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Transcript

MBA: Worth the Hype for Sales & Business Owners? · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today is another out and about
• 0:04
  episode. So expect to hear some
• 0:06
  interruptions in the background today.
• 0:10
  Shout out to Adebc or Laid. He's a product manager and also
• 0:15
  APR and brand manager who's based out of Lagos.
• 0:21
  So he's a listener of the show who discovered the podcast on
• 0:24
  Spotify and then reached out to me on LinkedIn.
• 0:27
  And he reached out just to applaud the depth of knowledge
• 0:31
  on the podcast. He thinks the podcast is great
• 0:33
  and he's a fan. So thank you very much at ABC
• 0:36
  Online for listening to the show.
• 0:38
  And please, I hope that you're going to share the show with
• 0:41
  other project managers, you know, PR people, brand people,
• 0:44
  and then the other person who might get to learn some tidbits
• 0:47
  here and there from the world of sales that might help them be
• 0:51
  better in their businesses and in their careers.
• 0:54
  So the topic we're going to handle today on the podcast is
• 0:58
  whether salespeople should have MBAs.
• 1:00
  So an MBA is a master of business administration.
• 1:03
  And this is a user question. I haven't had a user question in
• 1:06
  a very long time, or rather I haven't treated 1.
• 1:09
  So since I got one on LinkedIn from Salami Abu Bakri, I
• 1:13
  figured, let me just come over here and make the podcast
• 1:16
  recording. So Salami Abu Bakri, if you are
• 1:18
  listening to the show, then this is the answer to the question
• 1:21
  that you asked me on LinkedIn. And thank you for being patient
• 1:25
  for me to run through all the things that I had before coming
• 1:29
  to this particular question because I think he asked me this
• 1:32
  question about a week ago. Now, Salami Abu Bakri is also a
• 1:36
  listener of the podcast who discovered it on Spotify and
• 1:39
  reached out to me on LinkedIn. And coincidentally, he also is a
• 1:43
  project manager as well, just like a DBCO lady, the the same
• 1:46
  person that was shouting out today.
• 1:48
  So the answer to the question, should sales people have MBAs?
• 1:52
  And for those of you who've been listening to the podcast for a
• 1:54
  very long time, you're not surprised by my answer because
• 1:57
  the answer is depends, because lots of things are very
• 2:01
  contextual. But the main thesis that I have
• 2:04
  and the main thesis that you're going to get, the main idea that
• 2:07
  you're going to get regardless of whichever sales professional
• 2:10
  or rather sales consultant or business growth consultant that
• 2:14
  you talk to, there's one answer that we agree on and we're
• 2:17
  unanimous on whether you have an MBA or not.
• 2:20
  One thing that is required to be successful in sales and selling
• 2:23
  is business acumen. So if you have the degree, that
• 2:29
  is good. The degree just means that you
• 2:31
  are credentialed, but you don't necessarily need the degree to
• 2:34
  have business acumen. So that's the reason why I say
• 2:37
  it depends. So there are some people who
• 2:39
  have gone and had MBAs and have found it to be of immense value
• 2:44
  and has been the beginning of them acquiring business acumen.
• 2:48
  But then you have some people on the other hand, who have gone
• 2:51
  and had MBAs but who felt that the real world experience that
• 2:55
  they had in business either prior to the MBA or after the
• 2:58
  MBA is what really gave them all the business acumen that they
• 3:01
  need. So now the short answer is it
• 3:04
  depends. But the thing that you
• 3:06
  definitely need is business acumen.
• 3:09
  The thing that will help you show the world will, that will
• 3:13
  credential you to show that you have business acumen is the MBA.
• 3:16
  So, you know, take that and do what you will.
• 3:19
  Now, when we say business acumen, what we mean especially
• 3:22
  from a sales and business development perspective is this.
• 3:25
  You need insight on your customer, insight on your client
• 3:28
  needs, insight on their context, insight on their business, you
• 3:31
  know, all those sorts of things. That's what we mean by when we
• 3:34
  say business acumen. Now, for all the examples that
• 3:37
  I've been talking about over here on the podcast, OK, Like
• 3:40
  Miss Oma, for instance, Miss Summer has been commenting a lot
• 3:44
  on the podcast. She's a beauty and skin care
• 3:46
  specialist. So when we talked about Miss
• 3:48
  Summer's business and her colleagues in Inugu, you can see
• 3:53
  that in order for them to be successful in selling to their
• 3:56
  customers, they need insight on their customers.
• 4:00
  What do the customers want Insight on?
