My company has the largest number of elevator engineers in Nigeria –Gbenga Daniel

Kresta Laurel, a leading engineering company that specializes in the elevator business has been in existence and operation in Ni­geria for 25 years. To mark its 25th anniversary this October, the founder and chairman, of the company, Otunba Gben­ga Daniel in this chat spoke about how the company has managed to stay afloat.

Daniel, a two-term gover­nor of Ogun State also gave an insight into how the com­pany would consolidate on its gains, which include attain­ment of the ISO 9000 stand­ard classification.

Excerpts…

Why did you choose engineering as a course in the university?

Well, it is very difficult to answer that question. I can remember there was a big contest when I was in secondary school whether I should go for the sciences or the arts. I was not very good with History. But I was good with English Literature, Geography and English Language. But I was quite better with Physics, Mathemat­ics and Additional Mathematics. I was not the best in Biology, and 50/50 in Chemistry. So, the decision was to be taken when I went for my Basic Studies as per which combination to study. I remember my sci­ence teacher wanted me to go the science way. Some of my teachers, specifically my literature teacher, late Chief Ayopo, who died about three years ago, wanted me to study the Arts. Somehow, I succumbed to the scientists. And when I was going in for the advanced level, I had to choose. Then I chose Mathematics, Physics and Engineer­ing Drawing. Those were the three sub­jects I took. And I think when you chose that, you have cancelled Medicine because you were not doing Biology and Chemis­try. With that combination, one could only study Architecture or Engineering. That was how I studied Engineering.

What informed the choice of name for your firm, which sounds foreign instead of a lo­cal name?

This is a question I have had to answer severally. But basically, when we were conceptualizing this company, we were actually benchmarking ourselves against international standard. Not that we are not patriotic or not happy or proud of our names. But because of the competition in this field, which is a highly specialized field, so we have to sound international. That is the very first thing. Then when we talk about ‘Laurel,’ you want to achieve laurel. So, it is a statement of intention. That in this chosen field, I wanted to achieve and attain laurels which can be translated to be the highest attainment in anything you do. That is where that ‘Laurel’ in the name came from. ‘Kresta’ is derived from one lead car at Lord Building in the UK. It was considered to be the best car at that time.

Okay, what can you say is the percentage of local content in the operation of the company?

First things first: the components that you use to build a lift are not different from the components you use to build a car to a large extent. So, we should not deceive ourselves by not accepting the fact that the absence of iron and steel industries in Nigeria that has impeded the growth of the automobile industry would not have impeded growth of any engineering indus­try like the one in which we operate. But what I think is completely different is that those cars come in completely built, which means that you just import a car, pay your duty and start riding the car. But it is not quite so for elevators.

They come in with the smallest unit of component. Nothing is put together be­cause no single building is the same as another building which means that a lot of local engineering has to come into play when bringing some of those compo­nents together. You now sit down and assemble it, engineer it to suit a spe­cific building. The building where we are today is only seven floors.

So, what you need for a seven-floor building with a capacity of eight passengers, running at a speed of 1.5 metres per second is completely different from what you require if you want to install a lift in a building of 20 floors.

And some of the lifts are run­ning about five metres per sec­ond. That is low to the speed of gravity. So, those are the issues.

And to a large extent, what we have been able to achieve over the years is to create a bunch of Nigerian engineers, who can stand on their own any­where in the world and say, yes, we are eleva­tor engineers and we can put it together. That is one of the things I think we have achieved.

Of course there are some other compo­nents which we get locally. But the truth is, if they say we should go and get high beam locally, the fact of the matter is that the pro­cess of getting it locally is largely in quantum of foreign input. But in terms of manpower, I think we have done very well. But I am suf­ficiently sure that this is the company where you can find the largest number of experi­enced experts in the lift industry in this coun­try.

Have you achieved laurel in line with the concept you con­ceived 25 years ago?

Yes, we have, in absolute terms. I think if we can do a survey of the lift industry to­day, I safely say that we are number one in Nigeria today. That has been attested to by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). This is our invitation and some of the things we are exhibiting is this Bureau Vestal Stamp. That is the stamp that says that we have complied and we have been classified as the only company in Nigeria today in this business that has attained ISO 9000 standard. There is no other company that has been so classified and that means that, when we dis­cuss elevators when you come here, you are talking to company experts like anywhere in the world. And we remain number one as far as that is concerned.

