Titilope Oguntuga has been at the forefront of positioning organisations for competitiveness for almost two decades, leveraging resources, reputation and relationships to create positive financial and non-financial impact.
Titilope brings to bear, multi-sector knowledge and exposure, working with organisations to deliver progressive bottom-line impact, building partnerships that last, and strengthening organisational resources for optimal performance. Titilope was instrumental to the rebranding of Nigeria’s most capitalised life insurance company in the late 2000s, and also developed effective marketing and brand strategies for several organisations in the IT, manufacturing, and financial services sectors. To date, she has implemented over 500 successful projects in business recapitalisation, new product development, culture transformation, communications, branding, and corporate social investments.
Titilope is adroit in corporate reputation management, communications and public relations, strategy, innovation, stakeholder management, new product development and impact investing. She has also used her skills and expertise to support small and medium scale businesses in product development, brand building, business development and management consultancy.
Titilope is currently Head, Sustainable Development and Corporate Brand at the Nigerian operations of the world’s largest building solutions provider, Lafarge Africa Plc. She is responsible for implementing the organisation’s sustainability strategy, managing its economic, environmental, social and governance practices while leveraging this as a competitive advantage for the corporate brand.
She has a first degree in English language from Usman Danfodio University Sokoto, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and a professional certificate in Advertising from the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON). She is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) and the Project Management Institute (PMI, USA), as well as an associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK), obtaining the highest marketing qualification in the United Kingdom. She has also studied at the Lagos Business School and the prestigious Harvard Business School, USA.
She is a facilitator/faculty member in corporate academies and a teacher with many sides, including as a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council. Titilope mentors and coaches younger people and is a committed volunteer on several humanitarian causes. She has served as a judge for the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) Awards, and is also a tutor for the Charted Institute of Marketing UK accredited study centre in Nigeria. Titilope is happily married with children, and among her hobbies, she enjoys reading – having a personal library with over 2,000 physical books and thousands of e-books. In her professional and personal life, she aspires to leave an impactful legacy.
In this interview, she speaks about corporate branding, sustainability, and women in professions.
You are currently the Head, Sustainable Development and Corporate Brand at Lafarge Africa Plc, a company known as a leader in the building sector. How did you get into this sector? From childhood, did you nurse the ambition of going into sustainable development and corporate branding eventually?
From the moment I started to work as a young graduate, three things have been the golden thread in my career – building positive corporate reputations, stakeholder management and impact investing. What that means is that I have been building and managing brands, managing stakeholder groups, and developing strategies that lead to innovation and value creation.
My career trajectory has enabled me work with various sectors of the economy: financial services, telecommunications, technology, fast-moving consumer goods, and manufacturing. It was therefore easy for me to fit into the profile at Lafarge Africa. Prior to joining Lafarge Africa, I worked in the Corporate Development and Strategy Division of a leading financial services company and my work involved rebranding and recapitalisation exercises, new product development, culture and transformation management, communications on all fronts and corporate social responsibility to mention a few.
I have been involved in work that contributes to the environment, economic, social and governance (EESG) for over 12 of my 17-year career. That is what sustainable development is all about. The projects that I have worked on fuel my passion and commitment to sustainable development. For this, I am grateful and I love it for the opportunities to do new things that it affords.
When you were appointed Head, what were the challenges you had to tackle, and among these, which was the toughest to handle? What were the major changes you implemented in your current position?
Sustainable Development is a progressing global phenomenon. I work with an organisation that is committed to innovation and leading change in various endeavours. Catching up with those changes, coming from a fast-paced and developing region was something that I had to pay special attention to. What did I do? I joined networks locally and internationally that helped me to shore up my knowledge base. I also attended an international course. That came with its own exposures and helped me to build a network of people doing related work from various industries, across different countries of the world. Using our various platforms, we share resources, insights, and opportunities with one another on a regular basis. In fact, we hold regular weekend sessions that enable us to discuss initiatives and how these can be ‘glocalised’ in our respective home countries. It has equipped me to handle the present confidently and prepare for the future of sustainability.
Specifically, some of the changes I have brought on board include engaging strategic partnerships that have yielded valuable results. We have also improved our sustainability reporting process. In terms of impact assessment, new dimensions have also been introduced to how we are measuring our impact across various stakeholder groups. As a business, we are using sustainability to tell our stories in a manner that is relatable and compelling. Employee engagement and ownership of sustainability has also increased. In 2019, the volunteers took their commitment some notches further and I provided the direction for some of those interventions such as the ‘sponsor-a-child’ initiative.
