A Literary Lens on Leadership
In his new book titled ‘Leadership Turnaround,’ the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Bank Plc, Ifie Sekibo articulates his banking experience and entrepreneurial foresight in this conscientious commentary on leadership.
Segun Olabode
A consummate Nigerian banker and entrepreneur, Ifie Sekibo has the track record of returning moribund companies to the path of sustained profitability. Since 2012, he has been the helmsman at Nigeria’s most innovative bank, Heritage Bank but his journey towards leadership was at a steady pace since 2002 when he became a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. The graduate of Accountancy at River State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt started his career as an Auditor with the Rivers State Government’s Audit department in 1988 before joining KPMG in Lagos as an Audit Trainee in 1989 before moving to ELF Nigeria as a Cost Controller.
He moved to Investment Banking and later veered into insurance as the Executive Vice Chairman of International Energy Insurance (IEI) and in 2003, Sekibo and his team acquired the Global Assurance Company Limited from the National Insurance Commission. As its leader, he steered the company into a front line position. Under his leadership, he undertook successful capital raise which saw the company listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. After serving as the Executive Vice Chairman of IEI, Sekibo became the pioneer MD/CEO of Heritage Banking Company Ltd.
As an individual who enjoyed sharing his experience, Sekibo wrote his book ‘Leadership Turnaround’ out of his need to tell his story of climbing the rung of success to clinch leadership positions. Expectedly, it was a journey fraught with challenges. From his successful revival of Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria (SGBN), a massive success by any metric, to the creation of Heritage Bank, he has demonstrated a strength of character in business.
Thus, ‘Leadership Turnaround’ is a condensed commentary from a leader who has recorded remarkable successes, failed in some instances along the way, picked himself up with a sense of duty. It is the story of a leader, reputed for turning around failed enterprises with a knack for spotting and nurturing SMEs.
The book downplays on the regular leadership clichés, adopts the language of experience, while presenting the issues with a conversational tone. Tossing aside theoretical discourse, the author seeks a practical approach in writing this book.
In building brands, for instance, the author admonished Nigerians to build businesses that will outlive their generation. Citing the case of the Arthur Guinness family, the author shared the remarkable story of how the enterprise was handed down generations, through vision, faith, values and commitment.
In ‘Leadership Turnaround,’ the author made a brilliant analogy of the processes in the fractional distillation column of a refinery, and the process that distils an individual from his raw talent into a fine leader. Further, he revealed that he set up a solid training school that reached beyond just banking, to teach etiquette, relationship, social assets, law, and many more.
Leadership Turnaround stirs up an interesting conversation of globalization and the coined concept, ‘glocalization.’ The author admonished young people to substitute the mindset of globalization with that of ‘glocalization,’ so they can customize their global outlook to solving local problems.
While recounting the revival of the defunct bank, Societe Generale Bank, the author wrote that apart from the vision, commitment, positive thinking and resources, he also relied on faith to get over 200 bank customers to withdraw their cases in a single day and settle out of court. This account was intriguing, and loaded; albeit, told with such simplicity.
The author reached for examples, case studies and scenarios from different perspectives. Using biblical allusions, he showed the role of faith in leadership.
The book has several “Take Action” stopovers after each chapter; where readers are refreshed with simplified but impactful action points to advance one’s career. The lessons that follow each are drawn from the real world of successful business enterprise. Some of these include lessons on the complexities of the world of mergers and acquisition; dealing with soft issues; emotional intelligence; having the right mindset; lessons on visioning and the kinetics of visioning; lessons in entrepreneurship; the importance of hitting the road, and gaining traction.
* Olabode wrote in from Lagos
