By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Founder/GMD of the Interswitch Group, Mr Mitchell Elegbe, has said that although money is necessary, it is not sufficient enough to make a business thrive.
The successful businessman said this while giving the keynote address at the annual Lagos Business School MBA Entrepreneurship Expo and Contest themed Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation.
He emphasised at the event that entrepreneurs must first identify the problems they are trying to solve before venturing into any business.
According to him, the more value customers perceive, the more they are willing to pay for goods and services.
He said business owners should not make business plans based on time, but on seasons, noting that, “Do not work so hard climbing a ladder only to discover it is resting on the wrong wall.
“Don’t get too busy with your day-to-day activities that you forget the main reason/objectives for starting that activity in the first place. Beware of activity hype and remember that there is a lot of disruptive hype.”
Mr Elegbe also spoke about the different types of entrepreneurs he listed as the hustler-preneur, life-styler, dealer-preneur, maker-preneur, jack-of-all preneur, slugger-preneur, travel-preneur, side-preneur, Do-side preneur, geek-preneur, and incubator-preneur.
He noted that the knowledge of an entrepreneur determines the kind of problem he is expected to solve.
After his keynote address, Mr Elegbe answered questions from some of the over 300 participants on the online expo, where he emphasised the direct correlation between problems and opportunities and urged budding entrepreneurs to see problems as opportunities to create solutions, businesses and employment.
The keynote address was followed by a panel session of four panellists reviewing it, sharing their business experiences as well as giving tips for new opportunities.
All the sessions of the Expo were moderated by Dr Henrietta Onwuegbuzie who is the Academic Director for the Owner-Manager Programme and Project Director for the Impact Investing policy initiative at the Lagos Business School.
Panellists at the LBS MBA Entrepreneurship Expo and Contest included Paul Orujiaka, CEO of Auldon; Richmond Okafor, CEO of Cleanmax Industries Limited; Stephanie Obi, Business & Marketing Strategist, ST HUB LIMITED and Lawrence Egunjobi, an Entrepreneur.
The Lagos Business School MBA Entrepreneurship Expo and Contest is a project aimed at empowering entrepreneurs across Africa with business acumen and soft skills, building sustainable businesses, giving free business advisory, providing training and pairing them with relevant life-long mentors.
This expo ended with a pitch where some entrepreneurs pitched their business plans to selected judges and had an entrepreneurship exhibition.
The criteria for participation included: the nature of the problems being solved, quality of the solution proposed, business model, sustainability plan and operational effectiveness.
Professor Enase Okonedo, Lagos Business School Dean, in her closing remarks, disclosed that the Lagos Business School will continue to give entrepreneurship in Africa all the support it can, to tackle the looming issue of unemployment in Africa.
