By SUNNY IKHIOYA  

Growing up in Warri city in those days, one often heard this street parlance: “mugu no go fit be millionaire”, which means, if you are not intelligent, you cannot be a wealthy man. But this is just a small part of it.    

In various business and leadership classes, it has been established that what people call luck is when preparation meets with opportunity. If you do not have it, you do not have it. Somehow, in a way, somebody must have put in the work to make a business successful.   There is the working in it. For those who are not ready to do the ‘working’ and have substantial inheritance left behind for them, the journey at the top is always short.  

So, becoming a billionaire businessman of the status of Leemon Ikpea is not by accident. A few days ago, he celebrated 34 years of establishing Lee Engineering and Construction Company, the flagship of the group of companies, and the focus was on sustainability. How does a business survive 34 years and still growing in this very challenging Nigerian environment? That is the lesson this piece will try to unravel as we study the models of Leemon Ikpea as a commemoration of his birthday. When the young Leemon, then barely 17 years old, applied for a job as a clerk in one of those multinational companies in the Niger Delta region in the seventies, he never knew what fate had in store for him. He got the job and another one from the Nigerian Ports Authority at the same time. With his father’s advice, he went for the less paying offer, and that will be the last time Leemon will ever apply for a paid employment in his lifetime again.  

He was not the only Nigerian who worked in that company, and neither was he the most educated, but his performance spoke for him. His integrity was impeccable. It got to an extent that, as one expatriate boss was leaving the country, he was handing Leemon to another until he rose to the pinnacle of his career. The great Warren Buffer said that we should “look for three things in a person: intelligence, energy, and integrity. If they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother “ So, integrity was the key to Leemon’s success as a paid employee and that integrity has kept his business going and growing until this day. He never fails to deliver on his jobs, no matter how complex and difficult, even if it had to result in personal losses to him. He always delivers.    

Another noteworthy thing in Leemon Ikpea’s sustainability models is that he is always in transition, always looking ahead to the next move and operating on the learning organisation principles. He was already doing fine in the oil city of Warri, with a thriving operational base stocked with heavy duty engineering machinery, but he needed to improve on his connectivity with the sources of his business and the international world. So, he moved his head office to Lagos, the commercial capital city of Nigeria, while the operational base remained in Warri.  

By the benefit of hindsight, when you remember the year he took that decision and where the business level is today, you will realise that it was a great strategic decision. Today, he has even gone a step further, operating more at the international level, with partners all over the world. Leemon runs his business from any part of the world he happens to be at any point in time, and with a capable and competent team of professionals, the business is running on auto pilot level.  

It is also important to note that Leemon lives by the principles of adequacy, moderation, and self-sufficiency. He lives within his means and does not look out to impress anybody. An example of this was when he moved into Lagos to set up his office. He had enough resources to hire a very elegant corporate space in Lagos, but he chose to operate from a container inside the compound of his rented duplex apartment at Ikeja GRA. I once had a boss who always emphasized prudence. He once told us that if you are going on a journey from Lagos to Ilorin,   prepare as if you are going to Sokoto   and no matter the challenges you face on the way,   you will always overcome it. That is the kind of disciplined arrangement that has made Leemon’s Lee Engineering survive 34 years of challenging economic environment and still growing.  

Close to the above is his continuous quest for knowledge. Spurred by his experience as a kid, where he had to experience several stoppages due to his parents inability to meet up with his school fees requirements, he was determined to make up for lost time, his thirst for knowledge never dwindled. As chief executive officer of a thriving company, he still took time out to take out courses in business management from the prestigious Harvard University,   Boston, USA. I am not talking about those one or two weeks seminars programmes, I am talking about registering for and completing a full academic program with all of its implications. So, the quest for new discoveries and continuous education is one of the sustainability strategies.  

As his business continues to grow, he is also looking at the direction of his workers. For some that have put in a reasonable number of years in service, he has offered them shareholders privileges in the manner of world class companies like Microsoft, Apple, and the rest. There are some workers in the Lee Engineering Group today who are part owners of the business. It is a magnanimous gesture and is not a common feature amongst African businesses. But if you look at it closely, it is the best route to follow. Companies like Cadbury, Guinness, John holt, Adidas, Puma, and many others started as family businesses, but today, decades after their founders are gone, they are still thriving. I think that is the path Leemon Ikpea is toeing for his business as the last time he celebrated 33 years anniversary, they announced a plan to make the company go public.   

In this light, he has been creating divisions and sub companies that will run on their own. During the recent 34th anniversary of the company, new chief operating officers, COO, were announced to man each of the divisions and operating units. This also forms part of his transition management to create room for fresh bloods to run the companies with new ideas. That is the level to which he has taken the business, with a very keen eye for backward engineering, where we will be producing spare parts that will run plant and machinery, especially in the very technical area of oil and gas.  

He is also doubling down on local manufacturing for materials that will aid the packaging and processing of polyethylene and water processing. I must not leave out the most underrated but most effective part of his personality, which is his humility. With this humility, there is that carriage of inner peace, which makes him be at one with God. Some people who are close to him do refer to him as an angel in human form.  

However you want to rate him, he gives the credit of all of his achievements to the Almighty God. That is why he always spares time for worship and thanksgiving whenever he is available and endeavours to make his impact felt in his commitment to the Church. It is another year added for him on the 19th of December. We wish him more fruitful years ahead in service to God and mankind.  

*Ikhioya wrote via: http://www.southsouthecho.com