Twenty first-century leaders should abandon conventional mindset – Ogirri

Dr Robert Ogirri brings almost 30 years of expertise in manufacturing and provide chain administration. He has served in management positions at each native and worldwide firms, resembling Cadbury, Kraft Meals, Mondelez, Nosak Group, and Ladgroup. He presents sensible steering on how leaders with conventional operational experience can harness synthetic intelligence to drive development and attain key enterprise targets on this interview with ARINZE NWAFOR

Quite a few enterprise leaders regard the present enterprise local weather as probably the most difficult they’ve ever encountered. In your view, what’s the most pressing nationwide difficulty impacting the business immediately?

That is fairly attention-grabbing as a result of, throughout the ages, everybody tends to imagine that their very own decade was the hardest. Nonetheless, the challenges we face now are way more various and have a extra rapid influence. The world immediately is a world village, and occasions in any a part of the world can simply have an effect on your operations. Nobody is an island.

Take Nigeria, for instance. Industries right here face the twin problem of confronting each black swan and gray rhino dangers. So, how does one handle unbelievable and unpredictable occasions, alongside possible, high-impact conditions? A enterprise proprietor immediately should be extremely adept at being adaptable. Key drivers of issue immediately embody insecurity challenges, energy disruptions within the absence of a transparent power technique, and inconsistent insurance policies. Then you have got shifting client calls for and dwindling buying energy, all of that are impacts of the problems talked about above. Companies are left with excessive inventories and decrease outputs. Capability utilisation is subsequently low, making it way more tough to soak up prices. It’s powerful.

In what methods have these nationwide challenges influenced how companies method technique and management?

Lengthy-term planning has primarily gone out of the window. We now should make selections primarily based on short-term plans and repeatedly evolve. The pondering now could be primarily about execution, the operational effectiveness of technique. Leaders need to be hands-on and prepared to drive fast turnarounds. How do you handle a world provide chain that may be impacted by a single tweet from a robust head of presidency, for instance, on tariffs, or by the outbreak of struggle? Consequently, a well-crafted technique should be usually measured in opposition to key efficiency indicators that repeatedly leverage the core function and strengths of the enterprise.

How has your expertise with multinational corporations resembling Cadbury, Kraft, and Mondelez, alongside native firms like Nosak Group and Ladgroup, influenced your method to management?

I usually describe it as a journey that takes you alongside a well-paved freeway, which finally connects to a tough, uneven terrain earlier than you lastly attain your vacation spot. My early years with multinationals gave me a deep appreciation for construction – issues like programs, processes, compliance, and operational self-discipline. You might be uncovered to world-class manufacturing requirements the place steady enchancment is a every day philosophy.

I might say these experiences formed my basis. I realized what “best-in-class” really appears to be like like and what it takes to get there.

Then again, working with indigenous firms sharpened my adaptability and strengthened my resilience. That was the place I realized to use international requirements inside native realities, usually navigating important constraints whereas nonetheless driving efficiency and development.

Over time, I grew into a frontrunner who leads with each head and coronary heart. You understand what needs to be accomplished to achieve best-in-class ranges, and also you drive the change passionately, primarily creating the best surroundings and tradition to make sure our indigenous firms are in a position to stand out, even inside our rising markets.

Inflation, forex fluctuations, and international disruptions have considerably affected provide chain and logistics. How do you assume leaders ought to deal with these challenges?

Earlier, I discussed black swan occasions. Nice leaders don’t simply reply to disruption; they anticipate, put together, after which reply decisively. There’s a want for disciplined concentrate on threat: understanding potential impacts, assessing chances, and constructing mitigation plans earlier than a disaster unfolds.

I need to say this: irrespective of how succesful a frontrunner could also be, their credibility might be rapidly undermined in the event that they fail to take satisfactory steps to handle foreseeable dangers. Many companies have suffered main losses in recent times as a consequence of forex fluctuations. In a number of instances, what seemed to be operational setbacks have been basically international trade losses that had not been sufficiently hedged or deliberate for.

