HR Maven, Kemi Otegbade Speaks On Her Travails and Triumphs

FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

For Ms Kemi Otegbade, her profile in the business terrain is very intimidating. She is a woman that has all it takes to be a total being and one who really understands that the terrain in Nigeria is harsh to women, and that they have to make double efforts to scale through. 

Through her popular outfit, Heartlink Ventures Limited, Otegbade has made giant stride in the area of public relations, human resource and event packaging.

But she has also been stamping her imprint on the production of reality television shows including the recently concluded debut edition of Celebrity Housemates.

In the course of the production of the reality TV show with posse of talented actors, singers and comedians as housemates, there were some little challenges which in no way affected the conclusion of the maiden edition.

“Producing Celebrity Housemates is entirely a new terrain for me and of course, there were challenges. The major challenge was when a bank, that has supported us both in national and Diaspora events, pulled out of partnership halfway into the show. This led to major crises,” Otegbade disclosed.

According to the amiable woman, “I later found out that the bank had major internal crisis but of course as the chief responsibility officer of the project, I accepted responsibility of the challenges and as a professional, no brand name must be mentioned. There were also few others who paid 30 per cent only of their liability and just changed the story. That is part of life.”

Otegbade disclosed that her outfit has a lot of great contents that promote Nigeria beyond reality show template which is already in demand.

“We are in talks with interested stakeholders as well as our cast and crew. We will soon push the raw unseen before episodes out after financial aspect is concluded. Our housemates especially the last six deserve to be specially pampered and by His Grace will be. Some members of the crew also worked sleeplessly day and night.”

She explained further, “On this production, I saw another angle to life hitherto un-experienced before. There was also a major health challenge but the good Lord took control otherwise we will not be talking about any current or past project today. In entirety the greatest lessons on the project is trust and betrayal which is a story for another day entirely.”

Indeed, Otegbade is a woman of many parts, and an entrepreneur of almost two decades and she has been striving for success over the years.

A banker turned event manager, call her a busy bee and you will be hitting the nail right on the head. Too restless for a 9-5 job, she knew that her stay at the bank then would be short lived.

In 1999, Otegbade left banking industry to follow her dream of own her business and since then has not looked back.

Imbue with a passion for creating employment for Nigerian youths, the Business Administration graduate said one unique attribute that has helped her in business is her ability to tolerate.

As an HR honcho, Otegbade has a rich class of clientele who rely on her for recruitment of quality and professionals as staff.

She recruit for all sectors’ players and delivers within 48 hours.

On how she has managed to achieve this, Otegbade said, “First and foremost, I work with clients who are ready to pay their staff well. We aren’t appeal to clients who pay peanut and expect those staff to perform. We have a payoff we use in our HR department; ‘You pay peanut, you will have monkeys as staff’. You should motivate your staff. If they are not happy, they will not contribute. They will be dormant.”

As an human resource specialist, no matter how bad a person is, Otegbade still find a way around it bring out the good side of that person.

On how she has been coping to remain on top of her game as an average entrepreneur in Nigeria, Otegbade said as entrepreneur of almost 19 years now, it hasn’t been a cup of tea.

“There have been highs and lows. There are many factors that are peculiar to this environment for example, no compensation for natural disasters, people have lost their businesses in volatile areas in the Northern part of the country and they have to begin again without government assistance.”

She continued, “I have published business directories in the past, and at a time, the printer’s printing press got burnt after I just paid him his final installment, both cash and books of over 2000 copies got burnt. Of course I did not get compensated because there was no proper insurance in place. It was like the whole world came crashing on me for a struggling new business.

“Of course, we started all over again with the support of my family and friends. Adverts had been paid for, so there was no going back. Thank God for e-world, no need for printing of hard copy directories anymore. One can go on and on, but in a nutshell, if you survive in Nigeria, you will survive almost anywhere in the world. For me I have dabbled into various lines of businesses and have had my share of losses, betrayals, burnt fingers, etc. which are the indexes that will eventually propel one into greatness. Some have been very profitable while some; we barely managed to break even. I will always refer to my mantra; you win some, you lose some,” said Otegbade, who has taken events management to Ghana, Cotonou, South Africa, London and United States.

The bottom line is that Otegbade is a woman on a mission possible with an unusual knack for making things possible, and with her verve, she is very much alive for another doxology.

“I have always wanted to work for myself, but my NYSC primary assignment further made up my mind for me. I enjoyed all the services my organization was providing so much that at times, one is not in a hurry to go home. Some of the services stayed with me like events management and business center services which I started with before moving unto H.R and more,” she said emphatically.

Otegbade is a sociable personality with friends across different strata of profession and ethnic divides.

She has as mentors who have greatly inspired her including Chief Mrs. Eniola Fadayomi, a Past President of Institute of Directors.

Otegbade, at age 10, wanted to be a doctor or lawyer, but found herself in another environment, which she now relishes.

Her most notable milestones are being the first private company to hold an event in United Nations Headquarters, New York, in partnership with Nigerian home office; the Corporate Nigeria Stakeholders Forum, an investment summit which held for two days in July 2013 and African Women Summit in 2014.