Ademola Adebise’s ‘The Transformational Leader: The Journey of a Tech Bro to a Bank CEO’

Ademola Adebise’s “The Transformational Leader: The Journey of a Tech Bro Turned Bank CEO”, is a memoir account of a man on whose shoulders destiny and providence placed the onerous responsibility of discovering, nurturing, and mentoring some gifted and talented professionals,  as well as leveraging his skill of synergism with other team members to achieve breathtaking and exceptional work outcomes.

The book is an exploratory account of Adebise’s early school days through high school to his university days as a Computer Science undergraduate at the University of Lagos, and his professional life as an Information Technology (IT) expert and a professional banker of note. The powerful and enthralling story also delves into his early, family and work life balance, the role of mentors in his career, challenges and accomplishments, with a narrative style that arrests the reader’s mind, thereby providing a pleasant and delightful reading experience.

For easy reading and guidance of the reader, the 179- page book is divided into nine chapters, each chapter carefully woven to the other, giving a penetrating view and deep insights into the personality, character traits, decision making process, and leadership qualities which define Ademola Adebise.

Chapter one is an alluring journey into how the streaks of success began for the author and the portrayal of the magnetic power and irresistible aura of success. His academic breakthrough into the ranks of the top three in his class in primary school won him the love and admiration of family members; respect and deference from peers and school mates; and honours and recognition from his teachers. From relative obscurity, the young Demola would become the cynosure of all eyes at that early part of his life. Thus, while relishing and savouring all the attention, limelight, and fame that his first academic “conquest” evoked, he made a steely resolve to be a life long companion of success so as to be the “main event” rather than the “side show”.

Chapter two chronicles the commencement of a high impact professional life, including career change and adaptation from IT to Finance after certification as an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

One notable and remarkable thing about Adebise’s job appointments is, perhaps, save for his first job at Compute Rite, he never applied for his subsequent appointments as they came by way of referrals and invitations. These out-of-the norm recruitment favours clearly indicate grace, special favours, and providence in the life of the author.

A man with a vaunting ambition to be a banker very early in life, destiny paved his way into the career of his choice by referral as he left Olivetti to join the then Chartered Bank as an IT personnel, moved over to the Finance Department after his certification as a chartered accountant. He would later head a department in the Finance division  of the bank. When an opening was created by the exit of the Head of IT department, Adebise  was recalled from finance to replace her. He made his strides through the development of projects and IT solutions for convenient customer experience.

By a fortuitous stroke of luck, another big career move happened, orchestrated by his erstwhile boss and former CEO of Chartered Bank, Odunayo Olagundoye, who had taken up another assignment to revive the hitherto moribund National Bank of Nigeria. Olagundoye extended an invitation to the author to join him at National Bank of Nigeria as the Chief Financial Officer.

For a man who is always in search of excellence and new challenges, he took up the gauntlet, leaving a stable bank to help revive another in the doldrums. He would later transition to the Chief Risk Officer of the bank, adding new portfolios such as treasury, corporate banking and business development.

When office politics reared its ugly face at the point of consolidation in 2004, forcing him to leave the bank he laboured so hard to revamp, he went into the world of consulting. Pitching his tent with Accenture, the leading consulting firm  where he acquired new skills and experience, changing his outlook and world view about organisational processes and procedures.

Again, another mentor of his, Segun Oloketuyi, who was heading a team of experts to stem Wema Bank’s hemorrhage and slide to the precipice of extinction, invited him to join him in 2009 as he trusted his competence, professionalism, work ethics, hardwork and dedication to duty. As a strategic risk taker, Adebise came aboard the Wema rescue ship as an Executive Director, helping to stabilize the bleeding bank along with other industrious team members.

A multi skilled professional, he found himself absolutely engrossed in work as he had to supervise various divisions as well as chair the bank’s disciplinary committee to ensure those involved in the grand larceny that undermined the health and stability of the bank were brought to book. His impressive accomplishments led the board of the bank to elevate him to the position of Deputy Managing Director in 2016, the first ever in the history of the bank and subsequently as the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer in 2018.

His tenure witnessed the rapid transformation of Wema Bank to a vibrant colossus, reversing 13 long years of shareholders’ wait for dividend payment, and contributed to the launch of ALAT, Nigeria’s first fully digital bank in 2017 under the leadership of Oloketuyi. With ALAT, you can perform your banking transaction on your mobile phone from account opening to various other banking transaction from the comfort of your home or office.

The bank, through this innovation adopting technology with reengineered processes soon became attractive to all customer segments, including the youth and the sophisticated customers who would have nothing to do with the bank before. The bank experienced phenomenal growth with balance sheet crossing N1 trillion with improved profitability

Under his watch, the bank introduced the annual hackathon event called “hackaholics” amongst the youth to develop tech entrepreneurs whose innovations can solve society’s challenges in healthcare, education, agriculture and banking. They also serve as a recruitment pool for the bank to add to their innovation team.

Adebise’s strong points are his leadership attributes of team building, networking, adaptability, empathy, flexibility, attracting distinguished professional to support him, transparency, respect for his colleagues, and working in harmony with teams. He had learnt some of these skills from his mentors while working with them.

Thus, during the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 in late 2019, his leadership style came to the fore as the business continuity models the bank had instituted, especially the automation of some office processes, proved pivotal. Meetings shifted online, HR policies were introduced on remote work, with ALAT ensuring customers were well served. He ensured employees were well remunerated and properly trained.

After 33 years in banking and having reached the zenith of his career, Adebise in the pursuit of happiness, expanding the horizon of conquests, and seeking fresh challenges which have always been integral to him, is therefore cooking something new as he prepares for the next phase of his life.

Adebise sees these achievements as a by-product of his happy home, his supportive wife who has remained his fortress at critical times, and the work of his mentors and hardworking colleagues. Of course, his father, Chief Adegoke Adebise is an exemplary family man who provided the focus he needed very early in life. He taught him the value of hardwork and diligence. His mother remains a strong pillar of support, while his nuclear family gives him the equanimity to focus on his tasks. He remains indebted to the man who showed him the road to the IT world, Late Chief Charles Adebiyi, his father’s friend, who enrolled him at Debis Computers for a computer appreciation course for secondary school students at a time when micro computers were newly introduced.

This book, the first from the author, is highly recommended to leaders and aspiring leaders who desire to create high impact legacies and transform their organisations to world class entities. It is also good for those who crave for knowledge about the ingredients for success.