Adedayo ‘Dayo’ Ojo is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Caritas Group and its subsidiaries. Before setting up shop over 13 years ago, the graduate of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), who also holds a 1984 Master of Arts Degree in Communication Arts from the University of Ibadan as well as a Diploma in Public Relations from Public Relations Business School, London, spent 15 years with ExxonMobil’s Nigerian affiliate, Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN), where he retired in 2006 as Country Government Relations Advisor and Head of Abuja Office. He also had a stint as pioneer Vice President in charge of Corporate Relations with Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), to mention just a few. In this interview with IBRAHIM APEKHADE YUSUF, the integrated marketing communications expert, an alumnus of Lagos Business School, who has contacts across different verticals of the business landscape, speaks on his management style and philosophy, likes and dislikes, among other sundry issues. Excerpts:
The God-factor in everything
The first impression you get from engaging with Mr. Adedayo Ojo is that here is one man who considers the God-factor in all he does. In fact, he believes very strongly that God should lead in the affairs of men. Little wonder he says as a man of Christian faith, he starts off his day with prayers. To him, praying is a bounden duty of sorts he owes to His creator and this devotion to God reflected all through the chitchat as he punctuated every response with memory verses from the holy book.
Management style and philosophy
As manager of men and resources, he says his management style and philosophy lends itself to democratic tendencies rather than being autocratic. “I believe in managing people by democratising the management process. I don’t know if that exists in the books. But my approach, given what I have experienced in the last few decades, is that whilst setting directions for the team in terms of giving a broad guideline as to what to do, I like to allow every individual and everybody to decide how he or she would be managed. And that’s what I call democratising the management function.”
Speaking further, he says, his responsibility is to make it clear where the company is headed and show understanding of how the team can get there and then let each individual plot what they need to do to get there.
“I believe strongly that if you know the deliverables and the timelines, you will follow through on them,” he further emphasises.
However, one thing he doesn’t compromise is punctuality. As someone who naturally sets stores by the ideal and idea of hard work and dedication, there is no room for indolence at the workplace.
“As they say, punctuality is the soul of business. I believe that for anyone to succeed in what they do that individual must be punctual. If you’re not punctual, several other things will not be in place. So, we make that ground rule and everybody is attuned to it. At Caritas for instance, each individual is allowed to set his or her goals in terms of how you accomplish the identified deliverables within time limit,” he noted.
“Every individual on the team got his or her position on merit and is not based on who you know. It is interesting that two of our new team members, I never met them until may be two weeks ago and they have been with us for months. Because when they came for the interview it was done online and all of that so, every individual having achieved his or her position by merit, is allowed to decide how he or she wants to work because the deliverables are clear. It is only those who then show signs that they need help that we help. But of course, every individual is given timely feedback on performance so that people will know where the weak link is and people will know where they are doing well. We give constant feedback as to what’s going well and what’s not going well so that individuals can set goals at his or her own pace.”
A talent hunter
He believes that God created every individual as the bible says, in His image, so everybody is good, everybody is competent and everybody has potentials. “As such, once you allow people to know what they are supposed to do, they’ll do it. I agree people need to be mentored and people need to be guided. Everybody has a certain level of skills and then those who have more experience like me have a responsibility to share lessons from their experience.”
He says with so much conviction that everyone was created with a deposit of innate talent and ability which get improved with the value of learning and education that every individual has gone through.
Delegating and micromanaging people
Asked to elucidate on whether he delegates or micromanage people, he admitted that he does both all depending on the work at hand.
“Sincerely, I would say I fluctuate between delegating and micromanaging the team members. Experience has taught me that you have to delegate and I do delegate. That’s why on a daily basis, I actually do not deal with all team members. At Caritas, the person that runs the day-to-day operations of the company is the Chief Operating Officer. He also has people with specific responsibilities. Except there is something that an individual is doing directly with me, I don’t deal with them. So to that extent, I would say that I delegate because everybody has a clear description of his or her job. However, there are some responsibilities that comes across given the nature of our job as an agency where we have to do a lot of creative, independent thinking, and the kind of ideas we are called upon to bring to the table to support clients’ eclectic briefs’ to get that done, you really have to once in while allow people to be themselves because people can’t be creative if they’re not themselves and then creativity cannot be taught, it’s innate. “As you know today, most of what we do, is around people just being natural, telling stories to get what you want done; telling stories to bring out the good part of an organisation, an individual and to do that the individuals’ idiosyncrasies would come in. The way I would do it is different from the way my colleague would do it. But the important thing is that at the end of the day, a story is told convincingly, timely and it’s effective communication and at the end of the day the overall goal of the recipient of that communication is fulfilled.”
