Lola Masha is Chief Executive Officer, OLX Nigeria. In this interview with Bukola Aroloye she speaks on the prospect and challenges of managing arguably one of the famous online portals in Nigeria. Excerpts:
There is OLX from?
OLX was founded by two guys, one Argentine and one French man. Our initial headquarters was in Argentina for that reason because the co-founder is from Argentina. But right now, OLX head office is in Amsterdam because we have grown from a small company to a global brand. We operate in Colombia in India, Argentina, Philippines and we have 40 different companies around the world.
What has being Nigeria response to OLX so far?
It’s being very great. Nigerians have responded very well to OLX and we get comment constantly from our users. Previously, if you want to sell your car, what you do is to park that car outside and put for sale on it and you tell your friends at church you want to sell a car. But now you can sell you car in a week, in some cases in a day because the audience is much wider. Similarly, when you are using OLX you have a wider audience to sell your used goods, if it is a used phone or a used car or any other used item. Much of feedback from Nigerians, we try to be as local as possible because our people are local. As a Nigerian who was born and raised here the way we engage is also local we are not shy of being in Yaba, we are not afraid of being with Nigerians. It is perfectly fine with us and we really see ourselves almost as a Nigerian brand.
You said you have localised your business operation, what of the grandma in the village that doesn’t understands this?
We are also localising our marketing also, we are having our marketing materials in pidgin also that she may understand and we are even working to localise our supporting team if she needs help and she calls and wants to speak Yoruba. We are doing all we can and we also have what we call agents that goes out to the field just in case she might not be able to come to our office, we will come and explains how the platforms work and we help her do it, if she has an item to sell, we help her post on OLX, we will take calls on her behalf and do everything that we can to be simple as possible.
Do you see yourself as a boss or a leader?
One key difference between a boss and a leader is one of hierarchy. You can have a leader among peers and a boss is someone who is at the top. The way I prefer to manage is very much more flat structure with almost hierarchy. I sit with the team. This place we are is for conference meeting. Here, we relate and do peer review. For me, no idea is a bad idea; we all come together to come up with solutions. And I don’t have all the answers but my job is to bring the best out of everyone who I work with and not to tell them what to do but to empower them.
Knowing that you’re in a man’s world, what does it take to survive as a woman?
At OLX 70 percent of our staff are female. If you walk round the office you will see more female staff than male staff. We have definitely shattered that misconception about male dominance completely. And I believe women are the strongest sex. We don’t discriminate against women. I believe women can be ambitious, just as men are committed and successful as men can be. At OLX, we’re very much support our women and make sure that it not a man’s world.
What is your management style?
It is definitely open and very supportive. I don’t see my staff as workers but as team members. Whatever my team members’ dream is, my desire is to help them get there and that could be at OLX or either outside OLX. If their ambition is to further their studies, it’s my job to get them there, if their ambition to get outside the country, my work is to get them there. That type of my style is being supportive and making sure that my team members reach their full potential.
What inspires you to do what you do?
I have a bachelor degree from a university in the United States and I got my Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from the University of California. I also worked with one of the top global consultant companies called Inclining, based in Chicago. I worked there for few years before I moved back to Nigeria. After I came back, I worked with several companies including Google which was my last job before joining OLX where I spent four years as partnership for Africa and other parts of the region. I joined OLX because it was a very attractive proposition for me, in terms of the potential of the business being successful in Nigeria.
When I joined OLX it was still a very young organisation. The potential of making it a bigger brand and a better known brand and the type of impact we are able to make. We hear success stories from our users every day. I can give you examples. These include a young guy in Ibadan who got an admission. He was able to raise himself; he sold used cars and phones to be able to further his education. We have also heard a graduate who is unemployed and he began to help his neighbours to sell their items to OLX, he was called Mr. OLX by his neighbours and he was able to meet a business owner who offered him a job in Abuja as a Development Manager to help him drive his business on. We are presently making an impact with our Nigerian users.
How would you describe the success so far?
OLX since three years has successfully become the number one online classified business here. When it started we were not number one, but we have put things in place by way of improving the products and promoting the brand and providing excellent customer service and that has essentially transformed us or push us to become the number one online classified business. It has not been easy, the journey has been quite tough and we’re also proud of where we come from and where we’re today. And we see the future as even brighter. We have done this with a fully local team, we don’t use expert, and we don’t use foreign staff. We find all of our talent locally. We currently hire close to 200 people to both full-time and contract working with us at OLX.
So you have provided jobs for new graduates in Nigeria?
Yes, we have provided jobs we have provided opportunities for Nigerians to make money and to use that cash to tantalise and further their education, to pay school fees, and we are constantly changing life every day.
What have been the challenges thus far?
It has not been smooth sailing and I think the key challenge have been making sure that we provide a trusted platform for our users. OLX is a global brand and our plan is not to be in Nigeria for short time but intend to be here for many years. And for us to do that our users need to trust us to know who we are and what OLX is about and to keep coming back to OLX. So it is important that we have a sales platform that is most trusted. And we work very hard to achieve that to put things in place and even things that other companies don’t have. We verify our users and by hundred percent of locations in Lagos across all categories where we come and inspect the items we come and meet you face to face to make sure we know who you are when you post on OLX. So we have taken measures to provide the best, in spite of challenges that we face.
Where do you wish to be say in the next five years?
That is a very good question. But the way I would answer that question is by telling you a very short story and I will be going back to few years. Ten years ago, if you ask an average Nigerian down the street that do you know cook, they will say yes. If you ask them do you know MTN, they may have heard of MTN, but if you ask do you know how it works, have you used it before, how do they make money? They will likely say no because MTN was still very young. Similarly, if you ask an average Nigerian two years ago do you know OLX? Some will likely say yes. Some have seen our advert on TV. Do you know how OLX actually works they will say no. So our ambition for the next five years is that we reach a point as you are walking down the street you and you ask not only will they know the name but have used and engage in it successfully and how we make money and will be very familiar with the OLX business model. So to answer your question, our vision for the next five years is to become a true household brand.