• 4:02
  Skin care, skin routines, goals, what kind of vision do they have
• 4:07
  for themselves? You know, psychological benefits
• 4:09
  that are looking for physical benefits, you know, and on and
• 4:11
  on and on. So we need some insight on the
• 4:15
  customers, insights on their needs, their context, their
• 4:18
  business. All of these things is what we
• 4:22
  sum up when we say business, business acumen.
• 4:28
  Although you'll notice that you know, Miss Oma is more of a
• 4:33
  business to consumer. So she's selling to a consumer
• 4:37
  and then some of us are business to business.
• 4:39
  So like the services I provide, I provide a lot of times to
• 4:45
  business to business owners. You know, people already have a
• 4:48
  business, you know four or five sales people.
• 4:50
  You know, those are the people that hit me up so far.
• 4:55
  So, but anyway, sha, business argument, that's the main thing,
• 4:59
  whether whether you have an MBA or not, business argument is
• 5:02
  what we're striving for. But let's try and pass out the
• 5:04
  topic or rather the question a little further and let's define
• 5:07
  an MBA Now, an MBA is just an advanced degree.
• 5:10
  When we say advanced degree, we just mean it is more than HND
• 5:13
  and is more than, you know, the normal four years degree that
• 5:17
  you studied, whichever school that you went to.
• 5:21
  So there's HND and then there's OND and then there's the
• 5:26
  university degree. So those of you who studied law
• 5:30
  or medicine or accounting or Yoruba or sports or theatre
• 5:37
  arts, you know, yeah, you get, you went to school, you got a
• 5:39
  degree. Now what you do after that,
• 5:41
  those are the advanced degrees. So master's and PhD, those are
• 5:44
  advanced degrees. So the MBA is an advanced
• 5:46
  degree. Now the focus of the MBA is to
• 5:50
  teach people how to administer business.
• 5:54
  I repeat, MBA advanced degree, the focus is to teach people how
• 5:58
  to administer business. Now what do you, what do you
• 6:01
  mean when you say you're administering a business?
• 6:03
  It just means you know how to manage a business, you know how
• 6:06
  to lead within the business context.
• 6:09
  And these are things quite frankly, that is good for sales
• 6:11
  people to know. So you can see how if you
• 6:15
  haven't had business argument because of real world
• 6:18
  experience, let's say you finish your university and then go
• 6:20
  straight for an MBA, you can see how having the MBA is not going
• 6:24
  to hurt, especially if you can afford it.
• 6:28
  Because these days, man, what I'm hearing are school fees.
• 6:31
  Like it's, it's rough, real rough.
• 6:34
  Especially if you're going to go to one of those premier
• 6:35
  institutions, maybe like Harvard for instance.
• 6:39
  One of my late uncles was a Harvard MBA.
• 6:42
  Then my mumsy is also an MBA as well.
• 6:44
  But mumsy is not Harvard. Mumsy is Boston University of
• 6:48
  Massachusetts, so you know, same Township but me, I don't have an
• 6:52
  MBA, so sorry, one moment I have to attend to something that I'll
• 6:57
  get back to you guys. OK, I'm back.
• 7:03
  Sorry. Even though for you guys it's
• 7:05
  been a very short break, maybe a couple of seconds for me
• 7:07
  actually has been like a 45 minute, one hour break.
• 7:10
  I had to change locations. That's some runs to do at the
• 7:13
  bank and I didn't think things were going to take that quick,
• 7:16
  which is why I started off the recording anyway, but OK, so let
• 7:21
  me try and gather my thoughts. I think I was talking about, I
• 7:26
  think where we stopped is I had tried to define what an MBA is.
• 7:29
  I've spoken about how it's an advanced degree and the whole
• 7:32
  point of an MBA is to teach you how to administer business.
• 7:35
  Yeah, I think that's where I was.
• 7:37
  And yeah, administering business.
• 7:39
  You just mean how do you manage your business?
• 7:41
  How do you lead within the business context?
• 7:43
  And yeah, hi. Yeah.
• 7:45
  So I think that's where I stopped.
• 7:47
  I said yeah, that these are things that are generally good
• 7:49
  for salespeople to know. Then let's look at some of the
• 7:53
  core courses that you would learn in an MBA course.
• 7:56
  If you just go on Google and check any of your, you know,
• 7:59
  favorite MBA places, whether it's AMBA University of, you
• 8:03
  know, UNILAG or MB AOAU, MB A Harvard MBA, University of
• 8:07
  Sydney MBA, wherever, you'll find that there are a couple of
• 8:10
  courses that seem to be like the domain domain, the core courses.
• 8:15
  So we have courses in finance and accounting.
