Orerhime Emerhor-Iwuagwu, the Group Executive Director, Standard Alliance Group, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Manchester; a Master’s degree in Leisure and Hospitality Management from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom and has also attended several academic programs in local and foreign institutions. As someone who has risen to the top managerial position of a corporate organization, started by her father, she shares in this interview with Asst Editor, Life, Temitope Adegboye her experiences so far and how she combines home front with being an executive.
Emerhor Iwuagwu
Standard Alliance has five subsidiaries, how do you manage these chains of companies?
It’s true that there are five subsidiaries but they all have their managing directors. I coordinate happenings and make decisions. I tell you, these MDs are competent and they know what they are doing. They are capable in their own right. But they bring happenings in their subsidiary to head quarters.
Tell us how the journey becoming the Group Executive Director started; how easy has it been adjusting to your position?
I joined the company about six years ago after I had worked in Oando Plc. I worked at both the Human Capital and Corporate Communication Departments of Oando I was also IT Assistant at Lagoon Homes, Savings and Loans Ltd. Working at Oando provided me with practical experience of workings in Nigeria. As a young girl, I came up with many ideas that I threw at my boss then. Sometimes, she tells me it will not work out rightly; but at others times, she allows me experiment with my idea. Sometimes, when I do carry out my experiment, I am the one that will come back to say it wasn’t a good idea after all. So, I learnt a lot there.
How does it feel operating in a male dominated sector?
It’s been very interesting. You know what it is when walking for a meeting populated by men and they see the person is not just a female but also young. It’s a double take for me. You know you don’t find many women in top managerial positions as such in this country. But I guess that is beginning to change now and it can only get better. In the last couple of years, what I have discovered is that men are very easy to work with especially when they know you know what you are talking about. It is not about been dictatorial, it’s about saying your own opinion and when it makes sense, they all reason along and we all come to a conclusive decision. Even in my immediate environment here in my office, it’s the same thing. I don’t pretend and lie that I know all. I mean, I am relatively new in this sector.
It’s not about me taking all the decision so that I take all the glory for success. No, we all sit, they contribute and we all reach a conclusion. That is not to say I am not firm in taking certain decisions but it’s best you allow contributions so that if anything goes wrong, some people will not go behind and start mumbling ‘we told her, she just didn’t want to take to our opinion.’
Don’t people take your leniency or liberal mindset as being weak?
You know what they say about when a woman is lenient, she tends to be seen as weak; when she is too hard, she is a Thatcher. However, if it is a man, when he is hard, he is being a man. For me, I take decisive decisions when I have to because at the end of the day, the bulk stops here and I am held responsible for any wrong doing. It’s about balancing it. One has to know when to hold up the big stick and when to pamper. When I first came in, I learnt the hard way because in trying to be lenient, I got my fingers burnt. I have since learnt too.
Do you have to run back to your dad to take certain decision?
Certainly, I go to him when I need to take certain decisions but my dad is the best teacher I know. If you go to my dad with a question, he’ll probably ask you tougher questions just to make you think and at the end, you will see that you are the one that will proffer the solution to the problem you brought. That is my father for you.
Sometimes, he asks why you did it this way. Why not that way? And after answering these questions, you just see that you have a way out.
I have learnt a lot from him and I am still learning.
To you, who would you describe as a good leader?
Someone I prefer to lead me is the person whom I can emulate. You see a lot of businesses fail in Nigeria because people do not mentor people. When they leave the organisation or even die, there is nobody who has bought into the vision of that company as to carry it on. The vision usually dies with the visioner. Some people leave an organisation without having trained anyone to step into their shoes. That is why I love Apple.
Steve Jobs is dead but the vision is still on, the company is waxing stronger. So for me, I would like someone who likes people to know as much as he or she knows or better still know better that him or her.
Another quality I like in a leader is one who is compassionate.
It has been proven that you get better results from your workers if you care about their welfare. You need to know your workers to an extent. A worker should not be afraid to tell you that he or she is sick or his or her child is sick because at the end of the day, if and when such a person comes to work, they will be unproductive because they have divided attention. I always want to get the best out of my employees.
Before I returned to Nigeria, there was something that was going on in the UK where they ask you as an employee to choose the best time for you to work. They prefer, if you are more productive early in the day, you come in and work in the morning hours. And if you prefer late hours, you come in then. There is no point keeping a staff in the office and then I need a document and he or she is mumbling words that I can’t understand. We need leaders who are compassionate.
As a woman at the helm of affairs, what would you say are some areas you’ve found women managers lacking?
Deliberately or not, some women are lacking when it comes to training people to take over when they are no longer there. You find a woman in a management level or one that has an idea not wanting to share or bring other people on board to make a success of that idea. Probably it is done so that she alone can take the glory for the success of the whole thing. But men are not like that. They carry themselves along.
This is one area I would like women to have a change of attitude if we must make a change in our world. A company thrives better when you have women in certain positions of the any organisation. For example, in the customer relations department, women are able to bring in their feminine nature to cater for the welfare of everyone. God has made us soft in some area but it is unfortunate that people would rather see that softness as a sign of weakness.
How easy is it combining your roles as a wife, mother and business executive?
I must say it’s not easy. But I operative a flexible work schedule. I know a lot paper works are usually waiting on my desk waiting for my signage and approval for things to move. But I also know when I work best, so I try to do all that I can do. Again, I don’t lie to myself; I seek help when I need one. I don’t bite more than I can chew. I just manage to balance things.
How much of support do you get from husband?
I get a lot of support from him. My husband knew my mother as a goal getter with an innate driven capabilities and he loved her that way.
He also knows that I’m a miniature of her and it will be very unrealistic of him to marry me and want me to change. So, he supports me in whatever way he can. That is why I always recommend marrying someone who has come to accept you for whom you are. If he or she accepts you for whom you are, there will be no need for him to ask you for a change in your personality in future
You seem to have very busy schedule. How do you manage to relax?
I sleep at the slightest opportunity I have. You know when you have young ones around you, you rarely have time for yourself. So what I do is catch plenty of sleep when I get the opportunity.