PC: Tell us about your childhood.
Folashade: I was
born in Ibadan, I grew up in Ibadan, and I was
born to Mr. S.T Osoba and Mrs. Sade Osoba. They
are both late now. I’m the eight child of my mother,
my father has many wives.
We
are actually from Ijebu Ode but we grew up in Ibadan, I went to St. Anne’s Secondary
School. Growing up for me was peaceful; thank
the Lord I grew
up in a healthy environment by the grace of God
I was well catered for by my parent’s standard so
all was well. I graduated from the University at the age of 22.
Though
my parents were disciplinarian. There was a time while I was growing up I thought my
mother hated me in
fact I wrote a note then I was 15 and I put
it in my bag, I wrote that if I die it’s this woman because you know we were always fighting
in the morning
and night. She was always strict on reading
your books, do house chores, etc.
Of
course, she was not educated but she believes very much in education and she is ready
to spend her all
for her children to be educated.
PC: What about your father?
Folashade: Yes my
father worked as a civil servant in the early days of his life and he retired
from the Nigeria Postal Service and went into business.
There was a time he had a printing press, generally
he was a business man and also my mother was a
trader in Agbeni.
PC: What are your most cherished values Ma?
Folashade: I
believe very much that anybody that fears God will relate
with other people normally. Anybody, any
human being in life you must have the fear of God
and that will guide you into everything.
Fear
of God, integrity. You know the bible says we should love our neighbours as ourselves,
if you fear God you will love and respect other
people.
PC: What kind of person wasthe founder of International Breweries who was also your father-in-law, Dr.
Lawrence Omole in your own words?
Folashade: First
and foremost, Dr. Lawrence Omole is a man that fears God as people knows him.
PC: Did
you actually meet him running the company?
Folashade: Yes, he was the chairman of the company until 1989, I think Justice Eso became the chairman immediately after my father-in-law from 1990-1996 I think.
My
father-in-law, if I didn’t meet him in the company I met him at home because I
married into Omole’s
family in 1988. So my father-in-law is a man
who fears God, loves family passionately and loves
other people passionately.
PC: Seems to be a communal..
Folashade: Yes,
yes that is where I’m going to if not for his love for
the community, he will not set up the company in Ilesha.
PC: He could have set it somewhere else?
Folashade: Of
course, when you read history and see the kind of rigor they went through
setting this company in this place (Ilesha) you will know that it’s onlythe love of the community.
PC: Was it like there is a
comparative advantage somewhere else?
Folashade: We all
know the criteria in setting up an industry. In economics we read about the
localization of industry, you know there are some
criteria that you look at before you setup industries.
For
instance for this company one of the challenges that
this company faced as at the time the company was set up was water, availability of
water.
PC: But Ilesha is. I mean it has
waterfalls, the Olumirin waterfalls.
Folashade: Olumirin
waterfalls (laughs). I think scientifically it’s a bit difficult getting commercial
quality of water from
there to this place. From the research they did, they had to invariably go to EsaOdo to get
water. EsaOdo
is about 20 something kilometers from Ilesha,itspart
of Ijesha land after Ijebu-Ijesha.
PC: So that is where the company
gets its water from?
Folashade: Yes,
till now. For instance look at Coca cola plant that is in Asejire on Ijesha-Ibadan road
it’s probably located
there because of its proximity to water. So it was
his passion for the community and if you read his
book “My life and Times” it was stated there that they want youths from this environment to get a
job to do not that
everybody should be going to Lagos.
PC: Tell us about your career growth in International Breweries.
Folashade: Well I
joined International Breweries in 1991 and was employed with my first degree as a
laboratory Analyst
and after my MBA in 1995 I crossed over to Admin
in 1996 I crossed to Finance department. I spent
7 years there, I was transferred to Internal Audit
as the Manager for 7½ years from there I was transferred to head the distribution and
logistics department
for 1½ years before I became the Corporate Affairs
Manager.
PC: You have the all round experience.
Folashade: Well,
I thank God and for that it’s a privilege to have been able
to work around the factory but have been here for about 24 years.
PC: Wow, congratulations Ma.
Folashade: Thank
you.