• 8:19
  So that's stuff you would learn if you do an MBA, you would also
• 8:23
  have courses in marketing. That's very, very foundational
• 8:26
  stuff you're going to do. You're also going to learn
• 8:28
  operations management, organizational behaviour,
• 8:32
  organizational behaviour and economics.
• 8:35
  So those are like the like, you know, like the main, the main
• 8:38
  courses I seem to cut across whether as Unilog, OAU, Sydney,
• 8:42
  University of Egypt, you know, Abakaliki University, you know,
• 8:46
  anyway, well, that's if they offer MBA is them.
• 8:49
  So you want to learn finance, accounting, marketing,
• 8:52
  operations, organizational behaviour and then economics.
• 8:57
  So these are the core courses. And then traditionally when you
• 9:00
  hear MBA, the usual candidates or the usual people that are
• 9:02
  being targeted, like on LinkedIn, these people are
• 9:05
  sending me messages tire, They keep sending me messages over
• 9:08
  and over and over again. They keep saying for career
• 9:11
  advancement, blah, blah, blah. MBA University of Sydney, MBA
• 9:14
  University of this, MBA, University of that.
• 9:17
  But one thing in common is that they say for career advancement.
• 9:21
  And I think that's a cue about the kind of people that are
• 9:23
  being targeted for the MBA program.
• 9:26
  So it's actually for people who want to switch up their career,
• 9:29
  you know, you want to grow your career, switch up your career.
• 9:31
  So yes, there's stuff that you're going to learn that will
• 9:34
  help you to be much more entrepreneurial.
• 9:37
  But really, this course has been designed for people who are
• 9:40
  employees and who want career advancement.
• 9:43
  But remember I said that by going through the MBA, you can
• 9:49
  gain a certain level of business acumen and you might be able to
• 9:52
  find it useful if it is something that you can afford.
• 9:55
  If you come from the right family, you know, your family
• 9:57
  has a paper or, you know, you've worked hard because I've met
• 10:01
  people like that who have, you know, worked hard to build their
• 10:04
  businesses. And then after, you know, like
• 10:07
  20 something years, they decide that, look, I need this MBA and
• 10:09
  then they go and do the MBA or they go and do OBS.
• 10:12
  I'll talk about that more about that later.
• 10:15
  So the usual candidates are people who want to advance in
• 10:18
  their career and which is something that my mother did.
• 10:21
  So I, I mentioned time and time again on the podcast that I'm
• 10:24
  from a, you know, journalism family, basically 'cause proxy
• 10:29
  studied radio production, he had his OND.
• 10:34
  No, OK, you got OND from UNILAC. I think I busy HND UNILAC.
• 10:40
  Then he now did some sort of diploma somewhere in London,
• 10:44
  something in radio production. And then after that he now
• 10:47
  started doing, he did some radio production in Kaduna.
• 10:51
  I think. NTA, I'll be, is he?
• 10:53
  NTA, I'll be Radio Nigeria. Look, I can't remember.
• 10:56
  I wasn't even born by this time to be honest.
• 10:58
  So it's just by finding his papers, you know, here and there
• 11:01
  after he died that I found out about his radio career.
• 11:04
  So by the time I was born, my father was ATV man.
• 11:08
  When I say tvi mean television, I don't mean TV like TV tribe.
• 11:12
  You know, in this part of the Nigeria, I say TV, some
• 11:15
  Nigerians say TV. So he was in television
• 11:18
  production. That's the time I was born.
• 11:20
  My father was in television production, but before then he
• 11:22
  had a career in radio and I've long since met people who, you
• 11:27
  know, we'll talk about his days, but you know, in Catalina when
• 11:30
  he was on the radio and how smooth he was and you know,
• 11:33
  everything, you know, stuff, stuff, stuff like that where I
• 11:38
  was like, hey, career advancement.
• 11:40
  Yes. So my father, journalism mostly
• 11:43
  the same thing, study theatre arts, ended up in marketing in
• 11:48
  NTA and then also later on being NTA Abuja.
• 11:54
  And she would now be, I think she was more like a producer
• 11:58
  kind of role or something. Yeah, she was like doing
• 12:01
  productions. And then my father was in the
• 12:05
  bottom line Sha. We started off as TV and
• 12:09
  journalism. Now eventually, as you know,
• 12:12
  around the time we're getting to secondary school, Mumsy's take
• 12:15
  was that Nigeria was changing, the face of Nigeria was changing
• 12:19
  and will be time to, you know, take that evolution into a much
• 12:23
  more corporate context. And so for her career
• 12:26
  advancement meant going to Boston, MA and getting the NBA
• 12:31
  with an emphasis in public relations.
• 12:33
  So that's how she made the switch.
