What does it really take to succeed in big multinational businesses in the developing world?
One man’s remarkable journey from a rural Nigerian village to a top job in a global corporation describes the challenges, the opportunities and the issues we must all face up to if we are to create positive organizational and societal impact, equality and equity in global businesses.
Babs Omotowa has written From Storeroom to Boardroom to share his insight on the challenges and opportunities of big businesses in developing countries including on, climate change, oil spills, corruption, transparency, culture, government relationships and societal (community and capacity) development.
Babs Omotowa has spent his life rejecting the status quo. His own career disproves the unthinking perception that Africans underperform in global businesses, and his insistence that bigger environmental, societal and governance issues such as community development, corruption, transparency and pollution belong on the corporate agenda alongside market and production target, has helped shape big business’s approach in the developing world.
Ask Babs:
- About his remarkable journey from a rural Nigerian village to global VP with integrity and courage
- Why he rejects the perception that Africans (Nigerians) underperform in global business
- What it takes to run big business in developing nations, to deal with national government, stakeholders and corrupt officials
- Why issues of community development, local content, corruption, transparency and pollution belong on corporate agenda alongside financial and market targets.
From government agency blockades due to his refusal to pay an illegal levy, to the fallout from his resistance to paying $2bn to fund elections, to bringing transparency to oil spills and revenues to government, to creating strategic master-planning for community development, to developing local capacity, to ensuring the country honours contractual obligations to international investors and to taking tough stance to address corruption issues, his story exposes the challenges that big businesses are confronted with in developing countries and reveals how multinational companies and leaders can best navigate these challenges: with integrity and courage.
Babatunde (Babs) Jolayemi Omotowa worked for 26 years with Shell in Nigeria and Europe. Starting work in a storeroom, he rose to become CEO of Nigeria LNG Ltd, a venture with Shell shareholding and subsequently became a Shell functional Vice-President across 40 countries. A former Global President of the UK Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, he has spoken at the World Economic Summit, Universities such as Harvard and MIT, and at many global conferences. He now works with multi-national companies and not-for-profit organizations to help them work more effectively in partnership with the developing world, recognizing the bigger issues involved and finding routes to success that are good not just for business but also at a global and local level.
From Storeroom to Boardroom by Babs Omotowa is published by Practical Inspiration Publishing, £12.99. https://practicalinspiration.com/product/from-storeroom-to-boardroom
