We feel humbled to be nominated amongst Africa’s finest corporate giants, the likes of Mr. Price, Stanbic IBTC, Alan & Grant, Zenith bank, Dangote group, GTBank, to mention a few. This can be likened to the story of David and Goliath with a 21st century twist. A tale of how we went from the bottom to the top in less than two weeks and a reiteration that all you need to achieve greatness is diligence, hard work and persistence.
Being place on a pedestal as this is one we appreciate and do not take for granted. Winning this award is in line with the philosophy which we established Sujimoto on. We founded it on the principles of Diligence, Integrity, Quality and Customer Addiction. We had no rich Uncle or a wealthy Aunty to bankroll us. All we had was our dream and a passion to redefine luxury living in Nigeria.
Whether by mere coincidence or design, we were placed at the bottom of the pyramid. We drew inspiration from the quote “they tried to buried us, but they didn’t know we were seeds” and like an Iroko tree, we broke through the ground and grew, not forgetting to observe the Covid-19 social distancing rule even in the competition by giving a margin of over 3,000 points!
When we saw the big brands, we didn’t believe we could push so hard and claim the top position but the words of our MD/CEO, Sijibomi Ogundele echoed in our ears, “to be second is to be last” and we were able to “Usain Bolting” other nominees.
This would not have been possible without the help of our followers, business partners, clients, friends, and well-wishers both home and abroad, who voted relentlessly.
LinkedIn, being a platform that reconnects good friendship, helped in carrying the nomination story to a friend of our MD/CEO in Australia, whom he has not seen in the last 7 years. Not only did he vote, he also went the extra mile to rally others to do likewise. Amongst the numerous people who voted was an ex-girlfriend from France.
This award is a reminder that there’s no nobility in mediocrity and that once you apply diligence and hard work to everything you do, winning becomes inevitable.
We use this medium to thank our fellow nominees, who we see as our Corporate mentors, for all the amazing work they are doing and how they are setting the pace in their various industries.
We see the massive support we enjoyed from all and sundry as a rare privilege and we say a BIG ‘thank you’ to those who went all out to support us. Truly, the diligent man will stand with Kings and not mere men.