• 12:35
  So we're still babies. Then she went to Massachusetts,
• 12:38
  got the NBA, came back. Then by 1985 S in 1985, that's
• 12:43
  when she now left NTA and now became the 1st.
• 12:51
  She now became the 1st public relations.
• 12:56
  I don't know, I can't remember what it's called.
• 12:58
  Maybe like the public relations chief or public relations office
• 13:00
  or whatever it was called for the Hilton Hotel.
• 13:02
  Yeah, the Hilton Hotel was brand new back then.
• 13:04
  And so that's how Mumsy made the switch.
• 13:06
  So you see that NBA courses are typically targeted at these
• 13:11
  sorts of people, you know, career switch, career
• 13:12
  advancement, you know, all that sort of thing.
• 13:14
  So here you had a civil servant who was thinking of making the
• 13:17
  switch. I'm tired of being in civil
• 13:19
  service. I think Niger is going to go
• 13:22
  very corporate in the next couple of decades.
• 13:24
  Turns out mom, she was right. And so for me to switch our
• 13:28
  guys, go to school, let me go abroad, let me do this MBA
• 13:32
  thing. Now when I come back, I use the
• 13:34
  MBA Bali and then apply to a corporate organization, Hilton
• 13:39
  Hotel. She starts off as a public
• 13:41
  relations officer and then from there, that's how you know, she
• 13:44
  begin to migrate small, small, small.
• 13:46
  Eventually she becomes a marketing executive.
• 13:49
  So when you hear MBA, this is the typical sort of thing that
• 13:52
  people have in mind, not necessarily salespeople and not
• 13:57
  necessarily business people. But like I say, if you can
• 14:01
  afford it, if you are, you know, if your life is that sweet, they
• 14:05
  can go and do an MBA. It will give you a certain level
• 14:10
  of business acumen, which is going to help, excuse me, in
• 14:13
  your ability to sell. So yeah, that's it.
• 14:17
  The usual candidates for Nbas, folks like my mom, career
• 14:20
  advancement, career switch, career is career.
• 14:23
  That was still it might help. Now, the advantage of the NBA.
• 14:28
  So excuse me, the advantage of the NBA, like I said, it shows
• 14:31
  that you are credentialed and it's a good way to signal to the
• 14:37
  marketplace and to signal to prospective clients that you
• 14:40
  have the credentials. So those of you listening to
• 14:43
  this podcast now and a couple of you who have met me in person,
• 14:47
  clearly you guys think I know my stuff.
• 14:50
  But given the work that I've put out so far with the podcast and
• 14:58
  then with what I've been doing with my consulting practice, my
• 15:01
  speaking practice and things like that, if I had the MBA for
• 15:06
  some people, it would make me seem more credible.
• 15:11
  So I mean, think about it, like I said, if it's something you
• 15:16
  can do easily, yeah, they're going to make you appear much
• 15:19
  more credentialed. It's a good signal to the
• 15:22
  marketplace. It's a good signal to
• 15:25
  prospective clients. So if you can afford an MBA, to
• 15:29
  be honest, in my own opinion, it's not bad.
• 15:33
  In most places, it's only going to take you 2 years.
• 15:36
  If you're a youngish chap, it's not a problem.
• 15:38
  If you're 40, start by the time you're 42, you'll be done.
• 15:42
  If you are 25, like one of my mentees that I met yesterday,
• 15:47
  shout out to Joshua Iguay, he through the Faith Foundation in
• 15:53
  Lagos, He was, he's a listener on the podcast, but you know,
• 15:57
  not a faithful listener. He, I was able to get, he's the
• 16:00
  fellow that I referred to earlier on the podcast, the
• 16:02
  person who got 2 M and, and I made the podcast episode about
• 16:06
  how the best way to spend that kind of money if you got the
• 16:09
  cash injection. So that whole podcast episode
• 16:11
  was about him. Joshua Eagle.
• 16:13
  He has a cafe in Lagos called Ponquem.
• 16:18
  Yeah, Ponquem means full stop. I mean, the most interesting
• 16:20
  name I've, I've had for a company.
• 16:23
  So he has a cafe and then he also does online gaming.
• 16:28
  So Ponquem, that's the name of his business outfit.
• 16:32
  So so we finally hooked up yesterday.
• 16:36
  I thought it was a 30 something year old chap, but you know, we
• 16:39
  met finally yesterday and only to turn out that he's like 2425
• 16:43
  ish, you know. But anyway, he doesn't look that
• 16:45
  young and he sounds more mature. Let me just put it that way.
• 16:48
  So if you're like Joshua Eagle, you're 25, start the NBA.
