Mrs. Dumebi Agbakoba-Ishiaku is the Chief Executive Officer of Bulb Ideas Limited. She is also the publisher of Side View Magazine and the convener of the Creative Business Expo, Lagos. She is into entertainment, fashion, branding, events, designs and marketing communications. The second daughter of the revered Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, Dumebi, in this encounter with JOSEPH ONYEKWERE takes us into her world and reveals why she refused to read law and ventured into the entertainment world.MRS. Dumebi Agbakoba-Ishiaku studied Business Administration at the City of Bristol College, a branch of the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. She later enrolled at the London College of Fashion, which is part of the University of Arts, London where she earned a Fashion Business Certificate.She captured her experience in this way: 'I was at the Fashion Business School for two years and that was really good because it covers a wide range of things such as fashion, branding, design and styling. That gave me a lot of foundation into what I am doing today. After that, I had a work experience in a fashion company in London. My nine years in the industry has been pretty good. That is actually the background that prepared me for what I am doing today. I also attended Central St. Martins and Rye St. Antony, Oxford.'According to her, there is no connection between her and Law, even though she has a highly respected Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Olisa Agbakoba, as a father. 'Law and I don't connect. We are like chickens and apples. I don't understand law. I would not like to do something I don't understand and I don't have passion for. So, that is why I went into Business Administration and later the fashion and marketing aspect of it,' she said.She added that her parents had their career plan for her but eventually, accepted her decision to study Business Administration when they could not persuade her to do otherwise. 'Unfortunately, I wasn't planning to be an employee in somebody's own company. I wanted to be my own person; I wanted to be the employer. It took a long time before convincing my parents. Even till today, they still ask whether I am sure that that is what I want to do. I stood my ground that that was what I wanted to do until they allowed me to do my own thing. But I think it is something I have to continue to do until they see that I have become quite comfortable.'Dumebi had the penchant for creativity even at a very young age but she was inspired to go professional when in 2006, she returned to Nigeria from London with her circle of friends and attended a fashion event in Lagos. ThisDay Newspapers organised the event in 2006 at Eko Hotels and Suites.'It was amazing and I attended with some of my friends. It was glamorous ' the light, the designing and all that. At that time, I had a number of friends that were models. I later visited some of the models that were at the ThisDay event such as Oluchi and a whole lot of them. So I said to myself, this is what I want to do. I need to define what I want to do within this field. I realised that I actually needed to go and do a course on it. I started doing courses in fashion business school for two years. I did fashion styling and others. In fact, I did about eight courses in all. That includes short courses.'She subsequently launched herself into the creative profession by starting what she called Dakou Collections, which later held a fashion show and metamorphosed into a group. She reminisced: 'I designed pieces, which are made here in Nigeria. That was really good. I had a great turnout. People came and after that, they started buying my pieces. I found myself doing a bit more than what I was supposed to do. I was getting involved in make-up and styling and different areas of specialization. I was just looking at what others were doing and copying those that would help me. I was like a sponge absorbing a lot of things, I was observing along the way.'Dumebi recalled how she started her organization, Bulb Ideas Limited. 'The journey of Bulb Ideas Limited started with Do Sumthing Positive for Nigeria, which has now been changed to Do Sumthing Positive for Africa. I remember I was talking to my friends at a time about what name I should give the organisation. So Do Sumthing Positive came up. I reasoned that the society could only be good if the individuals are good. If you are doing something positive for your own life, then chances are that you would be able to do something positive for your society. That was how I created that.'For Do Sumthing, we wanted to inspire the youth that we are doing the project for. I tried to do something for the disabled, those who are physically challenged and have hearing impairment. I also created Dakou to really bring them (the disabled) on board so that they could be part of the fashion show and also have fun. So that was how Dakou came about. After Do Sumthing and Dakou now came Stylemeup.com. which is all about fashions, styles and African clothings. I started up with these three brands.'From there, I went into the publication of Side View Magazine. I don't understand why the magazines were looking so badly printed and their images were not strong enough. So, at Future Awards, I decided to print eight pages of the first issue of the magazine. I remember taking it to the place and everybody was like, whao! 'We have never seen anything like this before.' It was small and yet the pictures were amazing.'There were also mistakes such as grammatical errors or things like that because I was just starting. But it was quite different. Side View was initially to be called Style Me Up. But I thought that Style Me Up was too restrictive. I wanted a name that was broader. So I decided to settle for Side View so that it would cover culture, travel, fashion, style and generally things that are interesting.'I think it was in 2007/2008 that it was more defined. It thought of how I can bring all the ideas together so that I could present it to a potential client that this is what we do, and this is how we can help you. That led me to Bulb Ideas. And bulb is the light that brings up idea in your head. Basically, it is playing around with words. But I like the way it sounded. I registered it in Nigeria as the Bulb Ideas Limited and registered it in England as the Bulb Ideas Group. It is registered in both places because we are based in Lagos and in London.'Dumebi believes in impacting the society positively. She is motivated by the desire to contribute her quota to the society rather than profit from it. She states: 'If I had profit as my sole motive, then I would have been in a different line of business. Though what I am doing now may not be seen as that profitable, I know that there is a time when it would be. Every big company started from somewhere. There is always a starting point. I have been doing it for nine years. I am growing. I don't believe in rushing.'No doubt, she is enjoying what she is doing but that is not without challenges. She described the challenges as huge. 'Hiring staff in Nigeria is the most frustrating thing ever. Everybody is just about the money. People claim that they can do this and that and want certain amount of money for a senior position when they are in fact juniors. I find that very frustrating.'I wish people would just be what they are. If you are a junior marketer, just say so. Don't try to say you are a senior marketer because if you do, you are calling for a whole bunch of trials. That is one of my biggest challenges ' finding the right persons who can carry a brand, in-house and when they are out', she lamented.While Dumebi is running her business effectively, she does not lose sight of the homefront. She is married to Mr. Bala Ishiaku, who is a marketing manager with an insurance company. They got married in January 2011 and are blessed with a son, Nain-Levi. She says her husband partakes in the day-to-day running of Bulb Ideas and on the networking aspect of the work.'He is really good in that aspect. So, we are a good team. We know how to work together even though he has a lot of pressures,' she says.As part of its effort to impact the creative industry in Nigeria, Bulb Ideas has lined up a series of events. They include Press Day slated for July 7, 2012, the second edition of the Creative Business Expo, which is billed for October 18 and 19, 2012 and the Side View Style Awards slated for January 3, 2013.
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