Branding and online community lessons from a cab driver
Author: yinkaolaito
Yinka Olaito is happy,excited and passionate Brand Communication, Social Media expert, Trainer and speaker. Yinka Olaito helps brands(Profits and Non-profits)with effective communication and positioning for premium service delivery and returns.Yinka Olaito also has special interest in Development Communication and has consulted for noted UN Agencies. Yinka Olaito is the CCO of Michael Sage consulting and African Child Right Inc.Lagos Nigeria
Each time I find common wisdom on the street I am not usually surprise. In the street corners of life are most vital lessons we can learn as adult. That is if we care to observe. For that singular reason I am a keen observer of my environment-whether familiar or strange ones. I am beginning to believe that if those of us who seem to have the privilege of formal education are not careful, the guys who learn from the street and apply such lessons will continue to strive better than those who believe they have an entitlement as graduate. This week I am attending a technical consultative meeting in another clime outside the one I am familiar with. Based on reports of this new environment, I determined from home to take my security very seriously.
A watertight arrangement was initially made by the hosting organization to ensure participants do not go through unnecessary stress. They have an arrangement with the Hotel to pick participants up at the Airport with various price options. So when I got to the Airport around four ‘o’clock in the morning, my instinct was to look for the pre-arranged cab driver. After close to an hour of waiting, another cab driver approached me and welcomed me well. He asked whether I needed help. I explained my predicament to him. He made a call on my behalf on his mobile but did say I might be waiting for ‘Godot’. To confirm he was not lying, I asked him to give me his phone so I could speak directly with any of the Hotel’s staff. He did and the response was not sharp enough so I decided to roll with him in over an hour journey.
While we were on the way, the guy was so nice. He went the extra mile to meet some demands I asked from him. Prior to our take off, I had insisted I would not pay what he was charging. Even though I have cleverly gotten a second opinion and I knew he was extremely considerate. To cut the long story short, we got talking and I was asking him how he was able to survive the indigene’s hostility against West African people. He said he came in here with five hundred US dollar about six years ago with a plan to move to Australia within three months. Unfortunately his contact continued to feed on his little reserve without result. Afterwards, he decided to take his destiny to his hand without legal permit then.
But the survival instinct would not allow him to give up. So, according to him, he did a feasibility study of what sell (without a university degree). he found out then that people here smoke a lot of cigarettes. So he looked for a commercial centre where hundreds of people pass through daily and started out selling packs of cigarette. He faced the daily challenge of harassment from law enforcement officers who ‘raided’ him almost every hour. He said after sometime the police became concerned and leave him.
From running a kiosk, he was able to raise capital to buy cigarette in large quantity and his first major breakthrough was Ten thousand in local currency. Today this guy runs an Hotelbusiness, has a transport concern; is happily married and now he is a legal citizen. I asked him whether he still sees those who promised they would get him visa to Australia and the answer was affirmative. He said most of them till date have no bearing nor understand where their lives are heading. Most of these guys according to him still spend their little income on smoking, drinking and womanizing.
As Brand and Social Media professional, I sat down after he has dropped me and thought of lessons we all can learn from this business man. Here are my thoughts:
Initial plan may fail: in our bid to build a brand or online community, we may get our hands burnt. this may not be our fault. Because jump at this without careful consideration and proper understanding of the ‘nutty’ issues in brand or community building. But that must not be an excuse to surrender leadership to mediocrity. We have got to sit down and plan a strategy that will work for our brands and community again.
Monitor the environment: No environment is static. Everything keeps changing. Be at alert for the changes that are taking place simultaneously around you and act on those changes if you want your brands or community to remain relevant.
I will do a follow up later.
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