Chude Jideonwo: Re-branding Africa one project at a time

He is the Managing Partner and co-founder of The Future Project and Red Media, a full-service communications and development company. Named by Forbes as one of Africa’s Best Young Entrepreneurs’, Chude has cut his teeth as an exemplary professional leading the pack of visionary titans seeking to transform the continent’s socio-economic space for the better. In this interview with Rita Ohai, he tells of his principles as well as the problems business owners face.

This week’s entrepreneur is an introvert who does not drink beer and ‘hates’ to attend parties but would rather be caught swaying to good music with friends than be termed ‘anti-social’.

For someone who spends most of his time liaising between clients and their target audience, its rather interesting to find that he can barely stand the tittle-tattle associated with the concerts and leisure events he is sometimes expected to organize.

As with most young entrepreneurs who defy traditional norms and make appreciable impact in the industries they subsequently end up dominating, the wealth of experience they bring to bear in disseminating their duties which invariably generates rapid fiscal turnover for their companies are sourced in their formative years – especially because a multiplicity of approaches is required to succeed.

When asked why he decided to make the transition to owning a company at the peak of his youth in an emerging market like ours as against following the norm and working as an employee, his first reaction was a shocker as he giggled and said, “I’m not a young person. Next year, I’ll be 30…that’s not young o!”

And when this reporter argued to the contrary, he resolutely stood his ground and refused to shift base.

While some are quick to identify the primary trigger for their entrepreneurial passion, Chude who comes across as a man with the penchant for denigrating the bandwagon movement, thinks he might need an extra ten years to figure out his eureka moment because according to him, he didn’t set out to be a business person…which is rather interesting concept seeing as he’s developed a raging passion for it.

Although there have been some exhilarating moments, for him the journey has “been an incredible roller-coaster.”

According to the lawyer turned PR specialist it is impossible to be completely prepared for the ongoing interminable process called entrepreneurship and so when you enter into it, you keep learning about human character, trust, expansion, making decisions and taking risks. You also learn about managing growth, success and failure. And just like life, nobody prepared him for it but he would not choose anything else.

When he was younger, he had grand dreams of working as an advertising executive, but things didn’t quite turn out they way he planned. His transition from paid employment as a copy editor at the now defunct Next Newspapers to being Chief Executive Officer at Red Media Communications was orchestrated by divine forces.

After being owed salaries in all of the four companies he had sought employment in, he shifted his focus and decided to make a pact with God.

Chude tendered his resignation at Next, enrolled for a Master’s program at the Pan African University and seeing as he had no money to pay his way through school, he decided that if the business was able to sustain itself through that period, he would take it as a sign.

With the level of success he has recorded, God obviously felt Jideonwo would function better as an employer of labour.

A lot of people do not know this but before Chude quit his job he panicked so bad he was on the verge of a nervous-breakdown. In his words, “I was so frightened that I went to some mentors and friends who already ran businesses to ask if it was wise and Tara Fela-Durotoye said that I should never think of going into business because I was tired of my job.”

As a result of government’s inadequacy in meeting the core needs of its teaming population, many have giving in to the urge to venture out on their own in search of nirvana.

The tons of books and seminars selling the tricks to the trade of enterprise has also spiked the quest for most young school-leavers, whose feet have panned practically every street in the country in search of employment to no avail, in becoming entrepreneurs.

Chude thinks much of the arguments on job creation lean towards exaggeration and impressed the need for the focus to be on the availability of credible manpower. In his opinion, “Of course there are not enough jobs for the sheer population that we have but there is a paucity of the skills needed for the kind of jobs that are available.

“We find that our industries have accelerated faster than our industries have been built. So companies have needs but cannot find cost effective human resources to fill the need so they employ under experienced or under qualified people to fill those gaps.” he continued.

And when others propose working for themselves as a means to creating more time for relaxation and family, he says, “It’s the lie about work-life balance. That is so false, it is incredible!

Explaining further, Jideonwo said, “Everybody who works with me knows that I hardly have time. Some people do not understand that running a business is not about you, it is about what you are creating and what you are creating can consume your life. And usually if it doesn’t consume your life, it is not worth doing. Also if it not worth consuming your life in the first five years, then it is not worth leaving your job to do.”

This is a call to rational reasoning for those contemplating leaving their job simply because they think they can as they may be in for a rude shock.

While many cite inadequate access to capital and infrastructure as the biggest challenge they are forced to cope with in running a business, it’s a different dynamic with the co-convener of the Future Awards who started his business without any money or bank account. It is the near absolute disregard for professionals in his sector that irks him.

He expressed, “I think for me, it is the lack of appreciation people have for how difficult our work is in the media [that upsets me]. People take the media for granted because they do not respect its foundation and knowledge and so they do not respect those that produce that [knowledge] and as such do not place a high value on it.

“I have fired a few of my clients (and I do not say this arrogantly). When a client comes to me and says, I could do this myself, then I say ‘ok, do it yourself’. Unfortunately, when they take over it themselves they make a mess of it,” he said.  In light of the complexities associated with the mismanagement of information in this country, this is a situation that needs to change.

With major stakeholders in our clime refusing to venture into the administration of regulatory agencies like the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations for reasons many might term unusual, an eradication of the perceived flaws observed in the communications sector may be a tall dream.

Chude who is also a member of the organization understands the level of commitment required to improve the quality of services delivered in his industry but is constrained by his involvement in things like nation building and youth development. In spite of the activities competing for his time, the creative business man is constantly seeking ways to bridge the gap between his corporate responsibilities and social due diligence. The latest being his involvement in the YouWIN programme as a member of the steering committee, mentor and at present a judge.

Regardless of the amount of pressure he regularly puts himself under, Jideonwo agrees with allusions to him being classified a workaholic just as he believes some degree of sacrifice, character and grit is needed to survive in the murky waters of profitable enterprise in an emerging market such as Nigeria’s.

With respect to the performance of politically elected officials in fulfilling their basic function which is to provide for the wellbeing of their citizens, he has got an interesting opinion. According to him, “We are coming from the demonic rots of the kinds of Babangida and Abacha who severely destroyed the fabric of this country. They destroyed it, demolished it and left if for dead. And then we finally got democracy which gives us the freedom to make choices as to the kind of leader we want to see and if not the kind of leaders we want to see, then the best option out of the bad options that we have had.”

As one who has stands at the fore-front of the campaign for better democracy, the recent developments in Ekiti, Ondo as well as the Ministry of Aviation and Transportation has left him impressed with the semblance of vision and general growth process displayed by these states and sectors. The situation might not be perfect but to him, it is an attestation to what democracy can do.

For the record, Chude who derives great joy from writing doesn’t think he’d turn out to be a different man if his father was still alive. And as much as he wants to believe in the veracity of scientific claims stating that aliens exist, he can’t because he hasn’t seen a zeta reticulian yet.

As for all the people who grew irritated by his noise making in secondary school, the jokes on them this time, as that same skill they had issues with has turned out to be his money-maker. So you can tell he means it when he says; “People are used to just dismissing you because you are able to find humour in every situation and that was one of the reasons why I decided I have to be very successful in my life. I wanted to show that you can be successful and still laugh.”