WHERE IS THE HONOUR?

Though its exact origins are lost in antiquity, all agree that it originated in ancient Greece. It was first held, according to some records, in Southern Greece in 776 BC, and Koroibos of Elis emerged the winner of this first Olympic game. In the Olympics, the world’s best athletes compete against each other for individual and national pride, honour and treasure. Believe it or not, it’s the biggest game out there, much more so than the World’s Athletics Championship where World Records are set and broken. That is why Serena Williams will consider her one Olympic Gold Medal in the women’s singles the crowning achievements of her illustrious career despite having won 29 grand slam titles, including 3 in Olympics women’s double, with sister Venus. 

Lacking world class facilities, world class coaching, and world class spirit, like kindergartens in the midst of giants, and in the glare of over 3 billion people from the seven continents on earth, Nigerian Olympians crashed out of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, without a medal. Their athletes disgraced, despised and trampled upon with contempt by more serious nations, a stunned citizenry watched in utter disappointment, bitterness and helplessness as the final Medals table was flashed around the world with the USA proudly perched at the top. Jamaica,  Ethiopia, and Kenya did the black race proud, placing 18^th, 24^th and 28^th respectively, running away with 12, 7, and 11 medals, including 4, 3, and 2 Gold each, in that order. Nigeria, the largest concentration of the black race in the world left empty handed, with no medals! A true reflection of the depth the country  has sunk, it would have been a moment for sober reflection, stout determination to punish culprits, and steely resolve to say, never again.

It is against this calamitous background that we should reflect on or assess the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati’s piece in Thisday, August 19, 2012, page 109.  Regarding the London calamity, and apparently in response to the national scandal of epic proportions, Dr. Abati wrote, ‘’President Jonathan was angry too, I can report. On Wednesday, August 15, Council Meeting had just ended, and it was time for AOB.  Everybody was in a relaxed mood, until the President said he was surprised that the Minister of Sports had not briefed Council about the outcome of the London Olympics’’, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad. According to Dr. Abati, the President continued, saying jokingly, ‘’you are taking your time eh, okay don’t worry, we understand’’, and ‘’there was peals of laughter’’. At this juncture, according to Abati, the President’s tone changed. The President then continued with a barrage of questions, supposedly to express his anger. According to Abati, the President asked rhetorically, ‘’how can we possibly go to the Olympics and come back with nothing?’’  President Jonathan continued, ‘’we must get the private sector to invest in sports and governments at all levels must also do their bit. We are a country of gifted people. We must identify those areas in which this country can excel and work hard at them. We must win medals and bring glory to our nation.’’ According to Abati, the President said further, ‘’and I don’t mean going to the bus stop to recruit athletes, I mean serious business. We must get our act together’’.

To the non cognoscenti, AOB stand for ‘’Any Other Business’’. These are immaterial things that you can discuss in a meeting if you have time to spare. Only serious matters are put in a meeting’s main Agenda. Non serious matters are lumped together under AOB. So you see how our performance,   or none thereof, and the disgrace of the entire nation and the black race was handled by the highest administrative organ in the land, the Federal Executive Council? According to Dr. Abati, the Sports Minister ‘’thanked Mr. President’’ and concluded ‘’with a pledge that his Ministry was prepared to do everything possible to address observed lapses’’.

Gone are the days when participation in the sports in the ‘’Spirit of the Sports’’ is  enough. Today the Olympics, World Athletics Championship, Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, New York Open at Flush Meadows, and all the top sports and competitions are avenues where nations test their might, hone their prestige and honour. That is why Americans will fight to their last breath to beat Chinese on the Medals Table, not only the overall number, but the Gold count. That is why the Queen of England at age 86, will brave torrential rains, the teeming crowd, and leave his ailing husband temporarily to go to the stadium to cheer British Athletes, knowing that while they may not beat the Americans and Chinese, at least they can avoid being disgraced in their home turf by the likes of Jamaica, Cuba, and Kenya. In Nigeria what do we get? We get ‘’pledge to address observed lapses’’, after the Olympics Games have been won and lost.

