disinterested in management. One of the reasons for the rapid collapse of start-ups is that their founders tend to remain in charge.

    Mark Zuckerberg brought in Sheryl Sandberg to make up for his own leadership deficiency. Research confirms that corporate innovators, that is, intrapreneurs exhibit many of the psychopathic characteristics preventing them from being effective leaders. They are rebellious, anti-social, self-centred and often too engaged to care about the welfare of others. If you manage them and their inventions well, they will impress you. By putting ethics in place and managing creativity well, the sky is the beginning not the limit of your firm’s potential for great achievements.

    Till we meet on Wednesday.

    •GOKE ILESANMI, Managing Consultant/CEO of Gokmar Communication Consulting, is an International Platinum Columnist, Certified Public Speaker/MC, Communication Specialist, Motivational Speaker and Career Management Coach. He is also a Book Reviewer, Biographer and Editorial Consultant.

    Tel: 08055068773; 08187499425

    Email: gokeiles2010@gmail.com

    Website: www.gokeilesanmi.com

     

  • Firm marks 10th anniversary

    Firm marks 10th anniversary

    Grewing giant, Nigerian Breweries Plc has restated its commitment and confidence in the Nigerian economy. Mr. Kufre Ekanem, Corporate Affairs Adviser to the company restated the commitment at the 10th anniversary of the fully-automated state-of-the art Ama Greenfield Brewery fitted with cutting-edge technology in Enugu, Enugu State.

    The firm also used the occasion as a showcase to take journalists round the facility. One of the remarkable features of this facility is its perfect condition even after 10 years of operation.

    The journalists were taken through the different production processes of the-state-of-the-art brewery. The 30MHL capacity brewery, which costs a whopping 220 million Euros (N30 billion) to build in 2003, has also created employment for over 1,000 workers; both full time employees, contractors and outsourced.

    Ekanem said: “At a time like the 10th anniversary of Ama Breweries, it is critical that we pull our friends for two reasons. First, those 10 years after inauguration, the Ama brewery is still top-notch because of its world-class facility.

    Also, the quality of staff there can match their contemporaries from any part of the world. The heritage of forthrightness and forward-thinking is a tradition with Nigerian Breweries. This is why we have decided to celebrate the milestone with our media partners and friends.”

    Speaking during the media facility tour, John Richardson, Brewery Manager informed journalists that the milestone is a direct result of Nigerian Breweries Plc’s relentless effort to consolidate its leadership position in the beer market.  “For Ama Brewery, the past 10 years in the Nigerian market has been a success story. The decision to establish the facility here in Enugu was a very good business decision because it has resulted in 10 years of very strong business and community relationships. This success story is made possible by Heineken and the indigenous communities here in Enugu,” he said.

    He further stressed that the company has maintained its high standard by concentrating on the development of its workforce:

    “Nigerian Breweries has been in the Nigerian market since 1946 and has trained and re-trained hundreds of thousands of workers in the process. For the last 10 years, Ama has also created valuable employment opportunities for young and enterprising youths in Nigeria. By our sheer size, we are able to employ people full time and have other adjuncts like contractors, loaders and others. We are here for the long haul,” Ekanem said.

    Inaugurated on October 24, 2003 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the facility, described by some as “the jewel in the crown of Heineken NV(Nigerian Breweries’ parent company)” was, until recently, Africa’s biggest brewery and is reputed to be one of the most modern breweries in the world and the first of its kind in Africa. It is the company’s sixth brewery and the second to be established in the Eastern heartland; following Aba Brewery, also owned by Nigerian Breweries.

    The Brewery boasts the best cutting-edge technology and world-class standard processes. With an installed capacity of 30MHL or one million carton units per week, it is also equipped with an ultra-modern waste water treatment plant in line with safe manufacturing practices worldwide.

    The first brew was made on March 22, 2003 while the first bottle of Star Lager rolled off the bottling line at exactly 12.15 p.m. on Thursday, April 24, 2003. Ama Brewery encapsulates the essential ingredients of the world-class vision of Nigerian Breweries Plc and represents another milestone in the company’s journey towards the realisation of that vision. It was, and still is, a bold statement by the company that its world-class vision is real.

