At Last, We Produced and did Not Perish

Who said it would all go well with Maravilla Enterprise; an AAUN first class student initiated Bread making business project in SBE102? Is there any successful venture that has at one time not recorded a problem? At first, students thought it was going to be a hitch free venture or probably not much an arduous task. But in the 9th week after the inauguration of the project and looking at the progress so far then, the story was a different one with a painful failure and what can best be described as a regrettable loss. After some of its counterparts have broken even, it looks like “losses are the achievement” and would be persistent. The bulk of the losses have come from the bad nature of the oven. The oven (a Canadian oven) uses electricity as well as diesel. The burning rate was observed to be abnormal and was emitting some very dark smoke which made the bread produced unhealthy. After much repairs, it seemed that the burner for the oven needed to be replaced with a new one as it was obvious that the current one was inefficient. There came a serious blame on the president by some members of the Maravilla Enterprise for signing a lease for a non functional bakery. “But it was a unanimous decision by members of the

enterprise” the president would say. He is correct if any one would ask me, as a member of the enterprise. But where is the proof? Lack of Team work was another major cause of the failure of the Enterprise. Executives were not only shunning team work amongst themselves, they were also not working with students in their departments. Some claimed to be working too hard and the president was not complimenting their efforts. But the main problem was the nonchalant attitude of some of the executives towards the project and causing disruption even during meetings (executive meetings). My request for minutes of all meetings held sent to all members of the enterprise seemed to be ignored. This probably is the most important lesson for the president (now former): to nip a problem in the bud. With the blame on the president, it was obvious he was unable to lead the group. There was need for achange. There was a great need for someone else to head the group. Then the president, Malachy Khanoba, humbly stepped down and was made the special adviser to the president. As someone who has saved the company from being perished by asking her uncle of his permission to use his bakery, Maryam Aliyu the former vice-president II of marketing was made the president.

This time, the popular slogan was "Produced or You Perish." This slogan was refering to us, the Maravilla group. It meant that we have the last opportunity to do anything meaningful. So we heed on as we realize that we could still do something. Personally, the slogan I resight in my mind was that our Maravilla idea is still on fire. So I really believed that we could still cook something great despite the fact that we were at the last month of the four months to run the business. I was not the only one optimistic. Maryam, the New President, did the same, as observed from her speech.

At the time when the New President was apointed, there was also other restructure in the organization. Nurusheen Samuel was made the vice-president II of marketing while Sefa Chia the production vice-president has also stepped down and the vice-president of logistics, yours sincerely was made vice-president of Production and Logistics. With the current structure, a great progress was recorded and it was hoped that in a few days, the company would break even. The faculty adviser to the company, Dr Alvan Ikoku was greatly supportive in ensuring that the project be successful, helping to
advitise the product and volunteering to give his car for us to use in the distribution. Below is a draft of the e-mail he sent to us when we just started progressing.

Hello Bakery Group, I need to commend Shola, the baker, and all of those who
have been part of the transformation of the Bakery group. Our product is
unbelievably good (a few more pictures are attached). So good
that people DEMAND
to buy it. I bought some breakfast rolls today and
they're half gone and it is
not yet midnight not to talk about morning. I
had to rush to the faculty club to
shed some calories. The ultimate
compliment? My cook (a trained chef) begs for
her daily rations of Maravilla
magic and commandeers any haft-eaten loaf dumb
enough to be lying around
unattended. "Sir, this is for me, right?! You promised
to get me more
loaves!!" Ladies and gentlemen, we have an opportunity to rock
the bread
industry in Yola and come out of this with a handsome profit. I am
glad that
we have chosen to produce rather than perish (with a little
encouragement
from you know who, LOL). Keep up the good work! Dr. Alvan Ikoku

HERE IS A SHORT VIDEO OF THE SBE AWARD NITE