AS it is typical of people in hospitality business, Kayode Adenigba, the Managing Director of Lagos Airport Hotel, knows how to win people with friendly smiles.
Lagos Airport Hotel is a subsidiary of Odu’a Investment Company Limited, and Adenigba is one of the longest serving members of the group, having joined the organisation about 25 years ago.
While recognising the competition in hospitality business, the MD insists that Lagos Airport Hotel is a unique brand that has been in the business for a long time and has been able to weather the storm. “We are better than others in terms of service delivery, security, facilities, personnel and space, which is one of our unique selling points,” he said.
However, irrespective of the competition in the hospitality business, Adenigba insists that the business will continue to grow. He also dismisses the theory that competition would drive out some hotels from business, maintaining that because of differences in taste and pockets, people would still patronise the new hotels. “The question is how many of the hotels springing up have been able to meet the needs of the clients and the standards required?”
His accounting career started as an Article Clerk with M/S Akinmade & Co, an accounting firm based in Ibadan in 1976.
Adenigba would not attribute the success of Lagos Airport Hotel to himself as the MD. Rather, he would attribute it to the entire workers of the Lagos Airport Hotel. “The modest success we have achieved so far is not for the MD; it is a collective effort. When you are the head of a place, the success of that organisation depends on the way you carry your staff and your management team along.
“You know the human element in any organisation is very important, especially in hotel business, which is labour-intensive. You need to ensure that you empower them. You need to ensure that you train them. You need to ensure everybody knows what they have to do.”
The politics and intrigues in the working place do not bother him. “If I travel, I don’t exercise fear or think that things would not work. I know that things will work. We have a structure and there is discipline. And anybody who wants to lead this type of organisation has to be disciplined.”
So why would a man spend 25 year in the same organisation, especially in the hospitality industry? To this, he said: “If I have to look back, I’ve been in this business for so many years and I have no regret. I have gone through the system for many years and I have been able to master the business.”
While trying not to be boastful about his achievements at the Lagos Airport Hotel, he insists that his background has really helped him, having worked in different subsidiaries in the organisation.
He said: “As a professional accountant cum hospitality business manager, you know it works well when you are a good financial manager, coupled with your experience and knowledge of the food industry. It is perfect and I don’t have a any regret coming to this industry. I’ve enjoyed it and it has been part of me, and I feel good.”
Adenigba rose through the ranks, serving in different subsidiaries of the group. Fortunately for him, he has a high stake in the hospitality business. Telling his story, he said: “I joined the group some 25 years ago, specifically in one of the hotels within the group: Western Hotel Nigeria Limited. I was employed as an assistant accountant.”
With his eyes focused on the future, when he was engaged at the Western Hotel Nigeria Limited, he made sure he learnt all that he could to prepare him for the challenges. Little wonder, when he assumed the headship of the Lagos Airport, past experience became an asset.
He started as an accountant, a role in which he performed brilliantly. This made his employers to make him an auditor within a short period, subsequently rising to the position of company secretary. He was again moved to the estate company within the group, Wemabod, from where he was moved to Sketch newspapers to resuscitate the ailing publishing company. To him, his stint at Sketch is akin to being ‘loaned.’ After stabilising Sketch, he recruited a management to run the newspaper. From there, he was again sent to a familiar terrain, Premier Hotel, Ibadan.
At Premier Hotel, he was the controller of finance and company secretary. But before he could settle down, he was again moved to the printing arm of the Odu’a Group, Odu’a Printing and Publishing Company, as MD. But his stay was also brief, as he was again seconded to the Lagos Airport Hotel as ED finance and administration. The management of the company, after one or two years, promoted Adenigba to a GM in Odua. He was in charge of research and planning.
“We were in charge of overseeing this subsidiary and we were looking at how to brand this place then. But the management just called me and said: ‘Complete this assignment for us.’ That was how I got to this place as acting MD. I thought I was going to spend a few months here, but I found myself being made substantive MD, up till the present moment.”