There are other companies struggling to get it as of today. We are still the only one that has been so certified.

Not only that, we are still happy that early this year, at the last? Worldwide meeting, we were named their best distributor all over the world. And they operate today in about 75 countries worldwide. With 75 companies in 75 countries, they found us to be their best distributor in the whole world. I think we have achieved something there. And if we put all these together, I think we have achieved our objective.

The impression out there is that hardly could any eleva­tor job go on without con­sulting your company. Is that true?

I wouldn’t know but I can tell you that it is nearly impos­sible, because it is a world that we know our­selves. It is a profession. And if there is a job that is worth its salt, you must invite consultants. And I am not aware that any consultant that is worth his salt will invite an elevator consultant without talking to us. They don’t necessarily have to give us the job. But somebody would ask them, have you asked Kresta Laurel? Then they will ask us. They may give us the job and they may not give us. But I can assure you that the chances are that about 95 per cent of the time, we would be asked. That is how I would put it.

Elevator making is not an all comers’ job. There were quite a few people who have tried. One is not happy to say this, but in the last 20 to 30 years, it is not that we have not had some companies who have tried. But somehow, not many people can withstand the heat.

How lucrative is lift industry?

The interesting part of it is that contrary to what people think, it is not a money spin­ning venture. The satisfaction is not from the amount of money there. The first thing is professional satisfaction. But if you ask me, are we fulfilled, I will say, yes, we are. I will tell you, in my previous experience, and that partly is the driving force of Kresta Laurel Limited. We operate in an expatriate environment where Nigerians are not given a pride of place. There is no respect and they don’t think we can do anything right. So, that is where I am coming from. That is how it was during the time I worked with Schrodder, a German company.

That is their mentality. If you contrast that to the culture of the Germans, for them it is not about aesthetics, it is about efficiency. In their psyche, it is a taboo to see something fail. So, that is the back­ground some of us came from, and this in­formed what we set out to prove that the Germans or Europeans did not have ex­clusive preserve of engineering expertise. We wanted to prove that given the right frame of mind and the right motivations, we also, as Nigerians can also do as equally good if not better.

That really is our driving force. And over the years, that has been the key ingredi­ent of our company. It is not all the jobs we take that are economically advan­tageous. Sometimes as job is going, things change, things happen. For us as a company, it is like a wrestling bout with the forces of ‘You will not be able to do it’ against ‘It shall be done.’

So, the attitude down there is that, ‘Oh, Nigerian companies will come and give us stories.

They will not do the job well.’ But our own is that when we get that job, it now be­comes l i k e a n ego thing. That this job must finish no mat­ter whose ox is gored, no matter the chal­lenges. It is an engineering spirit. So we do it. And there is no single job that we have done and abandoned. There was one in­stance where one client who has used the elevator for eight years and then came to complain that the life span in Europe is about 20 to 30 years and that his one devel­oped problem after eight years. After argu­ing back and forth, you will be shocked to hear that we replaced one of the elevators.

It was just to satisfy the client and not be­cause he had a point. The fact of the case was that it wasn’t our fault. He had no good power. The power he had was fluctuating and had destroyed some of the compo­nents. But nobody would see it that way. And if you allow that to go on, before you know it, your name is already destroyed in the market place. So, in order to avoid that backlash, we put money back to it so that the customer at the end of the day was sat­isfied. There is no other company that does that. And really, that is what has pushed us to where we are today.

What did you lose in the com­pany while you were away as governor in Ogun State for eight years?

I wouldn’t say what we have lost but can say what we have gained. I think if we have measure the growth of the company, even while I was not here, the growth has been quite phenomenal. I would say the com­pany has experienced growth not decline. So, to that extent we must give kudos to the people who held the fort while I was away. By the way, they are still holding the fort because I am not the operational per­son of Kresta Laurel; I am just the founding Chairman.

That is why I am talking to you, other­wise the person you would be talking to is the managing director. He has done a good job and I am very proud of him. And indeed and in truth, Nigeria has the capabilities and capacities.

The company is structured to ensure sustainability and to take care of the stake­holders, and we have defined to be, basical­ly, the workers and the shareholders. The common thing people talk about is safety. And because of some things some of us have put in place, there has been no single major accident in the history of this com­pany in 25 years. By and large, we have been lucky by the grace of God.