COVID-19 has also enforced a new way of doing things, so we have launched a series of interventions to propel organisations to adopt new ways of achieving the sustainable development goals in this decade. It keeps getting better and I am personally sold to living in the largest room in the world – the room for improvement.
How do you juggle all your work responsibilities with being a wife and mother?
I love the balance that I have been able to achieve in marriage, motherhood, and career. It is a day-to-day achievable model that allows for being dynamic and forward-thinking. The different stages in life have responsibilities that are peculiar to them. These demands change from one stage to the other. For example, juggling the responsibilities as a newlywed or expectant mother will be different from a mother with grown-up children. I have been able to juggle these responsibilities by living in the consciousness of each of the seasons in my life. In addition, I lean greatly on my ‘community’ which is primarily my spouse, children, extended family and caregivers who support me in the home front. It is important to also state that providing an understanding of personal and career goals has helped me to manage my responsibilities. For example, one of the ways that I have garnered support in the home front is to regularly communicate my vision for career and the home in such a way that my husband and children see their own roles in helping me achieve mine and vice versa. I have the full support of my husband in the upbringing of our daughters and we are in sync on the type of individuals we want to raise.
I also need to emphasise that I have been lucky to work with female bosses for the most part of my career. Their support and understanding of the intricacies of managing as a working woman have helped me a great deal. Many of my bosses have been fair, supportive, and encouraging to say the least.
In all honesty, it is hardly perfect. There are times that I feel that more should be done or adjustments need to be made in certain areas. I make those adjustments without guilt and regret, while I keep tracking how things are faring. With focus and balance, I believe that I am managing effectively and efficiently.
In the course of your career journey, how were you able to turn challenges into opportunities?
Challenges, like feedback, is the food of champions. They provide an opportunity to show our capabilities. They should be a source of energy and something that propels us to do more. That is what challenges are for me. I simply see challenges as opportunities to thrive and more importantly, to excel. Dealing with challenges requires strength and mental stability. All through my career, I have been able to turn challenges into opportunities by maintaining a positive attitude all through the process. Many times, challenges can be daunting especially when desired results are not seen. I persevere and stay undeterred, keeping my desired outcome as the motivation. I also engage with other people outside my workplace who have an eagle eye and can view the situation from diverse perspectives. This enables me to see those crucial parts that I am not mindful of. With this, I can identify areas of improvement or create new solutions. Challenges in life keep changing. We lean on our instincts, experiences, expertise, and others to create new thinking and new opportunities from them.
What would you advise young female professionals to do to get the most out of their careers?
I am delighted about this question because we need to continually bring this to the heart of everything that we do as women. There is a need for young female professionals to be deliberate about planning their careers. It is important because they have to do some more than their male counterparts. Three senses required to excel in various areas of life including one’s career are sense of self, purpose and execution. I have been an advocate for understanding self. This provides stability when the wind of life, which comes in different forms, blow us in different directions. Understanding these three are the fundamental requirements to make the most of anything in life.
Furthermore, my personal winning strategies are:
- Continuous personal and professional development
- Identifying opportunities which are endless and seizing them with tact
- Building and leveraging the professional network
Permit me to say that all of these three strategies are two-pronged. Personal and professional development must go hand in hand. It is also not enough to identify opportunities, they must be seized. Building a network will not take a professional anywhere if that network is not leveraged. These strategies have helped me through my career and I teach these principles to the young professionals that I coach as well as the women that I mentor. For young female professionals to make the most of their careers, it is important to be adaptable, know your onions, be worth your salt, and understand emotional intelligence a great deal.
It is also important to admit that learning is lifelong. Therefore, I am also deliberate on the constant search for knowledge, skilling up and applying myself in impactful ways. The challenges will come in different forms – family, the workplace, sometimes peer pressure and societal demands. It is the professional’s responsibility to find pragmatic ways to manage these challenges. To date, I have people whom I also consult, seek counsel, and glean from their own experiences.
I would like to finish this with one of my favourite anonymous quotes ‘behind every successful woman is a tribe of other successful woman who has her back’.