Dream Starters Naija Stories

Less than 40 yrs old achievers

George Agbonlahor

Managing Director Unique Beverages Ltd

Unique beverages commenced operations in December 2011. It started with the production of bottled water; here is another Nigerian with a difference sitting on a Multimillion investment which he hopes to make a West Africa regional brand; a chartered accountant at Cambridge University, with an MBA to back it up.

This less than 40 years achiever was born in the United Kingdom. His family moved back to Nigeria immediately following his birth. He grew up in Lagos and attended Chrisland Primary School, Opebi. He had a disciplined upbringing. He said in his words “I was blessed to have a disciplinarian for a father. He trained as a chartered accountant with an MBA. I also have a disciplinarian for a mother. Right from day one, the cornerstone of upbringing for me and my siblings revolved around principles of discipline, humility, ethics, generosity, contentment and hard work.”

He narrated how his father’s self-styled discipline has affected his own life. “You know, we all have heroes while growing up. It was good to see a tall, huge, great but humble father dressed up in his business suit going to the office, responsible for the management of people and vast resources, which I was able to grasp a stronghold of as a young child. I always wanted to be like him from the beginning. If you look at my academic certificates from primary school, you will read comments from my teachers like ‘obedient, hardworking, and neat’. These were attributes my father possessed. “For example, the last Saturday of the month in Nigeria is the iconic environmental sanitation. Well, at our home, environmental sanitation was every Saturday. At the time, it would be rather unfortunate for any of us who failed to adequately clean up the areas assigned. Our father would ensure you never forgot next Saturday. These were the sort of basic parameters my father used to raise his kids.”

Cambridge University is generally seen as reserved for the affluent. So, what influenced his decision to take up managerial studies at Cambridge?

“My father structured my education in such a way that I have experience and exposure to cultures of countries from around the world. We agreed that I do my first two degrees in the United States of America, managerial and masters’ degrees in Europe, and advanced studies in Asia. So I was flipping through a Fortune magazine reviewing a global list of top 100 business schools when Cambridge and Oxford University stuck out to me. These schools have been around for years, so I thought there must be something unique about them and wanted to have the notoriety of being an alumnus of Cambridge University.”

His stint at Cambridge University inculcated in him managerial skills which he still puts into use at his current engagement with Unique Beverages Ltd. He explained that prior to Cambridge, his strong inclination to finance and mathematical aptitude limited his decision making strategy, which was strictly tied to numbers. “Primarily, the programme I studied at Cambridge University taught us integration and strategy. We had arrays of multilevel management courses which help us make sound and holistic decisions. When I make any decision for any company, it affects all facets of every department.

“The second thing I keep on clamouring about is what we called the flaws of averages while at business school. This particular programme took us seventeen full class hours to assimilate. We performed the weighted metric of calculating averages which involves aggregating figures and typing the weighting to a number of factors relating to the case study or specific issue in question. So, the ability to integrate lessons learned from the flaws of averages and deploying integrated strategies at the management level are two interesting topics I appreciate learning and utilize to date.”

He hopes to make Unique Beverages a West African regional brand in five years. The company commenced operations in December 2011. It started with the production of bottled water. According to George, the company has a long-term vision of producing and deploying unique products and beverages into the market, but he believes before they get there, they need to set the foundation.

“If we get our water production right, deployment of our aqua+ product range will be smooth. So far, we’ve had a tremendous and interesting experience,” he concluded.