Chief Michael Ade Ojo, Chairman of Elizade Nigeria Limited and Toyota Nigeria Limited, traces the humbling beginnings of the firms and said if you want quality, you must be prepared to pay something for it, with reference to Elizade University as he clocked 74 recently and Elizade Group will be 40+1 in AugustHOW did Elizade start as a business empire'IT started on August 1, 1971 and we have since grown from two-member business to what we are today.It is true that the idea stated and the name was formed at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), where my late wife (Elizabeth) and I were students in the Business Administration and History departments, respectively, after we made up our mind that we were going to be palmers for life.I embarked on forming a name by combining my middle name (Ade) with my wife's name. I tried to make some permutation about the name until I finally arrived at Elizade and consulted my wife, who agreed that it was a good name.But I quit paid employment when I felt I was being punished rather than rewarded for performance while with BP Nigeria Limited.I was asked to relief somebody in Benin City during which I increased the turnover of the company by 25 per cent within the three months I was there.I came back to Lagos, because I said I was not going to stay in Benin and left my wife and child then in Lagos. About two months after I came back to Lagos, the person I had outperformed was made my direct boss, and I was really aggrieved.So, as soon as he sent any memo to me, I sent it back to him with, 'no comment please,' because I felt I was being made to do his job for him while he will take the praise and it will not add anything to my credit.I did that for roughly two weeks, within which I came to my senses and concluded that I would not be able to continue there if I didn't cooperate with this gentleman. So, I decided to look for something else to do.I approached RT Briscoe to appoint me as a freelance, so that I could sell their vehicles and be paid commission. Since they were not going to pay me salary, they gladly accepted.I went back to the office and I asked for my annual leave, which was granted and I went out selling Toyota cars. Within those four weeks, I sold 40 cars. I calculated what my commission will be on those 40 cars and discovered that it was bigger than my one year salary in BP.So, when I resumed, I gave notice of my quitting.My belief then was that if before I finished spending that money things didn't go well, I will have to go back to dust my certificate and begin to look for work again.Before I finished spending the money, I gave notice and on the August 1, 1971 I started Elizade Independent Agency, which enabled me to sell any other cars that I found to sell.We started at 71, Awolowo Way, Lagos with myself and one other person, Solomon Ojo (not related), from my hometown.I was recorded several successes in selling cars and at a point, RT Briscoe decided to make me a dealer for their motorcycle, but a freelance for their cars.They asked me to deposit 600 to be their Vespa scooter dealer, but I had used the 400 I had to pay for the building where we were. I knew I would be earning money in about three months, because we used to sell the vehicles forward and it took about four months before we got our commission. So, I went to my bank to ask for a loan of 600, but they turned down the request, because they said I had no collateral.When they asked me what collateral I had, I told them it was only my head I could offer, and they said they don't accept head as collateral.So, I went to my cousin, the late Chief Bakare, who lent me the 600 and by God grace within three months, I returned the money.But just before leaving BP, I had applied for a loan and ordered for a Peugeot 404 car, which arrived around August or September 1971. I displayed it in our showroom for sale, since I did not have the capability to ride it. I later sold it at a good price and it formed part of my capital.With that I was able to buy one car, then two and the number kept increasing as things got better. When I received my commission, I put everything back into the business. We did not pay ourselves any salary; except to feed, pay our daughter's school fees and take care of little Demola, who was born in October that year.How did you grow the business to what it today'I worked very hard and prayed very hard. I tried very much to discipline myself, coming from a very poor family, and my experiences in the very early life thought me to be prudent with money.The business received the first priority over anything else. I was fortunate that BP did not worry to repay the loan until about six months after I had sold the car. So, I had the opportunity to turning it around for about six months.So, when they said I should repay the whole loans since I was no longer with them, I didn't have much problem paying back.Apart from self-discipline, the other thing was that I did not buy what I desire or wanted; I only bought what I needed, and I asked God for support in what I was doing.Over time, we were able to employ people and were lucky to have some good staff, who helped to grow the business.But in March 1972, I asked my wife to quit her teaching job at Methodist Boys High School, Lagos and stay in the office while I went into the field, because I thought the back office was becoming very important as the business grew.That gave me confidence to operate more freely in the field, believing that the home-front was safe. So, I could spend as much time as necessarily outside doing the job. It was work, work and work throughout that time. I didn't even remember that we could go on annual leave.I think it was in 1973 that RT Briscoe appointed us dealer, and immediately, our commission on each car increased to 