SABOTAGE: A BUSINESS LESSON IN PROTECTING YOUR VISION

 

Many years ago, when I was working as a Sales Manager with an FMCG company, one of our top distributors, who also happened to be a major partner with one of our competitors, once ordered 30 cartons of our product. She paid cash, and I delivered.

Some days later, I visited the neighbourhood where her shop was located and noticed something strange, the hawkers around weren’t selling our product.

Strange, Because this same woman had just ordered 30 cartons of our product a few days earlier, and the shelf life was only 10 days.

So why weren’t her hawkers picking our stock? I asked a few of them why they didn’t have

our product in their boxes. Their response shocked me.

They said, “We no sabi your product o.”

Meaning, they didn’t even know the product existed!

How Interesting. At that point, I assumed maybe she had sold out.

So I asked my driver to drive us down to her store. Casually, I asked if she wanted to restock. Guess what she said? “Nobody bought the product.”

Out of curiosity, my driver and I decided to check around her shop. Lo and behold, she had hidden every single carton right at the back.

Mind you, this was stock she paid for with her own money. Yet she intentionally hid it so the

hawkers would think it wasn’t moving.

In the streets of Lagos, once hawkers notice products sitting untouched and expiring, they

instantly believe it’s a dead product and stop picking it.

That was her exact plan, to kill our product’s image before it even had a chance.

Sabotage. Live and direct. But her plan failed. That day, I had some promo stock in my Hilux.

I called all the hawkers to my car and started sharing free samples right there beside her store.

You needed to see her face, she was visibly angry. I could feel her burning. But that wasn’t

all.

Just a few shops away, there was another smaller distributor, less volume but more open- minded.

I walked up to her and asked if she’d like to become our sole distributor for that territory,

with solid rewards and incentives.

She agreed immediately. And we went to work. My only goal at that point? To crush the first distributor.

I got back to the office, sought approval for a full-on guerrilla marketing and market intervention campaign.

First step, rebrand the new distributor’s store.

Next, give her good stock with flexible credit and fat commissions.

I cancelled all my other sales engagements for that month just to focus on that area. Then we went aggressive. We launched a “Buy 6, Get 3 Free” promo.

By 5-5:30 a.m. every day, I was at her store, distributing to hawkers myself. Those who bought more got branded shirts and face caps. We pushed flyers across the community. We gave out pens, key holders, sausages, name it.

It was all out war. Within two weeks, the first distributor was struggling to sell her hidden stock.

Her hawkers had all switched sides. In less than a month, we made the new distributor rich. I helped train her boys, supported her operations 101%.

When I returned to that neighbourhood a few months later, the first distributor’s shop

looked like a deserted warehouse.

And I learned something that period, in business, your first responsibility is to secure your business from sabotage, internal or external. Growth is impossible without protecting the foundation.

If I had been careless, that one woman could have crushed our brand’s potential in that entire community. Some might say it wasn’t fair to have “finished” her business, but let’s be honest, she drew the first sword. We only played the game smarter.

Now, why this long story?

Because sabotage is real, especially in organizations. Sometimes, the biggest threats don’t

come from outside, but from within.

All this noise about “welfare” and union drama around Dangote, I see it differently.

Some of it may just be strategic sabotage.

Do you know how many businesses, importers, and international organizations the Dangote Refinery is about to crush?

You think they’ll fold their arms and watch him dominate? Never.

This man invested over $20 billion, building for 13 years, and yet some people expect him to

play “Mr. Nice Guy" when he knows his enemies aren't playing nice. No wise entrepreneur does that.

Dangote must protect his interest first. And honestly, you can’t blame Aliko for doing so.

Because at the end of the day, protecting your vision always comes before sentiments.