    Beyond these, Ama Brewery holds enormous socio-economic benefits for the community, the state and the country at large.

    In addition to opening up the communities to commerce and modernisation, Enugu State has also benefited from increased revenue and the building of international confidence for investment. This multi-billion Naira investment, as expected, has translated into enhanced employment, as well as opening a floodgate of business activities and opportunities in the economy.

    In the area of corporate social responsibility, the company donated patrol vans to Enugu State government and Enugu State Police Command to enhance the operation of security agencies. It has also provided scholarships, e-learning centres, fish ponds, broken pallets for firewood and a civic centre to Umuezeani, the host community.

    Since education is one core area of its CSR portfolio, the company donated a fully equipped laboratory complex to University of Nigeria, Nsukka. It has also supported Udi Local Government Area by constructing a block of six classrooms each, libraries, tables and chairs for pupils and teachers, complete with conveniences for all classes to Awhum Community School, Awhum Community Primary School, Ngwo Uno and Nsude Community School.

  • Firm unveils $25.2m Caterers Court in Old Ikoyi

    Firm unveils $25.2m Caterers Court in Old Ikoyi

    Afriland Properties Plc has unveiled a $25.2million Caterers Court on 1 to 6 Onitana Road, Ikoyi, with organisations and individuals, especially those who love golfing, as targets. The court, sits on about 1.5 hectares of land.

    It is a four-storey building with 30 well-furnished and spacious three-bedroom flats, each of the rooms is en suite while the parlour and the dining are really large.

    In a chat with The  Nation,  Principal Partner Mr. Meckson Innocent Okoro of M.I.Okoro & Associates, a firm of estate surveyors and valuers, noted that in terms of size, location, luxury and aesthetics, Caterer’s Court remains unrivalled within its upscale neighborhood.

    These qualities, coupled with its proximity to Ikoyi Club Golf Course, he said, make the court a preferred destination for corporate organisations whose workers   love  sports, especially golf.

    Caterer’s Court,  he said, boasts of state-of-the-art facilities. Each of the court’s six blocks A to F  has an escalator and there are  36 units of boys quarters, one for each flat; and an Olympic-size swimming pool with party facilities.

    “Prospective tenants can hold their Christmas or other parties by the pool-side. There is a gym for relaxation and exercise, and there are security personnel here to ensure that lives and property are safe,” he assured.

    “The building is one of the foremost master-pieces in Old Ikoyi. The exterior has fine finishing with ceramic tiles and burnt bricks, which add to its aesthetic beauty and ensure durability. The concept is British with some level of modernization; it promises 24-hour power supply from the public mains to be complemented with two stand-by 2,000KVA generators,” he said..

    Okoro said everything needed to make the place livable and beautiful have been provided, adding that it targets those who have taste for luxury, quality and aesthetics.

    The building, according to him, is for lease and not for sale. He said the  minimum lease period  is two years and maximum of 10 years. Each flat is going  for $65 to $70,000 or N10 million per annum.  “Our expectation is to get a corporate body that can take the whole building or three corporate bodies that can take 10 flats each,” he said.

  • Firm introduces life saving device for heart attack

    An organisation, Healthpro, has introduced a device, automated defibrillator, to manage heart attacks.

    Its Chief Executive Officer, Shade Odebiyi, said the machine is the commonest and fastest means of resuscitating a dying patient, especially those who suffered sudden cardiac arrest because it is capable of delivering a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to the heart.

    “Defibrillators can be external, transvenous, or implanted, depending on the type of device used or needed. Some external units, known as automated external defibrillators, automate the diagnosis of treatable rhythms, meaning that lay responders or bystanders are able to use them successfully with little or no training at all,” she added.

    Odebiyi enjoined people and corporate organisations to take advantage of the equipment, adding that it would reduce cases of sudden deaths from heart attacks.

    She said: “The manufacturer, Telefunken, has manufactured special cardioverter defibrillators, a small device that is placed in the chest or abdomen. Doctors use the device to help treat irregular heartbeats called arrhythmias.

    “The device uses electrical pulses or shocks to help control life-threatening arrhythmias, especially those that can cause sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).”

