“EVERYONE THAT LOSES A JOB IS NOW A CONSULTANT”
Tope Fasua is an economist, accountant, columnist, author and a consultant. A fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Tope studied economics at the Ondo State University where he finished as the best graduating student in his department, faculty and university at large in 1991. He had his second degree, Msc Financial Markets & Derivatives, from the London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom. He started his career in 1992 with the defunct Citizens Bank. He later worked with Standard Trust Bank and Equatorial Trust Bank where he rose to the position Principal Manager/ Regional Director (Abuja). With executive education courses from the London Business School and the Harvard University, Tope is a regular economic and financial markets analyst on television. He is the author of the books, CRUSHED! (2011) and THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOUR CAREER DISAPPEARS (2013). The former banker is the CEO of Global Analytics Consulting
In this PART THREE of our 4-part interview Tope discusses his career. SEE PARTS ONE AND TWO .
5. You’re a consultant, CEO of a consultancy outfit, Global Analytics, which has presence in Nigeria, United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, what skills do you think are the most important for a consultant or someone willing to set up a successful consultancy outfit? Is there any experience worth sharing on the difference between doing business in Nigeria and these two other countries?
Skills. You know these days everyone who loses a job becomes a consultant and there are many unscrupulous activities going on in the industry, which is mostly unregulated. I even refrain from calling myself consultant because it has become abused, almost like calling oneself a ‘pastor’. Also because before you can call yourself a ‘consultant’, you are claiming to have superior knowledge of an industry, to the extent that you are in touch with the latest and the best of knowledge developing from such an industry. You have to be versatile. It’s an unending work. Research. Research. Research. Read. Read. Read. Write. Write. Write. Creating reports that add value. Even I am still on my way, I’m not there yet, but I give things a good shot. A consultant has to be cerebral. It is not a job for dullards at all. Check it. Your consulting firm is competing with the big 5, the not so big 5,000, the medium 500,000 and other upstarts, millions of them, like you. How do you distinguish yourself? Consulting, if it is to be done properly, is what you do for love, not the money. Heck, there’s no money there.
I had a training engagement with a government parastatal last year that brought home to me the meaning of the word ‘consultant’. The bathrooms in that training school was simply rubbish. Dirty and stinking. And there we were talking about leadership, policy, management and so on. I couldn’t take it anymore, and with say N3,000, given to the cleaners to buy some bleach and things, the bathrooms in the entire training school, were transformed. I took the picture. We used it as a case study in leadership and management. But it occurred to me that they have always had consultants coming there, some from abroad. I think it’s a sin for a consultant to leave an organization or entity it is privileged to engaged with, in the same way, or worse, than he met them. The responsibility for change lies with leaders, even with managers, even with workers in a place, but when you saunter in with your broad chest and Saville Row suit, and your pristine Charles Tyrwhitt shirt, and you get paid for that engagement, then you better make a difference. It is no joke. Or perhaps it is, and that is why consultants are no longer respected. Do you know what it takes for a medical doctor to become a consultant? Would you want to visit a consultant and have him handle your ailment in a lackadaisical way, or even misdiagnose you or administer the wrong drugs, or even cut your stomach open for fun, when what is disturbing you is in your buttocks? That’s the way I see it.
As regards doing business. I am a contrarian as you know. Look my brother, forget all those indices from the World Economic Forum. Especially if you are a Nigerian, the best place in the world for you to do business is Nigeria! And who says it is difficult to do business here? It isn’t. It’s even fairly easy these days to open a corporate entity and get it registered at the CAC. Don’t believe the hype. It took me a whole lot more to open this company in the UK than it did in Nigeria. Here, many even start prospecting before the company set-up is complete. It’s your country you know. Those you went to school with are here. We all look alike. They don’t think you speak funny. You think you can make money from Britain? You’re kidding yourself. Maybe if you open a bar or African foodstuff company somewhere where ‘your people’ are in mass. But in Nigeria, your country, you can swagger here and there. You can walk into places confidently, you can even get favours from those who know or don’t know you. And if you are ‘on point’, diligent, hardworking, articulate, amiable, generous, open-minded, easy-going, among other virtues, you will do so much that you will have to pass some businesses. That is the way I see it. The UK is a tight environment, Dubai is very livable and you may meet an Emirati that will propel you to great heights. But in all these places, you are reminded that your home, is your home. So go home! Indeed, many Europeans and Americans make their money in Africa and enjoy it in their countries.
“You think you can make
money from Britain? You’re kidding yourself.” Very correct. In an highly regulated economy like the U.K making huge money is almost impossible given the very strong income redistribution measures like taxation and others. With these measures, they were able to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor such that you hardly identify the poor.
I think it is high time to change our ways in Nigeria or else, we will continue to make the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.