One-time communication technology minister, Omobola Johnson, has described FBNQuest Trustees as a legacy that preserves legacies, in an address celebrating the institution’s four decades of existence and highlighting the importance of building institutional legacies.
Johnson, minister of Information and communication in Nigeria from 2011 to 2015, praised the progress made by the trustee symbolized by three name changes – Standard Trustees Nigeria Ltd, First Trustees Nigeria, FBN Trustees Ltd and now FBNQuest Trustees Limited- which showed responsiveness to market need and deemed the institution very wise.
“Each name change came with a re-alignment of the business to changing market conditions; to your customer expectations and of course to your positioning and contribution in the FBN Group,” she said.
She noted the growth in share capital from N30 million in 2001 to N3billion, near liquid assets under management at N50billion and estates under management valued at over N2trillion.
“Our profit after tax has grown year on year for the last 20 years,” said Johnson, who serves as Non-Executive Director at the institution.
The erstwhile minister took the occasion to discuss an expanded notion of legacy which included institutional legacies as, “the visible outcome of internal processes, systems and behaviours that are deployed to run an organisation on a daily basis,” she said.
As such, institutional legacies could be processes, systems and behaviours which could include; Governance, Profitability, Employee satisfaction, Customer satisfaction, Customer loyalty, Innovation and Industry leadership.
From the 1800s through the early 2000’s various approaches to achieving lasting institutional legacies have been attempted and jettisoned.
Johnson said an institution could choose to build a legacy of good governance possibly evidenced in a strong and deep leadership bench and succession plan that facilitates smooth and non-disruptive transitions at the board or management level.
Also, institutional legacies can be built on employee satisfaction focusing on exciting career opportunities for young people, a transparent meritocracy for career progression within the organization, competitive compensation, although a company must decide how it sets out to build its legacy.
The presentation however explored schools of thought on achieving a lasting legacy; one involved deciding on an outcome or end in mind which would be worked towards, and another suggested on deciding what is important in life, then focusing on and prioritizing those things.
Johnson noted that while they are very valid ways to being purposeful about leaving a legacy, life could happen, and sometimes focusing on only what one thinks one cares about could end up with one leaving a lesser legacy and not living an impactful life as one could.
“It’s one thing to be purposeful about having the end in mind and thinking through what impact you want to make in the world,” she said. “It is not enough to shout it from the rooftops; one has to be very deliberate about it as well.”
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