By Brooks Henry
I was very privileged to attend the pre-release and academic presentation of Bayo Adekanmbi at the University of London, Malet Street. Bayo shared the core themes of his independent research on Sharing Economy and its implications for emerging market. It was a very cerebral event with senior academia, students, families and friends in attendance. Quoting one of the Professors who sat very close to me, "Bayo has provided a very rare but intelligent synthesis of multiple knowledge areas of analytics, sociology, consumption behaviour and economics to advance his inspiring hypothesis on how sharing economy can be situated within an emerging market for socioeconomic development. Beyond academic recommendation, Ali Clabburn - the man behind Britain's most successful sharing economy business, who was also in attendance commended Bayo's original thought and application in real world.
I was very privileged to attend the pre-release and academic presentation of Bayo Adekanmbi at the University of London, Malet Street. Bayo shared the core themes of his independent research on Sharing Economy and its implications for emerging market. It was a very cerebral event with senior academia, students, families and friends in attendance. Quoting one of the Professors who sat very close to me, "Bayo has provided a very rare but intelligent synthesis of multiple knowledge areas of analytics, sociology, consumption behaviour and economics to advance his inspiring hypothesis on how sharing economy can be situated within an emerging market for socioeconomic development. Beyond academic recommendation, Ali Clabburn - the man behind Britain's most successful sharing economy business, who was also in attendance commended Bayo's original thought and application in real world.
As a student of life and nature, I picked 6 lessons, which are worth sharing to celebrate a fellow alumnus of the University of Reading, UK.
1) A man is not greater than his belief and whatever your faith is anchored on, make it the core of your life expression. I am an atheist...I don't believe in God but I always observe how Bayo shares his academic knowledge around the fringes of his faith. He has a unique way of weaving his thoughts around his belief in God, such that his sermon find expression even in a full academic context without breaking any rule. I like the way he finds a nexus between God and his work. On Wednesday, he made a nice quote that sounded like... "there is a spirit in every man and inspiration from above gives all understanding". (Paraphrased as I am not sure I got it right). Whether I agree with his faith or not, I think it's smart for a man's faith to have a consistent expression hinged on conviction and respect for others...Bayo pushed the envelope and celebrated his God as the source of all wisdom without offending anyone. He was subtle but really pushed hard his domain of influence.
If your "God" is truly real and big, be convinced of it where it matters most. Lets the reality be visible in your everyday life and not just in your religious gathering.
2) Respect people and keep your networks of friends for life: Before Bayo made his astounding presentation, he patiently and carefully recognised different layers of his networks who were in attendance with meticulous attention to detail and deep sense of gratitude. The event had friends from his primary to high school and even postgraduate school at the event and he warmly introduced them one by one. I really like this sense of honour!
I spoke to one of them and he said something like, "Bayo is a giver and a true source inspiration". I can imagine how important this fellow considered his friendship with Bayo that he had to travel down from Germany to grace the occasion.
3) Be proud of your source/ families where it matters most: The high point for me was when he spoke about his humble background and how his hardworking parents and family members provided the platform to where he is today. He honourably introduced his parents - first his Dad and then his 2 mums to the audience. I was initially confused about the dual mother idea until the gentleman sitting beside me told me that he was talking about his mother and mother-in-law. Great idea! The guy said he attended Bayo's wedding- so he must be right! You need to see the loving chemistry between these 2 mothers. They were in endearing chit-chat throughout the event like best of best friends. I like this! He also took time to celebrate his uncles in attendance, one flew in from Ireland and another from USA. The uncle from Ireland was like the chief host. He is a very nice man and you could see he's so proud of his nephew's achievement. He moved between guests to exchange pleasantries. Clearly Bayo has got a perfect knit family.
4) Be proud of your faith or belief alliances: This is a reinforcement of my first learning. If one's faith is worth its weight in gold, then proudly associate with people who share same with you. I admire Bayo's passion for his fellowship, TACEF. I got to know TACEF when Bayo missed a test because he had to attend the fellowship's convention. I was therefore not surprised when he took time to appreciate the role of TACEF and other members in his academic and research pursuit.
5) Celebrate your wife proudly as your 2-in-1: Bayo got himself and wife to be invited to the high table as if they were co-authors and co-PhD students. I like how he lovingly introduced his wife as someone who deserved the same honour and recognition as himself...WoW....I have not seen men who are so proud of their wives like this! When he got to the last slide of his presentation, he said and I quote, " please note that a lot of the thoughts I have shared with you are not mine alone, they are ideas of my wife and I ". This for me was another peak! The MC specially noted this in his own postmortem. Bayo is making me to believe again in marriage. I really hope we can see more men (of course with deserving women who have paid their dues) to go out of the ordinary to celebrate their wives. Bayo scored 101%!
6) My last point is deeply reflective for me as a student and as a presenter. When the time comes to shine, just SHINE!
Bayo spoke for 21:31 minutes with every slide coming across as well researched thoughts. Bayo spoke brilliantly as a passionate presenter that he is and his models were notably original...it was so easy to appreciate the rigour and the versatility of his postulations. His slides were very academic yet he used visuals to make them more appealing and easy-to-understand. He used pictures to simplify hard facts and applied onomatopoeic words to make his points very memorable. I have now added to my knowledge Bayo Adekanmbi's integrated 3M/3P/3S model and his new terminologies like miniaturisation of needs, mutualisation of resources, connected-abundance etc. Truly, great conceptualisation is nice but I think it's much more important to package your thoughts so well like Bayo did. The thoughts were highly cerebral for the academia and yet simple to access to the novice. It was therefore not a surprise that he easily earned a resounding ovation for his brilliant masterpiece that had dual implications for academic knowledge and management practice.
Thanks Bayo and Toyin for providing a platform for me to learn.
Myself and all Reading alumni class group are very proud of you and celebrate you. We shall keep the October date in view for the physical release in Nigeria.
Please see attached some of pictures to share the memories of a time well spent.
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