10 per cent, instead of the 2.5 per cent as a freelance, which was later increased to five per cent when I complained on discovering that I was selling more vehicles than some of the dealers.But the difference is that as a dealer, you had to invest your money by paying for the cars, unlike merely looking for customers and bringing them to the office to pay to cars, as a freelance.I continued to drive the Volkswagen Beetle I was using when I was with BP, but by 1972, I was rich enough to buy a second-hand Panel Van from the 720 I got from the sale of 240-ton trucks for CFAO.Putting everything into the business helped our growth very rapidly.We understand you really wanted to become a medical doctor'My desire was to become a doctor, but I was not counselled. If somebody had told me earlier that I needed do pass Physics, I would have paid attention to Physics. But I thought with Biology and Chemistry, I could become a doctor. It was when I wanted to go for HSC (Higher School Certificate) that I was told I couldn't pursue Medicine without Physics and to go back to a subject that I had abandoned and didn't quite admire was not easy.So, I was studying for Zoology, Biology or Chemistry when a cousin of mine, Gen. Omojokun advised me to go for something professional, like Accounting, as Business Administration was not common then.UNN did us a good by changing what was then called Secretariat Studies to Business Administration, following a protest. That was how I dropped Medicine.But I made sure that my immediate younger brother, Ayo Ojo, became a doctor. I withdrew him from the school where he was and I took him to Olivet High School in Oyo, where he finished and finally graduated as a doctor from the University of Ibadan (UI).Giving another opportunity, would you love to be a medical doctor'I love Medicine, but it is hard for me to say whether I will prefer it to the one I am already used to.In all that happened, I believe God was leading me without realising it. There was an invisible hand of God guiding me in what I was doing.Your university, Elizade, is about taking off. How is it going to be different from the existing ones'It is in terms of quality in what we intend to do, how we intend to train our people and what we intend to put into the student heads. We won't joke with morals; take away morals and you have lost everything. That is what is affecting us in Nigeria today.Having started this course, I now appreciate the enormity of the problem we are faced with in this country. It is not the leaders alone; it is everybody.That is what is intimidating me regarding the course I have taking upon myself. How do I change people from this general decadence' That is my biggest problem.But I can tell you that I am not discomforted or discouraged. With God behind me, I will try to make the university a unique one.Is it possible to balance quality education with moderate fees'It is not; you have to charge people for quality education. Even with the fees pegged at N1million, I am going to subsidise every student with about N500, 000. If not, I should be charging nothing less than N2 million per session, considering the facility we are providing. And what is N2 million'But that is far beyond the average Nigerian parents'I cannot give it to the average Nigerian, but we will try to assist people. I know that N2million is nothing compared to anything overseas, where there is no good university charging less than $15,000 a year, excluding transportation fares and other costs.I believe I am doing something good for reasonable people. You cannot eat your cake and have it; if you want quality, you must be prepared to pay something for it. We must not deceive ourselves, and I am not going to deceive anybody or force anybody to attend the university.But by the time our students begin to graduate, by God's grace, within three or four years, we will not be able to take most people seeking admissions.You talked about helping people, but your business concerns are not known for engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)'The university I am building, what do you think it is' I know how to make money without going into the area of university. If I put the money I am spending on the university in the bank, I don't need to work at all. I cannot even finish spending the interest.Some people may regard building university as a trading house, but that is not me. I want to develop youths and make them to be productive. I want talents that will be developed and can turn things, but the biggest problem we are having is the uncouth way people seek wealth, which is the cause of laziness. Everybody is talking of money; nobody is talking about merit.At 74, don't you think you should slow down from day-to-day running of your businesses'Are you saying that I have not slowed down' And are my companies not being managed or performing without me'Today, I am not involved at all in Toyota Nigeria Limited and Elizade Nigeria Limited on day-to-day basis. Even the university, I am not involved in the day-to-day running of the place.Who says I am not slowing down' When I was younger, when I stopped work in the office, I started work at 2 am at home and worked for three hours till 5am before going back to sleep.These days, though I still wake up, but I cannot do more than one hour. That is one area of slowing down.When I was younger, I didn't play golf, but now I am playing golf (laughter). I have built an 18-hole Golf Course. It is not for others alone; I am going to play there too.If I don't engage my brain enough, it will die, and I am not prepared to allow it to die. As long as I continue to engage it and do these things, I will be strengthened. And God has been so kind to me to give me the strength.
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