I recall a interval throughout the wave of Structural Adjustment Programme implementation. The businesses that carried out finest have been those who invested in backward integration and strengthened management over their worth chains. The lesson stays related: resilience is constructed deliberately. Productiveness value financial savings should be emphasised to allow the enterprise to have the mandatory buffers to soak up shocks.

Leaders immediately should take a deep, trustworthy take a look at their operations. They need to ask poignant questions, like ‘The place are the vulnerabilities?’ Which capabilities are most uncovered to forex threat, provider focus, or international shocks? These weak factors are at all times the primary to really feel the pressure throughout disruption.

The default response can not be workforce reductions. Sustainable resilience comes from enhancing productiveness and driving structural value efficiencies, not from short-term cuts that weaken long-term functionality. When organisations embed productivity-focused financial savings into the enterprise mannequin, they create the monetary buffers wanted to soak up shocks and stay aggressive in unsure instances.

How can manufacturing excellence contribute to enhancing nationwide competitiveness, significantly concerning productiveness and price effectivity?

After I facilitate classes on this matter for Government MBA college students, I emphasise that manufacturing excellence is the inspiration for competing globally; it isn’t non-compulsory. It represents the true end-to-end integration of provide chain operations. It aligns technique with execution throughout three crucial dimensions: transactional transformation (enterprise course of enhancements); technical transformation (programs and instruments); and workforce readiness (high quality, value supply, security, morale, and creating excellent leaders).

A transparent instance is how we have now leveraged Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing instruments to optimise prices and develop our individuals. In lots of developed international locations, tools operators are not simply “machine operators”; they’re now technical operators. They preserve tools, handle high quality, oversee processes, and drive steady enchancment on their traces.

This reveals why excellence should be constructed from the underside up. To actually enhance productiveness and scale back prices, coaching can’t be reserved for administration alone. It should attain the shop-floor operators. They’re those who drive outcomes first.

Items are more and more crossing borders with ease. That’s the reason shoppers are demanding greater high quality at decrease value. To be aggressive, we should begin immediately by guaranteeing our individuals perceive that there are not any ‘small duties’. Each position, operation, and project should be accomplished proper the primary time.

How can organisations construct and retain sturdy groups amid the challenges of expertise migration and widening management gaps?

A report from the Centre for International Improvement signifies that the cross-border motion of extremely expert professionals has declined for the primary time since 2020, falling 8.5 per cent yr on yr as of 31 August 2025. Even so, about 2.4 million extremely expert people nonetheless modified international locations. The drop primarily displays key selections by sure international locations to restrict entry.

I imagine that we should concentrate on the important thing attributes of our youthful inhabitants and put money into constructing a wholesome tradition in our organisations that rewards innovation and creativity. Collaboration can’t stay only a slogan on our values board. It should be strengthened throughout the organisation. Now we have to embrace new expertise and new methods of working and expose our staff to them. This, I imagine, would assist in retaining our prime skills. One cause I stayed lengthy in my earlier profession was that my inputs have been recognised and acknowledged, and I knew I used to be within the expertise pool. I used to be being developed as a future chief, and this was an thrilling journey for me. Now we have to concentrate on our greatest arms and intentionally equip them for future roles.

How can management, technique, business, and provide chain capabilities be aligned to successfully ship core enterprise goals?

It begins with readability of function. Each enterprise should clearly articulate its core mission. It mustn’t simply be written in paperwork; it ought to be constant in speech and motion. That is the place integration begins. One of many largest challenges in any organisation is when core capabilities imagine they will comply with their very own ‘course’ and nonetheless obtain the enterprise goals. There are not any purposeful paths that ought to deviate from deriving their essence from the overriding objective of the enterprise and its imaginative and prescient. We used to carry a month-to-month ‘Integration Administration Assessment’, and it was really useful. These conferences allowed us to map processes throughout capabilities, establish overlaps or gaps, and make sure that each exercise was properly aligned with reaching company-wide goals.