PC: What was responsible for that?
Folashade: Basically because I did my first degree
in Science then I had my MBA so that gave me the opportunity to be able to move around.
PC: Would
you advice youths to stick to their first course when getting a second
degree or should they change? What is the best option?
Folashade:I
would say there is no hard rule to it; the basic thing is your interest. You know a lot of people go
to
school to take courses given to them by the
University.
For
me going for B.Sc Industrial Chemistry at Unilorin as at then was my
passion because I loved chemistry then.
When I wanted to do Master degree, I initially wanted to do a Masters
in Food Technology at OAU.
I did not get to finish because as at that
time I was pregnant of my first baby so I could not complete the Masters in Food
Technology, in
fact I failed the 2nd semester exams so
I now sat
back and analyzed my situation and my thinking
was: can I do
Masters that will be applicable
anywhere, so I took choice of an MBA but in Ife
(ObafemiAwolowoUniversity),
you had to do a PGD
first
if you don’t have the required work experience
which
I did andcompleted my MBA.
So
the basic thing is to identify your interest, what do
you hope to become? What do you have passion for?
PC: So what do you have passion for?
Folashade: (Laughs)
Let me say I have passion for management, business management. Well, by the grace
of God, I was able to fit into any position given
to me like by the time I was transferred to Audit
Manager, the management worked around and chose
me without bias and
even without many increment it was later that
the increment took place.
PC: SABMILLER
recently acquired International Breweries. What is the impact to the
company?
Folashade: The
impact of the acquisition. It has brought a lot of progress
to the company. The methods and procedures is world class standard in
operations of the company. SABMILLER is the 2nd
largest brewer in
the world. So they have a system which they brought
in and have helped the company in every aspect
of the business administration, structure
and training.
PC: So
what about the founder’s values? Will they still be
retained? Like the communal nature?
Folashade: SABMILLER believes in local content.
SABMILLER is a global company, there is still a
practical maximum of local autonomy. Even though
the majority of shares is held by SABMILLER
it has not eroded the values.
SABMILLER
believes in partnering with the local community and we believe in a sociable
world.
We
have 5 agendas, we call it PROSPER Agenda that we work with:
Sociable
world, convenient for all of us. It will take me a long time to explain all of
them but a world that our community will enjoy us and we
will have a peaceful community so even though it’s a
world class company, a global company we relate with
our community
that is under the purview of this office.
We have some depending communities around
that we reach out to, we have little set aside
for that on our budget.
PC: So
let’s talk about your role as the Corporate Affairs Manager.
Folashade: The
role is to relate with external stakeholders. I do relate
with internal stakeholders too (Staff here) but basically
externals stakeholders. Such as government, agencies, the community etc.
PC: So
what is the KickstartInitiative about?
Folashade: It is
an initiativebrought in by SABMILLER because they do have Kickstart in other
countries especially African countries. Its
empowering the youths.
It
is being launched from International Breweries Foundation, this foundation was set up I
think this year. Portion of Proceeds from the
company’s sales
goes to the foundation.
With
the Kickstart, we want to encourage the youths, we want youths with bright
business ideas, workable business ideas to put down some
things and there
will be a screening process and during the screening
process, some candidates will be shortlisted
and trained. After the business training, they
will now invite a real business proposal and among
them external judges will select those with brilliant
and workable business ideas.
We want youths that
have the idea to make their idea a reality and also youths that have business
working for them that they want to expand it. We want to support them and we
are likely to have 2 categories of funding: N500,000
and N1million and anyone who qualifies
will be given.
Kickstart is a yearly
programme. We will do it every year.
PC: Not every company is involved in
this kind of initiative. Why is SABMILLER interested
in this youth
empowerment initiative?
Folashade: Well,
all over the world there is a need to focus on the youths because they are our future
leaders and there is a need to encourage them.
Currently, the
unemployment situation in Nigeria and other countries needs serious attention.
This is not the first country SABMILLER has done this. I
think it started in South Africa.
We don’t want people doing
related business no matter the business you have.
PC: Thank you ma for the time. We
are sure it inspires our readers.
Folashade: Thank
you.
No comments:
Post a Comment