Name: Oluwayomi Olabanjo

Title: CEO

Organisation: Toniceli

A digital transformation leader with passion for growth and industrial development. CEO of Toniceli and a UNIDO GCIP mentor.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Oluwayomi's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

Getting the buy in of people into the core vision

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

Growing up facing the socio-economic challenges pertaining to Africa gave me a clear perspective of the importance of stable and functional institutions and systems to economic growth. My first stint at leadership was serving as the senior perfect in my final year at secondary school. Thereafter, I had the opportunity to serve as the vice president of my state association in the university. I co-founded my first startup, FUNAABPAY, a payments platform to ease and streamline the payments of students in the school. After school, I had the privilege in co-founding another startup coverdor (now insurpass) for the seamless distribution of insurance services, after a brief stint there, I then went on to pursue my passion with Toniceli, a digital transformation company with a vision to help businesses and institutions of all sizes navigate their digital transformation journey, thereby providing greater economic growth and industrial stability. I've also had the privilege to serve as a UNIDO GCIP Cleantech mentor and in other endeavours also.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I start my day with some deep reflection, then key meetings follow in the morning. I take off time for implementations and review of projects from Midday till evening where I then have key reviews again. My night is for learning key concepts and having a good rest

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

To always carry people along in the pursuit of vision

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

The Bible - I've learnt about what it takes to have a single important document influence generations of leaders in different ages and still keep on influencing leadership

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Let the vision be more important than you

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

Having the opportunity to work with my Dad on his farm, there was a particular time a set of the birds had coccidiosis and he was making use of the wrong medication. It took him time to find out after he had to search if that was truly a feasible medication on google. That thought me to always take the little extra stress to validate concepts even if it seems to be working initially.