How New York City Got Its Juicy Nickname “The Big Apple” — And What It Means To The World

                                

Dr. Comas Maduka, Founder/President, Coscharis Group, provides insight into the Power of Focus and Determination in Entrepreneurship. In this interview, he narrates how he grew his conglomerate with just N200.  

Could you tell us how Coscharis Group started?

The Coscharis Group journey began in 1979, this was after six and a half years after my apprenticeship with my uncle. He gave me N200. It is all about your mindset and not all about the capital you have. What was so important for me was the freedom to do with my life, what I wanted to do. When my uncle gave me N200, I was excited, not because of the money but because I can make decisions for myself and I have the future in my head to decide what my destiny was going to be.

 

I set out with the little amount of money with my elder brother and we ran a company, called Maduka Brothers. We soon parted ways because my business idea ran in a different direction from his. From the seed of N200 capital, I strived with God’s help to establish the Coscharis Group. The truth is about the entrepreneur himself.

Maduka with his late wife, Charity 

What vision do you have for your organisation?

 We set out to build an institution that will be timeless in youth, relevance, and value. If one remains focused and hard-working, one will get to the goal.

 

How were you able to overcome obstacles with just N200 then?

Mindset was the most important thing because truthfully, out of frustration, I could have spent that N200 in a restaurant that evening and blamed everybody around me, including God. I could have asked why He (God) had to take my father when I was just four years old and thus, deprived me of the opportunity of going to school. Rather than that I decided to think differently to choose the way and to create something out of nothing.

 

 Again, the years I spent with my uncle were a great discipline everybody could have learned. It’s the best university I could have gone to. I learnt how to manage resources and how to appreciate little things. So, it is the quality of the money that matters, and the way that you think is the most important.

You took a scale to the market just to raise money after your wedding. How were you able to survive?

 It is the same thing about mindset because that was when I ventured into my first importation and got a wrong consignment. It was a critical condition and I was married before the age of 19 and wanted to make things happen; somebody had come to the wedding and gave me a scale. Because there is dignity in labour, I picked up the scale and went to the market. lf you climb on it, you pay me 10 kobo. People were laughing at me. I told them it was too early to rather they should wait.

 

When I came back my wife felt so humiliated at the kind of Job I decided to do. I tried to encourage and inform her. But there wasn’t anything wrong with what I had done. Some guys would stay and wait a while for white-collar jobs but I was ready to do something different and from then I started building up capital again and kick-started my business.  

If you look back to 1976 when you started, are there milestones or turning points that you can look at?

The first time was when I came to Lagos and I went to an enterprise and bought some goods that nobody knew they had. I bought a few and went back to the East by night bus. I tore out the address so that nobody would know where I got it. I sold everything that evening and went back with bus to Lagos. I did that about four times within the week and my capital catapulted from N700 to about N3,500.

 

I compensated myself when I came back and bought CD 175 just to tell you that I have arrived, N3, 000 was what they were selling for a Peugeot Car by then. So, it was a lot of money and I made it in less than one week. That was the first milestone.

The second was in 1981 or 1982 when I wanted to  get my import licence. However, I had Coscharis Motors, so for the Federal Government, Coscharis Motors sounded Greek. But looking at the little me, it is about positioning yourself. I was well-positioned and they decided to give about 10 motor companies import licence and Coschariş was the number seven on list This was a major milestone, turning point.

Was it because cause of the name?

Yes, it was because of the name. They were trying to give license to motor companies. So, hearing Coscharis, it sounded strange and I was a little, tiny, small guy in the midst of some big guys. Importation was a major breakthrough in the Cascharis success story.

 

How did you learn about such franchises and how did you manage them to make sure they are successful?

A lot of people really didn't know about Coscharis until we started sponsoring table tennis tournaments. Some refer to us as that company that plays table tennis. We are the "pharmaceuticals’’ of automobiles in Nigeria. You don't drive a car without having something that we sell, that is in your car. We have things that do not segregate body filters, engine oil masking type, everything.

 

In 1998, we ventured into the automobile business and that was when we won the franchise of BMW just like every success story, it ignites like fire and burns.

Before then were you into automobile?

was never into automobile, The truth is that I invested Ultimate Motors a company that one time had the franchise of BMW I invested but the management fan it badly and the company closed down, With that I reapplied on my own to BMW and promised to turn around the company if they would give me the franchise. Iit was something they were reluctant to do because they thought it was a  one man organization. Seeing the success story we had with BMW, we moved over to Range Rover because by then, BMW was the franchise owner. From Range Rover, we moved to Ford and the list goes on and on. Today, we have more than eight brands of automobiles, Rolls Royce inclusive.

 

How did you learn about the franchise?

It is about structuring your business very well and positioning your principles. It is also about keeping a commitment and building financial capacity. Your suppliers want to be sure they will be paid at the right time and they want to be sure you are well-structured and that you have a clear focus and vision. You need to actually give them a business plan and where you think you can take their business. Ours is very clear because when you look and see our records, they speak for themselves.

 

Looking at Coscharis as the empire, what are the other businesses that you are into?

Coscharis Group is what you can call an indigenous conglomerate. We are not only in Nigeria, we are in Ghana, Gabon, etc. We are into automobile components, medical equipment, computer hardware and software etc. We are also into bottled water business, Coscharis beverages and construction. This is a business we have also transformed into a medical company. We sell medical equipment and we represent General Electric of U.S.A and different companies.

 

 Are there chances to succeed in a particular baseness more than another?

Every business requires same idea and inspiration. It is about finding a gap in service. Service is a huge factor in staying in business. A lot of people go out there to look for money. They don't know that if you pursue money, it will run away from you. Money follows service and pursues people who are willing to serve.

 

If you are to start a business today, what will you do differently?

Not so many things that I will do differently. However, I want to urge people to prove and believe in themselves, and also set goals with plans.