What could have been the push quest for Ausso Leadership Academy (ALA), – opened for top flight Chief Executive Officers, Captains of business, cooperate organisations, successful and top flight entrepreneurs and senior government officials?
News made the round recently, when Austin Okere, as the serial entrepreneur Nigerian launched the talk of the town, Ausso Leadership Academy (ALA) in Lekki, Lagos.
NewswatchNigeria gathered at the launch that ALA- is an entrepreneurship academy, which mentors and takes care of (ONLY) senior executives in large enterprises, multinationals and conglomerates as well as founders of big businesses.
There were applause and recommendations to the founder of Ausso Leadership Academy (ALA) at the official unveiling of the centre by technocrats and top members of the organised private sector in Nigeria.
But, then the first question that readily comes to mind is; why is the academy for CEOs, Directors, Managers and successful entrepreneurs and not for start-ups in the business sectors?
And you would not be wrong to wonder on the focus of the centre whens there is Lagos Business School…
But, one thing that also readily comes to mind is that Okere is a thorough bread successful entrepreneur who knows how to bridge the missing gap in the nation business sphere and the needed human capital development which is required to keep successful businesses in the country.
Though Okere recalled that the idea came in his quest to give back to the society and to retrain already top flight entrepreneurs’ who are on the speed lane of their businesses to achieve more and inspire more in business development, but then there more.
His words, “The need for resourcefulness and an innovative mindset to reinvent oneself when disruption knocks on the door is a key skill every business needs to survive present market realities. The huge gap in the business ecosystem is due to the lack of a personalised mentorship programme to complement what professors teach at the business schools”.
“Otherwise, the Ausso Leadership Academy is a medium for experiential skill transfer, emphasizing what has worked and the pitfalls to avoid,” Okere alluded.
He said though there are windows for beginners’ in the Academy, “The ALA was set up to mentor entrepreneurs to institutionalize and scale up their businesses geometrically.”
“We believe that the ALA fills a huge vacuum in making practical and democratizing entrepreneurs hip so that differentiation is majorly through intuition, acumen and luck, rather than by a lack of basic knowledge of a workable methodology,” Okere averred.
In his keynote address, the pioneer executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe welcomed the academy and praised the vision of the founder, saying “The centre will serve as knowledge central bank for leading business owners to come for refueling of their business development ideas that will raise their marginal deliveries in corporate management from time to time”.
According to him, “Time has come for even the extension of the ALA services to political leaders so as to retrain both public office seekers and those already holding the offices on the best ways of delivering the services for which they were either elected or appointed,” saying such consideration will “help the system get leaders that will give the best deliveries and scale up public services in the country.”
In his goodwill message, the pioneer investor in Nigeria’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and chairman of Zinox Technologies, Mr. Leo-Stan Ekeh disclosed that “The ALA will fine-tune the business development and management mentality of chief executives on how best to achieve more using the same workforce and materials in the competitive world of business”.
He decried that “beyond attending the Harvards, Cambridge and Oxfords of this world, Nigerian business leaders though they have the needed energies, they lack process and structure to go that extra mile that will make them global brands.”
However, he was quick to note that “ALA will become that game changer that will positively fine tune the mindsets of Nigerian top flight business leaders in to believing that beyond whatever they have achieved in their businesses, they can aspire to inspire more in their chosen carriers.”
Conducting media executives round the world class learning facility made up Amphitheatre, lecture rooms, conference halls and other paraphernalia of a matured academic environment, Okere said some mega companies have already signed on to begin training.
