ENTERPRISE CHAMPIONS: Entrepreneurship in Ascent in Nigeria

Why did we write this book? We have been involved in the writing and teaching of entrepreneurship since 1990. This book is the first in the series of business history we shall be documenting as part of our contribution to the development and promotion of entrepreneurship in Nigeria, Africa, and the entire world. When we set out to research and write this book we did not intend to focus on the material and financial acquisition of wealth by these entrepreneurs. Rather we wanted to find out the processes they took in setting up their ventures, the commercialization of their ideas, the challenges they faced, and how they were able to overcome and institutionalize their businesses.

An understanding of history is very important to business success. History helps in crafting effective strategies and identifying trends. Gary Hoover believes that one of the most common causes of business failure is the inability of business leaders to identify or see important trends which emerge from the past to create the present and shape the future. In other words, business leaders need to know what happened in the past to be able to understand the present and then prepare or plan for the future. Hoover further made the point that "the great leader watches trends to see things that others do not see, to seize opportunities where others only see the confusion." Other comments in support of business history include ones made by Winston Churchill and Fernando Braudell. Churchill said that "the further backward you look, the further forward you can see." Braudell on the other hand opined that "history may be divided into three movements: what moves rapidly, what moves slowly, and what appears not to move at all." Business history in our opinion could be a fountain of good insight and great ideas for business enterprises as regards the present and the future.

We believe that the only way of knowing where you are going is knowing where you are coming from. As business leaders, it is important to be retrospective, prospective and introspective to succeed in today's uncertain business environment. We have not only written for the business class and the working class, we have also written for students, researchers, and others in different life endeavors. We hope that as you read this book you will learn from those we have profiled and be inspired to pursue and achieve your dreams.