Nigeria’s 100 most influential businesses

Two weeks ago, Time Magazine published its list of 100 most influential people in the world. The list, which was first published in 1999, as a result of a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists, is now an annual event. It is made up of individuals who have distinguished themselves in several fields. It categorises them into Titans, Pioneers, Artists, Leaders, and Icons.

As is the case annually, it is made up of outstanding musicians, religious leaders, writers, artists, computer programmers, business moguls, researchers, athletes, actors, government officials (in some cases dictators); this year, even a terrorist, Abu Du’a, made the list!

But on the positive side, two of our own, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Aliko Dangote, are on it. And Time has made a deliberate effort to highlight the achievement of each of the selected 100. Something unique is written about each of them by other prominent individuals.

And indeed, most of the remarks are apt; underscoring the feats, risks and innovative endeavours each of the selected 100 undertook to improve the lots of humanity.

Such a list is something we at the Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU) of BusinessDay have pondered over for some time now, albeit, on a different subject.

In our case, we chose to work on THE BUSINESSDAY TOP 100: A list of outstanding businesses in Nigeria.

A major reason we have pondered over this project is because of the elevated plane we place successful businesses as an organisation. We believe that highlighting exceptional companies will engender better performance and quality of service from them.

Also, we are firm believers that the performance of businesses in any country affects the quality of life of the citizenry. That is why we have put in motion mechanisms to undertake the selection. However, our approach is slightly different from Time’s.

Time’s methodology is simple though: Essentially, a list of influential individuals is exclusively chosen by Time editors with nominations coming from the TIME 100 alumni and the magazine’s international writing staff. This list is then subjected to a poll, which willing readers take part in.

The list of winners of the readers’ poll conducted days before the official unveiling is then announced to the general public with a publication. That is the publication Time released two weeks ago.

But we at BRIU thought it wise to make our selection process a little more inclusive and representative of the general population living in Nigeria, putting into consideration the peculiarities of our environment (in fact, that is one of the purposes of this article).

Our methodology involves a number of simple steps, some of which have already been carried out, while others remain in the works.

The first step we took was to decide on parameters that should distinguish between companies that are exceptional and those that are not. We asked ourselves the question, “what makes a company standout?” In response, we highlighted a number of important parameters that would guide our search. The major parameters being:

Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability

Innovation (a company’s ability to be innovative in pricing, advertising, product quality, packaging, etc).

The internal work environment (how conducive is its work environment for employee. Are people enthusiastic to work for this company?)

Quality of customer service, and response to customer complaints; and a company’s ability to provide exceptional products/services (whether in banking, children products, etc)

We then designed a questionnaire to address these parameters and plan to administer it across 12 major cities, in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, in the next two weeks.

Herein lies the major difference between ours and Time’s. While the multinational magazine has adopted an online mechanism for ‘sampling and validation,’ we will visit the nooks and crannies of 12 Nigerian cities as well as use an online platform for our data collection process.

Particularly, Time’s selection process is heavily dependent on an internet survey, and that is understandable given that a large chunk of its readers live in countries where internet penetration is high. We have borrowed a leaf from this, and have gone few steps further.

But we reckon that a simple random sample could skew responses in a particular direction, we therefore decided on a stratified random sampling technique, which we deem to be more inclusive of social classes in Nigeria.

The physical questionnaires will be administered according to quota: Students (10%), Doctors (5%), Media Personnel (19%), Graduates/job seekers (20%), Bankers (5%), Civil Servants (15%), Traders/market men and women (20%), etc. This, we believe, will engender more genuine coverage. Our ambition is to reduce the element of bias to the barest minimum.

We know that there are areas a questionnaire designed for the general public cannot address (e.g. the internal workings of a company in terms of how it treats its employees and how the employees feel about the company). In this direction, we adopt the research findings of an institution that has as its primary focus that type of research.

To determine a list of the best places to work in Nigeria last year, our collaborating consulting firm surveyed over 10,482 respondents (experienced, entry level and executive management staff of different companies).

Workplace metrics that mattered to those respondents in making their choices include Company Culture, Salary, Non-Salary Benefits, Proximity to Company Location, Prestige/Company Brand, Management Integrity, and commitment to staff welfare.

At the end of our survey, we intend to assign scores to our list and that of our partner and come up with objective scores upon which we can judge. The outcome will be a list we believe would be acceptable to the generality of Nigerians and the business community.

We have made the selection process open to everyone. There is an opportunity for everyone to lend their voice to this process, and you are not an exception. The questionnaire will be just a click away soon as we will upload it to a website and make its address available to you soon.