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| Sijibomi Ogundele, CEO, Sujimoto Construction Limited |
What can you recall of your
background?
I am a
Nigerian by birth, African by blood and entrepreneur at heart. I was born into
a corporately dynamic family where my father had a nine-to-five job as a
manager and my mother was an entrepreneur. I grew up in a bi-religious home. My
mum is a Muslim while my father is a Christian. I consider myself a
multi-tribal Nigerian. I grew up on the streets of Agege (Lagos) and went to
school in the ancient city of Kaduna because my mother was a trader. I was
nurtured within the premises of a market, filled with enterprising Igbo
traders—and that influenced my passion for business. I am multilingual. I speak
Hausa, Yoruba, French, Spanish, a little bit of Arabic and Japanese. I am a
pan-African and a global citizen.
Many
people think I just came from nowhere but they don’t know what I am made of.
From the ages of eight to 12, I grew from owning one motorcycle (okada) to
having six; and helping my mother in the market. Would you believe that I even
hawked souvenirs on the streets of France?
When did you have a
breakthrough in your business?
The
Holy Bible says that, ‘A diligent man will stand before kings and not ordinary
men’. I have been doing real estate since 1998 when I lived in the South of
France as a common agent with no licence. I worked for a Saudi Arabian family
that championed me to broker deals, so we did a lot of assets acquisition and
distressed deals, mostly in real estate, project financing and so on. Every
year, we did about three deals and as a broker, I got some commission. One of
my first major breaks in project execution was in 2011, when I bought an
apartment in Paris and decided to remodel it. My friends thought I was crazy
and lavish. But after I finished the renovation, I organised a party and a
friend of mine got interested (in it). I
sold it in less than two months to my friend from Qatar for double the price.
The investment flip in such short time re-ignited my interest in real estate
and changed my career path forever.
When I
finally decided to move back to Nigeria in 2014, I had a vision to ‘liberate’
the Nigerian luxury real estate market and bring true value to customers who
are not only tired of architectural mediocrity but also frustrated by value
depreciation.
What drives you?
Poverty
drives me. From young age, I have always known that there is no nobility in
poverty. At the tender age of five, my
mother would wake us up very early in the morning while my mates were sleeping
and she would say to me that ‘Hard work is the cure for poverty.’ Those words
have been my driving force.
Also,
value creation, innovation, exceptional service and a ‘never give-up’ attitude
are my biggest motivations. Nobody likes anybody they don’t get value from. If
you are my brother and you are not adding value to me, then I am not ready to
do business with you. I have sold crap and I’m now selling luxury and I can
tell from experience that it is easier to sell luxury than crap. When you sell
luxury, you sell peace of mind and you can afford to go to bed at night,
knowing that your clients will be fine for years to come. However, when you
sell crap, you are always on the run, because you cannot tell when that client
would come calling for your head.
What challenges did you
face while carving a niche for yourself?
I must
say that our critics are our biggest motivation. Without them, we would not
have come this far. I started Sujimoto five years ago and those have been the
most difficult years of my life and the economy. Also, because I was doing
business in an environment where I didn’t grow up, people didn’t know who Ogundele
was, so I had to prove myself by working three times harder.
2016
and 2017 were probably the most difficult and challenging periods of my life. I
had conceived and developed the biggest project in my life– over $90m to build
the tallest residential building in Sub-Saharan Africa. I invested all my
money, time and passion into the project.
Unfortunately
for me, the government policies and the economy made my Saudi investors to pull
out. The economy was so bad and things became very rough that I had to refund
hundreds of millions of naira to the ‘offtakers’ and let go of some of my best
hands. However, on the verge of almost giving up, I reassessed my plans,
reviewed all my decisions, identified my pain-point and made the much-needed
adjustment which included letting go of the land for something much better in
Banana Island.
Riding
on the wings of criticism and media backlash that followed, I conceived another
project in Banana Island. 20 months after, it has metamorphosed from a proof of
concept into a proof of product.
What does it take to build
a successful business empire?
Firstly,
integrity is the currency of my business. And if one doesn’t have passion for a
particular business, one might just go back home. But for me, the most
important ingredient of success is being a man of one’s word. Let your word be
your bond.