In nations where people are held accountable, the Sports Minister would have resigned as a matter of honour for letting down over 160million Nigerians and over 2.5billion blacks the world over. The Chairman of the National Sports Commission, and his entire board, would have resigned for letting down the nation. But what do we get here?  We get theatrics! We get ‘’marching orders’’. We get excuses. We get laughter. How sad. Where is the honour?

Where has honour gone? Are we just realizing the role of the private sector in sports development? Didn’t the Minister know the level of our preparedness for the XXX Olympiad? Who approved our participation if we knew there were lapses? What lapses is the Minister now talking about? Didn’t the Minister brief the President on the number of medals he was expecting? Did he deliver? Why not? Until the President’s question, ‘’how can we possibly go to the Olympics and come back with nothing’’ is answered, Nigeria will remain the world’s laughing stock. How sad. Where is the honour? Once again, where is the honour?

IT'S TIME TO TRANSFORM THE NIGERIA POLICE FORCE

It was an unfair match. It resembled a Nollywood movie, with all its ugliness and graphic details. The six heavily armed men of the Police RRS (Rapid Response Squad) jumped down from their glistering Toyota pick-up truck shouting commands, and within a twinkling of an eye, the ‘’okadaman’’ and his hapless lady passenger were spat on the ground, screaming. In the ensuing confusion, the lucky lady scampered off, leaving the okadaman to his harsh fate. We witnesses knew nothing of the okadaman’s crime or offence but the policemen’s misplaced bravado didn’t escape our evaluation. As each of the six-man police team kicked the part of the okadaman closest to his boot, including the head, neck, stomach, leg, back, buttocks, all over, we wondered at the training the men would have received.

Unlike the Rodney King battering of March 3, 1991 by five LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) officers, and the subsequent Los Angeles six-day riots, beginning April 29, 1992, which resulted in widespread looting, arson, assault, 53 murders and property damage estimated at over $1billion, when the officers were acquitted by a jury, the battering of the ‘’unidentified okadaman’’ attracted no local, national or international outrage. Unlike the Rodney King incident, which attracted 43 articles from the Los Angeles Times, 17 from the New York Times, and 11 from the Chicago Tribune, there was no article on the fate of the ‘’unknown okadaman’’ from any Nigerian newspaper.  There was no mention from any radio and television station. The okadaman was an unfortunate casualty, an incident, a mere statistic, of which we are all accustomed to. No one recorded it, unlike Rodney King’s, which was recorded by a citizen who witnessed it from his balcony.

Though its service tag line reads, ‘’the police is your friend’’, it is doubtful any living Nigerian would call the ‘’Nigeria Police’’ a friend, literally or figuratively. How did the Nigeria Police descend to this depth of unprofessionalism? Some attribute its descent into anarchy and unprofessionalism to the incursion of the military into politics and the subsequent usurpation of police role by the military and the relegation of the police force to a subservient role. Others attribute the attitude and ineptitude of the Nigeria Police Force to its colonial upbringing, culture and worldview, whereby the police was trained as an instrument for suppressing the colonized people, and had to be brutal. This line of reasoning has it that the new local elites that took over after the whites left saw and still see the police as a tool for self preservation and has no inclination for transform it into a friendly, well organized force for societal wellbeing. No matter the camp you fall into, Nigerians today all agree the Nigeria Police Force, as presently constituted, has outlived its usefulness to the society.

Fed up with the ineptitude of the Nigeria Police, President Jonathan on December 15, 2011 decapitated the Police high command and saddled a relatively junior officer with the responsibility of transforming the force.  A tall order! Formed in 1861, from 1964 when the first indigenous IG (Inspector General), Louis Edet, took over, to the present date, a period of 48 years, the force has had 16 IGs, an average tenor of 3 years per IG.   With such instability of tenure, any wonder the Nigeria Police is in such a sorry state? Unprofessional, corrupt, and brutal, the very uniform the rank and file adorn, pitch black, strikes fear in the heart of even angels. Rag tag, a force deserving of only a banana republic, some of their modus operendi can at best be described as bizarre, and at worst antiquated, murderous, and suicidal. Where else in the world do you see the police erect barricades at sharp bends on highways, except in banana republics?

