National Daily

My management/employee relationship is cordial —Badekin boss

MR. Bababumi Akinyemi, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, BADEKIN Properties Limited reveals the essentials of his attainment and relationship with his personnel, in this interview with Patrick Aigbokhan. Excerpts:

The company
Badekin Properties was established, and started up with business in 1994 as an enterprise. It actually got its footings in the late 90s, which was when the company started soaring up from glory to glory.
We render services relating to properties; we are estate surveyors and realtors.

we by properties, we rent out properties on behalf of tenants and land lords, and we develop properties to. We also, advice, and give opinion on value to our various clients, varying fro corporate individuals and organizations and institutions.

Management challenges
There are lots of challenges that I face as a manager, but a few ones I will rightly mention here are; one, the fact that the Nigerian market is so big now that most people call for our services and some of them would not even know what they want. Some of them may not even have up to the budget of what they are looking for, yet, they will still take you around, waste your time and you it becomes burdensome. Two, the economy has become so dwindling that, in the last three years, we have not even had people buying properties, but, in this current dispensation, I think that has become a handled issue.
Another thing is that more people are not having access to mortgage facilities because of various collaterals they are being asked to present.
These issues have one way or the other being posing some challenges on us.

Government policies
The policies of government, as a whole, have a way of affecting this industry, though the Lagos state government is really trying. I know this because we actually undertake most of their property jobs.

A lot of things are being put in place to favor property owners in terms of documentation. But government policies also affect us in terms of building materials, because the cost of building materials is very high, and probably, that is an issue of interest to the government ands manufacturers.

Management style
In our company we operate like a family. When you come around us, you may, sometimes, not even be able to notice who the boss is. When we go out for business appointments, you will find it so difficult to differentiate between the CEO and other members of staff, because we all work together and cooperate with ourselves as one family. I maintain a very cordial management /employee relationship. Because of this, there is hardly a staff that had once worked with this company that did not give kudos to the company. I know it is not by our making, so, I give all the Glory to God that they value this company.

Leisure
It is interesting to say that my first love is for my job, though, my family knows that. I work round the clock, but that is not to say hat I don't take my rest; I rest mostly on Saturdays, and on Sundays, I devote my time to my ministry, and by the time I get back home from Church, I relax. This may not be common to most CEOs.

Even sometimes during the week, I don't rush out if I don't have so much to do in the office that early. I set out around 11:00 am sometimes, since I have those working for me who can always get back to me with details of business activities of the day.

Hough, it is always very hectic for me during the week because I go to the Church on Mondays and Fridays, after work, but I am always free on Tuesdays and Thursdays after work, during which I may sometimes get home by 7:00pm and then, rest.

Admonition for executives
My advice to executives of companies is that they should learn to be close to their employees, they should try to always encourage them with incentives, and they should also see themselves as being positioned wherever they are, or may be as God's own agenda, and not by their own effort.
They should also learn to always touch and impact lives positively, especially for their employees.

CSR
In Badekin, as a company we believe, so much, in touching lives. I also, as an individual, I cannot afford not to keep touching lives. We assist individuals by our capacity in making some funds available to them for the upkeep of their needs, both in career building and otherwise. We also give funds to orphanages and other less privileged.

Like I always say, as a CEO, it is not good for those who are behind to be over looked os underrated because you don't know who will be the next tomorrow.

The journey
It has been up and down since the inception of the company, but I must say that I hank God for seeing us through, up till to this time. Some firms started with us, but now there names are no more heard. People may not know the secret behind\d the success of this company, but we thank God today that Badekin has become a family name in the real estate industry. Although it has not been quite smooth, but all along, we have been working with dedicated staff. Badekin has trained people who are doing very well on their own. We are consultant to, about three corporate institutions, and we have a lot of corporate individuals, who are Managing Directors of blue chip companies, whose properties we manage. We basically specialize more in properties which also makes business relationship necessary, and that is why we excel, because we know how to establish cordial relationship between landlords and tenants, as well as handling their properties for them without them having any differences to settle with the owners of the properties.

In the course of our operation, we have been able to help tenants to source their own properties to become landlords and house owners today.
If I look back at where we are coming from, I will say that the journey has been quite favorable, and I thank God for that.

The future
In the next few years, Badekin should be among the first three best in estate management business in Nigeria, and that is where we are aiming at.
We have been managing the biggest estate I Lagos, which is the MKO Abiola Garden, since 2003, and I believe that it is because of our managerial ability that we have not fallen short of expectation. But it is just God that has kept us there till now, I is not b y our power. Though, we know we have giants in the industry, and we recognize that, honor should be given to whom honor is due, but I still strongly believe that we will get there.
Admonition for Nigerian youths

The government needs to, fist, create jobs for our youths before they can be admonished. If the government can do this, it will, at least, solve a sizable number of problems among our youths.

The government should encourage industrialization and make it expand, so that our youths can get employed in the existing industries in the country.
If you look at our society today, everyone seems to be moving on a fast lane, no one wants to crawl before walking,

So, our youths should, also, learn to climb their ladders one after the other, with patience, and not by jumping.
Our youths should know that if they climb up the ladder too fast, they may find themselves at the bottom of the ladder too early.