Compiling any list of Nigeria’s best dressed men and omitting Mr. Yomi Badejo-Okusanya’s name is nothing but sheer wickedness. The father of one who is married to delectable Oyikansola, a businesswoman turned lawyer, is always well dressed, no matter the occasion. The MD/CEO of CMC Connect, a foremost and leading Public Relations company, he shared his love story, career and more with YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, AZUH ARINZE, at his Ikeja GRA, Lagos office days ago…
What makes a good PR man?
I think one, you must understand the business; you must understand the profession, you must be able to commit yourself to the profession, you must be a strategic thinker, you must understand communication. That’s what makes you a good P.R person and then you must be qualified otherwise NIPR (Nigerian Institute of Public Relations) will shoot you.
What is your own definition of P.R?
For me, there are many definitions. But you said my own personal definition. It can’t be too far away from the standard definition. It is the deliberate plan and structured attempt at gaining public understanding. That’s what I will say is my own definition, in my own rudimentary language. It’s deliberate, it’s planned; it’s a sustained effort at promoting and engaging public understanding.
Why do some people fail in business?
Ah! A lot of things. I think business is like a minefield. They fail because they don’t get their marketing strategy right, they don’t have the right financial support, they don’t get the business strategy right and a lot of times they don’t even have the right manpower to do what they are supposed to do.
Why do some people attain success and find it difficult to sustain it?
Let me go Biblical now. The Bible says that if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? If you don’t have a strong foundation, then, you are like the man who built his house on the sand and the wind came and took it off. But the person who built his house upon a rock, it stood still. So, I feel that critically a lot of businesses are based on very, very shaky foundations. So, it’s very easy for them to be swept away.
What is the greatest thing that P.R has done for you?
It has given me a career. I’m very passionate about public relations. I know there are many people who are doing things that they don’t like. I am doing something that I enjoy doing, I am doing something that I absolutely love and in my own small way I think P.R has given me the positioning that I have; the recognition in the industry, the recognition even in the wider body among the various people. I went to Abeokuta the other day, we went on a riding expedition and I got off and I introduced myself to someone and the person said oh, the P.R man. So, without P.R, I don’t know what I would have been. Maybe a butcher (General laughter).
What has P.R not done for you?
Given me the kind of money I want (More laughter). I can tell you that any day. It hasn’t given me the kind of money I want.
When can a man be said to be well dressed?
When you dress appropriately for the occasion. That’s one; that’s the first thing. You find some people who are wearing dinner jackets in the morning or a morning suit to a dinner event. So, first and foremost, you must dress for the occasion. You must dress appropriately for the occasion. Secondly, it must be decent. You must be able to combine your colours very well. When you dress you must ask yourself what image do you want to project and you must make sure that what you wear connects with what you want to project. So, I would say those three things.
Why do most people find it difficult to dress well?
Some people by the very nature of who they are or what they do, it may not be important for them to dress well. For instance, if you’ve got a guy who’s a mechanic, how much dressing can he do going to work? There are some jobs that don’t allow you to; for instance people who work in engineering or construction sites. There’s so much they can dress because they need to dress to suit what they do. But why don’t people do it? One, people feel that dressing well is very expensive…
But is it truly expensive to dress well?
No! I don’t think so. Yes, money helps. But even if you don’t wear expensive things, whatever you wear in the little form that it takes, you must make sure it fits you and that brings me to something – a lot of people who wear things don’t know what fits them. Because it looks good on A doesn’t mean it looks good on B. For instance, there are certain things you will never find me wearing. Not because they are not good, but I just know that it doesn’t suit me or the other things suit me better than those things.
Public Relations has done a lot for you, what have you done for it?
I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer that question. I think maybe if you ask people, they will be best suited to answer the question…
We know that. However, we still want you to do…Tell us some of your contributions to the profession.