With a population estimated at 160m and a police force estimated at 371,800, Nigeria has an average of one police officer per 430 citizens, very much in line with the UN’s recommended average of one police officer per 450 inhabitants, and the US’s average of 3 officers per 1,000 inhabitants. So what is the problem with the Nigeria Police? They are not only hated by the citizens, but by other forces as exemplified by the frequent army - police murderous clashes.

Every Nigerian alive (or even dead – remember the APO Six?) has a sad story to tell about the Nigeria Police. Here is mine. Barely one year after NYSC, some 30 years ago, I was bristling with patriotism and preparing to take my country to the next level. In my naivety, I had challenged police officers for extorting cash from hapless citizens when one promptly arrested me for ‘’traffic delay’’. I had to be taught a lesson for ‘’teaching the police their duty.’’ The men were wild.  Luckily for me, the DPO at the station they took me to, a graying, big-bellied man,  decided to set me free, with a mild reprimand to ‘’go and misbehave no more’’, having identified my uncle as his buddy at the Arochukwu sector during the Nigerian civil war. My name saved me that day. If 30 years sounds too long ago, what about my ‘’arrest’’ in 2006 around Ore, and dispossession under gun point of every kobo I had on me, by police officers manning a ‘’check point’’? My offence or the charge against me was ‘’incomplete car particulars’’. Where do you report such cases of police robbery to? Do you report it to the IG or the nearest Police Station? No Nigerian dares or bothers to report because we all know no justice would be done.

The new IG of Police, Mohammed Dikko Abubakar, has ‘’swung into action’’ since assuming command. The first thing he did was to ‘’abolish’’ roadblocks on highways. The IG has made statements about transforming the Force and restoring professionalism. He has visited state governors, chiefs and emirs, and all have pledged cooperation.  Some states had gone ahead to reequip the police command in their jurisdiction even before the new IG took over. Lagos State was the first to do so. Akwa Ibom is the new frontrunner in transforming the police command in its jurisdiction. Ogun is about to join the ranks of states reequipping police in their jurisdiction without waiting for the Federal Government.  Should we believe and trust the IG’s ‘’transformation agenda’’ given our unfortunate history? The majority of Nigerians I have asked this question do not believe the IG, having been deceived by past IGs.

I don’t know what to believe, but one thing that I strongly believe is that we deserve a World Class Police Force. One of the Police Forces of the world that stands out, thanks to their uncompromising focus on Service Excellence, is Singapore’s. The vision of the Singapore Police Force is to be “a police force that inspires the world”. It wants to achieve greater cohesion between the police and the public, improve levels of service to enhance public perception and increase the confidence of police officers when dealing with the public. In explaining the drive to build a world-class police force to Ron Kaufman, the Commissioner of Police said, “When Singapore Police Force (SPF) began its Service Excellence journey in 1997, many wondered why a law enforcement agency like SPF should place such emphasis on service quality. Enforcement agencies are primarily guided by its mission to uphold the law and maintain public order, unlike the private sector which depends on customer satisfaction and loyalty to ensure its profitability. While we remain guided by our mission, we have learnt much from the private sector. Through our work with you, we gathered significant insights; primarily the willingness to constantly adapt and innovate, and to learn from the best in the private sector.”

 
If only IG Abubakar could aim at such lofty heights rather than the mundane of just changing the police uniform he says is his top priority, I would be willing to train his men and women free of charge. If only the IG would be willing to take the long term view, noting that the SPF began its journey to World Class in 1997, and Fourteen years on, they are still at it. At only 54, the IG has all the time in the world to transform the NPF, but will Nigeria give him a chance? We have a choice as a nation; to leave the NPF ill trained, ill equipped, and ill prepared, and continue to pay a high price in instability, hatred, and underdevelopment; and a choice to transform the NPF to World Class status.

MR. PRESIDENT THIS IS YOUR JOB

‘’The real test of a man is not when he plays the role that he wants for himself, but when he plays the role destiny has for him’’.

-Vaclav Havel

Having vanquished the NLC, rammed N97 per litre price of fuel down Nigerians’ throat, and at the same time opened the petroleum subsidy corruption cankerworm, students of Nigeria’s history the world over are holding their breath to see what President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will do next.   A man so far noted for his penchant for courting controversy than pursuing ‘’the one thing’’ that matters, will GEJ follow the road less travelled and reinvent Nigeria, or will he settle for the average as his last ten predecessors?

