Mr Idoreyin Enang is the outgoing National President of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria. A former Managing Director of Samsung Nigeria who has sat on the board of several blue-chip companies.
Enang in this interview with Journalists bares his mind on the challenges and triumphs in managing the activities of NIMN in the last four years at the sidelines of the ongoing AGM in Uyo.
Excerpts.
Let’s us into your humble beginning and your journey of life till date.
My journey into work life started after my A levels, when I got a job at the Ministry of Defence as a level 6 officer. I started from there before going back to school. After university education, my first major journey after doing my NYSC was at EIF, then I moved to Guinness Nigeria Plc, where I joined as a management trainee at the age of 24. I spent seven years at Guinness, where I laid the foundation for what I later became in life.
After Guinness, I joined the Coca-Cola company, and between the two companies, I spent 18 years of my corporate life. These are the organisations that formed the fabric of my career, business and life generally. I left Coca-Cola and moved to Cadbury for three years as commercial director. I was responsible for sales and market operations. That was when the company was challenged, but we navigated it back to progress and prosperity.
After three years, I left Cadbury and moved over to Samsung as Managing Director. I was there for quite a number of years and greatly enhanced the revenue of the firm. From there, I joined Lauriel, the beauty giant and spent a good time there. I was the Managing Director for Lauriel West Africa. I managed the subsidiaries for the firm and had an office in Accra, Ghana. That speaks for my corporate journey, and at the age of 49, I thought I had had it and decided to go and live my dreams. In between my career pursuits, I discovered my life purpose and put up a social enterprise called Corporate Shepherd in February 2009. It was a divine touch to teach, guide and motivate people. It became a unique centre to advance, and it was really divine because God spoke to me through his words in Isaiah 58 verse 12. Shepherding became my calling, and I saw myself running a radio programme that I called Navigate with IDY. I started with one Radio station that roughly cost me about 400 thousand naira on production and airtime way back in 2009, but I quickly extended to two other stations courtesy of my friends, whom God brought as destiny helpers. Corporate Shepherds teach, guide and motivate. It trains and offers solutions. I am a licensed and qualified coach. I have a centre for executive coaching, my experience is bigger and better than all the certifications. I have been in the business of leadership coaching. I left the corporate world in 2015, and my last stop was at Lauriel. I have been out of the corporate scene for 10 years, but now I help individuals and organisations achieve performance and productivity as a coach. We train, we consult, and I have a media property, Navigate with IDY. I have roughly 10 stations across the country. I run a business school on the Radio. I also sit on the board of several not-for-profit and profit making organisations. I am privileged to serve on the board of advertising offences as one of the members. I joined the faculty of Lagos Business School and I am the outgoing President of NIMN, which I will leave in a few days after our AGM. I have put in four years in that organisation as its president. Discovering my life purpose in time has really come to shape me into becoming the man I am today. I have a united family, I call the fantastic four of the tribe of the Enangs. This is who I am.
You have served the NIMN as president for two terms of four years and are about to step aside. Can we know what are your achievements and challenges?
The NIMN, as a brand, has been going through what I will call the strategic evolution. I am really thankful to God that I have the privilege to be its fourth coach. We were established by Act of parliament 25 in 2003, so effectively we are 22 years old from the time it was established as Act of Parliament. However, the marketing institution or organisation have been there since my career, which spanned over three decades, and I was already a member of the organisation. However, there was an internal squabble that saw the rise of different factions which tore the main fabric into shreds, and we fought to bring our acts together to co-exist under one roof.
The act of 2003 cemented the factions into one and created a safe passage for us to gain grounds, and that was the humble beginning with Chief Lugard Aimiwu as the first leader. We had Aare Kolade, then my predecessor Tony Agawume and me. That is the four coaches so far, within that spectrum, so much has happened. When you come through a civil war, it takes a lot for reconciliation and for factions to embrace each other and come together to have a smooth sail.
The immediate past leader did his best to heal the organisation and did quite a good structural work, in which over 31 staff were laid off and only four were left behind. This helped salvage the institute. We needed to run in a dimension that will create relevance. I got sworn in 4 years ago in June 2021, and by my first week, I was invited by the EFCC because some disgruntled members had sent in an unnecessary petition. That was my first visit to such a place, and it was a good one for me; however, that was the price one has to pay to serve his Professional Association, it was also a very humbling experience. In my campaign, before my leadership, I set out to do certain projects to reset the NIMN. The reset was centred around how to get global affiliations and set the ship to sail on the part of progress and prosperity. More importantly, creating a sustainable platform where we will be financially stable. In another way, drives the marketability of the institute. That was the cardinal point to start the process; however, I also discovered that people were not paying dues, and the commitment of members was low but then as an institute, we have the academia and the professionals. The guys in the academic were switched off, most of them are not forthcoming, while few stood with us.
The matter was discussed at the council level, and roadmap was established. I met with different groups, this was post-COVID-19 era and the impact was still there, and most meetings were done virtually.
I did a lot to rally back members using various incentives such as debt reduction and forgiveness, and only 158 people responded, and I took it from there. I also emphasised the fact that we need quality over quantity, and people who wanted to be part of the movement teamed up with me.
We derive our membership through corporate organisations, individuals and institutions. The institutions are retail organisations like the NNPC Limited, with a whole gamut of retail organisations. Marketing is universal, and we extended it to even people in the entertainment industry and have to create clusters to build our membership; it was now a cluster strategy. It’s been a journey of sorts, but am grateful to God. We have seen some key success factors, one in terms of global affiliations, we have signed an MOU with the Chartered Institute of Marketing, United Kingdom. We are now working on the details of the partnership.
