• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Doyin Salami advises businesses to build resistant products’ portfolio to avert headwinds

Doyin Salami advises businesses to build resistant products’ portfolio to avert headwinds

For Nigerian businesses to continue to weather the storm of the present challenging environment occasioned by lot of economic and social issues, they must build portfolio of products that are economy resistant, Doyin Salami, CEO, Kainos Edge Consulting, has advised.

Such portfolio of products, combining packaging and pricing, informed by deep market research will appeal to diverse consumers with income disparity, whether the economy is growing or shrinking Salami says.

The economist, who spoke with marketers and communication officers of organisations at a forum on ‘Business growth in a volatile Economy: Facts versus Myths’ organised by Advertising Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) recently in Lagos, cautioned businesses against adopting ‘one size fits all’ for the Nigerian market.

Presently, Nigeria is a peculiar market with huge disparity of income, declining share of consumption, poor performing sectors and poor infrastructure, which have forced the consumer to behave in a particular way.

For instance, Salami said out of 46 sectors in the Nigerian economy, an economy that could be said to be a diversified, only 12 percent of them were growing faster by population growth while others are performing below population growth. “These are the trends you really need to understand,” he told the chief marketing officers (CMOs).

He also told them that Nigeria’s economy, and largely emerging markets invite businesses to ask ‘what if’ in their strategies, saying even when things appear unlikely, the scenario planning should make CEOs and CMOs to ask the question ‘what if’ in their business planning.

According to Salami, in 2014, Nigeria’s economy was growing at about 7 percent, and if businesses had asked what if affordability becomes a problem sooner, they would have been better positioned as of today. By 2016, he said affordability actually became a problem. “Those that asked that question and developed product in that line are reaping the value today.

Essentially, it is about a granular understanding of the marketplace in which you play,” he said.
He also told organisations to constructively engage with regulators and ensure a mutual respect for both parties.

On the impact and contribution of infrastructure especially electricity to volatility of Nigeria’s economy, Salami who in November 2017, completed a two-term 8 years stint as member of CBN Monetary Policy Committee said that the privatisation of electricity in 2012, moving away from government hands to private sector, supposed to engender creation of a market.

What thereafter supposed to be regulated is a market not a sector but today; tariffs are not reflective because government has not done what it is supposed to do. Under this situation Nigerians cannot expect constant power.

He noted that payment of taxes is still a big issue in Nigeria and this contradicts expectation and heavy reliance of the public on government to deliver on infrastructure in the face of Nigeria being a deficient capital economy.

Also speaking, the president of ADVAN, Folake Ani-Mumuney said the forum was organized to enrich marketers’ understanding on how businesses can drive for profitable growth in volatile economy.
“We want to learn more in order to contribute to the growth of our organisations. Two things emerged from the forum; one is to share a common language with the leadership of organisations as co-executives on a broad area of leadership areas.

“We cannot be pulling in one direction when the leadership is pulling in another direction. We also want to close any gaps that exist by ensuring that we fully market our positions. We also need the organisation to learn our own language,” she said.