The word “gestation” comes from the Latin “gestare” meaning “to carry or to bear. It can therefore be likened to the development of something over a period of time after a thorough and painstaking work. Gestation period is termed an organizational “birth”; the point at which a new business entity is established and the point at which it started declaration of profit.
This is what Yoruba people call “aforiti”. An individual who is always dropping out of any started endeavour or venture will never attain success. This is also applicable to any organization. It can be easily concluded that such an individual or organization’s management is pathologically lazy or neurotic. It must be known that every initial success has a lead-time (period between starting something and its fulfillment/realization) or waiting period to maintain before it can be born. This is called business pregnancy time.
Every business must transverse this critical minimum period before initial profits can start coming in and media business is not an exception. The media management must be full of activities during this gestation period and maintaining of oversized endurance or perseverance. This should however be laced with hopes. Those that are saddled with the running of media firms from inception must be matured socially, politically & economically at heart and in age with basic experiences.
Socially, the management must know how to handle “relations & relationships”. Politically, the management must know how to handle stakeholders like suppliers, readers/buyers, agents/vendors, creditors, employees, government officials and the general public. Economically, the management must know how to handle economic transactions, transformations as well as to be economically matured and responsible.
It must be known that all businesses are grown from loss to break-even point and finally to profit over a period of time. That of newspaper is even more worrisome because with all facilities put in place, availability of running capital coupled with good marketing drive on the management’s part, it will take at least seven years before such a media company can be talking of break-even point. The gestation period is now extended to a decade based on the current economic situation that has just been aggravated by recession. Continuous declaration of profit is an indication that the company has crossed the red line.
Ordinarily, a newspaper passes through, at least, four stages in its life span or existence. The stages are introductory, growth, maturity and decline. Introductory stage is always characterized with low sales thereby leading to no profit. Break-even point can be achieved at growth stage while profit is likely to be declared at maturity stage. Unfortunately, few newspapers occupy this stage, just for a while before exiting into the decline stage. As at today, many newspapers that were declaring profits before now have entered into a recluse.
Most of the newspapers are now on “life support” and they are taking low roads to stay afloat. The low roads are reduction in pagination, reduction of coloured pages, media mentioning for a fee, offering of mouth-watering commission on advert placements (as high as 50% if such is with immediate cash payment), downsizing, reduction in workers’ salaries, owing of salaries, non-remittance of statutory deductions, etc. Some newspapers have been in existence for decades and they are yet to attain profit stage. It is an understatement to state that failure is glorified in the business of media, today.
In fact, the ratio of liabilities to assets is 8:2 on a scale of 10. Acquisition of assets that are not “immediately” needed or could be outsourced is mostly responsible for the solvent situation. For example, what is in it to install printing press worth over N300m (exclusive of power generating set, diesel, printing materials, labour, etc) only to use such a facility to print an average of 1,000 copies per day when printing could be handled by a third party?
All those who constitute the management must be isostatically balanced. These dimensions include the mental (intellectual), the physical (including health), the social, the psychological (emotional) and spiritual dimensions as any media manager who has all these dimensions in disequilibrium proportions cannot be a successful practitioner as the centre will not hold if all other aspects are in a state of chaos.
For the management to be successful, those at the helms of affairs cannot afford to be a greedy social, political or economic sybarite and they must be given to thriftiness and frugality. Regrettably, the so called “big players” in the industry are battling with challenges contracted in the good old days and they have failed to understand their target markets, products, services and pricing models.
…..Ayankunbi is MD/CEO at AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy
abiolaayankunbi@yahoo.com
0802 305 1315