The other challenge we have was the female folks, then they were very few, we were almost male-dominated institute and I made it a point of duty to drive diversity, equity and inclusion. Today, women lead various committees, and their participation has really increased tremendously. If things go well, our council will be made up of 30% women, and this is a complete departure from the past. We have deliberately encouraged them to come take up responsibilities, and it has paid off. Today, we are about to install the first female president.
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What is your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge for me is finance and funding, but am grateful to God that my experience in the corporate world also assisted greatly in navigating the challenges of management and ensuring that we remain afloat. However, in the 2023 annual report, we recorded a loss. When I came, we had tons of expenses and liabilities to deal with, and we gradually surmounted all.
Again, as a regulator, the law of the land requires people in the profession to register with the institute; people who are not formally registered are like persons driving without a driving license. It’s against the law. The law says that for you to be classified as a marketer, you must be certified by this institute, but it appears some people choose to be lawless. It’s been a major challenge getting people to comply.
When I came in, we discovered that over 80% of our revenue was not sustainable and apathy set in over a bad economy, and we have to explore other forms of funding or revenues, and we have to work inwardly. We have to synergise with other sister organizations like Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) and recently, the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR.
The sitting point is that marketing is central to everything. Without marketing every other thing called business cannot come together. We have the spokes and the Hub, marketing is the Hub, others are spokes. People tend to specialize in spokes and forget the Hub. The inflow was not as much as the outflow, but we have to take the bull by the horn and started addressing our challenges. We cleared our outstanding debts which are legacy debts and build a fresh one. I will say that we have not done badly, we have been able to stabilize the ship. We, today, have other sources of funding which is also helping us. There is a huge difference from where we were four years ago to where we are now. I will someday create time and pen down a leadership literature for people who wants to serve their professional bodies at the leadership level.
I have been president of professional bodies before but this was different. It has impacted on my personal business because of my commitment to ensure its success, my business is centered around me.I am the driver and the anchor person. I am the head coach and head partner but you see situations I spend weeks at the NIMN secretariat with my team working to ensure we keep moving forward. The job also exposed me to people and I must say that you may never really know people until your part crosses. However, trust is one word that matters and people should ensure that it is not eroded while dealing with each other. Apathy was one problem that faced most professional organizations and I don’t know why professionals don’t take their bodies seriously. I believe that commitment should be the key word. I am leaving the institute far better than I met it. Now we have international recognitions, at some point Chartered Institute of Marketing, United Kingdom invited me for a very important event same with Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana where I was invited to sit on their Educational Board. I have done my best and also allow for seamless transition. Its been a good four years and notwithstanding the bad economy, we are making progress while moving forward.
What is your membership strength. How do you recruit your members and what’s the criteria to be part of NIMN?
From my last count, we have 3000 members, they come in through two routes, one through different stages of exams and direct membership routes. So it’s either through exams or direct but you must have acquired some years of experience in marketing.
How do you curb the activities of those in the business of marketing but have no plans to join the institute?
That is one tough area we are yet to properly check well. The president before me initiated something for that but it is clear that there are people who do whatever they like. The act establishing the institute is once again being amended in the National Assembly and is gone past the second reading, when assented to, it will come out stronger and will deal with different grey areas. When the time comes, people will have no option than to comply. The consciousness of obeying the law is getting better. However, we are still advising people to see need to properly identify with the institute because of things they stand to gain including attending international status.
Are there any special privileges members stand to gain for enrolling?
Yes like every other professional associations, there are several privileges people stand to gain both as an Associate and fellow. It is the people that make things happen and I must say that personalization is very key. Today, we are creating consciousness for people to belong through clusters, today people in entertainment industries, airlines, hotels and many others, all are affiliated to the institute through their marketing managers.
Those in social sciences today are dovetailing into the precipes with global happenings you can’t put your hand in one pie but the hub is marketing. Marketing is going through the process of creating demands and fulfillment. Marketing is business and business is marketing. Again, I want to say that in the last four years, we have had our conferences between 19th and 21st of every June and I have introduced an interesting dimension for the academia to fully integrate into the institute.
They come and discuss tropical issues. Initially, we don’t have it this way but now it is a three-day show which will some day move to a full week activities. Presently, the first day have the symposium and investment of the Associates, second day have the conference and investiture for the fellows while the AGM takes place on the 3rd day.
As you step aside after four years on the saddle, do you have any regrets, are you confident that the incoming president now a lady has what it takes to sustain your legacy?
In all modesty, I can address myself as a captain of industry. I have had a very good career. The lady taking over is okay and it is done with some intent totality, my greatest legacy lies in people and there are members who will carry on because it is imbibed in their spirit. That transformational mindset is a big legacy. I am glad that God had made my pathway in such a way that every other marketer will say they wish to be like me. The other legacy is that I have been able to drive a lot of diversity with equity and inclusion. The curriculum of this institute was not touched for 13 years but I brought it back to life. How do you understand that my first marketing conference was held in Lagos, second was in Abuja, the third was Ibadan and now we are in Uyo.
A marketing conference for students was organized in 2024 to create a process of recruitment. We need the talented people for coaching and mentoring which we valued. Continuing and making impacts is through building blocks. The incoming president has in her kitty five years of dedication, resilience and dedication to duty. The process of her emergence was open and seamless. The greatest legacy I have is legacy of truth.
