His twitter bio
reads “Choiseul Laureate and named Africa’s top 100 youngest and most
influential economic leaders in 2014 by Institut Choiseul”
The man; Mr.
Joshua Oigara. He serves as Group CEO of KCB Bank Limited, a position he has
held since January 2013. He served as CFO and member of the Board of Directors of
KCB from January 2012 to January 2013. Mr Oigara has many feathers in his cap,
from serving as the current Chairman of the Kenya Bankers Association, Chairman
of the Williamson Foundation, Executive Director and Group Financial Director
for Lafarge East Africa at Bamburi Cement Limited, to Business Performance
Manager at Hima Cement Limited, Group Business Performance Manager at Bidco
Africa and to his initial years at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Impressive
credentials, right? KCB is the largest bank in Kenya by asset base. Steering
such a powerhouse demands a level of prowess, skill and uncommon savvy!
My interview
with him wasn’t like any I’ve done before. This was evident right from my efforts
to schedule an interview with him, which began in January this year. Someone
asked me how I managed to connect with him and schedule an interview. Would you
believe me if I told you it was as simple as using Twitter?
Sometimes I
think us young people don’t effectively utilise Social media as best as we
should. Social media is great to post selfies on Instagram, talk about your
weekend on Facebook, shares memes and interact with friends. However I have
come to realise that we can take it a step further and connect with diverse people
and expand our circles. Leaders, entrepreneurs, and business executives have
now gone digital. It really is as simple as that! So I sent Joshua a tweet. The
interesting thing about twitter is that it limits you to 140 characters, so I
had to sum up my message in 140 characters. (Chuckles). And here we are!
I felt more nervous than ever walking into his meticulous office on the material day. Our mothers always tell us to put on our best dresses, hold our heads high and flash the million dollar smile. That I did! J
I knew that
this would be an interview unique in its own way. He inquired about me, wished
to know what I did and what inspired the interview; it was engaging, refreshing
and a challenging conversation. In fact I told him that the aim of this
interview was to discover the man himself, devoid of the title and information
in the public domain. A quick google search will yield phenomenal results of
this man, his childhood, his accolades, and his rise to KCB CEO. So this
interview will steer clear from that, and unearth who he is, his values and what
makes him the man he is. I hope something in here inspires you, or triggers a
spark in you to become the person you are destined to be. Enjoy:
I have one of the best teams. I am surrounded by some of the best minds; a brilliant team. I
believe our culture has taught us to have the tyranny of “you versus me”. It is
always a competition to outwit those around you. It is a push and shove aimed
at outsmarting, outperforming and outshining those around us. But my
fundamental question would be, why can we not replace this “you versus me” mindset
with “you AND me”? Why can’t it be about teamwork, about working together and
about growing each other? I believe this is a paradigm shift we need to have as
a society.
I have always believed there is no shortcut
to prosperity. It is sheer hard work. Earlier on
in my career I undertook a program for Management Development at Duke
University. While I was there I met one of the youngest CEOs. He rubbed shoulders
with men twice his age, and still exhibited traits of a seasoned captain of
industry. This greatly challenged me. Scaling to great professional heights is
not a preserve of those with numerous years in their feathers.
Effort delivers outstanding results. You must make a conscious decision to follow the path you want.
Growing up, my ambition was always “to be a CEO of a blue chip company by the
time I was 40, although at that time I wasn’t exactly sure what a blue chip
company was”. I have always believed background doesn’t define who you are; it
is a platform to catapult you to unimaginable heights that you wish to achieve.
My parents, William and Diana Oigara, were school teachers and rural farmers. My father believed the only inheritance we
would get was a good education.
Over the years I have come to learn that you
must be willing to do what you think you cannot do. You have to envision yourself achieving those dreams which your
mind tells you that you cannot achieve. This will require you to have unmeasured
ambition, ambition that drives you to put in the necessary hours; commonly
known as the 10,000 hour rule.
In order to achieve greatness, we must begin
to benchmark ourselves on a global level. Think
global. It is important to benchmark yourself alongside those in your industry,
but we have to go a step further and think regional, think global. This expands
your potential greatly. Depending on the role you are doing, benchmark yourself
against your regional and global counterparts. This puts a lot into focus,
changes your perspective greatly and sharpens your drive and resilience. Let’s
not think Kenya-wide. Let us challenge ourselves and think global!
Having heard such great insights, Joshua gave
me the opportunity to ask him anything. I chimed in and asked that all-elusive
question which we young people battle with “How
do you discover your passion?” His
advice was simple and yet so powerful;
In life, never do many things. Run a race to
build on your strengths. Look for your passion, seek out your comfort
and what you are good at, and be the best in it. Life is a God-driven purpose.
We have to discover our God-given purpose in life, and fully focus on achieving
that.
Joshua is a man
passionate about young people. In his role as CEO, and outside of this role, he
is a firm believer in the potential of the youth. He re-affirms that we need to be in the 2% bracket of people who
categorically and without fear of ridicule or shame, go after our dreams.
It doesn’t matter how long it takes and the opinion of others (which he reckons
you will have to face along the way). What matters is having the drive and will
to realise the dreams you have. Look around for the opportunities open to you,
and go for them!
Joshua went on
further to emphasize that when we are young
we can be more aggressive with our time. At a young age, we have the most
defining moment to build a more sustainable future. It’s important to surround
ourselves with a good support system; choose your friends wisely as they are a
definition of who you are.
His greatest advice to young people would be that we need more young people biased to doing more and talking less. The future belongs to Doers. Everyone has an idea, but there are few who decide to do something about it today and not tomorrow. Indeed we have a unique opportunity in this generation to build and realise more inclusive growth and shared prosperity.
Chasing perfection
Photo credits: Business Daily Africa, Kenya Bankers Association, The Star, Samsung Galaxy S4
