What are participants saying about 'Managing New Beginnings?'

After putting in over 40 years of their life into diligent service at Lafarge Nigeria (formerly WAPCO), which is acknowledged to be the world’s largest cement manufacturing conglomerate, the trio of Mr. Sunday Taiwo, Mr. Kamoru Adebayo and Mr. Paul Oladeji were placed under the guidance of LAMID Consulting for a pre-retirement training themed ‘Managing New Beginnings’ and it did not come as a surprise that for the three participants, expectations were tremendously high.

The training, which began on January 19, 2014, was expected to open the eyes of these employees of Lafarge to the immense benefits that life beyond retirement held for them especially on the strength of the level of attention that goes into different aspects of entrepreneurship development including research, planning, execution and monitoring as experience has shown that these go a long way in determining the structure, operations, lucrative machinery and reputation of businesses.

With the proven integrity of one of LAMID Consulting’s flagship brands, BIZ (Business Incubation Zone), which has designed and implemented successful trainings for the likes of Shell Nigeria, Promasidor, Access Bank, UNDP, LAFARGE, USAID, British Council, UNIFEM, UNILEVER and several others, the participants were hand-held through the array of opportunities and tools at their disposal.

With barely less than a month of active service remaining, the reality of life in retirement was laid out to the participants individually as LAMID Consulting leaned on its wealth of experience and level of success repeatedly achieved in the course of such similar trainings in the past.

From the first day of the training through the final day, the participants were constantly reminded that in order to set up a successful business in Nigeria, a lot of attention must go into several aspects of research, planning, execution and monitoring.

With the anticipation of receiving their gratuity also came the challenge of planning for a life in retirement; where the cushion of salaries no longer exists.

We however, gauged the impulse of the participants on the third day of the 3-day training tagged ‘Managing New Beginnings’ to hear their views on the ongoing training.

Interestingly, none of the participants strayed from the testimonials of participants of such similar trainings as they excitedly explained how the training opened their eyes to the vast array of opportunities they could take advantage of.

As they were independently allowed to suggest business ideas that they had the capacity, knowledge and passion to initiate, this formed a perfect start for what was to follow in the course of the training.

One of the benefits that was unanimously agreed upon by the participants was that the BIZ model showed them that without erecting a foundation that has structure, research, expertise and hands-on experience, the business takes a plunge into the waters of uncertainty, avoidable risks and suddenly, a business idea that holds so much promise become overtaken by cash flow problems, poor sales, poor operational and service plan, inability to access appropriate financing plans, deployment of right marketing strategies and absence of adequate technical and technology-based support.

The success stories of over 3,000 others who have achieved different levels of success in their businesses also formed a concrete reference point for the participants all through the course of the training.

In addition to the knowledge imparted on the participants, the BIZ model revealed to Mr. Taiwo, Mr. Adebayo and Mr. Oladeji how to migrate from the ‘potential business owner mindset’ to confidently starting a business, using a system that develops the entrepreneur in each person, and helps to create the enterprise suited to them.

The participants also enjoyed a walk-through into over 200 business ideas developed into LAMID Consulting’s Business Guides and used this to streamline their preferred businesses.

OBJECTIVES: This program is designed to transform participants by developing an entrepreneurial mindset to enable them:

  • Recognize, and act on ideas and opportunities for creating sales
  • Design a suitable business plan as a compass for strategic decisions
  • Improve the quality of their goods and services to global standards
  • Appropriately price their goods and services for optimum returns
  • Build and lead a high performing team for business goals

DELIVERABLES: The programme will:

  • Motivate, empower, and build confidence and persistence to take moderate, calculated risks
  • Prepare new business entrants and ‘veterans’ for the challenges of building and managing their own businesses
  • Provide viable opportunities for generating fresh business ideas
  • Show delegates how to use simple business management techniques and strategies to pro-actively create and improve sales, reduce costs, and increase profits
  • Integrate technology into business building and decision-making
  • Develop practical business leadership skills