Expert Urges FG To Ensure Full Implementation Of Indigenous Policy In Business

A brands management consultant, Pwano Maxwell has called on the federal government to implement the indigenous policy in business and also include the Fast Moving Consumers Goods, FMCG, in that segment.

Maxwell disclosed this recently in Lagos while addressing an online publication alleged to have emanated from Mr. Ziad Maalouf, Managing Director of Seven Up Bottling Company, makers of Pepsi Cola, who is believed to be expressing strong displeasure and disdain at the market exploits of Nigeria’s Bigi brand, from Rite Foods Limited, threatening market destruction for what he says is Bigi, daring to disrupt the market with a business model hinged on “larger pack & lower price.”

According to him, the Indigenisation Policy was intended to bolster the economic and political autonomy of post-colonial Nigeria, but as with several other government agendas and with the passage of time, numerous unforeseen obstacles have cropped up, proving that the Indigenisation Policy may be easier said than done.

He further stressed that, “several cunning foreigners who were about being dispossessed of their businesses devised a clever strategy that would enable them to appear to have relinquished control, but in reality, they would still manage their businesses through the agency of their indigenous associates.”

Maxwell added, “Indigenous brands invest in country’s economy, and the foreign brands do not. If they say they do, let them show us round their factories and present their workforce for interview about their welfare.”

Reacting to the battle of carbonated Soft drink brands in Nigeria, which from all indications, had simmered below the surface, and to be fair, now appears to have livened things up a bit, while most importantly, throwing into clearer relief, a number of pertinent issues which deserve mention and insightful analysis in a healthy public discourse, the brands management expert stated that is up to the people and their leaders.

“They must speak with cacophony voice against any attempt to frustrate the growth of indigenous brands,” he said.

While responding to questions on how unhealthy competition affects local brands, Maxwell pointed out that, when the focus is only on competition, quality gets undermined be it related to people, brands, businesses or schools.

“In people, when a person competes, he loses sight of his or her own abilities, ambitions and directs his or her actions in terms of the person he or she is competing with, which is just naïve. In the case of businesses and brand, the focus is on quantity at the cost of quality and same is with our educational and other social institutions today,” he posited.

For him, unhealthy competition is unsafe for the society as whole. Because a society can only flourish on the values of healthy competition, goodwill for each other and a sense of cooperation to achieve common good.

“Sadly, it functions on ill-will, hatred, jealousy and revenge today, all fueled by negative competition,” said Maxwell.

On how to put an end to unhealthy competition in Nigeria, he stated that, it is important that these kinds of harmful and ill-will desires are not allowed to control how brands grow in Nigeria, be it local or foreign.

“Parents, schools, brand handlers, media and society at large should play their role in constructing a culture that benefits everyone, unlike such unhealthy competition. Because the word competition conveys a positive meaning and motivates a person to do his or her best and also spices up life?

“However, it’s important to know the types of competition one is involved in and pay attention to its consequences because the dog-eat-dog attitude has never and will never benefit anyone. Nigerians on their own must wake to the consciousness of the fact that, they are the ones who decide what happen in their economy. There are lots of things happening in Nigerian business space that will never be allowed abroad,” he concluded.