What I learned from the Atedo Boys

I am currently running my MBA programme, and one subject I find very interesting – and perhaps my favourite – is Organizational Behaviour (OB). Although most of the things I read in OB are things I have known as an employee in three different organizations in the last 7 years, but what makes it interesting is putting theory to practicals. That is, seeing the various personality traits and organizational philosophies I am familiar with in materials written in far away Scotland. Of all I have learnt in OB, theories that seek to explain some management philosophies are the ones I find most important. What has this got to do with the title of this essay, you may want to ask. By the time you finish reading, you should be able to know.

Any regular reader of this blog should have observed that I talk about investment banking more than any other profession on this blog. Yet, I’m not a big fan of banking as a profession, but I have never hidden my admiration for investment banking as one specialization that stands out. Investment Bankers are brilliant. I once described it as intellectually stimulating. Let me also confess that there are Nigerian bankers I have also never hidden my admiration for: Fola Adeola and Atedo Peterside. Did anyone notice that both of them quit when the ovation was loudest? Both of them built a bank from scratch. Both of them were in their early 30’s when they floated their banks. There have been many crises in Nigerian banking circles in the last two decades, so much so that, at a time, we began to ask, who should be our model when the executives we thought high of, continue to ‘fall our hands’ as Warri people will say. Well, Atedo Peterside and Fola Adeola are few of the bank CEOs that were never found wanting, whether in proved cases or rumours. I have other reasons to admire Atedo. Just follow me.

Having a brother trained in the Atedo Peterside School of Investment Banking, I think I know about his IBTC quite well, from my secondary school days. As an SSS2 student in the late 90s, I used to see IBTC souvenoirs around the house and wondered what exactly they were doing. From a small setting in Marina then, Atedo’s Investment Banking & Trust Company (IBTC) later moved to its own office, a towering edifice at Bonny Camp, Victoria Island. I think that was when IBTC announced its arrival – although to the uninitiated. The physical structure is not even what I found most captivating, but the intangible value. Continue to follow me.

Well, this essay is not even about Atedo Peterside and Investment Banking. For those interested in that, I once did an article where I proclaimed him the father of investment banking in Nigeria. Let’s return to the subject: what I learned from Atedo boys.

Who are the Atedo boys? They were some young chaps that were recruited by Atedo Peterside, most in their early twenties then, for his Investment Banking & Trust Company in the late nineties to early 2000s, before the mergers and acquisitions. I saw this somewhere.

Yes, that’s the list.

Now, what did I learn from them?

1, LOYALTY: I have never seen employees so loyal to their boss in this generation like the Atedo boys. For readers that attended this blog’s career conference that held three weeks ago in Lekki, and listened carefully to two of these speakers, Lloyd Onaghinon and Akeem Oyewale, you would have observed that practically half of the sessions were eulogies for Atedo Peterside and the old IBTC. Both are them are part of Atedo boys. Lloyd, while exhorting participants, particualrly mentioned the culture Atedo built in IBTC. From first name style irrespective of your level in the system, to sitting down beside you to resolve issues together with you, to seeing off an interviewee to his (the interviewee’s) car. Little wonder most of them are still with the enlarged StanbicIBTC. It is very rare in Nigeria for ‘hot cakes’ that these gentlemen no doubt are, to work in a single place for 10 years. Most of them are still with the enlarged StanbicIBTC, 15 years after joining as fresh graduates. Guess what? Most of them are DGMs, GMs and Directors now. Even small head like this writer has changed employment three times within the last 7 years. You must respect these guys.

Lloyd Onaghinon….humility personified

2, HUMILITY: Bankers are the most arrogant people anywhere! In Nigeria, even someone that is mere Assistant Manager(pardon me for using ‘mere’; it’s for want of nicer word, no position is mere, actually)  in a Bank will not let you hear word. Not Atedo boys. I have never seen young and successful chaps so humble. The few I relate with personal level are ready examples. When I was introduced to Lloyd Onaghinon as a speaker at my conference, and I needed to speak with him directly to thank him, my heart trembled. Apart from his very tush ‘name’ and fine picture, and his intimidating profile ( Cranfield, from which Lloyd finished, is one the best schools in the world). But I was surprised to feel his humility. Even on the event day, he sat quietly with the participants, and he only accepted to be brought to the high table when it was getting to his turn to speak. Guess what? Lloyd is a GM! A GM in a bank is a big man by all standards. I have refused to talk about Akeem, another Atedo boy, who treks from office to the mosque (which is more 200 meters away) for jumah every Friday.

3, INTEGRITY: Let me be frank. Beyond rhetoric and public posture, there are very few people that will pass the test of integrity in corporate Nigeria. Too many people, at all levels, have disappointed me that I naturally assume that you don’t have integrity until you prove otherwise (forgive me for that mindset, my mind cultivated it unwittingly over years). You may not blame them though, the climate is just one that stifles this noble quality. But if there are people I can vouch for, most of them are in IBTC. At least I can put my money on Akeem. And it is not for nothing that a man (Atedo himself) will be at the top of banking system for two decades and will not be found wanting – not even rumour – in corporate governance issues. I can count on my fingertips the number of bank CEOs that will pass this test. Perhaps it was in recognition of this that he was made the Chairman of the Committee to develop Corporate Governance code for Nigeria’s private sector in 2003. I naturally believe that anybody schooled by Atedo Peterside will have professional integrity.

Akeem Oyewale….also caught young by Atedo

4, WORK NOW, ENJOY LATER: I know these guys, although from not-so-close distance, at the beginning of their career in early 2000s. I always wondered how they did it – going to work even on Saturdays. One reason I didn’t look forward to coming to Lagos to holiday when I was in the university was because Akeem was hardly at home; the few times I came to holiday with him, I was home alone most times, with TV remote control and newspapers from morning till night. Boring. I’m sureother Atedo boys were also like that. Well, seeth thou a man diligent in his work…..now, they are reaping the benefits of diligence in the early years of their career.

5, BONDING: That picture I put there, which was a newspaper publication to greet one of them who got an appointment, says it all. They bond. They’ve known one another for 15 years, all united by being Atedo young recruits, some have moved on from IBTC, but they still relate like a family. This is a virtue worth emulating.

In the second part of this article, I will analyse what I called the Atedo Peterside Management Philosophy.

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