Dzigbordi — The alluring marketing woman of the year

Saturday, September 18, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 3)
 
By Rebecca Kwei
THERE has not been a turning back for Mrs Dzigbordi K. Dosoo since she set up Allure salon with only two people in a living room in Osu, a suburb of Accra in 1998.
Twelve years down the line, Allure has transitioned into Allure Africa of which Dzigbordi is the founder and CEO, an award-winning premier spa group in Accra with an office in Washington DC, USA.
Allure Africa seeks to develop and grow premium spa companies throughout Africa, with emphasis on forging international strategic partnerships.
For having consistently marketed the Allure brand successfully in Ghana and beyond, Dzigbordi was last weekend adjudged the Marketing Woman of the Year by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIMG).
Part of the citation read “Your visibility has been strong in the areas of marketing research, education and advocacy. You have raised the standards in spa, health and wellness and beauty industry in Ghana.”
The Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Ibrahim M. Awal, received the Marketing Man of the Year Award.
“I feel privileged. It’s a great honour and I believe this shows that the efforts that we put in our day-to-day activities does not go unrecognised” she said of her award in an interview with The Mirror.
Dzigbordi said back in 1998, she realised that the concept of spa was non-existent and “I chose to start from the bottom within the salon industry, grow within it, educate and advocate until we were ready for the spa concept,” she explained.
Within four months, the ‘two-man’ salon had become a sole proprietorship in a shop which led to the opening of another shop in Labone where the new branch’s name, Allure, meaning ‘attraction’ started.
In order to have a one-stop beauty salon, the Allure Beauty Palace was opened in 2002 which became a limited liability company in 2003.
Aside ‘alluring’ people to her beauty palace, Dzigbordi had also run another company, Business Linkages International, a financial services consultancy, which transitioned into the Eagle Group in 2004.
The Eagle Group which employed about 80 people then was the holding company of Allure Ghana Limited, a beauty services company (which encompasses Allure Beauty Palace, Allure Sales Distribution Centre and Allure Spa in the City), Eagle Consulting International, an investment, trade, business and project consultancy with offices in the US and Accra and G’CINDKS Services Limited, a catering and hospitality service company which provides banqueting, event management and rental services and also runs a restaurant, Nudufe, at Osu, in Accra.
However, the year 2007 marked a turning point for Allure. The business model was restructured to provide technical leadership in wellness grooming and beauty and thus all the other business lines were discontinued. The Eagle Group became Allure Africa which focused on services, product distribution, education and consulting within the spa industry.
Another important milestone for Allure Africa was in 2009 when Iyaba was organised. Iyaba is an innovative concept of Africa’s premier spa and beauty trade exhibition and conference.
Iyaba, which has become an annual event, brings together key international manufacturers and African buyers in the spa and beauty industry under one roof to network, build capacity and make sales.
Recently, Allure Africa has also introduced a new authentically African natural aromatherapy product line, Kanshi.
Described as one of the new breed of young female entrepreneurs shaking up corporate Ghana, Dzigbordi concedes that she has not taken her eyes off the vision of her company being known and acknowledged as the premier service company.
“I can say three things about myself: I’m a consultant by career choice; a wellness and skincare expert by passion and an entrepreneur by experience” she said.
That’s true! Throughout her schooling days, she had studied business courses. After her secondary education at Accra Girls’ Secondary School, she left Ghana for the United States where she studied at Virginia State University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting.
Later, at Syracuse, New York, she did her post-graduate course in banking and finance and this she combined with working at Onbank & Trust, a bank in the US.
Dzigbordi also had a stint with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in Washington DC before relocating to Ghana in 1998.
Wondering why she has spread her ‘entrepreneurial wings’ this far? Dzigbordi said she was inspired when she was very young by her late grandmother, Madam Emelia Annan, who was able to become wealthy by venturing into small businesses.
Her father, the late Tennyson Emmanuel Kwaku was also an inspiration. She said her father aside being a lawyer also had other businesses and recalled that at the tender age of 12, she was working on her father’s accounts for his businesses.
“Growing up, I wanted to be a lawyer because of my father but by age 12, my entrepreneurial edge had fledged. Watching my father and grandmother made me realise you can do more than one business and be successful” she said.
Dzigbordi says running a business has its day-to-day operational challenges but at the end, it is about how one is able to serve his or her clients; ensuring that one is well-equipped and being able to deliver that counts.
She admitted that working in Ghana has not been easy but having networked with the right people has been worthwhile.
She believes that challenges come to give lessons and the lessons learnt everyday helps to transform people.
“My own life has been transformed, the evolution to get to this stage has been wonderful. What is about to come in the future is what drives me to put in my best. For Allure Africa, the future has just began.”
“In the next five years, I see Allure Africa without any limits; having achieved the vision it set out for itself; expand the vision to other territories by God’s help”.
A very affable, person, Dzigbordi is determined to inspire young ladies to be all they can be. She has taken young ladies with potential and mentoring them in her own way.
“I don’t make the mentoring formal. I believe people come across your path for a reason and that is destiny”.
Aside her stripes as a business consultant, ‘beauty enthusiast’ and an entrepreneur, Dzigbordi is a very spiritual person and says she loves her family and work, as well as spending lots of time at home with her daughter, Fafali and husband, Lionel Vanlare Dosoo, a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana.
A director of Zonta International Club of Accra II, and a member of the Governing Council of United Way Ghana, she also finds time to play lawn tennis.
Dzigbordi advised young ladies that in whatever they venture into, they should seek God first; then develop their education and careers “then all the other things will follow”.
Sounding philosophical, she said “If you build it, they will come. Once you establish yourself people will gravitate towards you”.