Who is Shina Alabede?
Shina Alabede is an Executive MBA holder with a specialization in Financial Management; a BSc degree holder in Agricultural Economics; and with full membership status of National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM) and Institute of Credit Administrators (ICA).
He is also a Certified Training Professional (CTP) with the Malaysian based Financial Accreditation Agency (FAA) and a workshop/seminar speaker on Business and Economic Analysis.
Shina worked for over 2 decades in commercial and corporate banking activities spanning 4 different banks with considerable experience in managing strategic business units, Market expansion/business development, Credit management, and microfinance project management amongst others. His experience also cuts across the Aviation sector as GM (Finance and Administration) after he left the banking sector as an AGM.
He has been in capacity building for about 2 decades, contributing to human capacity development in financial institutions and blue-chip companies in Nigeria. He is a Management Services and Business Development consultant.
Shina is a faculty member of Rome Business School where he leads discussions on Marketing Management and Managerial Economics.
What influenced your decision towards pursuing a career in your chosen field?
I have been conscious of my career fields from my secondary school days. Economics and Mathematics have always been my best subjects.
My career majorly revolves around Economics and Marketing subjects. This may not be unconnected to the alignment of some of their principles with my upbringing and reality of their implications for a successful outcome.
My favourite Economic principle is the Opportunity cost /Alternative forgone concept. This applies to real-life situations at all times. In fact, Success cannot happen without sacrifice/Tradeoff.
With regards to marketing – Everybody lives by selling something and success is almost impossible in any field without solid sales skills. Solid sales skill is synonymous to success in any field of expertise as our daily life involves selling something.
How have you tried to keep up with space in technology, digitalization, and perception while appealing to your multi-generational audience?
I find it very easy to appeal to my audience as I have always been tech-savvy and an apostle of change and adaptation. Also, my banking career with financial and technology savvy institutions and considerable experience in adult training and learning methodology deployed to the staff of other financial institutions and other companies make it easy to cope. I always imbibe continuous self-development and adjustment to the requirements and reality of my operating environment as they are germane to my performance.
I have always believed that one is powerless without change and stopping change is futile. Adaptation is very vital to success – Failure to adapt is equal to premature death.
How can Leaders drive corporate performance and sustain business growth despite inconsistencies in the business world?
The business environment has always been beset with VUCA – (Vulnerability, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity)
To survive, evolve, and sustain is the biggest question in the mind of every corporate leader. Success in business is also not so much about growth as achieving sustainability. In other words, sales and revenues are not enough, they are just necessary but not sufficient for sustainability. This is what COVID – 19 has taught us.
The dynamism of the world economy requires continuous adjustments or adaptation and resilience-building as eventualities/economic disruptions will always happen.
Sustainable business growth requires improving the company by investing in capabilities, both as an individual and as an organisation (Marketing, R&D, Operations, Finance, etc.). This is evident in companies like Coca-Cola, Guinness, P&G, and Apple. The imperatives are the following among others:
- Implement a deliberate and purposeful growth strategy/plans
- Adaptive leadership management with winning mind-sets
- Staff responsibility and accountability with result measurement against expectation and actionable reward system.
- Innovation and creativity along with operational systems and product lines
- Diversified businesses and revenues while avoiding customer and sector concentration.
- Cash flow consciousness – Cash is the fact and reality for business sustainability
- Customer centrism with a good feedback mechanism.
Mention your evergreen life quote/ lesson.
My evergreen life quote is – “Event + Response = Outcome” inspired by Jack Canfield.
The equation is empowering for both work and life. It is also described as a success formula that puts you in control of your destiny.
Simply stated, if you don’t like the results you are currently getting in your work or life, change your response to the event until you get your desired outcome. It is always easy to find excuses and blame others or events when things don’t work out as expected. Worthy of note is that there are other people facing the same circumstances and getting better outcomes. What’s stopping you is YOU.
Advice to students – Past, Current, and Prospective.
This is embedded in the following quotes.
- A big shot is a little shot that kept shooting.
- Success is without sacrifice.
- You cannot achieve what you have not defined.
- Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask.
- Don’t watch the clock, do what it does. Keep moving.
Furthermore, they should imbibe Hard Work, Goal Setting, Perseverance, Networking, and Relationship Building. They should always be result-oriented and track performance at all times. Continuous adaptation/adjustment to their operating environs is also key. The essence of enrolling in RBS is to become “a Better Manager for a better world”.