He is happy that since taking over in the last five years, the hotel has been a success in the area of developing and renovating the facilities. “We made major improvement in the hotel,” he says with pride.
Staying in an organisation for a long time could be boring at times, especially for a chartered accountant. But Adenigba says there is virtue in building a career in an organization. “When you are working with an organisation and you are not running after money, you will succeed. But if you want to make a career in a place, you will have patience.”
He also believes that he has been lucky because the group has so many subsidiaries, and he had the opportunity of working in some of them. “It was not a single company that I was working with; I was moving round the group. It was not just the hotel. Moving round the group has been a blessing to me, as it has made me to have wide experience. It may be within the same group, but I can assure you, if you work diligently and you satisfy your employer, and you are patient enough, you will get to any level you want to get.
“I rose through the ladder to get to where I’m today by the grace of God, I thank God that He has allowed me to get to this level. But the underline thing is that one should be diligent in whatever he does.”
He would tell you that one of his secrets is that he abhors failure and that he puts his best into whatever he does. “I was not born with silver spoon. Of course, you have to work for it.”
Growing up wasn’t easy for him. “The challenges were enormous. To tell you how difficult it was, I was born into a polygamous home. My father had many children. I was lucky to be the first to be trained on my mother’s side. When you are in a polygamous setting and you are the first to be trained, may be your father has three or four wives, it is not easy. I had to finish secondary school before my immediate younger brother, who is three years younger than me could start secondary school. If he had been a lady, may be somebody would have impregnated her.
Life began for him immediately he left secondary school, as he started fending for himself. ”When I finished my secondary school, it was like this guy should now go and start working. It is not what you have today; that you would finish secondary school and continue. Even going through school was not easy. Developing yourself was not easy. There were challenges and we are praying that our children will not face such challenges. It has not been easy, but we thank God where He has taken us.”
Unlike his colleagues in the accounting profession who prefer the banks and other financial institutions, Adenigba would tell you that he does not envy them for anything. “I’ve never looked at banking job in my life. The only job I’ve ever looked at when I wanted to change my job was to move to an oil company.
The reason why I was looking in that direction was because I had so many of my in-laws in that field, and they wanted to draw me from the hospitality industry. I tried, but unfortunately, it was during the June 12 crisis in 1993. I did some interviews. I know they would have taken me, but because of the crisis in the oil sector then, the thing was prolonged. I just told myself: ‘Let me leave this because I was making progress.’ Though I was not an MD then, I was a head of department.
“I never thought of taking up banking. I was aware that they were making money in those days, and I had the knowledge and capacity. But when you find yourself in a place, you are contented, you should be okay. I don’t have any regret.”
Recognising the demand of hospitality business, he said he has learnt how to marry the home front, leisure and business. He said: “Anybody that is into hospitality business knows that he has to be up and doing. We run hotel business 24/7, and it is different from other businesses. When you work in a hospitality business, you will have to make sure that you programme yourself in a way that you and your business will not suffer.
“You know that the presence of an MD matters. The business that we do involves working late in the night. That is why hotel managers and MDs live very close to their hotels. It is not because of luxury; it is like doctors living very close to their office.”
In all of these, he says, you must be able to create time for yourself. If you work without recreating, you are bound to have some issues. You have to create time to unwind. You have to belong to social clubs. You have to go to the gym and do exercise. Of course, you have to refresh.
”In my leisure time, I listen to music or watch football. I’m not a fan of any club. I watch films and take little wine. I also do some exercise on a daily basis.”
While it sounds good to run a hotel, he insists that the challenges are enormous. These, he said, include power supply, the roads leading to the hotel and the infrastructure in general. “Part of the infrastructure is water. Most of the hotels depend on boreholes. I’m not saying we don’t get water from the water corporation, but how often? You still need to support this with boreholes. In a country like this, security matters and everybody wants a place that is safe,” he said.
