The Group Managing Director (GMD) of Courteville Business Solutions Plc, Mr. Adebola Akindele was on Thursday 26th November, 2015 a Guest Lecturer at one of Nigeria’s Premier Citadel of Learning, the Pan Atlantic University at their Ibeju-Lekki Campus situated at Km 52 Lekki-Epe Expressway (Near Eleko Beach Junction) Lagos Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
He was scheduled to deliver a 2 series lecture to the Level 2 students of the School of Business Administration (SBA). The lectures were tagged “Concept to Market” and “Putting your Team Together” with the core of the lecture centered on Entrepreneurship.
As usual Mr. Akindele did not mount the stage with any form of power point presentation slides and the surprise was obvious in the eyes of the students in attendance. The expression “How will he pull it off?” was written all over their adorable faces because a Resident Lecturer had just wrapped up her lecture with a beautifully crafted presentation.
The GMD started off by introducing himself; talking about his educational background, he spoke on how he graduated from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1984 causing a bit of shock to some of the students who said he did not look his age. He moved on to speak on his work experience and how the motivation to start up his company came about. He also spoke on the different challenges entrepreneurs face and decisions they need to make from his perspective.
It was clearly an interactive session between Mr. Akindele and these young intellectuals as there were many questions asked and the GMD spent more time than expected during both his lectures.
The highlights of the lectures were when he chipped in the following tips on being a successful entrepreneur:
- Business ideas could only be conceived by observing gaps and overlaps in a particular system
- The need for some capital to be in place for you to start a business
- Market research, Product Paper deliberations and more are necessary activities of a startup business
- Persistence is a key element of Entrepreneurship
- Identifying the objectives of an organization comes from the gaps and overlaps that have brought the idea to life
- The Elevator Pitch: There is a need to confidently be able to pitch your business idea in less than a minute
- The progression to success will involve different ups & downs
The students were glad Mr. Akindele came to their school flocking round him and requesting for him to visit again in order to finish his lecture because they believed the time he spent was too little and they were sure he had more in his arsenal of knowledge; majority ended up collecting his business cards.