I would say that through the effort that God has given me, I’ve uplifted the profession. Let me give you a little example and I hope that it doesn’t sound mundane. I remember a lady was working for me a long time ago, in my early days and I used to drive a Jetta Executive and I kept on saying to myself that oh no; even when I had the money to buy a new car, I said no, let me just continue using this car, I can use this money for something else. In fact, let me pour it into the business and so on and so forth. You know, just like an entrepreneur like you would do. So, this girl, I had started the company, I can’t remember how many years then, sent in her resignation and it was somebody that I really valued her services. I called her and I said why are you resigning and she said to me that I look at you and I don’t want to be like you. I see how hard you work and I say to myself after X number of years in this business, I don’t want to be driving a car like your Jetta Executive. I had to take immediate steps to replace the car and since then I’ve made sure that I drive something that will inspire those behind me. I realized that beyond myself, I was leading people who you see and a lot of them that I do not see and they were using me as a barometer and as such whatever I did, if I profiled the profession, then there is the possibility of better people coming into the profession. But, if I made it look as if it’s a struggling business; that after 20 years, 25years, you still look as if things have not happened for you, many won’t want to embrace the profession. So, that has affected what I wear, the way I look, what I drive, how I fly or how I go about in the sense that I just want other people to look and see… Just a little bit of a digression. Somebody came to me this morning- Head of my Finance Directorate. He came to me this morning and said guess what, I was going home yesterday and there’s this person I know who spoke to me and said you must see me. He used to be my former banker or something like that and I stopped by at her house and she said to him I saw your MD celebrating his recent birthday and I saw the caliber of people that were gathered at that event and I just wanna tell you, I don’t know him, I’ve never met him, but I’ve made up my mind that when I am 50, I must do something that would inspire those caliber of people to gather for me at an event. Now, it may very well happen in Public Relations because I’m sure there were some people at that event that said to themselves if this guy can do it, I can do it too. When I’m 50, I’m gonna be celebrated as a great Public Relations person; even beyond this man. If this man gathered a hundred people, when it’s my time, I will gather 300 people. So, I think if you ask me, what I’ve given to the profession, we’ve been able to give the profession increased respectability, acceptance and even recognition.
What do you like most about the company you run, CMC Connect?
I like the ability for us to create things; the fact that we take things out of nothing and we grow those things. You should be in one of our brain storming sessions. When we start things, they look so innocuous, but by the time we finish with them…Let’s take for instance the colloquium we just finished. It was even when we started that we had to look into the dictionary what a colloquium was. We’ve heard the word, but we were not exactly sure if a colloquium was what we wanted. We didn’t know! We could have called it a lecture. And do you know what; it kept on snowballing and so on. You saw the invitation card? We kept saying let’s do this, let’s do that. So, I like the ability for us to be able to create, I like the ability that we are able to deliver for a client. That a client has a peculiar business challenge and through our process we are able to address that challenge. So, I guess we feel like a doctor who the patient comes in, very ill and perhaps even on the verge of dying; perhaps even in a coma and by reason of what the doctor does, the person is leaving the hospital hale and hearty. And you see that person five years down the line, six years down the line and you say to yourself the story could have been different if not for the fact that God used us to intervene. So, I think I like that a lot.
What don’t you like about CMC Connect?
By now, I honestly thought that I would have retired. Yeah! I think what probably gets to me is that I spend a lot more time than I envisage or would like to spend. I believe that by reason of the gifting that God has given me, there are a lot more things I could do and so I wish, sometimes when I’m bogged down and I have to sit down here, I feel very frustrated. When I spend a lot more time than I envisage, I don’t like that.
Is it true that you want to go into politics?
No! At all! At all!! I’ve done some politicking in maybe associations and I must tell you that most times I get the wrong end of the stick because I find it difficult not to be able to say it the way it is. So, I have no political ambition.
What is the toughest challenge you have faced as a businessman and how were you able to overcome it?
Hmm! I think that the toughest challenge has been finance because a lot of the businesses that we do, we need to finance them ahead. Sometimes they are quite enormous. At least, for our level of business and so, we’ve sometimes had to really, really go and look for the money to finance the projects and sometimes it’s very difficult. I think my biggest challenge is that. Then, managing the cash flow because of the nature of our business. Our business is not a cash business. You know there are some people who make small margins, but the cash keeps on turning, so that’s good. Our business is not a cash business. If you look at the process, the value process or the value chain of our business, it takes a while. Somebody says oh, I want to do this, you will first write a proposal, you present to the person, the person approves it or amends it. That’s not the end of the story. The person must have money to be able to prosecute the campaign and so on and so forth. I would say that our biggest challenge has been finance.
