“Tayo, I honestly
believe you are one of those who will succeed at anything
he does. Your commitment and effort has been outstanding....Thanks
for all your hard work since I’ve been here - you will
be sorely missed. I don’t need to wish you good luck,
you have the ability to make your own luck. - Andy"(R.
Jones)*
*Operations Manager,
Guinness Nigeria Plc Benin Brewery, December 2001(Handwritten
comments in farewell/xmas cards sent to Tayo Solagbade following
his resignation to start his own business).
Self-Development/Performance
Enhancement Specialist, Tayo Solagbade (see
resume here - Acrobat PDF), devotes his time to exploring
new frontiers of Self-Development Education, especially as
it relates to showing people what they can do by themselves
for themselves to achieve their set goals at work and/or in
life - despite the limitations of their circumstances or environment.
To do this effectively, he regularly
applies proven self-development techniques -using himself
as a guinea pig of sorts(and his high aptitude for Multipreneuring)
- to explore, discover, document and implement best practice
ways of successfully venturing into various fields. His message
is basically that development of a positive mind set, mental
stamina and visualization are the most crucial elements needed
to succeed in any areas of human endeavour.
Background
Following completion of one year national
youth service assignment in late 1993, Tayo worked for a few
months as Trainee Sales Coordinator in a Wine Manufacturing
company in Lagos, before joining Guinness Nigeria Plc as a
Graduate Trainee in October 1994 - eventually getting deployed
to Benin Brewery post-training, about 18 months later. Between
1996 and 2000, Tayo became recognized for using self-taught
skills, in his spare time, to develop spreadsheet applications
for automated report generation especially in the Brewing
department(Over 95% savings in report generation times were
recorded). More than four of his custom applications were
formally adopted for brewery level reporting.
This was in addition to his constantly
challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes.
An example of this was when, in 1998, he developed and formally
proposed(to senior management) - for adoption a formula for
computing a brewing process performance measure which he called
“%Brewhouse Efficiency”. The formula was considered(and
brewery trials done) for 6 months by Senior Management in
the Technical Function.
After being seconded – twice
- in 1998, to act as Training and Technical Development Manager(the
first time for 1 month, the second for over 3 months), Tayo
was promoted Training and Technical Development Manager (TTDM)
in September 2000. About the same time, he was nominated to
attend a 6 week International Brewing Course in the United
Kingdom. Four months after returning from the UK, and resuming
as TTDM, he was nominated to act as Production Manager for
a five-week period. Despite this sudden and unexpected demand
to act as a departmental head (having left that same department
only some months earlier as a Shift Brewer), Tayo successfully
completed the secondment - getting commendations from senior
management.
In August 2001, Tayo successfully developed
a Visual Basic for Excel Custom Automated Training Records
database application for Benin brewery(which would later be
sent to Lagos breweries at the request of the latter’s
TTDM) – in order to meet requirements of the then impending
ISO 9002 certification audits. He also successfully acted
in another Senior Management role as Technical Manager all
through the duration of the ISO audits. During his stay in
Guinness, Tayo was formally trained - and functioned - as
a workplace Coaching Conversations Facilitator and Best Practice
Process Management Champion.
He holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural
Extension Services from the University of Ibadan having graduated
top of his class - with Second Class Upper Division honors
- in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute &
Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian
Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’
competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for
Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™(SCfS-D™),
and Founder of the Self-Development Academy Limited.
Tayo resigned his appointment in Guinness
Nigeria Plc with effect from December 2001. A passionate desire
to actualise his longstanding dream of running his own business,
as well as the need to be “free” to further develop
his ideas on the application of Self-Development principles
for successful living made him decide to leave – the
promise of a bright future in Guinness notwithstanding.
Through the Self-Development Academy,
he now offers a growing range of unique talks, seminars, workshops,
e-courses and coaching programs targeted at Parents, Teachers,
Employees, Students, and Entrepreneurs.
TAYO SOLAGBADE AS A MULTIPRENEUR
In order to effectively meet the needs
of the various groups he works with, Tayo functions as a multipreneur(click
here to view Tom Gorman's book titled "Multipreneuring:
Hottest Career Strategy For Success in the 90's and Beyond"
retailing at Amazon.com), using himself as a guinea pig
of sorts to explore, discover and document best practice ways
of successfully venturing into various areas of endeavour.
His primary focus in this regard, is however on employee career
development and micro/small business(low-capital startup)
entrepreneuring.
For instance, depending on the opportunities
that appear in the market place, Tayo earns multiple streams
of income in the following ways(using self-taught skills):
1). Providing professional web
design and copy writing services(and coaching).
