Joy Marcus
Segun Dada, 30, is the Commercial Excellence Leader at Baker Hughes, a General Electric Company. He speaks about his job and other interests
What stirred your interest in business planning and strategy?
I like to say I’m a natural person. I started working in my mum’s business from a very tender age. The exposure gave me hands-on experience of running a sustainable enterprise. When I got to the university, the experience yielded results as I could identify problems, create solutions and turn it into a viable business.
What is your educational qualification?
I have a degree in Computer Engineering from Covenant University, Ota, and an MBA in General Business Management from the Lagos Business School.
What is your current position at work?
I am the Commercial Excellence Leader at Baker Hughes, a General Electric company.
What are your responsibilities?
I manage our commercial analytics platform and support our sales and commercial operations within the sub-Saharan Africa region
You are also skilled in commercial operations, technology sales and marketing, social entrepreneurship, business development and project management. Can you espouse more on what you do?
To break it down in layman’s terms, I ensure our sales and commercial teams in the region have the needed support to sell effectively.
You founded SLM services and Kawe Africa, a social enterprise that is aimed at developing human capacity. Can you tell us about that initiative?
When I’m not working, I make an effort to give back, and Kawe Africa has been an excellent platform where we help to popularise reading and writing culture in Africa. I once heard that if you want to hide anything from an African, put it in a book and this got me thinking. We setup @kaweafrica to get Africans reading and writing through our book club and publishing support services.
What attitude do you think young people should have towards work?
Attitude towards work is everything. These days, there is a general sense of entitlement and many young people want to work for the wrong reasons, which typically shape the attitude they bring to the workplace. My advice is that young people should work to become persons of value rather than working for only the value they can get from their employers. It helps when young people ask themselves regularly, “what am I becoming?” and not just, “what am I getting?” To become a person of value requires patience, effort, persistence, the right attitude and focus. The upside is this, you can lose what you get but what you become is yours forever.
What is your view on Nigerian youths engaging in more entrepreneurial activities?
There are not enough jobs and there would never be. On the other hand, there is no end to opportunities. When young persons are entrepreneurial, whether they have jobs or not, they would be better off. The educational system has its hands tied as it usually trains students for jobs that currently exist. Current realities show that many high-flying jobs of today did not exist five years ago. In essence, we have to prepare for jobs that don’t yet exist or opportunities that are yet to be uncovered. There is no better way to describe entrepreneurship. When young people add entrepreneurial knowledge to school knowledge, they are able to quickly learn, unlearn and relearn, in a bid to uncover current and future opportunities.
What are the factors responsible for your achievements?
God’s blessings, amazing parents, access to great mentors across the world, books and the courage to try new things
What challenges do you face on the job and how are you able to surmount them?
I would say the challenge to become a better person every day. I am privileged to work with superstars, high achievers and generally great people. They inspire me to be better. All I do is ask questions and I get helpful answers on issues pertaining to career progression, relationship issues, fitness goals and a lot other interesting things.
Who are your role models and how have they influenced you?
My role models are entrepreneurs. I grew up reading about and following the stories of people such as Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, among others. I later discovered other great people like Biodun Shobanjo, Subomi Balogun, Winifred Awosika, Nike Ogunlesi, David Oyedepo, Aliko Dangote, and many others. They are not necessarily perfect people but they all have one thing in common; they are doers. They have influenced me to not just talk about problems but do something about them.
Do you have other achievements you would love to share?
I, along with a few friends, started off a movement called @blundernites, where we encourage Africans to rethink failure. Blunder Nites is a platform where we get achievers to share their stories on failure and the lessons they learnt on the road to success. With the prevalence of social media, most people only see the end results but the truth is that most times, there were failures on the road to success. We had the first edition in December 2017 and we would hold another session by March 2018. I also consider it to be a privilege to partner with @afrotechgirls, where we promote enthusiasm in science, technology, engineering and mathematics among young African girls. I am the immediate past president of the GE Toastmasters club, a Nigerian chapter of Toastmasters International, where we support one another in improving our speaking and leadership skills. I am very interested in recycling and I promote this with some friends. In addition, I have written a couple of books and they can be found on my website.
What’s your advice to youths who want to succeed in their respective careers?
Go for value first and money would follow; it’s never the other way around. You should also know that if better is possible, it is an opportunity to explore.
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