By Chima Gabriel
Peju Adebayo is one of many Nigeria’s intelligent, smart, and focused women, who are taking the bull by the horn in their respective careers and doing exploits. For five solid years, she has been the CEO of Mouka Limited, a leading manufacturer of polyurethane-based products in Africa’s largest market space.

This is nonetheless on cue to take you into the world in which she operates. Sincerely passionate about ‘grooming and growing people, Peju Adebajo is very clear about who she is, what she wants to be, what her priorities are and she does a good job of managing herself and everyone around her towards attaining those collective desires and dreams .

Peju Adebayo ...I think any company which is a monopoly will die

This ex Queens College Lagos alumnus prowess in administration is visible with the turn-around in Mouka in five years. She is also an alumnus of some of the world’s best institutions and Ivy League schools from Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, UK where she received undergraduate and graduate degrees in Chemical Engineering; to Harvard Business School in the United States (for her MBA).

Prior to managing Mouka, she was at various times MD/CEO of UTC Nigeria plc; project coordinator and CEO-designate of Fate Foundation Microfinance Institution; and Head of the brand management and product development team at UBA plc. She also had stints at the Boston Consulting Group and Citicorp in Holland and England.

In this exclusive chat with Esther Onyegbula, she talks about team work and achievements, responsibilities, challenges and success in her career.

For how long have you been the Chief Executive Officer of your firm?

This is my fifth year as CEO.

And how would you describe these past five years?

It has been a wonderful, challenging, exciting, exhilarating experience. I have loved every minute of it. We have about 800 workers, and we are like a family. We enjoy working together as a team and we enjoy what we do.

What do you mean by challenging?

Challenging in that manufacturing in and out of itself is challenging, and obviously we have to cope with lots of obstacles everyday in getting the final products to the customer, but it is always worth it when you think of the consumer which is at the end of the day adding comfort to life and giving our customers good sleep.

What exact challenges affect the day -to -day running of your firm?

This challenge has a huge impact on the manufacturing companies. We need to diversify the income away from purely oil and to also encourage non-oil income and non- oil exports. The manufacturing sector is critically important and our number one trouble is electricity, for us in the foam business. The second one is transportation, the very poor state of our roads gives us a lot of problems. First of all, you know foam is volumetric, it occupies a lot of space for the value you are carrying and so the cost of transportation is inhibiting. In other countries, you have three or four factories that will service the whole country, but in Nigeria you have to be very close to the market and have multiple investments. The state of our roads is atrocious and dangerous. Not only that, even within particular metropolises where the governments are on internal revenue generating drives. Apart from the actual cost of your time, how long does it take to get from A to B, the cost of fuel or diesel which adds to the cost of transportation, there is yet the third which also adds to costs: the levies, fares, community fees, state level fees, local government fees, FRSC and different agencies that collect payments for this and that and all these add up to the cost of doing business. I think if we get power and transportation right, we will be able to make a huge difference to our competitiveness. Of course ,the third one is importation of oil as raw material. Like I said earlier, our company is purely a chemical one, our inputs are petro chemical based. Now for oil , the sixth largest oil generating country in the world, the fact that we have to import our raw materials is totally inexcusable. So, one day when our refineries are in good condition ,we will have the third factor that will allow us our dream business.

What makes your product unique?

The product is unique because of the combination of all the things I have talked about. The fact that it is a family business which is transitioning on the internal side into a truly world class Nigeria-run manufacturing organization. Most of the organizations that you see that are run by Nigerians and are world class are in the financial services. For us to be world class in manufacturing, it really says a lot about what we are doing, and we are up against so many challenges that make the products unique. The name of the product is actually synonymous with quality. We have both covered foam in form of mattress and uncovered foam. If you go to anybody on the streets and you say you want to use foam for furniture, they will say “make una give me Mouka o” but unfortunately, because the foam is not branded, we do have imitations. Ask any person on the street when they are talking about foam, they are talking about us… .All these things and each one of our 800 employees make us a unique company.

What would you consider the greatest achievement you have made as a CEO ?

As I said, it is a team effort. I haven’t achieved anything alone, I have achieved things with the team, the entire work force of 800 workers in the company. One of the things that we have successfully done is that we have been able to expand our operations from the South to the North. We have increased our operation in the South, and we now have a very big factory in Benin which is servicing the entire Eastern region. And in 2009, we established a brand new company in Kaduna. So we are very interested in ensuring that all our products are available all over the country and customers are able to access our product as conveniently as possible.

Playing a leadership role as the CEO , what qualities would you say has helped you run this brand effectively and efficiently?

I wish I could ascribe those qualities, but I think one of the most important things is for a leader to be a good listener, and to be a good follower. It seems a bit ironic for me to say that a leader should be a follower, following somebody. The spiritual is extremely important… you must be able to listen to the voice of the Spirit and you must be able to follow your conscience that what you believe is right; which might be sometimes different from what the text books tell you. I also listen to customers, I listen to workers and I listen to my colleagues, and that way, one is being able to harness the best of all ideas and help people do what it is they are able to do. Sometimes, they just need a better coordination.

Next year the company will be 40 years old, what are your plans?

It is a secret. If I tell you, I will have to kill you…laughs

How have you been able to handle competition in the industry?

Competition is a great thing. It is good for all the customers and a consumer, I think any company which is a monopoly will die but when you have competition, you are alive and the market is frankly big enough for our competitors to co-exist. We are not concerned about competition. We are concerned about our customers.Indeed,our concern is about adding comfort to life.

As someone who has worked as a banker, consultant, what would be your advice to a young female who wants to pursue a career in the corporate world?

Well, I am sure you will almost anticipate it. I will ask them to follow their passion, do what you are good at, and try and keep improving your skills. There are many people who get to a job and then they stagnate. They don’t improve themselves in anyway. This is where competition is relevant for talent and competition for the available jobs, the best of the best will get the job. And you must always improve yourself no matter the situation you may find yourself.

Before you became MD/CEO of the foam company what were you into?

I am a combination of all sorts… . I am a chemical engineer by training, I went from chemical engineering to consulting, from that into brand management, from that to production because I was MD UTC Nigeria and so I have had experience of being a consultant and a banker, and telling people how to do things and also being on the operating side and listening to bankers and consultants. So, I have been on both sides of the fence.