Bank chief prescribes ways to sustainable business growth

The Chairman, First Bank Nigeria Limited, Ibukun Awosika, has identified strict adherence to vision and core values as the principles that must be adopted to achieve sustainable business growth in Nigeria.

Awosika, who spoke at the 25th Anniversary of Red Star Express Plc, held in Lagos at the weekend, said business sustainability is an approach that creates long-term stakeholder value by implementing a business strategy that considers every dimension of how a business operates in the ethical, social, environmental, cultural, and economic spheres.

According to her, in order to succeed in business, companies must repeatedly re-examine their vision, and make sure the business serves it well with sound ethical business practice that cannot be compromised to achieve high level of integrity.

Furthermore, she pointed out that proper employee development and open-minded approach are also among areas of focus in order to build a company that fosters longevity and long term growth.

To continue growing, Awosika maintained that entrepreneurs, managers, and business owners must become the leader for each particular stage of growth.

She added that since businesses needs change at each stage, leaders need to keep evolving at the right pace, which requires self examination, self-awareness, and a deep sense of innovative strategy, both in the short and long term to help stay ahead of trends.

“The issue of building business that will stand the test of time is critical, and the fundamental factors to sustain it must be thought of. You must have a vision of what you want to build, and where you want to go because if the business is all about now, it would not last.

“Again, your vision must be able to adopt and respond to situations of change. Visions have changes and can be updated in order not to be wiped out. Also, when you are building a business, if you do not invest in training of the people, making them vision sharers, somewhere along the line, it shows up. You must also build within the right value system and model in order to build sustainably,” she added.”

The Managing Director of Red Star, Sola Ababori, assured stakeholders that the firm plans to leverage recent acquisitions it made to open up new investment opportunities in Nigeria, as well as penetrate the global market.

Ababori added that the company is currently investing in projects that would consistently create value, and boost the economy even in the next 25 years.

“We are doing investments that would be there for more than 25 years after now. We have all kinds of approvals to construct warehouses in few places in Nigeria. We are bringing foreigners to help us do some of those investments. We are working with some states in Nigeria and government to execute these projects.”

The logistics giant, which has become one of the most reputable logistics company in Nigeria, said the acquisition of FedEx has provided the company an unparalleled reach into the European market.