As a businessman, what is the best way to cope with a difficult staff?
There are many schools of thought and I would tell you that there’s no one side fits all because you are dealing with different minds. So, take for instance, why is that staff difficult? If a staff is difficult because he lacks knowledge and he’s unwilling to develop that knowledge, then you have a problem and perhaps the best thing to do is to ease that person out. But if the staff does not have knowledge, but he’s trainable, he’s teachable and most especially has passion to deliver, then what you need to do is to manage that person. You need to groom that person, you need to show that person where you intend to take that person, where you intend to take him or her to. A lot of us, we lose good hands because we are unable to see the future. CMC is very interesting and let me use this as a digression. When I started this business, I owned it 100 percent. Today I own less than 20 percent of this business and the reason is that for me, I’ve said this many times, a company is, if you are lucky, dies after you. Most companies die even before the founders. But an institution is something that outlives you and for it to outlive you, you need to let so many people share in that vision. So, there are different ways to deal with different staff.
Besides Public Relations and dressing well, what are the other things that fascinate you?
Riding bikes. Yeah! I love riding bikes. I enjoy it really, really. I think I would say that that’s my foremost hobby. I ride bikes, I belong to a riding club and we go to wherever. Last convention was in Uyo (Akwa Ibom State). I rode to Uyo, I rode back. We go to Benin, Ibadan and Akure. Anywhere. Last Saturday our riding was to Abeokuta. So, I enjoy riding bikes.
How did you meet your wife, Oyin and what fascinated you most the time you saw her?
I wouldn’t know because my wife was my cousin’s friend initially. But I never knew anything like that. In fact, I used to look at them as these small girls. I remember that she used to call my cousin and she will call very late and I could pick up the phone and say to her, do you know what time it is? It’s too late for you to call her, call her in the morning. I was that stern, older person to my cousin. And then subsequently we met in Abeokuta (Ogun State) and when you find people from the same background, but you are in another place; like if I find him in Benin for instance (pointing to our photographer), he and I can become friends. So, from there, we became friends and that was it. We came back to Lagos and we didn’t see for a while and then I remember seeing her one day and I was saying ah-ah, who is this babe coming because I didn’t recognize her and when she came closer, I said ah, so it’s you, how are you doing and all that? We shared a lot of interests, we had a lot of interests, we had common interests and I think that it was the common interests that brought us together. We used to go out and not because we were dating. Like I said, we enjoyed common interests. There’s a place called Jazz Ville. We loved Jazz Ville (in Onike-Yaba, Lagos). Before Motherlan, there’s a place, it used to be called Bread and Butter on Allen Avenue (Ikeja, Lagos); then we used to go to Pintos. So, we shared a few common interests and then we loved plays, watching stage productions and one thing led to another…What was the other part of that question? What was my interest, right? Apart from every other thing, I found her to be a very strong person. When I mean strong person, she’s a very focused person. When she wants something she goes for it and she charts her path and for me, I had said to myself that I wanted to marry a woman that could hold forth and I’m not sounding morbid or anything. I think this probably happened because of my mum. When my father was alive, my mum wasn’t working and was what you could literally call a house wife and despite my father’s resources or what you can describe as ‘wealth’, because he was quite a well apportioned man, I found our standard of living dropping because my mum didn’t have the acumen to manage the business. She didn’t have it and see really couldn’t do it. My dad didn’t see it, he didn’t train her and probably of course he didn’t imagine he was gonna die when he died. So, he didn’t put her in the know. She was a director of the company quite alright, but I guess she was just doing whatever he told her, so she didn’t even know where to start from. So, one of the things that I quickly learnt was that I saw what happened to my mum and I said that a woman that would attract me would be one that would hold it with or without me, a woman that would complement what I’m doing and that woman definitely is my wife. If you know her very well, you will know what I’m saying. She’s very focused, she’s determined. She’s a very determined person, and once she says that this is what she thinks we should do, she sets her mind to it. There are people who do things and they say oh, God will do it. She’s not that person. Not that she doesn’t believe in God, but she knows that, it’s not in the Bible, but heaven helps those who help themselves. She will make sure she does her own part.
