By Shadrach Okon
The strength of leadership lies in transforming your vision into reality for the people to feel your impact.
The best dream of a leader makes little or no sense to the people if his vision is not well interpreted and transformed into reality by his ‘foot soldiers’ at the helm of affairs in various offices. This is one germane reason why successful leaders, entrepreneurs, captains of industries invest in head-hunting to seek best hands to handle managerial positions in their companies and organizations.
Head-hunting also known as executive search is a recruitment strategy of searching and hiring highly skilled and qualified candidates for senior-level positions in companies and corporate organizations.
This job is handled by a specialized team known as head-hunters or executive search team.This is one of the secrets of successful companies and organizations.
Captains of industries and successful investors like Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Tony Elumelu, Godwin Maduka among others in Africa discovered this strategy from companies and goverment leaders in Western economies several years ago and replicated same in sourcing talents for their companies.
Government leaders in the United States, Canada, Singapore, South Korean and other emerging economies across the globe equally use head-hunting strategy to source for technocrats to run critical sectors of the economy and state affairs.
Like Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson observe in their scholarly classic ‘Why Nations Fail,’ “Technocrats and highly skilled individuals are part of the pillars of strong institutions in western democracies and emerging Asian economies.”
Today in Africa and other Third World countries, it is widely peddled and believed that government is not a good investor. Therefore, government should not court the idea of owning and running companies, industries and businesses.
This belief is often attributed to the past abysmal failure of government investments and companies. Hence, we are made to believe that profit-oriented investments should be the exclusive preserve of private sector investors.
Also, another concrete reason for this wrong narrative is the repeated failure of government appointees to manage government investments successfully. On the other hand, what makes the narrative different in the private sector is that captains of industries and investors utilize head-hunting strategy to comb the labour market inorder to engage best hands especially in managerial positions in their companies.
While ethnic sentiment, nepotism and religious fealty becloud appointments in most goverment circles, such sentiments are not allowed to clog the wheel of progress in the private sector.
In the private sector, talents, skills and years of accumulated experience remain the ‘dollar-currency’ that employers target while head-hunting employees for their companies and organizations. This is one of the reasons why private sector investments succeed while most goverment investments are bedeviled with corruption and chronic failure.
Ex- Governor Udom Emmanuel was a result- oriented leader who brought his experience and private sector strategies to governance.
On December 2019, Mr. Udom Emmanuel always with an antenna for talent head-hunted Hon. (Barr. ) Patrick Udomfang to serve as the Managing Director/CEO of Akwa Ibom Property and Investments Company Limited (APICO).
According to Mr. Udom Emmanuel, APICO was stinking and needed the quick intervention of a technocrat like Hon. (Barr.) Patrick Udomfang. The ex-governor was worried that APICO, one of the pioneer investments of government in the state, later stood only as a facade of magnificent structure bedeviled with internal decay of infrastructure, poor staff welfare, lack of work ethics among staff and low productivity in revenue generation for the state.
Five years down the line, the narrative is different with Hon. (Barr) Patrick Udomfang at the helm of leadership in APICO.
As a seasoned technocrat cum politician, Hon. (Barr.) Patrick Udomfang has transformed APICO with a touch of excellence. His acts are beginning to arc like rainbow on the government real estate investment.
Courtesy of the pragmatic leadership of Patrick Udomfang, the hitherto dilapidated APICO Investment House is transformed to a beautiful, magnificent structure beautifying the skyline of Akwa Ibom State and enhancing efficient service delivery among APICO work force.
With his fourishing career in the legal profession, Barr.Udomfang, is a leader who stands on a cross road between the politician and the technocrat. He has brought his wealth of experience as a legal luminary to serve Akwa Ibom people as the MD/CEO of
APICO.
As a result- oriented leader, Hon. (Barr.) Patrick Udomfang on assumption of office in APICO in December 2019, began to leverage on his experience and connections as a well-grounded legal practitioner to navigate the labyrinthine corridors of real estate investments; studying international best practices and adopting policy diffusion strategy to transform APICO to a veritable revenue generating source to Akwa Ibom State Government.
Today, courtesy of the innovative leadership of Patrick Udomfang, APICO has a tax force team that serves as a viable revenue collection source for ground rent and tenement fees recovery team in the company’s controlled estates.
Before the advent of Patrick Udomfang as the MD/CEO of APICO, myriad of environmental challenges bedeviled APICO Investment House and premises. To the glory of God, Patrick Udomfang has revolutionised the ugly narrative of APICO by fixing the abandoned elevator, solving the waterlogging problem encountered every rainy season on the premises, and installing solar electrification to promote a conducive working environment in APICO investment House.
Equally, staff welfare plays a critical role in the success of any leader and organization.
This is why Patrick Udomfang employs stick and carrots approach as part of his managerial strategies to reposition APICO. He believes that a highly motivated workforce will give the best to make the organization succeed. This is why the MD/CEO of APICO enjoys robust support and synergy with members of staff working in APICO. This is achieved through his commitment to the welfare of staff through the payment of outstanding medical bills, burial entitlements, and conference fees to help them horn their skills for effective delivery.
Special thanks to Governor Umo Eno, who sees Hon. (Barr.) Patrick Udomfang as the biblical Daniel that should be retained in his government to continue as MD/CEO of APICO to interpret the ARISE AGENDA vision to the people of Akwa Ibom State.
Shadrach Okon, a journalist writes from the agrarian community of Uruk Obong in Abak LGA.