With no clear discerning direction yet in place, a litany of woes assailing the nation, and barely two years to the end of his presidency, GEJ is staring failure square in the face. The signs that Mr. President is headed for total failure are all over the place and viscerally ominous, but as Bob Buford said in his Half Time, ‘’it is never too late to change your game plan.’’  Does Mr. President have what it takes to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

Mr. President, the ‘’Transformation Agenda’’ is not your job. Does anybody today remember your predecessor’s ‘’Seven Point Agenda’’?  Does anybody remember ‘’War Against Indiscipline’’, or ‘’Operation Feed the Nation’’.  Empires are not built on the basis of political slogans and agendas, but on deep rooted convictions, watered with tears, blood and sweat. Empires are built by changing minds, attitudes, and national psyche. Dig deep into history and you’ll discover how Peter the Great did it, transforming Russia from hundreds of backward warring serfdoms into an enormous empire. If that appears too remote and lost in antiquity to be of relevance, look no farther than Singapore where in one generation and in our own lifetime Lee Kwan Yew transformed the island nation, devoid of much natural resources, into a global powerhouse, with per capita income surpassing the USA. Mr. President, this is your job: Lee Kwan Yew Nigeria.

Saint Augustine said that asking yourself the question of your own legacy – What do I wish to be remembered for? – is the beginning of adulthood. Mr. President, this is your job: Your Legacy. Put aside your power must shift garb and hat, fold your shirt, relocate your office from Aso Rock to the Ministry of Power and give Nigeria 35,570 Mega Watts of electricity between now and the day you step out of Aso Rock and you’ll be known for the rest of human history as Jonathan the Great.

On top of solving the electricity problem, as bonus, construct three massive bullet train lines, one that will take Nigerians from Maiduguri to Calabar in  just two hours, another that will make Sokoto to Port Harcourt in three and half hours, and a third that will fly through the middle corridor of Nigeria from Kano through Abuja to Lagos in a little less than two hours and you would have united the nation, destroyed ethnic bigotry and set Nigeria on the path to greatness. With that you’ll be ready to be ushered into the great hall to join the pantheons of the Great:  Alexander the Great! Peter the Great!! Jonathan the Great!!! Is that too much to ask?

Daily, a million things will clamour for your attention – bomb blasts, police brutality, corruption in high and low places. Ignore them, you have ministers. Focus on ‘’the one thing’’. Your job is to rally Nigerians to the future. To be a leader is not a walk through the park – attending United Nations Conference, World Economic Forum, adding new jets to the presidential fleet, sidelining your enemies. On the last day no one will ask how many conferences did you attend, but what difference did you make? 

Time is not on your side. Start today to quickly draw the road map for what will be your legacy. Be rock selfish with your time. Get rid of ‘’yes men’’ and quickly enlist in your service men that can deliver, remembering the inscription on Andrew Carnegie’s tombstone: 

Here lies a man

Who knew how to enlist

In his service

Better men than himself

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s confidential adviser during World War II was Harry Hopkins. A dying, almost a dead man, he could work only a few hours every other day. This forced him to cut out everything but truly vital matters and he accomplished more in wartime Washington than anyone else, that Churchill called him once, according to Drucker, ‘’Lord Heart of the Matter’’.  Adopt the Harry Hopkin’s stance Mr. President, and before your time is up, your job will be done.

NIGERIA IN SEARCH OF A MESSIAH

‘’Economic growth isn’t very meaningful if half the country that you’re growing is left behind in poverty.’’

-Ashok Khosla

‘’When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor , they call me a Communist.’’

-Archbishop Dom Helder Pessoa Camara

Stripped of all its financial wealth, prestige, and honour, Nigeria is today the world’s biggest laughing stock, viewed with ignominy, contempt and scorn. A country with neither desire nor drive for greatness, it has frittered away trillions of dollars since crude oil was discovered at Oloibiri in 1956, and squandered, according to estimates, some $600billion in nothing tangible between 1999 and 2011.