2). Delivering Pre-programmed
Spreadsheet Solutions - and also providing Experiential
Coaching in Excel and Excel Visual Basic.
3). Building custom
natural self-cleaning aquarium systems as teaching and
learning aids for educational institutions - as well as for
hospitals, offices and homes.
4). Providing customisable Talks,
Seminars, Coaching programs on Self-Development, Performance
Enhancement, and Best Practice Systems Development. .
Read Tayo's article titled How
To Be A Jack Of Many Trades, And Why It Can Make You Succeed
More Often? . It will help you understand how Tayo's proficiency
in multipreneuring makes him(and can make you) more productive.
Tayo does the above using self-taught
skills acquired out of necessity during periods when he struggled
to earn steady income from his primary business interest:
Self-Development Education.
Using his real-world, income-generating
experience in these low startup capital yet highly viable
vocations, Tayo has a vision effectively educate, inform and
practically empower individuals and groups that enroll for
the SDAc's programmes. The strategy however is that he will
over time engage other appropriately skilled independent professionals(who
share his passion) as additional resource persons
in facilitation of the SDAc's learning events.
Tayo believes Fish Farming is a
GUARANTEED route to prosperity
In the future, Tayo(a graduate
of Agricultural Extensions Services from the University of
Ibadan) intends to establish an Integrated Catfish and Ornamental
Fish Farm as a Farm Research/ Extension Advisory Services
Center. One key objective of the Integrated Fish Farm
(IFF) will be to continuously investigate, and document
best practice ways of rearing farm fish cost-effectively for
higher yields using locally sourced materials and indigenous
knowledge/skills – in conjunction with consistent implementation
of Best Practice Process Management Techniques.
The IFF’s findings will then
be offered to interested startups and existing fish farm business
owners via workshops and seminars designed to encourage more
people to go into low startup capital ventures like fish farming
by following tested and proven methods(process records documentation/
spreadsheet data analysis for decision making, workplace organization
etc) which increase their chances of success at first attempt.
Already, in line with the foregoing,
Tayo has since 2002 established extensive contacts with recognised
practitioners in the catfish farming industry. Not only did
he undertake 6 months of practical apprenticeship on a catfish/ornamental
fish farm in 2002, he also attended in late 2004, Catfish
Production Training, while in between those periods, he wrote
a full business plan(which is one of the many useful resources
on the maiden edition of the SDAc's
Annual Self-Help CDROM) for his Integrated Fish Farm venture
and marketed it to various prospective equity investors -
without success, in 2003. The inability to secure needed investors
funds for his farm project led him to focus on leveraging
his IT skills towards generating income and capital for the
farm project. The custom digital products and services delivery
arm of the SDA called Creative
Business Solutions was born as a result of this change
in strategy.
Back to
top 
Visit the SDAc's Integrated Fish Farm
mini-website!
Towards realising the above vision,
Tayo has launched the SDAc's Integrated Fish Farm mini-site
where current or aspiring fish farmers(especially catfish/ornamental)
will have access to useful, practical information and advice
on how they can run their farm processes more cost-effectively
so as to retain more of their revenue as profits.
In the not-too-distant future, the
SDAc's (Research/Extension Advisory Services) Integrated Fish
Farm will take off fully. Subsequently, all the research and
improved best practice process management findings made there,
will be published on the IFF mini-site and made available
as downloadable digital PDF documents, reports etc to subscribers
to the site.
Our major aim at the IFF will be to
explore ways by which food (and ornamental) fish can be maximally
bred and reared using less effort, at less cost and in less
time. This way, we hope to be able to contribute to the existing
body of knowledge in a way that makes it easier for interested
persons to successfully venture into the vocation, even if
they lack major capital backing.
You can go directly to the mini-site
anytime by typing the acronym "iff"(short
for Integrated Fish Farm) "dot spontaneousdevelopment
dot com" (see below) into your browser's URL
entry bar.
http://www.iff.spontaneousdevelopment.com
Back
to top 
Africans MUST learn HOW to take control of their own futures!
Tayo believes that educating individuals
about how to empower themselves to achieve ANY goals they
desire, will inspire them to stop waiting for an enabling
environment to be “created” and instead take personal
action to create the future they want.
"I want to be part
of a South Africa and Africa sending out a new message to
the world of taking responsibility for our own challenges.
The world has got used to a picture of Africa asking for support,
with cupped hands. It's time we create a new image of Africa.
It's time that we ourselves start giving and assert our sense
of dignity. We deserve respect. It is time we stop apologizing
for ourselves and acknowledge our achievements". -
Graça Machel -Mandela |
You
are here: : About Tayo Solagbade
