Francis Egbuson

There are little things that make the experience to a hotel, shop or restaurant memorable, at least for me. Take my visit to the Spa at the Park Hyatt in Macka Istanbul for example. I found a notice - see picture - which listed 14 items that are available upon request!. Now I had to re-read the list a couple of times to be sure. Everything from toothpaste to shaving kits.  Very thoughtful of the hotel. I contrasted this with my local gym back home where to get a polythene bag to put your wet clothes will incur the ire of the attendant. Toothpaste? "no, that is for hotel guests only" is the polite but never-you-ask-again response that you get. So you can imagine my joy when I saw this sign. Which also got me thinking. On arrival, the guest relations manager came out to welcome my wife and I. She made the point of mentioning our long history with the Hyatt properties and welcomed us back. As a gold passport member of Hyatt, we got upgraded on the spot. What a way to beg...

I had the pleasure of attending the 30 year anniversary of my high school Edo College Benin-City. The function was held at the Holiday Inn in Brent Cross London where most of our friends from the Class of 1983 gathered to celebrate and give thanks. What an evening, from the smartly dressed black ties to the beautiful wives, it was a great evening to remember. I met folks I had not seen in 30 years, Jerry B and his lovely wife reminded us that couples can still dance like it was "1983!. Solomon Osagie - sorry Dr. Solomon Osagie gave a rousing speech which recollected the history and achievements of Edo College. But Solomon saved his best lines of the night for the unfortunate ICC (Bishop Kelly College) alumni who showed up to lend support. Bishop Kelly College (ICC) was a neighboring school on the same road in Benin-City. Gideon, Omodon (now Gideon Chukwualim) was still his subdued self, intellect and dance steps still intact. Emma Ikhifa (although graduated a year or so later...

African Time During our wedding over 15 years ago, my late father-in-law walked in through the side door into waiting room where the wedding party was awaiting to be ushered into the main reception hall. Without much hesitation and as if to respond to the anxiety inside me that we were over one hour late – “Africans have time, white people have watches”. While this did not offer much consolation, I reflected a bit on the thought that we did not have to be anxious because “we have time”. I almost forgot about this thought from my father-in-law, until a couple of days ago during a dinner with two American friends. One them – Benjamin made the point that his experiences in Uganda in the last 5 years or so has thought that Ugandans and consequently Africans invest “more time into relationships” than make commitments to be “on time”. So Benjamin will have us believe that rather than keep our commitments to an appointment, we kept our commitments to relationships. Well, my im...

We just arrived from Kigali, Rwanda where we hosted Franklin Covey global productivity practice leader Kory Kogon. Morning event with the Rwanda Private Sector Federation was awesome. We had about 90 plus guests for the morning event. Attendees were drawn from key private sector organizations and they came early to listen to Kory Kogon. Kory delivered the core thesis of the 5 Choices - that with today's paradox of instant access to data and poor decision making, the 5 choices provide the mindset, skill set and tool set to provide focused attention, improved decision making and greater physical and mental energy at the end of the day. The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity are: Choice 1 : Act on the important, don't react to the urgent In today’s world, people are drowning in email, overwhelmed with demands, and trying to do more with less. 5 Choices participants explore how to filter vitally important priorities from distractions so they can make a real contribut...

Kory speaking on the 5 Choices - Feb 15 2013 in Uganda  Having just concluded a 5 Choices To Extraordinary Productivity workshop with Kampala Serena Hotel, it is great to be heading to Kigali on Wednesday to see Kory Kogon. Kory Kogon is the global productivity practice leader for FranklinCovey and she will be speaking at a breakfast event at Mille Colline Hotel on Thursday July 11th at 8:00 am. Kory is really the author and chief evangelist of 5 Choices. This invite only event is been organized by our firm CEMM - www.cemmgroup.com - and the Private Sector Federation of Rwanda - www. psf .org.rw- . Now for the uninitiated, 5 Choices is designed to ensure that we focus on our highest priorities that enable us leave a contribution in our selected roles in life. With 5 Choices you can act on and schedule the big "rocks" (major priorities) with clear attention, focused decision while increasing your energy levels. In a world of big data, alerts, pings and multiple decis...