The 32^nd largest country on earth, and the 10^th most populous in the world, its citizens eke out a living on a meager $2 per day while its ‘’politicians’’ systematically nibble away at the foundations of its corporate existence. Thoroughly despised by serious minded nations, barely tolerated in the ranks of the mediocre, but globally envied for its stupendous natural wealth, the question in the minds of an agitated world is not whether it will unravel, but when.   

Signs of Nigeria’s economic rot abound everywhere. They assail your eyes and nose, and tug at your heart wherever you turn. Employing a scorch-earth policy, the powers that be have systematically destroyed its educational, health, and research services. Today the country boasts no public institution of global note. Its infrastructure ranks amongst the most dilapidated in the world. Roads, airports, seaports, you name it. A country bigger than Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, and Ireland put together, Nigeria generates a meager 3,898 mega watts of electricity, while it requires some 35,650 megawatts. Any wonder Ghana, its proud neighbour, once chided the giant with clay feet as ‘’big for nothing’’?

The extent of Nigeria’s all round decline is underscored by the fact that Nigeria won no  medal during the just concluded IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, South Korea, where Kenya made an impressive 17-medal haul, including 7 Gold. Nigeria’s national football teams qualified neither for the 28^th edition of Africa Cup of Nations taking off January 21^st in Gabon & Equatorial Guinea nor the 2012 Olympic Soccer Event scheduled to take off on July 25 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.  Other than the corruption ridden Oil & Gas, the country owns no key industries. The prominent key industries or companies in the country are owned by foreigners: Nigerian Breweries by Holland, Guinness by Ireland, WAPCO by France, MTN by South Africa, Coca Cola, PEPSICO, ExxonMobil and Chevron all by USA, and Total by France, PZ and Unilever by UK and Greek interests.

While the country has produced a few world beaters in the corporate world: Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Pascal Dozie, Tony Elumelu, Dr. Mike Adenuga, Aig Imokhuede, and Jim Ovia, it has not been blessed with a single visionary leader in the socio-political arena. A wise man once said, without a vision the people perish. It should have been, without a visionary leader, the people perish.

A leader rallies people to the future. According to Marcus Buckingham, ‘’Leaders are fascinated by the future.  You are a leader if, and only if, you are restless for change, impatient for progress, and deeply dissatisfied with the status quo.’’  ‘’As a leader’’ Buckingham asserts, ‘’you are never satisfied with the present, because in your head you can see a better future, and the friction between ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’ burns you, stirs you up, propels you forward. This is leadership.’’

Jolted by Soviet’s Sputnik launch of 1957, unprecedented in technological implications, John F. Kennedy would proclaim on May 25 1961, barely five months after assuming office as the 35^th President of the United States, that ‘’I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before  this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon, and returning him safely to the Earth.’’ On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped on the Lunar surface, proclaiming with sublime humility the immortal words, ‘’one small step for man, a giant leap for mankind’’, restoring America’s closely guarded honour and pride. It didn’t matter that President Kennedy had been gone for six years, having been assassinated in 1963.

Leadership is about trust. A leader understands that a promise is sacrosanct, it cannot be broken. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a moulder of consensus." How many Nigerian leaders have strived to mould consensus, point the nation in the direction of prosperity, growth and happiness? From independence in 1960 to date, a period of over 51 years, how many Nigerian leaders can genuinely claim to have exhibited the trait of a true visionary leader restless for change?

Any fool can embezzle, steal, and misappropriate public funds, but only a leader can make a difference. Until those who aspire to lead subscribe to the ideals of the Athenian Oath ‘’….We will strive unceasingly to quicken the public sense of public duty, that thus, in all these ways, we will transmit this city, not only, not less, but greater, better, and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us’’, the search for Nigeria’s messiah continues. It’s not about the man in the saddle, it’s about us.

Service Excellence is No Nuclear Science

Nice cool restaurant. You could say exquisite. A guy walks in, with his sweet heart. Say girl friend. Mission: give her a treat of a lifetime. Food is served. Wine follows in tow. Disaster strikes: (NEPA is no big news in Nigeria!). OK PHCN. Girl: I can't even see my spoon. Man: (Shouts) Attendant, don't you guys have a gen.? Attendant: sheepishly: we have sir, but we on it at 7.30, now is only 6.30. Darkness covers the entire place. Outing is ruined. Man: I will never come back to this place; come let's go; Girl: sure. Couple departs - Leaves food, wine, and honour behind.

