A new association for business elites has been unveiled in Lagos, ANAMBRA PEOPLE reports. The association which was unveiled on 31st July, 2022 at Colonades Hotel, Lagos had in attendance great Igbo business moguls and professionals. Speaking at the event, the president, Blue Orange, Mr. Charles Odunukwe, charged business leaders in the Nigerian business community on humility and service.
According to the president during the launch of Blue Orange association, humility is power, saying that business leaders must exercise their leadership position to serve rather than exercise power.
In his words: “Humility is power and most of the people you see here today are big men in the society, but they are choosing to serve. The fact that you are a Governor does not make you a big person, but puts you at the position of a servant. We should lead when we are at leadership positions. You must ensure that other people have eaten before you eat, but when you take it otherwise, the leadership style is wrong and this is what we want to bring back to the society.”
He noted that as a group, it has decided to come together to share a common course which he said includes bringing transformation, development, mentoring and sponsoring seminars in the area of custom and tradition, moral and good behavior, lamenting that some of these values have been lost in the society since the advent of Information Communication and Technology (ICT).
“Some of these values are almost disappearing from the society and we tend to forget the fact that humility pays and that no matter the status of any person in the society, we must bring ourselves down so that you can have a good rapport with people you lead and this is part of what we are taking back to the youths and that is why we set out to sponsor seminars by going to schools, colleges, universities to make our younger ones understand the need for them to behave well,” he added.
He also tasked the business community to invest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), by investing back to the communities they operate.
“If you are doing business, do it well by following the rules and regulations. There is what we call CSR and every company should be able to put that in place by taking a small portion in their profits to return to the society and most of our members are business groups and we are taking it as a point of duty that we must take part of our profits to the societies where we operate,” he added.
Also speaking, a political Economist and a management expert, Prof. Pat Utomi, also called on business leaders to have credibility and good character, saying that when character is lost, everything is lost.
“As leaders, we must learn how to listen, build on collaborations and most especially be humble. Humility in its fundamental sense is key to getting things done and we must also build on effective collaborations for more business successes,” he advised.