• 16:53
  By the time you're 2728, you're done.
• 16:56
  So it's not that much of a problem.
• 16:57
  So if you can afford it, it's not bad.
• 17:00
  The education is good, the networking opportunities now pay
• 17:04
  attention, especially for those of us in Nigeria of 2025.
• 17:08
  If you're listening to this podcast in, you know, 3162,
• 17:11
  maybe things have changed in Nigeria.
• 17:14
  But right now in 2025, the networking opportunities for
• 17:17
  those people who are MBA educated actually is not bad,
• 17:21
  but it depends on the school. For instance, Harvard MBAs, you
• 17:25
  know, you know, now they're like cult unto themselves.
• 17:28
  You know, they feel as if they're fresher than the rest of
• 17:31
  us, but yeah, they're club onto themselves, you know.
• 17:34
  So Harvard MBA's in Nigeria, you know, they have their own
• 17:37
  association, you know, they have their own networking events.
• 17:41
  You know, they know themselves. You know, they pass around their
• 17:45
  names, their business cards, their everything.
• 17:47
  So if you if you enter that kind of life, then by all means go
• 17:50
  and get a Harvard MBA so that you might when you come back
• 17:53
  with a floss with them like, yeah, I own the air.
• 17:56
  Like is all of us Harvard MBA? You know Niger that well, we're
• 18:00
  at the top prestige, we are smart, we are big boys, we are
• 18:04
  big girls. So we're going to that sort of
• 18:06
  thing. Then go and get to have an MBA
• 18:07
  if you can afford it. Yeah.
• 18:11
  So if POPSY is paying and you don't want to go for school, you
• 18:15
  can decide what school to go for what POPSY say you must go.
• 18:18
  You might as well tax POPSY and just go for having MBA if you
• 18:20
  can afford it. Then if you can't afford the
• 18:26
  foreign MBA experience, there are local alternatives.
• 18:28
  Unfortunately, local alternatives are also very
• 18:31
  pricey. So it's not like before that
• 18:33
  Unilag MBA was a pure water or or Buffy My Wallow University
• 18:37
  was pure water. You know, now you're going to
• 18:38
  have to pay some good currency to get those degrees.
• 18:41
  So yes, Nigerian universities also offer MBAs.
• 18:46
  Amar du Bello, excuse me, Amar du Bello also does an MBA.
• 18:50
  What else? Kano, I know that you can do an
• 18:52
  MBA in Kano as well. I wanted to do an MBA while I
• 18:55
  was serving in Kano, but at the time was against the rules.
• 18:58
  You couldn't be a do your NYSE and then be pursuing your MBA.
• 19:04
  So I didn't do that. Although some people are saying
• 19:06
  that, you know, if I just bribe one or two people, I could have
• 19:08
  done it. But I beg me, I'm afraid of
• 19:11
  something so and I don't even know how to bribe anyway.
• 19:15
  So I just said let me just leave this thing, I'm back.
• 19:18
  You know, we'll face MBA later. So yeah, those are some of the
• 19:22
  local alternatives. And then there's also the
• 19:24
  pounds, that's the Lagos Business School or Pan African
• 19:28
  University. That's another name.
• 19:30
  They also have a good alumni network and people go there to
• 19:34
  do executive programs. So part of the touch up that
• 19:37
  Mumsy did later on was she did she went to pounds as well,
• 19:42
  Lagos Business School, then she did there they have the
• 19:45
  executive kind executive program and something, something I can't
• 19:50
  remember. Then the classmate of mine,
• 19:52
  Anna, who runs a successful architectural practice in in
• 19:56
  Abuja, she also did something similar.
• 19:59
  That's how she got her own. OK, you can't really call that
• 20:03
  an advanced degree, but that's how she kind of got her own MBA,
• 20:06
  sort of like alternative. She went to pounds as well.
• 20:08
  I was part of the executive something something program.
• 20:11
  All these things I'm saying, excuse me, all these things I'm
• 20:14
  saying, you know, I'm not using the proper name.
• 20:16
  So if you go on Google, you'll be able to find it.
• 20:18
  So just Google pounds or Pan African University.
• 20:23
  And then maybe just an executive program or senior executive
• 20:26
  program, you see all the courses there.
• 20:28
  Everything would just would just come out then.
• 20:33
  So like I said, they have a good alumni network.