I was a witness.

If you were the ATTENDANT: what would you have done: noting the 7.30 ''switch on gen policy".

First creative answer wins free copy of my new book ''The Gods of Quality Strike Back''. Download at www.pauluduk.com from February 15th.

Customer Service Police On The Prowl!

Is your service quality up to scratch?

Watch your back, CSPs (Customer Service Police) are on the prowl. Dressed in plain cloth, they sniff out bad service and throw offenders to jail. The bad news: they arrest Supervisors along so no one is immune unless you give QED (Quality Every Day) Service. Be the first to Watch this 1 minute YouTube video to see the signs of things to come!
  http://youtu.be/w2SocD-2B4Q

Safe journey as you navigate the treacherous waters of service excellence in a world without frontiers!

BANISH BUREAUCRACY

Is bureaucracy good? Yes, for the dustbin!  Know that excellence and bureaucracy are strange bedfellows. How many bureaucratic organizations do you see serving the customer with passion and care? In Nigeria the when the electricity utility bureaucracy  was called National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), Nigerians called it ‘’Never Expect Power Always’’. Today in the bid to privatise the company the name has been changed to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) but to most Nigerians it remains NEPA. So your guess is as good as mine. No bureacracy ever serves its customers with distinction, except perhaps, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Yes, and the Salvation Army. Alcoholics Anonymous too! And Doctors Without Borders! That’s about all in the whole wide world! The truth is, these not-for-profit organizations are manned by volunteers and not ‘staff’ as your typical Ministry of Works!

More than any other person in the UK, Richard Branson has spent all his energies lampooning British bureaucratic organizations, like the (old) British Airways, and to prove his points, he has set up rival outfits under the Virgin Group. Branson believes in speed, urgency and simplicity. When next you see Branson, look closely and you will notice he doesn’t wear tie. Tie is synonymous with bureaucracy and establishment thinking. All his business associates told Branson that the world did not need another transatlantic airline and Branson turned the impossible   into a highly profitable business by launching Virgin Atlantic Airline. And boy, is Virgin Atlantic profitable! Branson thrives on contrarian thinking!

                                     

As Marvin Bower once alluded, though in another context, as organizations grow and become more successful, they tend to become more self centred, and with myriad of committees and high hierarchy. As a direct result of growth and self-centerdness, the customer becomes relegated to the background as relationship managers are saddled with responsibilities unrelated to their core duty of serving the customer. Bower no doubt was castigating bureaucracy. Unbelievable as it might sound, in bureaucratic environments, sometimes, you hold meetings to decide when to hold meetings! Take the case of Nigeria’s National Assembly, for over one month the committee of the two chambers of the National Assembly set up to review the country’s constitution could not meet as the members could not decide whether the deputy speaker of the house of representatives should be addressed as co-chairman or vice-chairman. That’s how stifling a beaureacracy can be! Can you imagine the board of private sector company, say GE or IBM or MTN, not being able to meet due to the inability to decide how to designate one of the board members in pecking order to the chairman?

Jackie and Kevin Freiberg of NUTS! fame tell the hilarious story about Don Valentine, a former vice president of Southwest airlines. Jackie and Kevin were personally told the story by Herb Kelleher, the then legendary Chairman and CEO of Southwest. Herb was trying to emphasise his disdane for bureaucracy and how much premium Southwest placed on speed, action and the can-do spirit. Herb was describing the rite of passage or call it baptism of fire that Don Valentine the new marketing top gun that was hired from Dr. Pepper went through. At a meeting called on a Monday morning in one January  to discuss a new television campaign Don was asked to lay out his plan for getting the campaign up and running and he began by saying scripting would be in March, followed by  approval for the script in April, and all being equal the cast would be assembled in June and culminating in shooting the commercials in September. If 9 months preparation was standard for shooting commercials at Dr. Pepper Don soon learnt such standard was for the museum at Southwest. The story concluded by saying, after Don finally came to the end of his presentation Herb Kelleher spoke up,   “Don, I hate to tell you, but we’re talking about next Wednesday.” It was then that the scales quickly fell off Don Valentine’s eyes and as the authors surmmarised, he came to know just as other employees that at Southwest “there are two kinds of people: the quick and the dead”.