Good team player
On whether he considers himself a team player at all, he says that’s a no-brainer. “I don’t know who you’d ask and who would say he is not a team player. But let me put it this way, I realised that to achieve the organisation’s goal I cannot do it alone. That’s the whole idea of trying to build a company, and we have been trying to do that for some 13 years now. If I do not believe that a team is necessary, then I would have a one-man company that would never grow beyond me as an individual. And if there is a way to measure if we’re a good team player or not, a simple illustration is that we have clients that we have serviced for more than 10 years consistently. And most of the jobs that is done and delivered to them were not done by me. And the truth is that today where we are as an organisation is that there are some clients I don’t get to talk to for a month or two. And yet, modestly, we can say that we’re meeting the expectations of the clients and in many cases, we’re surpassing the expectations of the clients. So that would be my modest way of reacting to the question of whether I’m a good player or not.”
Staff motivation
Talking about staff motivation, he admits ahead that it is been a very daunting task to motivate staff in the last 12 months or so since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Expatiating, he said, “For me as a CEO, one of the things I’m most proud of is that since we started Caritas, I would say that we’re probably not the highest paying agency around but one of the companies in our sector that pays what we promise to pay timely and we have done that consistently for 12 years plus. I think that every employee deserves his or her wages, and the holy book supports that. It’s a sin to hire people and not pay them their wages. So I think the primary way to motivate people is what you promised to give to them, you give to them. Just like you expect that their commitment to deliver on the specific responsibilities of their office and once that is done, you must not only pay them, you must pay it timely. So, in my view, to the best of the competence of the company in terms of resources, we meet those expectations. Based on my experience, I also try to make sure that when employees do well, we commend them. You not only tell people about the areas they need to improve, you also commend them when they meet their goals and when they exceed expectations. That’s a good expectation and in good time, we would go out of the way occasionally to give gifts in kind and in cash when they are necessary and all sorts of things within the limit of the reality of today.”
Besides, he revealed that before the pandemic struck, one of the things the company did regularly was hosting quarterly get-together, social functions for employees to just have a TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday!).
Regretfully, he says the pandemic put a stop to all that. “We haven’t been able to do that in the last 18 months. But I’m looking forward to us doing that as well. We also have inbuilt into employee benefits, some packages, when they have events in their personal lives that are worth celebrating. For instance during marriages, child births, birthdays, etc.”
Applying the stick and carrot approach to staff
“Every organisation wants to survive, and for sustainable growth, you have to encourage staff and discipline where necessary,” he says matter-of-factly.
But he says there is a caveat: “It must be done with due recognition to the individual. You must recognise also that individuals are different. You must also strive to understand everyone who works with you and recognise the best way to correct them when they need correction. Because the way you deal with an individual to get the best from a particular individual is different from what you can do for another individual to get the same result. It is only the leader that is able to do that that is a leader indeed.”
On what has been the turnover of staff since he set up shop some 13 years ago, he emphasised that, “What I’m proud to say is that in our company, we have had staff who have been with us for upward of 12 years. But we have also had people who have moved to other jobs and they are doing very well. We have our staff who now work on the client’s side, and we’re very happy for them. For everyone who has passed through our organisation, we have always encouraged them to give a good account of themselves. We are happy to support them to leave and if they want to come back, they’re always welcome.”
Not a boss who hires and fires at a drop of hat!
Yes, he has had cause to fire a recalcitrant staff but then it was justified from all account.
“I remember we have had to ask a staff to leave because he was not ever punctual. You need just come to work on time, because every individual has to deliver on time. My mantra is punctuality is the soul of business. From day one, that’s one thing I tell every new employee. To work here, you must be punctual. So, we have had to fire people basically because of punctuality. We have also had to fire an employee because of dishonesty. But if you look at the number of people that have worked in the organsation, the numbers we have asked to leave are infinitesimal, less than 2 per cent. So, when people talk about the challenges of getting the right fit of staff, at Caritas, we have been extremely fortunate. I’m especially proud of the team we have here. A relatively smaller team than we had two years ago, but I’m very proud of the individuals working here today because they’re a good fit for the corporate culture.”
Best decision in working career
On what he considers the best decision in his working career, he says without mincing words that it was the day he decided to take the plunge and get behind the wheel as his own boss.
