Lagos, Nigeria

Lecturing a group of MBA students, in one of his entrepreneurial classes, at the Lagos Business School wing of the Pan African University on Thursday, Professor Pat Utomi confessed that he wished a programme like the Dragons’ Den had been available when he was younger, to help jumpstart his entrepreneurial career – and that of his peers.

“Entrepreneurs have to be creative”, lectured Professor Pat Utomi, “they have to abandon orthodoxy and add veritable value to consumers”

He cited the story of Virgin’s Richard Branson, referring to the period prior to the launch of the Virgin Atlantic route; narrating the clever technique Richard Branson employed to generate free media coverage for new Atlantic route. If you’re not familiar with the story, the publicity-hugging billionaire of the Virgin Empire took off in a helium balloon crossing the Atlantic Ocean – and on his carrier were the inscriptions “The British Virgin”. His adventure in the sky elicited a media uproar, Professor Utomi narrated to his class, “International media houses were eager to carry the story of the ‘crazy’ Sir Richard Bronson crossing the Atlantic in the British Virgin…unwittingly providing his yet-to-be-unveiled “Virgin Atlantic” Airlines with millions of dollars worth of free advertising”

More to the point, Professor Pat Utomi hammered on the need for entrepreneurs to forge new frontiers in business, by capitalizing on the potent platform of entertainment, urging entrepreneurs to seek ways of providing more than average service to their customers by approaching every aspect of their business with futuristic creativity.

“Identify opportunity”, he began, counting a few of the steps a successful entrepreneur must take to succeed, “commercialize the venture, and professionalize the business.

“There are mediums through which a clever entrepreneur may secure free advertising for his business, and don’t forget that luck smiles only on the prepared” the ex-presidential candidate continued, “on this note I’d like to introduce to you the crew from Dragons’ Den…they’ve come up with a wonderful business television show that ought to be exploited by the smart entrepreneur”

He invited in the U.K based Neil Oyenekan, the series producer of the UBA/ MTN sponsored Business TV Show: Dragons’ Den, to address the class; Oyenekan in turn rendered a graphically compelling presentation to the class. In fact, Professor Utomi was so impressed by his presentation that he promised to dedicate his next class to teaching his MBA students how to successfully pitch on the Dragons’ Den!

We’re talking about the upper echelon of the Lagos business society. With this as a sign of the contestants the Nigerian edition is going to attract, it is safe to say that world-class entrepreneurs are ready for this opportunity of a century.
Are you?

–James Amuta