BusinessDay 13 April 2018

Friday 13 April 2018 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY
29
INTERVIEW
‘At CWG, our business model puts
us ahead of competition’
Technology no doubt has redefined the business environment and service delivery to customers. Adewale Adeyipo, vice president, Sales
& Marketing, CWG in this interview with Modestus Anaesoronye explains how businesses are riding on technology for value creation.
How will you assess the Nigerian
business environment?
Business on its own
cannot function without
the environment,
and that is why there
is interdependence
between them. Business activities
can only do well in favorable and
viable environment. Oftentimes,
such environment is influenced
by major government policies,
and the availability of infrastructure
in any society largely affects
the ease of doing business in that
environment. Nigeria’s business
environment in the recent years
hasn’t been the best for an average
entrepreneur and SMEs. It
is characterized with fear and so
much uncertainty. Fear on its own
is a feeling induced by perceived
danger, and this has a way of
affecting business decisions because
you have little or no power
to control the consequence. One
however can create measures and
processes to navigate business
dealings around it of course with
some level of caution. Uncertainty
is extremely bad for business, and
so leaves you with no boundaries.
Businesses don’t like to be in such
situation where possible outcomes
(good or bad) will be difficult to
predict.
Business environment like
the social, political, cultural and
economic factors greatly influence
the level of FDI, and Nigeria is not
immune to this. In Nigeria, several
factors affect the advancement
of businesses, and these factors
make Nigeria’s business environment
unfriendly and unsafe for
investment.
How will you assess Nigeria’s
competitive brands and marketing
landscape over the years?
The unpredictable consumer
behavior has largely influenced
and also contributed positively
to the remarkable yet competitive
brand positioning we have
witnessed in recent years. The
production of goods and services
has shifted from what we think it’s
appropriate and ideal to produce,
to understanding the target audience
and the entire ecosystems of
such products and services. The
intelligence and quality of data
required is huge and must be reliable.
The population in Nigeria
will continue to be strength for the
country and the same has become
the major driving force for major
multinationals coming into the
country despite the unconducive
business environment. However,
due to the lack of economic growth
(increase in purchasing power) of
the lower class and medium class,
most of these organisations are recycling
the same customers especially
for premium goods. This has
resulted to the highly competitive
Adewale Adeyipo
environment for major brands.
The key asks are: What does the
consumer want, how best can we
produce it and offer the same,
what competitors does best and
what our brand is great at?. Major
concentration will be on what the
brand is great at. Again, the use of
social media has also become a
perfect marketing tool for building
brand awareness.
What is the future of the business
and why do you think your
services will continue to remain
relevant?
We are enabling growth using
technology. We are a platform
service provider leveraging technology
to enable growth. The truth
is, technology is vital to the success
of almost every company in every
industry. Whether it’s healthcare,
retail, or any other industry, they
all need technology for various
reasons. From optimisation, automation,
cost savings, creating
new revenue channel etc. The
good news is that technology is
perceived to be a ‘problem solver’
hence the need for it is on the rise.
Share with us your core values
and operational philosophy
that drives the operation of CWG
‘Can do Spirit’, despite challenges
in the environment?
Customer first, that is why you
will find CWG CEO in a customer’s
office for support issues, that is the
core of our operati
At CWG, how do you intend to
deploy creativity to further boost
Returns on Investment (ROI)?
We understand the business
of technology, where technology
by itself is a means to an end. We
are simplifying the application
of technology to enable growth.
Technology is an enabler but can
also be a problem and overwhelming
if not properly managed.
Organisations tend to forget and
neglect their core operations;
battling with the same business
enabler they have deployed to
enhance growth.
At CWG Plc, we are deploying
solutions to address these challenges.
We are focusing on the
expected outcome for these organisations
taking away the complexity
of IT deployment. A bank is
deploying ATMs to enhance its operations,
discourage the inflow of
customers in the bank branches;
but the challenges encountered
deploying and maintaining these
ATMs is more than the problem
they were trying to address in the
first place. From I.T staff cost, huge
capex budget, service availability,
staying abreast of technology solutions,
new inventions/ roadmaps
etc. can be quite burdensome.