Many
people say you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, but I practice what I
call ‘buffetology’. I do business like I
play poker– I go all in. I put all my eggs in one or maximum of two baskets. We
think of our customers first, employees second and myself third. I tell my
people that the customer is king, because without the customers, we would be
out of business.
Do you have any regrets for
going into this line of business, or have you ever felt like doing other
businesses?
Regrets?
None. I see every event in my life as an opportunity for learning and
improvement. However, there was a time I almost gave up. In the heat of the
2016/17 economic recession, when the pressure was weighing down heavily on me,
I visited my friend’s water factory in Abeokuta and thought about venturing
into the water packaging business.
I even
went back to Ijebu Igbo (Ogun State) and visited some farms because it seemed
agriculture had become the new oil. Some people began convincing me to leave
everything and switch to agriculture and farming – something I knew nothing
about.
It was
a very tough time for me and lots of entrepreneurs in the country but I
remembered that my present situation should not determine my destination. I
knew in my heart that running away wouldn’t reflect the ‘motomatics’ philosophy
I had created. I have never been a runaway loser.
Will the middle class have
access to the luxury services that you provide?
We
plan to go into commercial real estate. Our intention is to transform Lekki and
Ikeja with contemporary plazas where everyone can shop. It is true that the
focus, for us at Sujimoto, is on luxury residential real estate but we have a
design and build service that also takes into consideration one’s budget,
especially for the middle class family that wants a taste of luxury.
We
realised that not everyone wants to buy a ready-made property. Some people have
their land and want a bespoke condominium. We can help create breathtaking and
contemporary designs, get approval and build it, and transform their dream into
a reality, with high-quality fittings and finishing.
What are some of the
challenges facing the real estate industry?
When
you negotiate the price of greatness, you pay the full price for mediocrity.
Our major challenge is a challenge of the mind. There is a need to revamp the
old ways of doing things and start replacing our immediate gratification
mindset with that of value creation.
The
potential of the Nigerian real estate industry has no match and its
possibilities and capacity to grow are unbeatable. The shelter demand of the
Nigerian real estate industry has not reached even 10 per cent of its
potential. If you look at the international marketplace and compare our
resources and our potential, you would realise we are still behind in quality
real estate.
Many
Nigerian developers lack the currency of patience. Their quest for immediate
gratification supersedes the need for value creation. We need to develop the
real estate sector and move from the ‘quick fix-quick gain’ syndrome, which
will continue to leave us in the backwaters of world-class real estate
development.
Does the Nigerian economy
favour businesses or frustrate them?
Doing
business in Nigeria takes guts and lots of courage. On its own, it is a
business school. If you can survive doing business in Nigeria, you will become
a king in other seemingly saner climes. Our institutions are not well equipped
to support building businesses, let alone finance innovation. In saner climes, innovative ideas and
businesses get adequate support from the government through established
institutions.
If Steve Jobs was in Nigeria, he might
have ended up in the Computer Village. The Apple brand is a success today not because
Steve Jobs and his partner were from wealthy homes, but because they had the
necessary support from established institutions. As a business owner, you have
to source for funding yourself, generate power, provide basic infrastructure
for your business and still pay tax at the end of the day. Indeed, if you are
looking for a superman, look no further than the next Nigerian entrepreneur you
come across.
What would you describe as
your most memorable experience?
There
are two days that are memorable in my life. The first was when, at the age of
seven, I left Zaria (Kaduna State) and came to Lagos because I was missing my
mum. My dad almost killed me. The second was the day I left Nigeria in search
of greener pastures. I was only 16 years old. I have always had an adventurous
life.
What
advice do you have for the youths and struggling entrepreneurs?
Permit
me to say that the biggest issue with this generation is the ‘entitlement’
mentality. No one owes us anything but
ourselves. And if we don’t make a sacrifice for whatever we want in life, what
we want will become the sacrifice.
I have
travelled all over the world and trust me when I say that Nigeria is the
biggest ground for uncommon opportunities. This same opportunity is what brings
foreigners to our land and makes them billionaires. Nigeria is the only land
where the Lebanese man starts off as a trader and becomes an industrialist; or
the Indian starts as a storekeeper and becomes a manufacturer.
What are your hobbies?
I love
making deals.
What sports do you like and
do you engage in any?
I love
playing monopoly and chess.
How do you spend your
leisure time?
I like
playing chess and having a great time with friends. (Punch)
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