CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

336 CAPITALISM’S ACHILLES HEEL
the brink of bankruptcy to boom. Harvard Business School included this in
its early 1970s case studies of my activities in Nigeria.
Can you imagine what I learned from this hard-won lesson, a lesson I
applied in other businesses? When you run it right, you can trust the freemarket
system. J.I.M. achieved turnaround because out of loss and hostility
arose dialogue, resulting in new thinking, shared stakes, and operational integrity.
The elements of our success were communication, mutual respect,
incentives, and profits. We applied these principles, and all of us—drivers,
managers, my company, Jalo Waziri, and Bank of America which received its
loan repayment—benefited handsomely.
Years later Nigeria “indigenized” the trucking business, forcing foreigners
out and reserving the field for wholly Nigerian-owned entities. We altered
the name of our company, shifted from transportation to leasing, and
turned our fleet over to two firms formed out of J.I.M., one owned by the
transport manager, Alhaji Baba Manu, and the second owned by the best
driver, Alhaji Inuwa Kari. They kept the same management systems in place,
prospered, and we bought many more trucks in our reconfigured vehicle
leasing business.
One company does not illustrate the whole of capitalism, but it does
make a point. When you operate it properly, with respect and fairness and
shared benefits, the system works. This is essentially the subject of Part IV:
Run it right; trust the system.