Dr. Biodun Shobanjo: A legacy of courage, boldness and entrepreneurship
Webster’s dictionary defines legacy as, “anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor.” To put it slightly different, legacy apart from being the establishment of traditions that can be passed on to future generations, can equally be a body of work at each stage of our career as we establish the foundational building blocks and garner the necessary experience and wisdom to contribute to growth and innovation in any given profession or environment. In one word, legacy naturally grows with each new experience, each new bold idea and ideal that we are courageous enough to deploy.
Generally, bequeathing a legacy is usually equated with the end rather than the beginning or the next phase in people’s career. But leadership is not shaped and legacy is not essentially defined at the end of the road or the end of a career. Legacy, if critically examined, is defined by the moments shared, the decisions made, the actions taken, and even the mistakes overcome throughout the many phases of people’s career.
The road to entrepreneurship is often a precarious one strewn with unexpected roadblocks and dead ends. There are lots of sleepless nights, plans that don’t work out, funding that doesn’t come through and clients and contracts that are never won. It can be so daunting to launch a business that it may make many wonder why anyone willingly sets out on such a path.
If there is one man who trusts his gut and is courageous enough to take calculated risks, if there is one man who trusts himself enough to challenge the status quo and to push the envelope of conventional wisdom, even if it means putting his own reputation on the line, if there is one man who has inspired those around him to take a leap of faith with him, if there is one man who has created a legacy defining moment in his professional and leadership career, if there is one who is aware and extremely connected with who he is and what he represents as an individual and a leader, that man is Dr Biodun Olushina Shobanjo, the Nigerian numero uno adman of many ages and epoch.
Like a colossus, Dr. Shobanjo has straddled Nigeria’s marketing and advertising terrain for nearly half a century. By 2020, Insight Communications, the agency that enabled his audacious foray into the entrepreneurial world will be 40 years.
As a marketing communication practitioner par excellence, Shobanjo cut his teeth at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, now Federal Radio Corporation, in 1964 as a studio manager. He left in 1971 and joined the American-Nigerian agency, Grant Adverting where he rose to the post of Deputy Managing Director before his 30th birthday. He co-founded Insight Communications (now Insight Publicis) in 1979 which has now become an integrated part of the Troyka Group which is the holding company for Insight Redefini (the communication group for Insight Publicis, Quadrant MSL, Media Perspectives, AllSeasons Media, LCC and Leo Burnet Lagos). Meanwhile, the Troyka Group 4 companies operating under it, namely: Insight Redefini Limited, Serengeti OOH Limited, Halogen Security Company Limited and Black Onyx Properties Ltd.
As a believer in people, Biodun’s business style has favoured a mentoring ambience which has spawned protégés who are leading lights of the advertising and marketing communications industry in Nigeria.
At each stage of his career, he has continued to create sustainable impact and influence. For example, he has always been passionate about elevating the market value of his employees’ talents by showing a genuine responsibility to reciprocate the value they are adding to his success as a leader.
According to Shobanjo there are four essential elements for success and he lists them as “Professionalism. The other is honour. The third is integrity. The fourth is passion. They come in any order but if you have these four things, chances are that you’re going to succeed.”
Entrepreneurs are often guided by a desire to create something that outlasts them. However, a segment of this group is led by ego and a craving for notoriety. Others want to create a brand that has longevity and becomes an institution. Another group wants to pass on a source of income and security to their heirs. There are also those entrepreneurs have made and those who hope to make a lasting impression on the world and leave behind an innovation that improves people’s lives in some tangible way. Needless to say that Shobanjo belongs to the later as everything about his legacy shines like the Dog Star in the firmament of Nigeria’s marketing communications.
A story was once told by one his great admirers. According to the story, “Biodun Shobanjo will always tell his subordinates that the very first sign to be noticed about an organised Chief Executive Officer is the condition you find his office and his desk. Shobanjo said: “If you enter a CEO’s office and you meet the table with books and stationeries scattered all over the place, you should for sure that such an executive is not organised. Even up until now, in his 70s, Shobanjo’s office remains an inviting destination to any young and inspiring entrepreneur. Despite the expansive nature of the office, every furniture and stationeries are neatly arranged like a Roman showroom.
Having navigated through the wilderness of Nigeria’s advertising, brand and marketing communications and emerged a brilliant success, the light of Biodun’s legacy shines like a beacon on the professional landscape for contemporary and upcoming practitioners.
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