‘Excel at what you do, and the rest will follow almost automatically’

Professor Chukuakadibia Eresia-Eke is a big champion of the University of Pretoria (UP). He is particularly impressed by the way in which it supports its staff, saying repeatedly: "It's not the same at many universities." Despite having had the opportunity to move to other universities, nationally and internationally, Prof Eresia-Eke "wouldn't trade UP for any other university".

UP has been good to Prof Eresia-Eke. He was made a full professor in the Department of Business Management in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences in January. And in his first application for a National Research Foundation (NRF) rating this year, he cracked a C2, which recognises him as an established researcher.

While these personal achievements are acknowledgments of his efforts, he says they don't change who he is, what he does or where he wants to go.

"They represent a higher calling to be of more service to society," Prof Eresia-Eke says. "I am not a purist academic with papers laced with research jargon that make sense only to a select group of other academics; I think this audience is truly limited. Surely, research can be put to better use and service for the greater good of the larger population. This is what scholarly work should be about."

He appreciates the platform that UP has given him, and is grateful for its support for his research and overall work in the academic space.

"UP recognises that what makes an academic is not how many hours the lecturer sits in his office. Indeed UP, especially the Department of Business Management, emphasises the importance of results. I don't have to be in the office from 8am to 4pm to be productive.

"Fundamentally, there's a difference between 'busy-ness' and business. Sitting here in the office is busy-ness. To a large extent, it may be the physical expression of a desire for social affirmation, for people to see you moving up and down the corridors. The critical question, however, must be, 'What have you produced?' Ultimately, that's what counts. I'm an advocate of the school of results-based management, which argues that performance-wise, people should not be measured by the activities they undertake, but by the results they produce."

He also rates UP highly because it is conducive to intellectual stimulation.

"UP creates an environment in which you can think," he says. "Undoubtedly, this is a beautiful environment to work in. It challenges you to be creative and entrepreneurial so that you can progress at the speed you want. Sometimes, complaints among colleagues and society at large about earnings are misinformed. In my opinion, success in life, with all its trappings, follows excellence. It is important to recognise that excellence doesn't follow money. The sequence is the reverse. Excel at what you do, and the rest - recognition and all - will follow almost automatically."

It is this conviction that drives Prof Eresia-Eke to work hard in pursuit of the evasive goal of excellence. He says that his hard work, cross-country exposure and industry experience give him the edge to excel in his teaching, research and community development endeavours. Interestingly, public recognition ranks very low on his order of priorities, because his motivation is intrinsically derived and not fuelled by external stimuli.

"Honestly, I'm not one for accolades. I derive more satisfaction, more joy, more sense of accomplishment when I produce knowledgeable people. That counts a lot more than even the title of professor or an NRF rating. Sometimes I will have a PhD student who cannot piece together sentences on a page in an academic manner. Yet, by the time he or she exits the university, the writing, the thinking, the reasoning, the logic and the rationale of arguments would have become impressively academic. For me, it is this type of investment in human beings that is worthwhile."

Prof Eresia-Eke obtained an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, a field in which he worked for about 10 years, predominantly in the oil and gas industry. His subsequent studies were in the business domain, where he obtained two postgraduate degrees, an MBA and a PhD in Business Management. He is insistent that "all my work will come to nought" if they have no implications for society at a practical level. This is why he is inclined towards applied research, garnishes his lectures with real-life flavour and engages regularly with industry through Enterprises UP.

Under the umbrella of Enterprises UP, he has led projects for more than 30 organisations including the South African Reserve Bank, Nedbank, Sasol, Anglo-American, the South African Local Government Association, National Lotteries Commission, Nestle, the South African Revenue Service and many public sector departments/entities.

Prof Eresia-Eke finds his engagements with managers and C-suite executives in industry challenging and enriching.

"When I interact with them, I cannot rely solely on textbook prescripts or even proven theories in the academic world," he says. "What one offers must have practical value, and my industry experience, which a number of academics unfortunately do not have, is invaluable in this regard."

Prof Eresia-Eke's research centres on non-financial propellers of business performance, especially in entrepreneurial ventures. He has a trail of conference papers and research articles in well-ranked accredited journals, many of them arising from collaborations with scholars across universities and countries.

He has also contributed chapters to and co-authored some textbooks. A third edition of his book, Monitoring and Evaluation of Policies, Programmes and Projects, first published in 2012 and co-written with two other professors, is now on the cards.

"It's arguably the first book on monitoring and evaluation written from a purely African perspective," he says.

He declares he can never be grateful enough to his wife, Stella, and his children, Ayaduye and Chikanwetuh, for the sacrifices they have made in support of his work.

Though he maintains his social skills are wanting, he is rather cheerful and engages easily. He claims this is mostly when he is in his comfort zone of work.

"Given my natural bent for teaching, I often say I exhaust my talking airtime on educational platforms. Consequently, by the time I step out of that teaching space, I would have run out of talking airtime. I can't talk any longer."

Prof Eresia-Eke is a soccer enthusiast, and his major form of relaxation is following the English Premier League.

"I am a teetotaller," he says. "I don't smoke. I don't party. I am an introvert, so I'm happy in my space. If I'm not watching soccer, I'm likely to be in front of the computer."

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