Upbeat, he said, “I would say that the most important thing for me is the decision to start a company because it has been exceedingly rewarding. The very fact that there are people other than myself whose daily bread comes from working in the company, is exceedingly rewarding for me. So, I can look back and say that every employee we have had gets paid on time. To recall that there are organisations who have recorded their goals because of the professional support they have gotten from Caritas is equally rewarding. So, from a professional point of view, I think the idea of founding the company is exceedingly rewarding because what led to founding the company itself was that I found out that while I was in paid employment, some of the quality of services and the range of expertise around serving them was not available from the companies that provided services to us and I thought that that was a deficit. I can say that in the last 12 years, as a service provider we have closed that gap.”
Worst decision
Looking back in time in his career trajectory, he says every experience he has had was a learning curve and not one to rue over. “I don’t consider any particular decision the worst and I would explain that. What life has taught me includes the fact that every experience is an experience to be learnt from. There is not one that is good and there is not one that is bad in principle. “Every experience is what it is; it is to be learnt from. It’s either how to do it or how not to do it. There have been a number of decisions that we have taken and the lesson I took out of them was that don’t do it that way again.”
Life lessons
On how he sees life, he waxed philosophical. “I don’t take life too seriously. That’s my view. I start the day by praying. I continue to pray as I live every day that, God would help me to understand the people, things that are within my ability to deal with and the ones beyond my control, I pray about them. Those that are within my ability, I work on them. I get along with family members and those who work for me.
“I remain a student of life. Basically, what life has taught me is to take every experience as a learning opportunity. Of course, related to that is the fact that I believe that as I mentioned this earlier on that God created every person to be good. There is no bad person in my own view. That’s part of the lessons that life has taught me. Every individual should be focused on doing good. Every individual should do good as you can to every individual so that things will work out for you. Do as much good as you can, do no evil to anyone, work hard, pray hard and everything will work out. So, my philosophy is that; do as much good as you can to people, do no evil to anyone, work hard, pray hard.”
Greatest influence
His greatest influence in life he says are his parents with regards to his Christian upbringing. “I would say that every individual is a product of their background. I thank God that I have parents that subscribed to the Christian faith and brought us up along that path for the strict catholic upbringing. Like many other individuals at some point one deviated, but the important thing is that training and discipline helped. Added to that strict Christian upbringing is education. My parents never questioned when it was education. For me one of the fondest memories I had of my father was after I first finished secondary school and I didn’t do well I thought it was the end. He looked at the result and said, ‘tomorrow you’re going back to school.’ So, I repeated Form 5 and within the next nine month I was in the university. That was his focus on education. If he had a different attitude such that he had beaten me, I was prepared to pack my bag and run away from home. Maybe I wouldn’t have gone to college and the story would have been different today. So, I thank my parents for that focus on education. So, I believe that whatever anybody would do based on my experience, education is a prerequisite. If you have a very good education, your chances of success would rise astronomically.”
Definition of success
Success for him is happiness and not measured in material terms. “Every individual is responsible for their own happiness. The richest people are not the happiest people. But I think that success should be determined in terms of having good people around you, being thankful to God, and then for the gift of all the people around you, you moderate your view, your needs and within that circumference, you will find happiness. And that’s what I define as success.”
Self-motivation
“I’m motivated by the word of God that says, ‘I will be with you all the days of your life.’ I’m particularly enthralled with the early part of the book of Joshua, chapter one.”
Golfer for life
Like a typical epicurean who loves the good life, he sure knows how to catch fun when he wants to. “Other than golf, I love travelling. I love visiting the countryside. Driving along and sitting with friends and making merry. I love music but unfortunately I’m not blessed with a good voice.”
Pressed further as to his holiday destination outside the country, he says the southern part of Spain is it for him.
Regardless, he says matter-of-factly, “For me, there is no beautiful destination if there is no opportunity to play golf. Golf is life and life is golf. Don’t ask me whether I’m a good golfer or not. What I can tell you for a fact is that I have been playing golf for over 25 years. So, I enjoy it. I love golf. I have a passion for golf and I’m happiest when I’m on the golf course because golf teaches you about life. You make a mistake you get punished for it, you play a good shot, you’re rewarded for it. And every day on the golf course is different because every shot is different. So, I love golf, I enjoy golf. I play golf a minimum of three times a week if I find the time. It helps me to be mentally focused and relaxed.”
Favourite meal
As a typical Yoruba man from upcountry his favorite meal he says is yam flour known in local parlance as amala. “So, if you’re going to take me to an island, where there is only one meal that must be served throughout the duration, it must be amala.”