BIG FISH IN A SMALL POND vs SMALL FISH IN A BIG POND

Owhiome,

I am delighted to reflect the multilingual status of Nigeria on this platform. Today, I said My People in Esan language of Edo State, Nigeria. I had a very engaging weekend with various activities; I joined a family in the christening of a new baby girl and also an exercise session in which we walked for two hours.

The vast body of water has a tale for all of us. Waters are in various categories namely; streams, rivers, lake, dam, lagoon and ocean. Some people had also classified various organizations into such. There are organizations that are very small, they are typically group under the Micro-Small and Medium Scale Industry (MSMEs); some are national companies, example Transcorp, Nigeria while some are multinationals, example are Oil and Gas companies.

The mode of operation of companies makes it categorized. There are companies that are sole big fish. These companies have the competitive advantage in just a particular field or location. The owners of these companies might be everything: secretary, accountant, marketing officer, business analyst and the human resources personnel or have few employees with fantastic titles. Truthfully, the owners are the CEO but it has a minimal sphere of influence and projection beyond the immediate environment of operation. As such, senior officers in these companies are the big fishes in small ponds. Small pond is restricting in terms of growth.

In the big pond, many of the fishes are relatively small. In such companies, some staffs are “forgotten” in specific roles amongst others. The small fishes scenario, allows for career progression, greater recognition is accorded to the company, policies are made & implemented, in-depth trainings are done from time to time. 

In the big pond scenario, fantastic titles are for top professional; such titles are acquired over the years.

As it is known that small bodies of water flow into larger bodies; a small company can decide to partner with bigger companies. For example, a small firm in West Africa can increase its global relevance by being part of an international company.

Whatever little that you do, you can make it flow into global relevance. The doors in this era of globalization are readily available. The question is, “Will you avail yourself the opportunity of becoming a part of a big pond which allows you to grow proportionately with size of the pond?”

Have a grand week.

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MASS IMPUNITY vs POLITICAL IMPUNITY

E n le o,

This means, hello there. Yes, I am delighted to welcome you to another week. May it be a new week that would propel us to greater heights. Our discussion today is peculiar to Nigeria and some African countries. If you are a Nigerian, please do not get offended but see it as a call to re-orienting ourselves. It is quite easy to say that we are not whites but we need to know that behaving in a globally accepted way should be a target for us.

If you are walk down the streets of Lagos, Nigeria, you can find people urinating anywhere despite the attempt made by government to stop this act. Pedestrians would prefer to cross the road than using the pedestrian bridge. Drivers driving against traffic, drivers also ignoring the traffic light among others. One needs to stop and ponder if people want to do things in the ethical way. In the same light, one keeps hearing of political office holders who are guilty of financial impropriety and they are community leaders. The simple thing that comes to mind is, are they not ashamed of these doings?

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PATIENCE vs TIMELINESS

Hello Friends,

Welcome to another great week. None of us knows what the week has for us but we sure believe that it will be goodies that will last a lifetime. My desire is that no evil sickness will come near our household. However, we also need to do things rightly. Let us not be like the proverbial, Folorunsho who climb a palm tree with the banana’s strap.

I have a story to tell you. Supo left his house for the airport unfortunately, the vehicle broke down. He made spirited effort to get to the airport and Debisi, the airline counter supervisor told him that he had missed the flight. He made a call to Sope who works in the technical unit of the airline, who in turn called, Soji. Due to the nature of Sope’s work, he could not leave his beat. Supo was told to wait for Soji at the boarding gate but Soji could not come out for close to two hours, Supo was agitated, he was on an official assignment and he had no gut to call the office to tell them the state of things.

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SUPERIORITY STRUGGLE vs ACKNOWLEDGED SUPERIORITY

Eyin temi,

As traditional of me, I am saying in Yoruba language, My People. I hope you enjoyed your weekend? Mine was full of activities with my family and friends. It’s always great having time out with them regardless of the adjoining challenges which still makes us know that we are men. I see the fun associated with it then the pain.

When I was younger, I had some big brothers that  usually call by name. At some point, even when I was corrected and told to call them “brother” as we do in Yoruba culture to show respect. It is rebuffed. As time evolve, nobody called my attention to it again; I succumbed and since then, I added the appellation, “brother” with all pleasure.  Let’s do today’s discussion, superiority struggle versus superiority discovered.

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