The Bridge banish bureaucracy as you may have already discerned is about speed and a sense of urgency. The can do spirit has to be woven into the very fabric of the organization from day one. It becomes the culture and is communicated through heroic stories and sagas of the past. With this mentality, unshackled by bureaucratic slow march, employees are not timid about springing into action and doing whatever it takes to help the company accomplish an objective in record time as yet another  graphic story also from Kevin and Jackie Freiberg’s NUTS! South West Airlines Crazy Recipe for Business & Personal Success illustrates. The story was about Southwest’s expansion to Little Rock. On hearing that the airline was planning to go to Little Rock, a competitor airline that was three times bigger than Southwest tried to scuttle the move by also announcing they were also heading to Little Rock in what they described as “a compressed time frame.” Herb ever the maverick who never shied away from a good fight whereever there was one despatched his SWAT Team to Little Rock barely 48 hours after the competitor airlines’s announcement and within ten days Southwest was ready to begin operations at Little Rock! In case you don’t know what an airline needs to put in place before it begins operation, this is what: you need to get departure and arrival gates, draw up  a flight  schedule, get your computers and servers up and running, buy planes of course, and decorate ticket counters. Southwest accomplished what needed to be accomplished within ten days, sub-leasing all available gates from Continental airlines and when the competitor finally arrived Little Rock, they found to their dismay that there were no gates as Southwest had secured all.  Talk about matching action with words.

In bureaucratic establishments whether government or private sector, talk and inaction are always the orders of the day, action is always the exception. In Nigeria, Zenith Bank is no doubt the action Bank. It is not uncommon to see a branch of the bank literally springing up overnight on a street where none existed before. Jim Ovia the MD/CEO of Zenith bank has no stomach for sloppiness and inaction, as an ex-staff of Zenith who is now in private practice but still works on contract capacity for Zenith related to me on my enquiry how Zenith does it. Zenith has over 300 branches in Lagos metropolitan area (my guess as the bank would not divulge the information), Nigeria’s economic powerhouse. Whenever a suitable location for a branch has been identified and a report made to Jim, the next thing he wants to know is when the branch will commence operation. While it takes some banks over  twelve months to plan each branch development, a typical Zenith branch is up and running within a month from the date the decision is made to site a branch.   Bureaucracy and profitability are common enemies. Any wonder  Zenith is one of the most profitable banks in Nigeria today!   Though Marvin Bower, the founder of McKinsey and Company was of the opinion that the list of ‘primary goals’ of a successful firm should not include profit. He felt profit should be subordinated to the overarching goal of providing sterling service. In his opinion if you did your work well the profits would come. He was quoted as going to the extent of saying ‘’any service business  that gives a higher priority to profit deserves to fail.”

 If you didn’t know, Zenith’s service is sterling. I remember my very first interaction with Zenith. That was around April 2007. I needed a debit card to pay Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) for my international passport (only Zenith and UBA issued the card as at then) and had to go to the Zenith branch not far from AP petrol station at Awolowo Road , Ikoyi. I was attended to by Mariam Musa, one of the customer service officers. She was extraordinary. She was engaged in tens of activities at the same time. The systems as usual were ‘hanging’, but she handled every thing so meticulously to divert attention from the fact. Ever smiling, she came back to me now and again to reassure me that my card would soon be ready. I played along and pretended I didn’t know what was going on. Finally my card was ready. It was now time to compliment her having satisfied my curiosity whether Zenith was up to scratch in customer service. When I told her she did a great job she appeared taken aback, and replied, ‘Sir I’m sure if I came to your bank I would get a higher standard of service, thanks all the same.’’ That is not the end of the story. Within an hour I received an email from Zenith inquiring whether everything went well. No wonder, in Nigeria today, to own a Zenith bank account is a status symbol.          

Both Peter Drucker and Joseph Schumpeter have in different contexts decried bureaucracy. Both men have said that “retaining the spirit of entrepreneurship is accomplished primarily by defying tradition, challenging orthodoxy, breaking up the old, selecting niches, and recognizing that bureaucracy and success are irreconcilable.’’