One other method I might suggest is to keep away from tying a portion of your reward solely to particular person efficiency. You must tie it to the efficiency of the enterprise and different capabilities as properly.

That may be a technique to create incentives for collaboration. I’ve been in a position to drive collaboration and development by guaranteeing all purposeful targets are intertwined. That means, everybody understands that success is collective; that sense of “we’re on this collectively”.

High quality, Setting, Well being and Security are sometimes perceived merely as compliance capabilities. Nonetheless, there are indications that they will function a core organisational energy.

QEHS has gone past mere compliance. It’s now thought-about a strategic instrument for organisations that intention to be world-class.

Take sustainability, for instance. It displays how an organization manages its surroundings, its individuals, and its processes. The world immediately scrutinises whether or not companies deal with waste responsibly, keep away from exploitative labour practices, and optimise power use. These are all integral to well being, security, and sustainability. Now we have seen main vehicle firms recall automobiles for failing to satisfy emission requirements. These are the enterprise penalties of neglecting QEHS.

As a rustic and as firms, we can’t ignore these requirements and focus solely on servicing clients. That’s not sufficient. High quality has moved past the product itself to incorporate packaging, sourcing, and even ingredient traceability.

Specialists in QEHS can immediately drive development and productiveness by figuring out recurring enterprise gaps and implementing sensible, sustainable options.

Now, take a look at the current actions by the Lagos State Environmental Safety Company. It shut down a number of firms for failing to deal with effluent and wastewater correctly. Past regulatory penalties, these closures lead to misplaced income and reputational harm. These are penalties that might have been mitigated with proactive QEHS management. Now do you see why QEHS is a core energy?

Know-how and synthetic intelligence are remodeling industries worldwide. How can leaders with conventional operational backgrounds adapt and have interaction successfully with this shift?

Change is the one fixed each chief should reckon with. From the agricultural and industrial eras to immediately’s expertise revolution, those that fail to evolve are left behind.

We now dwell in an age of the Web of Issues, synthetic intelligence, and robotics. It’s tough to justify, for instance, any severe organisation nonetheless working with out an Enterprise Useful resource Planning system on the coronary heart of its processes.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, as soon as mentioned that “AI might be crucial factor humanity has ever labored on.” That isn’t an exaggeration; it’s a warning and an invite.

Ahead-looking leaders ought to already be exploring tips on how to embed AI throughout their operations: on the manufacturing unit ground by way of human-machine interfaces that may predict faults and optimise efficiency; in gross sales and advertising by way of instruments that analyse patterns, anticipate client behaviour, and information technique. Throughout Rwanda, drones are actually being deployed to assist healthcare supply and agricultural productiveness. Africa can’t afford to face on the sidelines whereas others press forward.

The Twenty first‑century chief can not assume or act with a conventional mindset. AI literacy shouldn’t be non-compulsory. Governments ought to think about integrating AI schooling into college curricula to arrange the following era not solely to make use of these instruments but in addition to construct and govern them.

Which key management classes are most relevant to immediately’s era of managers?

In my 30-year profession, I’ve had three guiding ideas which have at all times influenced how I work and lead. I got here throughout them early in my journey, they usually have remained my compass ever since. I name them the three A’s: Accountable, Aggressive, and Adaptable.

I see accountability as taking full possession of your actions and duties. It means being somebody others can belief and look as much as, main by instance, and retaining integrity on the coronary heart of every thing you do.

Be aggressive. This isn’t about hostility; it’s about being pushed and decided. It means staying resolute within the pursuit of your targets. By no means backing down when challenges come up. Whether or not it’s hitting a gross sales goal or guaranteeing a undertaking is accomplished on time and inside funds, you stay centered on outcomes and see issues by way of to the top.

After I discuss adaptability, that is what retains you related and resilient. It’s about staying fast and versatile. Open to new concepts. You be taught from errors, maintain enhancing, and embrace alternatives that may provide help to innovate. You anticipate challenges, handle dangers, and at all times keep one step forward. Adaptability is what retains momentum alive.