By Inatimi Spiff
Even though he wasn’t my favourite boss, I must admit that it was during the few years I worked with late Mr Peter Onono, the Public Relations Adviser of Nigerian Breweries Plc at the time, that I acquired the discipline that enabled me to experience a fulfilling corporate career. Having worked as a journalist for some years, I joined NBPlc in October 1992 as Media Relations Assistant in the Public Relations Department headed by Onono.
Right from the beginning of my tenure on the position, reporting to the urbane Onono, I felt that I had landed in the workplace where I really wanted to be. It was the first time I would work in a very well organized company. He promptly gave me my job description to digest and, in order to get a hang of the issues we would be dealing with, instructed me to obtain from his secretary the most recent files of the department’s various correspondences for my perusal.
The following week, when he summoned me to his office for some assignments, just as he was about waiving me to a chair across his table, he paused and gave me his first lesson. He told me to never fail to respond to a summon by my bosses with a note pad and pen to avoid missing out any detail of whatever directives I am given. There was a pen clipped to the breast pocket of my shirt but I had to quickly get a note pad from the office next to the Public Relations Adviser’s which I shared with the Public Relations Assistant.
Initially I didn’t give much importance to Onono’s lesson as I considered myself quite a good listener. A couple of years earlier I won the Financial Reporting Prize of the maiden Diamond Awards for Media Excellence with my story in Timesweek magazine, a publication of Daily Times Group, on Port Harcourt based Resources Managers Limited – a Ponzi scheme operator eventually proscribed – which also featured a verbatim interview with the Chief Executive Officer who only accepted to chat with me on the condition that I put off my recorder and didn’t take any notes.
It wasn’t long before I realised that in the painstaking operations of NBPlc there was no excuse for any omissions, and I was grateful to my boss for insisting that I note down instructions just as they are given to me. I also recalled that when I toured the Production Department of the Lagos Brewery during one of the days of my weeklong orientation programme, gleaming on the walls of the shop floor as the brewers ran their shift were the words: “Get it right the first time.”
Another key lesson I learned from Onono was to maintain a daily task list on my desk. Within my first month on the job, one afternoon when I went to report on an assignment to him and failed to mention another related task, he showed me his list of tasks for the day in bullet points in a tiny sheet of paper on his table, with entries already accomplished struck off. He remarked that he occasionally glanced at the list in order to remain focused on the tasks. New tasks are instantly added once they arise in the course of the day and a new list is composed on a fresh sheet of paper the next morning incorporating the uncompleted tasks, he pointed out. Today, this can be done with desktops and laptops on respective tables in offices, but in 1992 there were no personal computers in even the most modern companies in Nigeria at that time.
All through the rest of my corporate career in the company and a couple of other organizations, I benefited immensely from the habit of reviewing and focusing on a daily list of tasks in bullet points, whether in a tiny sheet of paper or in a desktop or laptop on my table. Even in self-employment a few decades afterwards, I have found it indispensable, whether in a tiny sheet of paper in my pocket or inputted in an appropriate App in my mobile phone.
Under the guidance of Onono event management, a vital component of our work in the Public Relations Department, was flawless. Working him, NBPlc’s Media Briefings, Annual General Meetings, Long Service Awards, Sports Sponsorships and other corporate events, all of which were organized in collaboration with relevant departments, were seamless. Planning was always early with an activity schedule for each event prepared well ahead, consisting of tasks, timelines, responsibilities and costs, all clearly highlighted. Dates and time for review meetings with staff responsible for implementation of any event were likewise included in the activity schedule.
Onono’s disposition towards consideration of the suggestions of his team members in developing the Public Relations Department’s Annual Plans as well as in reviewing and implementing the programmes of the department while he led it was key to the reputable image of NBPlc during that period. By the way, he also always had his note pad and pen with him whenever he was chairing our meetings.
The adoption of early and meticulous planning with pragmatic reviews before steadfast implementation of any project or programme has evidently been rewarding in both my work life and personal life.
Inatimi Spiff is a Communications Consultant in Abuja