• 20:35
  And in all honesty, that is the sort of institution that I hope
• 20:39
  to retire in. I'm hoping that after I've been
• 20:42
  doing this for a while, you know, when I hit maybe like that
• 20:46
  kind of 6570, you know, I can retire in a place like that,
• 20:49
  maybe in the OBS, you know, retire as an associate professor
• 20:52
  and then continue teaching people until the Lord calls me
• 20:56
  home. So yeah, if things work out,
• 20:58
  then when I'm a very old man, you guys will find me in the
• 21:01
  OBS. You know, if my wife is dead by
• 21:05
  then, you know, maybe I would even be pushing small girls on
• 21:07
  top. So anyway, but don't quote me.
• 21:10
  You didn't hear me say that. I was like, so if you're going
• 21:15
  to afford an MBA, go ahead. If you can't afford an MBA,
• 21:18
  their local alternatives. And then there are also
• 21:22
  alternatives like Obs that are not MBAs but will teach you how
• 21:28
  to administer a business. How do you manage your business?
• 21:30
  How do you do leadership in the business?
• 21:32
  So yeah, that's it. OK, there's one thing I didn't
• 21:37
  define business acumen because remember I was saying that for
• 21:39
  salespeople, the main, the main, the cocoa that we should be
• 21:42
  paying attention to right now is business argument because you
• 21:46
  cannot be a good salesperson and then lack business argument.
• 21:49
  Now business argument is just understanding.
• 21:52
  Business argument is just being sharp.
• 21:53
  Basically, how sharp are you? How much understanding do you
• 21:56
  have when it comes to dealing with business situations?
• 21:58
  That's just what business I can make acumen means.
• 22:01
  So how much knowledge do you have?
• 22:03
  How much skills do you have? How much experience do you have?
• 22:07
  So now you see why sales people can get business argument
• 22:10
  without having an MBA because it is this part is this skills and
• 22:14
  experience part. Traditionally, that is where we
• 22:17
  sales professionals, that's where we get our chops.
• 22:20
  So for me, I do not have an MBA. When I talk, some people assume
• 22:25
  that I'm an MBA grad. I'm not an MBA grad.
• 22:28
  I just have business argument. I've got some knowledge, I've
• 22:32
  got some skills, I've got some experience that I have picked up
• 22:36
  from trying to develop myself, interacting with people and then
• 22:40
  also dealing with business situations over the span of my
• 22:45
  career. You know, from legal to civil
• 22:47
  service to wedding photography to export business.
• 22:52
  So that is how I picked up my business document.
• 22:54
  So yes, if you're listening to the show, because I run into
• 22:58
  some of you and then people ask me, oh, what did you study?
• 23:01
  When we have that conversation, lots of people are surprised.
• 23:03
  So let me just say it here so that you'll be surprised again
• 23:06
  when you meet me. I am not an MBA.
• 23:10
  I did not go to Harvard. My foreign degree is in oil and
• 23:16
  gas law. So when you meet me, there's no
• 23:19
  need being surprised. I am not an MBA.
• 23:22
  I wanted to. So I wanted to pursue my MBA
• 23:24
  when I was seven in Kano. That didn't work out.
• 23:27
  I applied for a foreign MBA in Aberdeen, but I was rejected.
• 23:31
  So what I have is I have a postgraduate diploma in Business
• 23:34
  Administration. That's the closest that I have
• 23:37
  to this whole business thing. But yeah, I'm not an MBA, even
• 23:41
  though I sound like 1. So that's all business acumen
• 23:45
  means. And so, so long as you are a
• 23:47
  salesperson, you're trying to beef up your knowledge, you're
• 23:50
  trying to apply your skills and you're looking for new
• 23:52
  experiences, that is how you're going to acquire acumen over
• 23:56
  time. Traditionally, that's how it was
• 23:57
  done. So for Sales Pro, the reason why
• 24:00
  acumen is important, like I said at the top of the podcast is we
• 24:04
  need to understand your clients need to understand the context,
• 24:08
  understand the situation, understand the problems, whether
• 24:11
  you're dealing with individuals like Miss Houma, who's the
• 24:15
  beauty and skin care, especially in Lugu, you know her and her
• 24:18
  click and or whether you're doing B2B like me for instances,
• 24:23
  and for instance, advising other businesses how they're supposed
• 24:25
  to grow their revenues. So we need to do all do that.
• 24:33
  So business argument really, really important for sales and
• 24:36
  really, really important for whatever business that you do.
• 24:39
  If you're a caterer, you need acumen.