    She described a sudden cardiac arrest as a condition in which the heart suddenly stops beating. “If the heart stops beating, blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs. SCA usually causes death if it’s not treated within minutes,”she added.

    She added: “Experts had explained that the heart has its own internal electrical system that controls the rate and rhythm of the heartbeat. With each heartbeat, an electrical signal spreads from the top of the heart to the bottom. As the signal travels, it causes the heart to contract and pump blood.

    “Each electrical signal normally begins in a group of cells called the sinus node. As a signal spreads from the top of the heart to the bottom, it coordinates the timing of heart cell activity. First, the heart’s two upper chambers, the atria, contract. This contraction pumps blood into the heart’s two lower chambers, the ventricles. The ventricles then contract and pump blood to the rest of the body. The combined contraction of the atria and ventricles is a heartbeat.”

  • Firm retools private school teachers

    Firm retools private school teachers

    Private school teachers from Lagos and environs spent this year’s World Teachers’ Day retooling to enhance their delivery in the classroom.

    A seminar by the Standard Mandate International (SMI), a firm that focuses on training and school improvement, held at the main auditorium of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), exposed them to new reasoning in the area of critical thinking and how to employ it in the classroom.

    In line with the theme: Fostering critical thinking in the classroom, Mr Nelson Ayodele, SMI Chief Executive Officer and other seasoned educationists such as Mrs Bisi Arogunmati, proprietor of Diamond Private School, Victoria Island and Mrs Olabisi Olateru, enlightened the teachers, some of who came all the way from schools in Ogun and Oyo states, about tips and strategies to employ to improve performance of the pupils.

    Underscoring the importance of critical thinking in today’s learning environment, Ayodele said it is no longer enough for pupils to regurgitate what they are taught but be able to apply them to new situations through critical thinking.

    To enhance their pupils’ critical thinking skills, Mr Ayodele told the teachers to introduce classroom activities that will improve their speaking, writing, thinking, listening and reading skills.

    Teach students how to assess their speaking, reading, thinking an dlistening skills. Make the course more work intensive for students and not for you; develop syllabus that highlight your expectations for students,” he said among many other tips.

    On her part, Mrs Olateru said the teachers should hone their critical thinking skills by exploring the internet for relevant and in depth information on whatever topic they are treating.

    “When you go on the Internet, you learn more and gain from critical thinking. This is the time we need to add value to ourselves,” he said.

    During her presentation, Mrs Arogunmati counselled teachers not to treat any learner as inferior but encourage them to excel.

    “Don’t give up on that stupid, stubborn, restless child because God made him pass through you for a purpose. It takes a lot of patience, grace and commitment to help them. We should also encourage children to think trough. It is your duty as a teacher to break down the whims for the children to understand so that they will not have to derail,” she said.

    In interviews with The Nation, some of the participants said what they learnt would transform their teaching skills.

    Principal, Home Science Association Secondary School, Alakuko, Mr John Olokose, said the programme was impactful.

    “Thank God for the impact of SMI. Teachers are now aware of modern trends in education. Today, we have been put through critical thinking. It has opened my eyes to new things,” he added.

    Another teacher, who teaches at Epic International School, Ijebu Ode, Mrs. Omodolapo Alademo said the symposium will help build teachers’ minds for the benefit of the pupils.

     

  • Firm supports sanitation

    Procter and Gamble’s (P&G) has donated cleaning kits, wash stations, and taught traders at Mushin market, in Lagos proper hand washing techniques in line with the yearly Global hand washing Day celebration.

    The Day is dedicated to raising awareness of hand washing with soap as a key approach to disease prevention.

    The Brand Communication and Consumer Relations Manager, Ayotomiwa Ajewole, said the outreach was to support market sanitation.

    “As the brand championing total family wellness, we are particularly concerned about the health practices in our markets, as they are the central meeting points of our communities.”

    “The number of children and adults that die from communicable diseases is quite alarming, so we have rightly translated our concern into action. This, we have done by embarking on an aggressive wellness campaign using a hands-on approach,” he added.

