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 Business Leadership;
The Concept of
Economic Visibility
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Cletus Olebune
courtesy of nel-mag.org
"Competition and Economic Visibility in the 21st century is centered on
production, and not on commodities ...." Cletus E. Olebunne, MBA
Does Nigeria have the resources to be economically visible (noticeable)?
Sure it does, but having resources does not mean automatic success,
unless quality leadership and right managers are in place for a
collective use of these resources towards a common goal – economic
visibility. Resource availability gives the sense of potential, but
potential is an unused resource that does no good and feeds no nation,
and provides no economic visibility. Nigeria needs to stop clamoring in
its potential mentality and start developing favorable business
environment that encourages manufacturing economy. Only in being
manufacturing economy with a global entrepreneurial mindset can Nigeria
become economically visible at the global landscape.
Nigeria with her natural resources is blessed, in the sense that her
natural resources cannot be imitated or copied, but the western
innovation, which gives them the industrial/productivity advantage, can
be imitated or copied. Given the importance of acquired advantages in
world trade today, and to be internationally competitive, one must have
the right resources that are needed for the targeted industry; Nigeria
may need to alter its absolute and comparative advantages so that there
is a fit, such as by importing and developing specific skills it needs.
With this in mind it will be a very excellent economic, developmental and
trade strategy for Nigeria Leadership to encourage and support R&D.
Am I advocating that Nigeria should copy technologies? Absolutely! There
is only a hand full of originality in the global business, and those
original ideas are very rare and very disruptive to existing ideas. Those
rare innovative ideas require heavy financial and time investment;
Nigeria is not at that economic stage yet. In life, if one wants to
advance, one needs to copy what those ahead of him or her do or did to
advance to a higher level and be able to compete. Japan with no
commodities (natural resources), is doing well in the global market
because they invested in R&D, copied from technologically industrialized
countries by investing in science and engineering; thus Japan has a
productivity advantage in global trade. This is what China and India are
currently doing. We cannot be coward about copying technologies,
encouraging it, or be hindered by the global standard of the Intellectual
Property (which may not favor us anyway). Nigeria needs to come up with
strategic plan towards industrialization, economic visibility and
business leadership.
There are two approaches Nigeria can take towards industrialization and
economic visibility: The first approach involves altering conditions that
affect factor proportions, efficiency, and innovation. Nigeria should
upgrade production factors, by improving human skills through education,
providing infrastructures (transportation, communications, capital
markets, utilities), promoting a highly competitive environment so that
business leaders are forced to make improvements, and inducing consumers
to demand higher quality of products and services by improving its
industry regulatory agencies. The second very different approach is to
target specific production sectors. But for a country as diverse as
Nigeria, there is difficulty in identifying the right production sector
to target. This is where individual state economic agenda should differ.
Either of these approaches will transform Nigeria from a poor economy to
exporter of key manufactured products.
The transformation to exporter of key manufactured products will give
Nigeria economic visibility. To achieve this transformation, the
government should take an active role in targeting key sectors
(especially steel, automobiles, and consumer electronics) and helping
entrepreneurs, to ensure that they obtained needed capital. Government
may give incentives for entrepreneurs to acquire foreign technology,
improve on it and train workers in quality control procedures. The
government also needs to invest heavily in education, increase
educational attendance rate, and increased the proportion of people
studying to be scientists, engineers and business leaders in institutions
of higher education, as it focuses on production and economic visibility.
Competition and economic visibility in the 21st century is centered on
production, and not on commodities; so the earlier Nigeria leadership
gets this fact, the better for its citizens. Vision 2020 Nigeria is at
stake. Trade theories emphasize differences among countries in climate,
factor endowment, and innovative capability, thus favoring country
differences, but most trade today (79.9% of global trade) occur among
apparently similar countries, specifically among industrial or the so
called "developed economies", which have highly educated populations,
therefore one can see that the 21st century favors country-similarity in
international trade, thus the need for Nigeria leadership to invest more
in education, social and environmental needs of its citizens.
As we focus on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial leadership rather
than the business mindset of income substitution, we should be able to
realize Vision 2020 Nigeria, where Nigeria businesses can employ 80% to
90% of college and university graduates. Economic visibility will lead to
visibility in every quality aspect of living.
If you don’t make it, you’re enriching the maker, and contributing to the
economic visibility of the maker – nel-m.org
Upcoming topics:
Business Leadership: The Concept of Support Economy
Business Leadership: Industry Focused Manufacturing
Cletus Olebunne
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Executive Director
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NEL
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Tel: 201-315-1562
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Fax: 908-994-0923
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newsletter@nel-m.org
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Website: nel-m.org
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Please visit nel-m.org to learn more about Nigerian Entrepreneurial Leadership, and its activities. Every month we’ll send out our e-mail newsletter with a note from Cletus, the latest updates from the organization, and profiles of other NEL leaders. If at anytime you’d like us to remove you from our mailing list, simply send us an email with the subject: Remove. Also, those who made financial contributions to nel-m.org will receive a quarterly financial updates
Together we can build a nation where its economic strength is comparable to its individual citizen's capabilities. A 2020 Nigeria economy where manufacturing is the driving force. We are always glad to hear from you.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR: Cletus E. Olebunne, Is the Executive Director of Nigerian Entrepreneurial Leadership (www.nel-m.org ) An accomplished scientist, and entrepreneur in the global healthcare product distribution. He is the founder of Eastern Pharmaceuticals (www.easternpharmaceuticals.com), a global distributor of healthcare products based in New Jersey. An active member of Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS), the global pharmaceutical regulatory body, the American Chemical Society, and the American Management Association (AMA).
The NEL organization seeks to:
1 Support and promote a community of entrepreneurs
2 Promote public understanding of manufacturing entrepreneurship
3 Promote and enhance the role models that reflect the ideals of manufacturing entrepreneurship
4 Be the source for information about best practices in business leadership.
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