• 24:41
  You need business acumen. That's what's going to help you
• 24:43
  build your business. If you're a consultant like me,
• 24:46
  you need business argument. Sorry, I said argument acumen
• 24:50
  because it's going to help you build your your clients
• 24:53
  businesses. So no matter what it is you do,
• 24:55
  you need business acumen. In fact, even if you are a
• 24:59
  Carpenter, common Carpenter in quote, that is how you are going
• 25:03
  to be able to elevate yourself. It is from the level of business
• 25:08
  acumen that you have that you're going to be able to reposition
• 25:12
  the business. So business acumen really
• 25:14
  important wherever you are. So business acumen is required
• 25:19
  as a consultant. What are the things that you
• 25:21
  need to be acumen in on? What are the things that you
• 25:24
  need to know? We need to have a certain level
• 25:26
  of financial literacy. We need to know how our
• 25:27
  customers make money. And that's one reason why when
• 25:30
  I'm talking to any of you, no matter what your business is, I
• 25:33
  ask you questions about about the finances because I need to
• 25:37
  understand how do you make money?
• 25:39
  Which is your products that brings in the most?
• 25:41
  Which one has the highest profit margin?
• 25:43
  Which one is the one that is selling the most, even though it
• 25:45
  makes the the least amount of money?
• 25:47
  How is it that you guys, how is it that you guys make money?
• 25:52
  You know, I need to know that. You also need to know that it's
• 25:55
  part of business acumen. How do people make money?
• 25:57
  How is money made? Then strategy, strategy is just,
• 26:03
  I like to say strategies is where are we heading, what
• 26:06
  opportunities are we looking for?
• 26:07
  Yeah, let me just leave it like that tragedy, Where are we
• 26:09
  heading? What opportunities are we
• 26:10
  looking for and what objectives are we going to use to get
• 26:13
  there. So that is part of the business
• 26:15
  argument that you need as well. Your customers, your clients,
• 26:19
  you need to know where are they heading.
• 26:21
  No other financials, how are they making money, know where it
• 26:23
  is that they're heading. Then market awareness, market
• 26:26
  awareness, that is like market that when it just means, you
• 26:30
  know, what's up, what are the trends in the market, you know,
• 26:32
  things like that. So we need to also know where
• 26:36
  the market is heading. Then leadership and
• 26:39
  communication, that is more about leadership and
• 26:45
  communication. Well, let's say it's more like
• 26:47
  influencing, influencing people trying to get things done.
• 26:51
  Yeah, let me put it that way. Leadership and communication is
• 26:53
  more about trying to get things done.
• 26:55
  So yeah, influencing people. And that's why I keep talking
• 26:59
  about advancements on the podcast.
• 27:00
  That is not enough for us to keep having nice meetings.
• 27:03
  You know, you have meetings, you send emails, you do this.
• 27:06
  By the end of the day, nothing happened.
• 27:07
  We need to be able to secure advancements.
• 27:09
  Advancements means you're talking to somebody.
• 27:12
  You're able to get that person to take the next important step
• 27:16
  in getting something done. And it's something that I
• 27:19
  learned very early as a wedding photographer that you can have
• 27:23
  nice conversations with people and and also about that this
• 27:27
  idiot is driving away next to me.
• 27:30
  What was that? So I learned as a wedding
• 27:32
  photographer very early that you can be having wonderful
• 27:34
  conversations with people. You guys vibe like 5 and 6 and
• 27:37
  lose like you guys are friends. But if you send over that
• 27:40
  proposal and you don't ask for anything, they will tell you,
• 27:44
  let me get back to you. And then from let me get back to
• 27:48
  you like, oh, I'm sorry, I was busy.
• 27:50
  Oh, this is that that that next in ghost mode.
• 27:53
  And then before you do it, another photographer has landed
• 27:55
  the gig. The reason why the other person
• 27:57
  landed the gig is because leadership and communication
• 28:00
  influencing gaining advancements.
• 28:02
  You did not ask the other person asked.
• 28:04
  So send him a proposal and then ask the question.
• 28:06
  Is everything set here in before your very face?
• 28:10
  Let them ask because you know, it's very simple.
• 28:12
  If you're in skin care of you're in photography or you're in
• 28:14
  catering is a very simple something.
• 28:16
  There's nothing to go and think again like it's right here.
• 28:19
  Is everything said OK? Good.
• 28:20
  It looks like everything is in order.
• 28:22
  Fantastic. For us to move forward, I need a
• 28:24
  deposit of 60%. So how soon can you raise that
• 28:28
  250K? And then you keep quiet and then
• 28:30
  hear what they have to say. Is that simple?
• 28:34
  To move forward, I need a payment.
• 28:35
  To move forward, I need a deposit.
• 28:37
  For us to meet this date, we need a deposit of so, so, so and
• 28:40
  so. So.
• 28:42
  Yeah. Is that something you're willing
• 28:43
  to do? How soon can you raise this?
• 28:45
  We need this payment by January 25th.
