Private Education

By Malam Ibrahym El-Caleel

A widely circulated video showed an altercation between a staff of the Maryam Abacha American University of Nigeria (MAAUN) and a father to one of the students of the school.

It is a 33-second-long video that doesn’t allow for proper evaluation of the incident except for the audacious comment the student made at the tail-end of the video, in support of her father, saying, “Ba fa kyauta mu ke zuwa karatu makarantar ba. Kuɗi muke biya”. Meaning, “we aren’t studying in this school free. We pay money”.

The school has rightly issued a press release to say it has set up a committee to investigate what happened, and it demands to have the full video of what happened to ease its investigation since a 33-second video will barely help you take an informed position on this. Best wishes to them in their investigation, but let’s talk about the broader picture.

The girl’s raw comment about the money they pay to the school is a bitter lesson in business. The girl sees herself as a customer of MAAUN, not a student, and this is largely the philosophy of most private institutions of learning and their patronisers. It is an entrepreneurship first, then any other thing, like being a school or a university. And therefore, what we see in businesses would happen there since profit is the overall aim. Please, I am not tearing down private institutions. I am discussing business here.

“The customer is always right”

In the early 1900s, Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridges department store in London, popularized the saying that, “the customer is always right”. To be fair to Selfridge, he popularised this business philosophy to protect the buyer. Prior to this philosophy, what existed was the philosophy of “Caveat emptor”, which protects the seller and which means: “Let the buyer beware.”

“Caveat emptor” is simply saying that the buyer is fully responsible for checking product quality, condition, and suitability before purchase. Therefore, once the buyer pays for the product, they cannot hold the seller accountable even if they discovered the product to be defective. Even if you return the defective product to the seller, he’d simply say “Caveat emptor!”, meaning “you should have checked before paying!”.

This is where Selfridge popularised “the customer is always right” philosophy. The aim is to prioritise customer satisfaction even when the customer may be at fault. It is a philosophy aimed at keeping the customer happy or satisfied so as to have a sustainable business into the future. This builds trust and loyalty in business, and this is why it is widely practiced by businesses today.

Customers and some business leaders decided to abuse this nice philosophy. Customers saw it as an edge to abuse employees of the business they are patronising. Business leaders decided to make customers the “kings” and “queens” who are always right, placing them far below the employees who help them drive the business. This is why it is easy for the girl to make reference to how they are the thin line between that staff and joblessness. It is the reason why you, the reader, equally shouted at the bank staff you met at the customer service desk the other day. The bank as an institution with corporate headquarters somewhere in Lagos didn’t serve you well, but you are here in faraway Numan threatening, harassing and abusing an innocent 24-year-old girl you met at the bank’s help desk.

Customer is always right!

I was hungry in Barnawa some months back when I decided to walk into Market Square to get some food. A man, who should most likely be in his 50s, walked in after me. The attendant was serving the people who came ahead of him as per first come, first serve. Suddenly, this man took offence and began passing harsh comments on this lady. It was a whole lot of psychological abuse, making even s3xist comments. He wasn’t yelling at me, but I felt the pain. That young lady didn’t respond in kind, but coldly prepared his meal and handed it over. The customer is always right.

Only business leaders can reorient the customer on this. While you need customers to maintain your cash flow, you equally need your employees. And this is what the consumer goods giant, P&G, seems to be better at.

The P&G CEO between 1948-1959, Redwood Deupree, remarkably said: “If you leave us our money, our buildings and our brands, but take away our people, the Company will fail. But if you take away our money, our buildings and our brands, but leave us all our people, we can rebuild the whole thing in a decade.” This is a 187-year old company, teaching you the value of people in a business. Your people are your most important assets.

But unfortunately, most businesses today have thirst for short-term gains and barely have any interest in building a corporate culture that will sustain it into the future. When a company is overly thinking about finance, then it ‘worships’ everything that relates to the bottom line. It is ready to throw its most resourceful employees under the bus just to gain today’s profit. No plan for the business of the future.