  • American firm to fund 350MW Gurara II dam project

    An American firm, Transatlantic Investment and Development Company (TIDC), has concluded plans to fund the 350 megawatts (MW) Gurara Multipurpose Dam Project (also known as Gurara II) in Niger State.

    Addressing reporters in Abuja at the weekend, the company’s Legal Adviser Bem Atetan said this was the result of several years of hard work aimed at providing electricity, irrigation, flood control, water supply, fisheries and tourism in Niger State and Nigeria.

    According to him, when completed, the project will be the first private sector-led green field large hydro power project in the country.

    Atetan said TIDC started work on the project in 2005, when the company began the reconnaissance studies at various locations in Nigeria.

    He said this was before the company selected the present site, in the middle Gurara River, to generate 350MW of electricity and provide other ancillary services, such as irrigation, fisheries, ecotourism and community development.

    The spokesman recalled that a pre-feasibility study of the Gurara Hydropower Project was completed in 2009.

    He stressed that TIDC had completed major milestones in conformity with the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 (EPSRA) through its resources and initiatives.

    Atetan added that the partnership began on April 29, 2008, when his company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Niger State Government during the governor’s visit to Atlanta, Georgia in the United States.

  • Firm fights crime with tricycles, motorcycles

    It was a case of killing two birds with a stone. Provide youths with a means of livelihood and you would have helped to check crime.

    That was exactly what a firm, SaveQuick Co-operative Investment, did when it distributed 10 motorcycles and the same number of tricycles to 20 youths in Onitsha, the commercial capital of Anambra State.

    The President of the investment firm, Mr. Okonkwo Gilead, said they were excited about the manner in which the youth are forsaking crime and choosing to earn their keep rather than roam the streets in search of white collar jobs.

    He said: ”This day, we are all gathered to celebrate our success in our first month of live transaction of our E-thrift Technology, a journey that started over five years ago. We are here to celebrate and inform the BoT members, interested partners and prospective investors that we have live records and the acceptability of our product in the market where we operate. We are here to reaffirm our vision, mission and goal.”

    Okonkwo commended Mr. Peter Obi who he said has not only fought criminality to a standstill in the state but also restored the dignity of his people by providing the enabling environment for investors, thus offering employment to youths.

    He said his office has introduced E-saving, E-payment, Mobile User, Online investment and trading among others, Mr. Gilead who is the inventor of the group revealed that the beneficiaries of the moveable assets were picked from their co-operative societies.

    It would be recalled that SaveQuick Co-Operative Investment, on its arrival in Onitsha one year back, has gone into grassroots campaigning for people to come and have their co-operative societies registered with them as an avenue for assisting people who need help.

    Today, he said, there are good testimonies that the group has delivered.

  • Fed Govt, Chinese firm sign $1.3b Zungeru hydro-electric contract

    The Federal Government has signed the contract for the Zungeru Hydro-Electric Power Project, which will add 700 megawatts (MW) to the national grid, when the project is completed.

    The cost of the project is $1,293,573,013.08 and 75 per cent of this would be financed by a loan provided by the China Eximbank. The Federal Government has paid 25 per cent of the cost as a counterpart fund.

    The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, signed for Nigeria while Chinese Ambassador Deng Boqing signed on behalf of his country.

    The Zungeru Hydro-Electric Power Project is considered one of the country’s legacy power projects, and the contract will be executed by a consortium of two Chinese companies China National Electric and Engineering Corporation (CNEEC) and SinoHydro.

    A statement by Paul Nwabuikwu, the Special Adviser to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, said the project was captured in the 2012-2014 Medium Term Borrowing Plan approved by the National Assembly.

    The statement said: “The loan is obtained at a highly favourable concessional terms of 2.5 per cent interest rate with a seven-year grace period and 20 years’ maturity.”

    Dr Okonjo-Iweala, the statement said, explained that the project would have significant positive impact in many areas.

    She said: “It would create thousands of jobs for Nigerian engineers, technicians and artisans during the construction phase directly and indirectly. It would also boost the local economy in Zungeru as well as its environs.”

    The minister added that President Goodluck Jonathan had given ministries and agencies involved in the project the marching orders and that it should be executed according to schedule.