• 28:48
  Is that possible? Like there are million ways to
• 28:50
  ask Boscha, ask leadership and communication.
• 28:55
  It's not just about talking fancy.
• 28:56
  It's about getting stuff done. So let's see what else?
• 29:01
  OK, Hey, industry, not HR. These are all the things that we
• 29:04
  that we need when we talk about business acumen.
• 29:07
  So you can see that business acumen is very wide and the
• 29:11
  varied term. But the main thing that I'm
• 29:14
  trying to say in this episode is if you're thinking I want to
• 29:18
  improve my sailing capability, should I have an MBA, it is not
• 29:23
  necessary. What is necessary is business
• 29:27
  acumen. You can gain business acumen
• 29:29
  through real world experience or you can also gain it through
• 29:33
  your MBA. But because of the added
• 29:35
  benefits that the MBA has for career progression and for
• 29:39
  networking and for credentialing yourself and showing
• 29:42
  credibility, if you can afford, by all means do it.
• 29:47
  So like my guy, don't believe me?
• 29:49
  If you're a young man and popsies are asking you, momsies
• 29:51
  are asking, you say you must do NBA, you know, now is the time.
• 29:55
  If you're 2025, now is the time. It sounds like it's a long time,
• 29:58
  but two years is actually is very short.
• 30:00
  Trust me, two years is very, very short.
• 30:02
  And then plus, if they're paying for you to go abroad, it's think
• 30:09
  of it as a working holiday. You're going to go on holiday
• 30:12
  and you're going to be working and then you know, when you're
• 30:15
  done, you decide what next you want to do with your life.
• 30:18
  For those of you who have young families like my mom did,
• 30:21
  sometimes it's a bit of work. You talk to your spouse, there's
• 30:24
  some planning. You guys raise the money like in
• 30:26
  my own parents case, although I think moms, he got a soft
• 30:29
  scholarship from binary state and the government to go and
• 30:33
  pursue this. But I was just, I've heard, you
• 30:35
  know, I haven't confirmed from her, but it's just I've heard
• 30:37
  anyway. And with the cooperative spouse,
• 30:39
  you know that she went and she went and got her MBA.
• 30:42
  And I also know people who are doing the same thing now,
• 30:46
  although doing it in reverse. I'm used to like the man holding
• 30:49
  it down and the woman is one that will go to school.
• 30:51
  So it surprises me that nowadays it looks as if it's the woman
• 30:54
  that is staying back and holding things down, then the man runs
• 30:56
  off to school. So maybe it's because of how I
• 30:58
  grew up. I just find that thing kind of
• 30:59
  weird. I just always assumed, you know,
• 31:01
  the woman will go 1st and then get the Diwali, the degree, and
• 31:05
  then come back. Then maybe, you know, now the
• 31:08
  man can go next, if the man goes at all.
• 31:10
  Oh, by the way, my father didn't go for his own MBA, so he was
• 31:13
  just stuck with his OND and his diplomat for radio production.
• 31:19
  Sometimes I think that's why my old man wanted me to be educated
• 31:23
  because in Nigerian terms, you know, the way we Nigerians are
• 31:26
  now, in Nigerian terms, you would say my old man was not, he
• 31:29
  was illiterate but you wouldn't really say he was an educated
• 31:34
  federal like that. In Nigerian terms, you know,
• 31:35
  because we're in a country where everybody values the valley and
• 31:39
  where I only have 1°, but I have classmates who have two degrees
• 31:44
  and maybe two or three MBAs. So anyway, sorry, this is not
• 31:48
  about me. But anyway, Salami Abu Bakri,
• 31:52
  thank you very much for the question.
• 31:54
  The answer is you don't necessarily need to have an MBA,
• 31:56
  but if you have the money and you can make it happen, then
• 31:58
  please, by all means, go ahead, especially if you're young, it's
• 32:04
  it'll be good. It'll be fun for you to get the
• 32:06
  MBA. So thank you very much for your
• 32:08
  time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 32:10
  episode. If you'd love to connect just
• 32:11
  like Salami Abu what you did and if you have questions, then send
• 32:15
  them to 08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 32:21
  For those of you who are not Nigeria, that's my WhatsApp
• 32:24
  number as well. Don't send me telegram or
• 32:26
  because that telegram, I won't lie, I check it maybe like once
• 32:28
  every four months or so. I hate when I check it just
• 32:31
  delete delete, delete because there's lots of spam there.
• 32:34
  Then also connect with me on LinkedIn the name to look for
• 32:38
  establish my aide. I'm on YouTube as well in case
• 32:41
  you want to get the content from YouTube.
• 32:43
  So thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 32:45
  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.