Secondly, an Igbo businessman is known to easily adapt to whichever cultural milieu he meets in his place of doing business. Without resorting to overly adulating the Igbo businessman in this context, it is apt to say that his business sagacity is driven by the sense of being competitive, high entrepreneurial spirit, as well as investment in training and the capacity to imitate and assimilate foreign technology.
There is no repudiating the fact that anyone who may have unemotionally been observing how a typical Igbo businessman pushes against all odds in his bid to succeed in business would have by now come to grip with the fact that the Igbo people, Ndigbo, as they are popularly called, are mutually epitome of indefatigability, especially for always surviving within a business cluster.
In fact, observing how an Igbo businessman spiritedly attempts to survive in business against all odds at any given market he finds himself, and the way he exudes confidence and demonstrates his sagacious disposition usually leaves anyone spellbound with mouth agape as he would be seen defying every obstacle placed on his way to success. Without a doubt, his intransigent spirit, more often than not, brings to mind the age-long inspiring Igbo dialect that says “Onyekwe, Chiya Ekwe”, meaning “If one agrees, his personal god equally agrees”.
Without sounding panegyric in this context, it is germane to opine that an Igbo businessman can survive and succeed in business without receiving support or essential public utilities from the state in charge of the business environment within which his business is located. Like him or hate him, a typical Igbo businessman sees every Nigerian as his brother, hence his readiness to settle in any part of the country to do his business. Unfortunately, not a few tribalised Nigerians misconceive him to be acquisitive, domineering and threatening.
You may have asked, “How do you mean?” The response to your question cannot be farfetched as not a few Nigerians have witnessed the Igbo businessman set up his business in an environment which others, through feasibility studies, have identified to be characterized with myriads of impossibilities. Paradoxically, a typical Igbo man hardly sees impossibilities in such business environment. To him, “Onyekwe, Chiya Ekwe” remains an inspiring mantra that resonates in his subliminal and keeps him going.
Given the foregoing business perspicacity and sagacity that characterize an Igbo businessman in the face of inclement business environment, it is pragmatic to note in this context that several critical factors have been contributory to his success.
Firstly, an Igbo businessman, ostensibly due to his cultural background, has been nurtured and orientated towards understanding the benefits that are inherent in the concept of social capital. For the sake of clarity, social capital, according to Investopedia, a virtual platform committed to research, data analysis; and best-in-class educational content, “Social capital is a set of shared values or resources that allows individuals to work together in a group to effectively achieve a common purpose.”
Ostensibly as a way of garnering social capital, a typical Igbo businessman enjoys affiliating himself to association of kinsmen and friends, and ready to participate in community work wherever he finds himself in the diaspora. There is a saying that “Wherever anyone travels to across the world, if an Igbo man is not seen living in such community, there is every tendency to conclude that the community is not hospitable for strangers.
Secondly, an Igbo businessman is known to easily adapt to whichever cultural milieu he meets in his place of doing business. Without resorting to overly adulating the Igbo businessman in this context, it is apt to say that his business sagacity is driven by the sense of being competitive, high entrepreneurial spirit, as well as investment in training and the capacity to imitate and assimilate foreign technology.
Without any smidgeon of hyperbole, not a few Igbo businessmen have since the mid-1970s, few years after the Nigerian civil-war, transformed themselves into manufacturers of automobiles parts through close linkages with technology suppliers in other continents ranging in size from enterprises so much that they can visibly be seen as key players in Nigeria and other West African markets selling or supplying automotive parts that cut across switch gears, roller chains for engines, auto tubes, batteries, engine seats, shock absorbers, footrests, and gaskets for motorcycles to such markets. Most of these Igbo businessmen with local factories in various parts of Nigeria have the design capability to modify products and adapt the production process to the local market.
Without doubt, a typical Igbo businessman can aptly be called an enigma as he is always prepared to soar against any kind of headwind that poses danger on his business trajectory. For instance, one he is set for business, he would literarily begin to soar like an eagle despite major infrastructural and credit constraints. For example, where there is no electricity, he would generate it through private generators, where there is no water he would provide it through boreholes, and where there is no convenient means of delivering his goods as prompt as possible, he would ply night bus to travel across the length and breadth of the country to ensure his customers are not disappointed. In fact, wherever he goes to establish business; even in the face of expensive and scarce lands, coupled with the situation where banks reluctantly extend credit to him, an Igbo businessman, despite all these limitations, would be seen succeeding in his business as he would always find a way out.
At this juncture, it is expedient to note that much of this success was due to self-help as a typical Igbo businessman is good at making independent effort to provide the necessary infrastructural support for his business even when the state failed to do so. Not only that, his business skills were over the years acquired mainly through learning, especially through the concept of “Igba Boyi”; an Igbo system of Apprenticeship. Added to the foregoing advantages on his side is that a typical Igbo businessman will continue to build his business through inter-firm linkages with foreign technology suppliers, notably those from Taiwan, and other foreign countries.
Having satisfactorily applauded the Igbo businessman for his shrewdness in the course of doing business in this context, it is germane to encouragingly opine that the rest of us should emulate him in the way he does business.