FOUNDER’S SPEECH AT THE LAUNCH OF THE AUSSO LEADERSHIP ACADEMY By Austin Okere

Firstly, I want to thank God for this day. He is ever faithful and ever sure. I also want to deeply appreciate Dr Ernest Ndukwe, the Father of modern telecoms in Nigeria, for his generosity and support always. It was to him that I turned, to commission our state of the art Data Centre when I was at CWG. And he obliged, despite his busy schedule as the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC.

When I asked him again in my “Oliver Twist moment” to come and Launch the Ausso Leadership Academy, he readily said ‘Yes’, to my delight and relief. He is to me and to many of us the epitome of “an officer and a gentleman”. Thank you, Sir, I deeply appreciate you.

Thank you all for making time to come and witness this momentous occasion.

The Ausso Leadership Academy is not only a dream come true but the fulfilment of a glaring need in our business and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The need for Mentorship in the success of businesses cannot be overemphasized. This is indeed what has driven the raging success of Silicon Valley in America.

The Ausso Leadership Academy fills this huge gap in our polity by providing the right medium for this Mentorship to take place seamlessly. Many of the Champions of Business that I spoke to regarding mentoring delegates to succeed in their businesses readily agreed, saying that they wanted to do this all along, but there was no organized way for them to actualize it, despite getting many requests for Mentorship.

My motivation for setting up the Ausso Leadership Academy are threefold, of which one is very personal: Firstly, I wanted a way to impart the advice I would have given my younger self in my entrepreneurial adventure (perhaps I would have avoided some of the mistakes that I made).

Secondly, I wanted to be to others the Mentor I wish I had. Finally and the most personal reason was that I wanted to mentor entrepreneurs to institutionalize and scale their businesses geometrically because in so doing, they will maximize the jobs they create in order to enable shared prosperity.

Let me tell you why the last one is very personal to me. Many of us send our children to schools overseas to get the best education. If they remain there after studies because there is nothing for them to come back to, you can imagine the colossal loss of a whole generation of Nigeria’s Brightest and Best living their lives as disadvantaged citizens in another man’s country, while their Nation badly needs them.

If we all put hands together to lift the businesses to be sustainable and prosperous, then there will be jobs for your children and my children to come back to. This is the cardinal reason for the Ausso Leadership Academy. The Academy is designed to be self-sustaining and has a life beyond the Founder.

Many people have asked that they attend free or at a steep discount well below breakeven, and for varied reasons. My issue with Free things is that they are usually of low standard, taken for granted and not at all sustainable. When the person providing the funds is no more, or the source of the funds dries up, the whole concept dies. We have many initiatives in Nigeria that have gone this unfortunate path.

I believe that while a farmer eats his harvest, he should strive to plant his seed and not eat them as well. It is the seed that is planted that becomes a tree, yielding multiples of harvests.

I fear that our entrepreneurs and businesses may not be investing enough in their human capital development, as was rightly noted by Bill Gates during his recent visit to Nigeria.

An enterprise starts with an idea in the first year, and after seven years it has not scaled to the next level. No innovative input to power growth, transform or survive disruption. Yet we will gladly pay N3m for a table at a show just for the night, or shed N500k to buy a designer belt or shoe.

Let us not even talk of the watches. These are good indulgences when they are funded by a business which is doing well. I believe it is more about priorities than affordability when it comes to self-development.

For clarity, the Ausso Leadership Academy is not a Business School, nor a substitute for one.

The Academy is the practical and experiential complement to the fantastic education we receive from Business Schools. I myself was in the pioneer set of the Executive MBA at the Lagos Business School and benefited immensely.

I daresay on behalf of all the Champions who are committing their time and resources to this project that the Ausso Leadership Academy is providing what is needed for Mentorship, Business Growth and Sustainability. It is now for those for whose benefit it was established to avail themselves of the advantages. We still have a few seats left for the Premier Masterclass starting on April 17, please do let any of the attendants know if you will like to be registered or sponsor someone.

I personally believe that a candle loses nothing by lighting other candles, it only makes the room brighter for all. I also believe that a billionaire is not necessarily one who has amassed a billion dollars, but one who has directly or indirectly positively touched a billion lives. In my own little way, I will continue to do my bit towards the uplifting of our society.

Finally, I want to deeply thank the Champions, Faculty and Staff for their full support in birthing this day and everybody who has provided us support along the way. I want to thank in a special way David Afolayan, our communication specialist, for a good job in propagating the brand on social media. I also want to recognize the architects, Integrated Projects limited, led by Mr Yinka Kushemiju for the amazing transformation of this property.

Above all, I will like to thank in a special way, my better half Mrs Sola Okere for her deep contribution. She has indeed been an unflinching pillar of support on this journey. Thank you all for coming and God bless you.

Austin Okere is the Founder & Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Ausso Leadership Academy.