Eric: At HBS, Students Are Admitted on Basis of their Needs

The Chief Executive Officer of the HM Group, owners of Hospitality Business School, Lagos, Dr. Mekwuye Eric, in this interview with select journalists after the graduation ceremony of the students revealed what makes the institution one of the best. Charles Ajunwa brings excerpts

The Hospitality Business School graduated some of its students into the business world. What was it like for you?

This is our sixth year. It has been consistent that we chose to ceremoniously do it this time. It has been the same excitement, satisfaction because the school is not a business for us; it’s a passionate investment that we wanted, I personally wanted it 30 years ago, but I didn’t get the opportunity. So I say I have the opportunity with the right investors and we will give it to the next generation.

So seeing men or women, high and mighty, I will say that HBS is a potpourri of different persons. And that’s why a lot of people have done massive networking by the virtue of admission and attendance of the school. You could see that one of graduands is the wife of the Chief of Defence Staff, the number one military man in Nigeria. So all those in her class leverage on the opportunity to network, and this is something many students can’t imagine happening. Majority of the students and graduands today, their husbands are big players in the Nigerian economy from oil to banking; hospitality, just name it. Some of them are big bosses on their own, they have a void they want to close. Some are passionate about restaurants because they love giving good food. They shelve their esteemed status and come to HBS to learn because they see we meet their specific needs. Amongst them also are school leavers because the minimum age for admission here is 16 years. Imagine being in a class with your mother’s age and everybody is addressed by their first name.

What this does is that it gives you the opportunity to learn because hospitality is about humility. Like we always say to them in the school, especially those in the entrepreneurship school which caters for owners and managers, we tell them you cannot be a successful hospitality person if you are not a humble person naturally. You would do things subconsciously before you realise your status.

For instance, you own a restaurant, you come in and there are plates on the floor like I’m seeing this plate now; subconsciously I was almost picking it up before realising that oh, I don’t work here. So if you don’t have that mentality of seeing things wrong and you subconsciously want to do it and you are in the hospitality business you are in the wrong place. Services are taken from servitude. Hospitality is about service. So it gladdens our hearts seeing men and women lowering themselves and them also seeing the high and mighty here.

The Dantatas are here. These are persons who ordinarily you watch and see on TV.  You hear them also talking about humility. So, we want to bring back hospitality. Hospitality is African and African is service. In the African home, you don’t you don’t see one man who grows and doesn’t take somebody along with him from the village to train. You don’t get someone who’s getting married and doesn’t have somebody that’s going home with him or her, you know, all for training and all of that. So that’s Africa.

Civilisation makes us feel like we’re letting you from the Western world. No, that’s not true; it’s Africa. One of the things was authentic hospitality and functional hospitality. Hospitality is about copying. Yes, we like to copy the Marriott of this world, but what are you copying? Are copying the culture of Americans. If you are copying, copy standards and deliver hospitality authentically. You can deliver African hospitality, you can set up hotels and restaurants that are African oriented or centric. Gone are those days when fast food was fast food. Back then it used to be jollof rice, burger and all that. Look at Mega Chicken, the Managing Director was here, I mean we consulted for her.

These are brands that are taking over. Why are they taking over? They are functional; it’s not about chicken pie, jollof rice. What are people asking for? They are asking for ethnic food delivered in a fast way, and that is what I call fast casual. You can pick ethnic food, different food, some continental and deliver it fast in a powerful ambience. There is a lot we are doing at the HBS but one of the things we have been intentional about which I see them invite us, like the CDS wife invited me to the restaurant she was building. I saw footprints of what she has learnt in the school both intentionally and unintentionally.

Everything we do in the school – the building, the curriculum, the facilities, the facilities are intentionally done for the students to learn one or two things knowingly and unknowingly. So when we go to their hotels and restaurants and see them implement these things it gives us joy and they give me surprise gifts and all of that, there is no joy beyond that.

There are so many hospitality businesses in Nigeria. What is that unique thing that distinguishes HBS from others?

Well hospitality schools have been existing, business schools have been existing, and culinary schools have been existing. But for us at HBS, we are originating brands; we are functional, original. I mean, like I said, what we are doing is what I wanted 30 years ago; so I know what was in my head that we were looking for and God blessed us that we have the right investors. Some pulled out at the initial stage because they weren’t seeing the money. There’s no money, and I tell you that for free. I mean, like I said in the hall, this is six years and the school has not paid me but you get men and women who call, send messages from different places. For instance, one is opening a restaurant in America, and she sent me a video. She said when she took up the restaurant, she was telling them that like if my lecturer was here, he would advise you to refund the money to all those who are partners; what I’m doing here, I learnt it from Africa, Nigeria to be precise, where you guys despise.

That is one of our students now operating in the United States of America you know. It’s just amazing that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. If you do not have a problem to solve, don’t go into any business. We found a problem and we are providing solutions to that.

As matter of fact one of graduated students said she was talking to somebody that during their time in the school, what they learnt during the programme was more, but I said you want to call HBS, you’re wasting your time, and like we say in one of our local parlance…you go waka loss…because HBS is a divinely established institution because what we are doing is not business. If you think you want to copy us, I suggest you don’t. If you know you like what we are doing, we bid you to come, come plain. We have people who have come plain and said they want to buy franchise. We’re looking into it because we cannot be everywhere. We have had persons who came around, copied; they opened a few periods and closed. They called us to come and buy the business because there wasn’t as much money as they envisaged. So of them are like, oh, we can now see those bankrolling you, giving you money. But I tell them it is not what it is. We have problems we’re solving and by God’s grace that has kept consistent.

How many students are graduating from HBS?

We did the graduation in the school, what we have today is ceremonial. We needed to do the ceremonial and by doing it we limited the event to not exceed 100 persons. So, we raised the bar to meet the number of persons. So for this ceremonial event, we have 27 persons from various schools. We have school of entrepreneurship, which focuses on hotel and restaurant owners; school of management, which caters for restaurant managers, hotel managers, and the school of culinary arts which is designed for chefs, both pastry and culinary. Nobody from the bar is here. At HBS, all the hospitality related schools are under one roof. So students are admitted on the basis of their needs. Like one of the students, who incidentally is the Chief of Defence Staff wife, when she came in, she was aiming to study culinary but when she told us what she wants to do, we said no, that is not for you and we put in the school of entrepreneurship under department of restaurant, and you can hear her all full of praise.