I have been asked by the organizers of this event to tackle the question:

The answer to this question is complex, but it may be summarized in the words: "clarity, focus and commitment."

1. Clarity: Punch, from its beginnings in the early 70s had very clear goals: namely to publish a lively paper that "packs a punch" i.e. one that makes exciting reading, and which reports the facts as they are, objectively and professionally. Through its countless ups and downs, and its various transformations over the decades, it has never departed from this goal.

2. Focus: Closely tied to the company’s clarity of vision is a sharp focus on these goals. This shows in how the company defines its priorities, allocates its scarce resources, and designs its operational systems. It never loses sight of what its big picture is, and constantly re-invents itself so that it can "go back to the basics": that is, giving the reader a factual, exciting, life-impacting newspaper, whose appeal cuts across all classes of readers.

3. Commitment: Intertwined with its unwavering focus on core goals is the company’s passion for accomplishing its vision. This passion or dynamic commitment has manifested over the years as corporate discipline, resilience, staying power, dedication to core values, courage, innovativeness, self-renewal and self-confidence.

There are specific strategies and systems that Punch has utilized over the years to sustain its success despite the crises that have beset it at several stages of its existence.

I believe that the most crucial of these strategies is the company’s human resources policies. It may be simply said that the secret of the success of the Punch is its people – the synergy of its board, management and staff.

For the purpose of this brief presentation, I would like to mention the non-discriminatory recruitment policy. Ethnicity, gender, religion, social class or other such distinctions are no barriers to employment in the company. Nor do they constitute glass ceilings barring advancement by deserving members of staff.

Punch, in short, runs a meritocracy. Of course, those adept in company politics – as everywhere else – may manipulate the system, but only for a while. Competence, integrity, initiative and other forms of measurable performance always gain the upper hand, in the end.

Punch insists on quality personnel, in all departments – from its security gate, through the housekeeping department, to all its other departments. Put differently, excellence – sustained, demonstrable excellence in performance – is continuously demanded from its staff and management. In return for meeting this daunting standard, all staff members know that there is no limit to how far they can rise in the organization, provided they keep improving their knowledge and skills, and are able to grapple with the ever varying challenges of new functions and responsibilities as the need arises in the fiercely competitive Nigerian media industry.

Punch places a premium on the versatility of its staff, in other words. Apart from highly specialized functions like legal services, accounting and printing, workers in many of the other departments, especially the editorial staff, are required to show great flexibility in the value they contribute to the company from time to time. Anyone with a rigid mindset, or who cannot endure frequently moving out of their comfort zone, will find the Punch environment too challenging to cope with. While the uncreative or unadventurous will naturally fall by the wayside in such an environment, all those willing to take the challenges in their stride are well rewarded and even blossom.

Constant training – formal, on-the-job, and through individual self-development – is emphasized by the company as a prerequisite to keep all staff members constantly in top shape.

Punch is also committed to paying attractive emoluments and providing excellent working conditions – in fact, it has long been a leader in the industry, in this regard.

The advantage of having competent, resourceful, dedicated staff, who are used to routinely producing at outstanding levels, is only to be imagined. It has been one of the main bulwarks of the company against the onslaughts and vicissitudes of its business life in over three decades. On the many occasions, during the 90s, that armed police and soldiers seized our premises, shut down our operations and forced most of our staff into the labour market, their commitment and loyalty always guaranteed that Punch would bounce back. At a point, in the 90s, our staff members were even willing to take the risk of publishing and circulating the paper from underground, in defiance of the then military junta (led by Gen. Sani Abacha, now late).

Another secret of the company’s capacity to "defy the odds", especially in the last decade, has been its foresight and courage in investing massively in new technology. When colour printing began making its debut in Nigerian newspapers about 10 years ago, Punch carefully studied the trend and recognized its future potential to attract more advert revenue and higher circulation figures. As our Chairman, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, used to point out to the management, "Come to think of it: how many people still take black-and-white pictures today? The world is going colour, and the newspapers must keep pace."

The company resolved to get the colour right, however, unlike the quality of colour its competitors, who were the early starters, were offering to readers and advertisers. Through frugal husbanding of available resources, the self-sacrifice of its understanding staff and managers, and by the relentless focus on its vision, Punch eventually installed an ultra-modern press with inbuilt colour units in1998. (It did this without resort to outside financing.) The company has since then expanded its in-house capacity for colour production to 64 pages at one run, in its present press.

It also installed the first Computer to Plate pre-press equipment in any newspaper house in Nigeria. (The technology eliminates film making by lithography from the process of making printing plates, thus shortening printing time and delivering sharper colours.) These investments, and the staff development that went with them, have produced handsome returns to Punch and strengthened its place in the market.

Let me round off this presentation by saying a few words about the specific Punch culture that has enabled it to surmount one daunting hurdle or setback after another. It is a corporate culture that dares to aim high, that is obsessed with its future, that is passionate about its historical responsibility, that takes pride in frugality, that has faith in, cherishes and nourishes, its human resources, and above all, a culture rooted in discipline – that does not shy away from taking hard or unpleasant decisions, when necessary.

This, in brief, is the story of how the Punch has "defied the odds", surviving and thriving while most of its competitors from the 70s and later have either disappeared or, sadly, are dying.

Thank you.

*www.leapafrica.org