‘Nigeria needs leaders with global perspective’

SUNIL SAWHNEY, Managing Director, Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc in this insightful interview with KELECHI EWUZIE, shares how the company is positioning Nigerian youths for global leadership responsibility using the scholarship scheme with Harvard Business School. Excerpt  

What informed the decision to invest in Business education scholarships for young Nigerians?

The decision to go into the Seven-Up Harvard Business School Scholarship was reached during a meeting of the Management Committee, under the stewardship of the Chairman, Mr. Faysal El-Khalil, who is an alumnus of Harvard Business School. He suggested at a meeting that the company look at an initiative that would hold good for Nigerians and Nigeria as a country.

After a lengthy brain storming session, we arrived at the conclusion that Nigeria like many other countries needs strong leadership with global perspective. You know; leaders that make a difference the people can feel. Leaders, who can think globally, but act locally.

The next challenge was determining how to go about contributing in the development of these leaders and it was here that we zeroed in on the Harvard Business School which is one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

We then decided to select one individual each year from a pool of the bright young Nigerians that have been offered admission to study in Harvard Business School. The company, after series of selection process, would select one beneficiary that would be offered a scholarship that includes tuition, boarding and to and fro air fare for the two-year programme.

Though discussed we decided against insisting the beneficiary upon completion of the programme, return to work for 7up, as it did not align with the objective of the initiative. The beneficiary coming back to work for the company was not included as part of the condition for the scholarship because we believe that Nigerians are passionate about Nigeria and will listen to the call of their fatherland.

Even if the scholarship winners don’t come back immediately after graduating from Harvard, they would definitely come back after gaining some years of experience abroad and use this experience to add much more value to the economy, structure, society and to the overall thinking in Nigeria over a period of  time. All that is required to change a country is one strong person.  Even though we are only sponsoring one person.  The multiplier effect of this is our objective.

It is important to note that even though we are sponsoring one Nigerian to Harvard yearly, when they come back after a few years of experience abroad, the number of other Nigerians they are going to impact in the country through their initiatives is going to be massive. 

The prospective candidates go through rigorous interview process to ascertain that the reason for their going to Harvard Business School is in line with the company’s vision. The selected beneficiary must be someone that is passionate about Nigeria and is passionate about making an impact in the country 

In addition; since management go through a rigorous process to choose the right candidate, we don’t need to put pressure on them to return and work for us because we know the beneficiary would like to come back to Nigeria with their success stories.

Misan Rewane the 1st scholarship winner has already returned to Nigeria after graduating at Harvard to help address the disenfranchisement of African youths in Nigeria by starting West Africa Vocational Education (WAVE). WAVE provides self-motivated youth with skills employers want, teaches them how to stand out professionally by inculcating a mind-set of continuous improvement and places them in paid technical apprenticeships in high-growth industries where they earn while they learn.  

Basically as a company, we thought of undertaking an initiative to commemorate our 50th Anniversary which, incidentally coincides with the 50th Anniversary of Independent Nigeria. We felt, we should give something back to the country and to the society which would serve and multiply, by the grace of God, in perpetuity.

Since inception of the 7up Harvard scholarship, how much has the company invested in the scheme?

Since inception in 2010, four Nigerian students have been awarded scholarship to Harvard. In terms of financial investement so far, the Company has invested close to 1 million US dollars into the initiative and of course a much higher emotional investment. 

Is the decision to take the scholarship abroad an indication of the failure of Nigeria tertiary institutions?

Not at all; the objective of Harvard Business School scholarship is totally different. The main aim is to try and give back to the country at some point in time; leaders who have a global vision, who have attained that vision abroad, come back to the country and use that vision to bring developmental transformation locally. As I said earlier, the idea is to think global, act local and over a period of time, will actually complement the Nigerian education system.

As far as the Nigeria education system is concerned, we are involved in several levels of education. We have several scholarship programmes on going in our plant in Aba, Abia State where we give scholarships at secondary and tertiary levels to deserving students every year.

We have another educational support scheme in Lagos; where we procure admission forms for a number of students in the State. Apart from this, we also have investment in football and other aspects of human capacity development.

Skills gap issue 

The issue of shortfall in skilled manpower is a global phenomenon. Talk to any CEO and they would tell you that their challenge is shortfall in skilled manpower. If you ask the head of Human resources department globally what their biggest challenge is, they will tell you it is shortfall in skilled workforce.  

As you are aware, things are moving at a very fast pace, so organisations will always have these gaps and I don’t think any CEO has any written down strategy to force down the issue of skills gap.  This is because by the time they succeed in bridging that gap, there is either a new development in business, new invention in technology, new demand of the business in terms of trends, change in consumers’ demands, etc.

It is very critical that as these things keep changing at a fast pace, the management of organizations continue to strive to meet up with the pace of development in order to bridge that gap.

As an organisation, our strategy of retaining our staff and keeping them motivated is by ensuring that we do the right thing at the right moment. We as a rule, strive to imbibe some basic core values of the organisation into our staff.

We are perhaps the only organisation in Nigeria where we get together almost about 400 junior and senior staff every year for a conference with the theme ‘Power In Team’, where all barriers between categories are removed and we talk and interact freely amongst ourselves for three days. Issues discussed are usually about our company core values and staff’ personal well being

By doing this, we are trying to build an all-encompassing environment; where the management on one hand sees to employee’s material benefit but also through this process work on their emotional capital to ensure that we marry the two to ensure a smooth organisational operation.

Some Nigerian youths who would like to acquire skills at some business schools abroad are really pushed back by cost/tuition, are there plans to increase the number of beneficiaries of the scholarship?

For the Harvard Business School Scholarship, the company has no immediate plans of increasing the number of year beneficiary, however we will try and assess the progress of this project after four or five years to know the students performances, how they are impacting the overall growth of the society in Nigeria. This will serve as a motivating factor for us to make our next decision.

Motivation

This is an interesting question and let me share with you, how I look at it.

When your goals are realistic and match your desires, you will be motivated. When you are motivated and work hard towards your goals, you will succeed. When you succeed, your motivation will grow, you will set new goals, and continue to achieve them and that is what happens with me. 

So if I were to put it in one word, as to what motivates me… I would say ‘Success’….

KELECHI EWUZIE