DR.COSMOS MADUKA: FOUNDER/ PRESIDENT, COSCHARIS GROUP How did Coscharis Group start? It started in 1979 after my six and half years with my uncle as an apprentice. he gave me N200. Its all about your mindset and not all about the capital you have. What was so important for me was the freedom to do with my life, what I wanted to do. When my uncle gave me N200, I was excited, not because of the money but because I can make decisions for myself and I have the future in my head to decide what my destiny is going to be. I set out with the little amount of money with my elder brother and we ran a company called Maduka Brothers. However, it wasnt so long before we differed in ideas and we parted ways. After that, I kept on struggling and from N200, we have been able by Gods grace to build an institution that we can today call Coscharis Group. The truth is about the entrepreneur himself. What vision do you have for your organisation? We set out to build an institution that will be timeless in youth, relevance and value. If one remains focused and hard working, they will get to the goal. How were you able to overcome obstacles with just N200 then? Mindset was the most important thing, because truthfully, out of frustration, I could have spent that N200 in a restaurant that evening and blame everybody around myself, including God. I would have asked why he(God) had to take my father when I was four years and thus deprived me the opportunity of going to school. Rather than doing that, I decided to think differently, to choose the way and to create something out of nothing. Again, the years I spent with my uncle was a great discipline everybody could have learned. Its the best university I could have gone. I learned how to manage resources and how to appreciate a little thing. So its the quality of the money that matters, and the way you think is the most important. you took a scale to the market just to raise money after your wedding. How were you able to survive? Is the same thing about mindset,because that was when I ventured into my first importation and got a wrong consignment,it came to a point,it was a critical condition and I was indebted to my landlord both in the store and at home .I got married before the age of 19 and wanted to make things happen,somebody had come to the wedding and gave me a scale,because there is dignity in labour I picked up the scale and went to the market,if you climb on it, you pay me 10kobo.people were laughing at me,I told them its too early to laugh, but rather they should wait. When I came back my wife felt so humiliated at the kind of job I decided to do. so I tried to encourage and inform her D̶̲̥̅̊α̲̅τ̲̅ there wasnt anything wrong I had done, some guy will stay and wait for a white collar jobs,but I was ready to do something different and from then I started building up a capital again and start back my business. If you look back to 1976 as you have started,are there milestones or turning points that you can look on? The first was when I came to lagos and I went to an enterprise and bought some goods that nobody knew they had it. I bought some few cartons and went back to the east with a night bus. tore out the address so that0 nobody knew where I got it from. I sold everything that evening,went back into the bus and come back to lagos I did that about four times within a week and my capital caterpaulted from about N700 to about N3500,I compensated my self when I come back and bought CD 175 just to tell you that Ive arrived. N3000 was what they were selling a peugeot car by then,so it was a lot of money and I made it under one week. That is the first milestone. The second was in 1981 or 1982 during my import licence ,I have coscharis motors,so for the federal government,coscharis motors sounded greek,but looking at the little me,its about positioning your self,I was well positioned and they decided to give about 10 motor company import licence and coscharis was the number 7 in the list. this was a major milestone,a turning point. Was it because of the name? Yes it was because of the name. They were trying to give licence to motor company,so hearing coscharis it sounds greek and I was a little tiny small guy placed among this big guys. importation was a major breakthrough in the coscharis success story. How do you learn such franchise ,how do you manage them to make sure they are successful? A lot of people really didnt know what coscharis was during until we started sponsoring table tennis,some refer us as that company that play table tennis. we are the pharmaceutical of auto-mobile in Nigeria. you dont drive a car without having something that we sell that is in your car,we have things that doesnt segregate either body filter,engine oil,masking tape,everything. In 1998, we ventured into automobile business and that was when we won the franchise of BMW and just like every success story, it ignites like a fire and burn. Before then, were you into automobile? I was never into automobile. The truth is that I invested in Ultimate motor. A company that one time had the franchise of BMW. I invested as an investor but the management managed it badly and the company closed down. With that I reapplied by myself to BMW and promised that if they would give me franchise, we could turn the company around. It was something they were reluctant to do because they thought it was a one man organisation. Seeing the success story we did with BMW, we moved over to Range Rover because by then, BMW were the franchise owner. From Range Rover, we moved to ford and the list goes on and on. Today, we have about 8 brand in automobile. And we just signed on Rolls Royce. Thats our latest brand. How did you learn about the franchise? Its about structuring your business very well and positioning your principles. Its also about keeping commitment and building financial capacity. Your suppliers wants to be sure they will be paid at the correct time and they want to be sure that you are well structured, and your also have clear focus and vision. you need to actually give them a business plan and where you think can take their business. Ours are very clear because when you look and see our records, they speak for themselves. Looking at Coscharis as the empire, what are the other businesses that you are into? Cosharis group is what you can call an indigenous conglomerate. We are not only in Nigeria, we are in Ghana, Garbon etc. We are into automobile component, medical equipment, hardwares in computers and software etc. We are also into bottled water business, coscharis beverages and construction. This is a business we have also transformed into a medical company. We sell medical equipment and we represent general electric of U.S.A and different companies. Are there chances to succeed in a particular business more than another? Every business requires same idea and inspiration. Its about finding a gap in service. To be in business, you must be willing to serve. A lot of people go out there to look for money. They dont know that if you pursue money, it will run away from you. Money follows service and pursues people who are willing to serve. If you are to start a business today,what will you do differently? Not so many things that Ill do differently. However, I want to urge people to prove and believe themselves, and also set goals with plans.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 08:41:09 +0000