Today we are deploying ATM
as a service to the financial institutions,
where the expected end
result which is customer’s accessibility
to financial services is the
focus. Absorbing the financial
institutions of all the IT concerns
is one of our key roles. Financial
institutions can focus on their
core operations, while we enable
growth deploying solution in line
with their business objectives. We
create solutions for SMEs to grow
their business with less concern
on the technology that drive the
business. Today we have tailored
ERP platforms for various sectors
of the economy. Our solution
enables SMEs to keep track of
their business accounts, record
sales, create and send invoices
to customers, track expenditures
and generate reports, which ultimately
can be used to make better
business decisions. All these are
done without the complexity of
deploying a huge IT infrastructure
or IT budget. Same for Insurance,
Cooperatives, Health, Transportation.
We are playing in all the
major segments of the economy
enabling business and co-creating
with relevant stakeholders.
Access competition in the
market, and share with us your
unique selling proposition?
Competition is about creativity.
Your brilliant innovation is as
good and valid as the minute it was
launched. Anyone can create an
add-on from where you stopped or
create a new product or services to
address the gaps in your product.
The answer to this is that you have
to keep thinking. Getting better at
what you do. To stay ahead always
requires a lot of brain power and
intuitive ability. In CWG, we leverage
on the knowledge and trust
earned over the years from our
‘over 150 corporate clients in all
sectors of the economy. We have
transited from the ‘what question’
to the ‘why’. Understanding the
customers’ business and providing
the solution that answers the
why? We say ‘Why do you need
this technology/ solution and not
necessarily what technology do
you need’. With this in mind, we
have been able to create value and
longtime strategic partners.
In the area of growth projection,
where do you see CWG in
the next 5years?
CWG will be one of the leading
service platform provides out
of Africa in 4-5 years. We are well
positioned for that. The company
has repositioned itself, reengineered
its operations, people and
process to harness the opportunities
before us. After 25 years
of doing business and providing
services to major corporations
in Nigeria and west-Africa, being
strategic partners to major
multinationals, you can be sure
we understand the market trend
and we are responding appropriately.
We understand the new
definition of customer service
as regards deployment of IT and
value creation. We understand
the season we are in; going by
our knowledge of the Nigeria IT
world and supported by events in
other similar economy like ours;
we made a paradigm shift using
the learning’s of 25 years which is
a lot of sacrifice for the company,
so that we can remain relevant for
a long time. CWG will be around
for a long time creating incredible
and innovative services in and
out of Africa.
How do you maximise this
target position to take the brand
to the next level in 2018?
Today, in CWG, I’m responsible
for sales, marketing and
product management. Our people
are the first major asset we have
and we will continue to leverage
on this.
We have created and still creating
a lot of campaigns and
road shows on brand awareness
especially on some of our products
and services. We have some
unique services/ products that will
position the organisation as one
of the top minds in innovation in
this country. Our smart metering
solution, our ERP platform (built
purposely for this market), our
solution on mobile financial services
to mention a few. We have a
dedicated team in product management
that keep abreast of happenings
in the technology world
and advise the organisation on the
next big things to focus on. We do
a detailed market survey and we
prioritize these activities based on
market needs/ demands, trends
and identified gaps especially in
our immediate world.
Manpower development is
key to the growth of every organisation,
what is your approach to
training?
Training is one of the basic
policies in the organisation. Going
by the customer base and the rate
in which we churn out solutions,
we have to continuously train our
resources. Today, we have other
30 high end software developers
and testers that cannot be static in
their knowledge. We have over 400
outsourced enterprise technical
resources/ consultants working
with major multinationals in Nigeria
and West Africa; we support a
large percentage of ATMs across 36
states in Nigeria, managing, supporting
and doing customisation
and over 10 commercial banks on
their core banking application. All
these could have only been done
through intensive trainings and
retraining of our staff.
We also leverage our partnerships
with major technology
providers and OEMs across the
globe to enhance the skills sets
of our employees. We have structured
and exchange programs for
skills acquisition and knowledge
transfer. To support our business
and customers, we started a
training academy in 2010, where
we train and engage fresh graduates
in our training facilities. We
provide classroom and practical
knowledge on all our solutions for
3 months. The most qualified ones
after the 3 months program are
often employed by the company.
These are measures we are taking
to ensure adequate empowerment
for our people.