What don’t you like about your wife?
On a magazine page? (General laughter) What don’t I like about my wife? Okay, I’m going to be very diplomatic about this one. Em…I think that determination has its own flip side. There are times you are trying to make her see reason, but won’t get her. She can be a very logical person. Let me give you an example. If she feels that Azuh has offended her, just using a word. And you say what is it, don’t say it, leave it, forget it. You and I can do…Tomorrow if I see Azuh I will say hey, how are you? She’s not like that. Until she tells Azuh that you offended me, the matter is not over. And you know what I found out, in a number of things it’s worked against her. But a lot of times it also works in her favour, because people now know that this is where she stands on this issue.
You have just one son, was it planned or something necessitated it?
Well, we didn’t plan it. But even at that we would have planned for a small family. We wouldn’t have had more than two children. But after my wife had our son, she had complications and she could have gone on to have another child, but I then said to myself, why risk her life? There’s a prayer that Yorubas have, that even that one child can be twenty. There are people who have 50 children, 30 children or 20 children and they don’t amount to anything. But you have one and your one can do what 50 or more can or cannot do. So, that’s my reason. I wasn’t ready to risk my wife’s life.
Your wife used to run OY Confectionaries, a cake-baking company, but all of a sudden she stopped. Was it you that advised her to do that or it was her decision?
Again, this is the kind of person I told you my wife is. In fact, that’s even a typical example. She was doing very well. I mean, in those days, when you talk about the biggest cake makers, you must mention her. And then she said to herself she wanted to be a lawyer. So, she went for evening law, she was taking an evening law course and she wouldn’t relent. Immediately she got her law degree, her interest in the business waned. I mean, this is a perfect example. My wife who used to be an employer of labour, who used to run her business, her bakery was literally opposite her house – where we used to live before. So, she can walk across the road, same street to her bakery and she was making good money. She had staff under her, 20, 13, 15 staff. She left all of that, closed it to go and take up employment at Olanihun Ajayi & Co. Olanihun Ajayi is one of the leading law firms. She wrote down about four or five law firms that she wanted to work in and visited each and every one of them and said look, I wanna work here. About three of them didn’t take her because they didn’t think she was serious; because some of them she was baking for. So, she went back and started literally as a rookie.
The Almighty God has been very nice to you, what more do you want from Him?
I would like good health. As I grow older, I don’t want to grow old and then be sick. I would like my latter days to be better than my former days. I would like to be 85 and I’m not a liability to anybody, my mind is still sharp, my head is still on, I can still do stuff I want to do, yeah! Maybe not as easy as jumping all over the place, but enough. I have an uncle who is 85-plus or even more. I think he’s even more than 85. Yeah! He still travels on his own, he goes to England at least thrice a year and he doesn’t to go with a wheelchair, he doesn’t need any help, he’s on his own. I would like for me to have enough when I’m growing old. I’ve seen people who in their younger days, they had enough, they were comfortable. Yes, that’s the word I wanna use. And then in their older days, they are literally begging. I would like a situation whereby if you see me in 35 years time, what I’m enjoying, I should still be enjoying it or even more. So, if my passion is to travel and I like flying Business Class, in 35 years time by the grace of God, we should still be able to fly Business Class and I don’t have to wait for any child. By reason of what I have done, I should be able to put my hand in my pocket, buy a ticket for myself, buy a ticket for my wife and if we enjoy staying in good hotels, we should still be able to do it. If I enjoy driving a nice car, when I’m 85, I should still do that. I don’t want when I’m 85 a mechanic is still knocking on my door every morning; the shaft is bent, no, no, no! So, I would like God to do that for me, then to make me a stronger believer. A stronger believer because the Bible says as we grows older, teach me to number my days that I can apply my heart unto wisdom. *That’s what more I would like God to do for me…
NB: First published November 2013