18/02/2020

Having previously worked in finance, MBA alumni Lolade Oresanwo and Paul O’Callaghan met when they were both studying at Cranfield School of Management. The course, and particularly the entrepreneurship modules opened them up to the possibility of taking a completely different path to the one they had been on. As part of their studies they worked together on a business plan that would later form the basis of a business they would go on to co-found in Lagos, Nigeria: WestAfricaENRG – an environmental and renewable energy company who transform waste to resources and provide sustainable employment in the area. Read on to find out more about their time at Cranfield and the journey it set them on.

I never came to Cranfield thinking this was going to be my path. The MBA opened us up to new possibilities.

Lolade:  I started working quite early on and very, very young. I'd worked for a few years, and I just realised that I wasn't really adding any more value to the level of work I was doing. I needed to do something different, so that I could carry on progressing. That’s when I decided to come and study for my MBA at Cranfield School of Management.

Paul: When I came to Cranfield, I’d already spent 14 years in financial services. It was just after the financial crash in 2008 and I’d been working at Lehman Brothers. I was looking for a bit more of a different direction, and I wanted to use that year doing the MBA to think about what I wanted to do, to get an extra qualification and decide where to go. It gave me the courage to venture out and to do something on my own. I think for me, the MBA taught me resilience, Dr John Glen (former Executive MBA and Full Time MBA Director, current Director for the Centre Customised Executive Development) said: “It will teach you how to measure risk, how to manage resilience.”

Lolade: On the MBA, I chose the path of the Bettany Centre and I took the entrepreneurial learning quite seriously. When Paul and I met on the MBA, we looked at different projects – on the International Strategy Course we looked at setting up a business in Africa – specifically Ghana at that time. That business plan we worked on together formed the basis of the plan that we’ve actualised now. The MBA should open you up to new possibilities, rather than career progression – that is entirely what that course did, it opened us up to new possibilities, believing that we could actually do better and be different – while also recognising that you’re going into a very risky world, where a lot of responsibility is going to be put on to you. I never came to Cranfield thinking this was going to be my path, I never thought “we’re going to be running a business in waste management.” My comfort zone would have been to stay on in banking – but I’m getting out of my comfort zone, taking a risk and being responsible for employing so many people.

Paul: I wouldn’t want anyone to think they’re going to come and do an MBA and all of a sudden they’re going to set up their own company. It’s about the personality as well – what appetite you have.

Lolade: It goes back to what you want as an individual. But the time away, doing the MBA course, it opens your mind up to say “you don’t have to go the straight way, the way that is expected. You can have variety, you can have a hybrid of your goals and plans.” That’s what the Cranfield MBA is all about – it’s a very unique experience. For me, the full-time MBA at Cranfield changed my life.

Deciding to set up West Africa ENRG

Lolade: So we had this business plan that we wrote while we were studying at Cranfield. After the MBA we went our separate ways… Paul was working in Russia, I was working in Scotland. One day, I sent Paul an email saying “whatever happened to this dream that we had?” and that’s where we picked it back up. Paul replied and said “I think this is a really good business plan, I don’t know why we didn’t push for it.” Originally, the business plan focused on Ghana – however, we decided to launch in Lagos, Nigeria, instead because that’s where the market is. We submitted a proposal to the Lagos State Government and it was accepted. We put a lot of work into the business plan while we were at Cranfield and we just didn’t want to see it go to waste.

Paul: The business plan we had then, it’s not exactly what we’re doing now. It was fluid – it was changing all of the time because of the market. We’ve had to be innovative and dynamic about the whole situation.

Lolade: We were taught about the importance of innovation and dynamism at Cranfield – you have to put everything together to fit in with the market realities because sometimes what you’ve written down on paper isn’t what’s there in the market. When we got down to the market, we saw that we had to be fluid and change our systems a little bit.

Doing good through business: providing economic growth and sustainability.

Paul:
I wouldn’t describe myself as an environmentalist – I’m a reluctant environmentalist. I’m not a climate change denier, but I think climate change and environmental issues are going to be resolved by business solutions – both of us enjoy the challenge of addressing those problems. It’s a case of trying to build something that is impactful on people’s lives and the environment – while also embracing the engineering and the intellectual challenge of creating a business to solve something.

Lolade: When we were on the MBA, in marketing class, it was all about the ‘three Ps’ of sustainability – the people, the planet and the profits. It’s about trying to help people, saving the planet with our products, while also making profit. Seeing people being able to afford more than just the basic things – that’s the people part of our business. When you look at sustainable development goals, it’s about providing decent jobs for everyone. When you provide people with jobs, you’re doing something good. You’re not just becoming a charity – it’s being able to provide economic growth and sustainability. The more we keep throwing money at things and not actually getting the good out of that money, it won’t be sustainable. It’s about social economics: once the business is sustainable economically there is job security for those you’re employing. 

Paul: One of the personal benefits, which I didn’t really expect, was being able to see someone you’ve employed doing so well – women being able to use the money to pay for extra education for their children and give them a better chance – there’s an economic multiplier effect.

Challenges and the need to develop resilience

Paul: Launching the business has meant developing an increased level of resilience – there are things on day one that would have broken me but now don’t affect me. The process of building a business and making it successful requires resilience.

Lolade: Being able to overcome the hurdle of taking an idea that is accepted in Europe or in America into a developing economy has been challenging. Where people are questioning whether you have an ulterior motive and being able to explain that it’s a business that has thrived elsewhere and you’re just trying to replicate it and improve things here. It can make you question yourself.

But I think the biggest challenge has been being able to detach myself from the business – the work-life balance is different from paid employment where you can detach yourself. There’s no holiday, no break. There’s a constant need to be accessible. There’s nothing we couldn’t overcome – financially or professionally – but really it’s about you as a person, knowing how to detach yourself from the business and let the business be its own going concern. Even when you have the best managers in the world – the business is still your baby.

The reward of seeing a tangible impact

Paul: The challenges might make it sound a bit doom and gloom. But there are moments where we step back and realise we’re doing really well, and we’re very fortunate.

Lolade: This business – this crazy baby – it’s all I think about. But when I get into one of our facilities and I see the way people are working, I stand there and I just marvel. I remember the days of sitting in Building 122 at Cranfield, listening to lectures or having to turn in a report – I think that over and I say “This is a business – it’s running and it’s going to outlive me.” 

Paul: It’s those moments of being able to sit back and realise that we’ve done something good here. But there’s always something better to be done, we’re always pushing forward.

Lolade: There’s still a lot more challenges up the road and we’re nowhere near the stage of being able to sit back and say we’ve done it. But I look at the facility, the people working and it’s just exciting. I call myself ‘the garbage girl’ but it’s not just about garbage, waste management, it’s about helping people to be able to afford food, pay their rent, and afford decent clothes. If those three boxes are ticked – we’ve done well.

The strength and importance of the alumni network

Paul:
The Cranfield alumni community is very strong. Lolade is the President of the alumni community in Nigeria, so we do a lot of work with them. For me, the alumni and building that network up is one of the best things I got out of the MBA. We’ve been lucky that we’ve also had access to the Energy alumni network too and we’ve hired people – we’ve got an energy alumna working for us now and she’s doing really well. Whenever we have questions, we can come back to Dr Stephanie Hussels, or Dr Stuart Wagland and Professor Philip Longhurst (faculty from the Energy and Power theme) – that connection is still there. We’re still in touch with a large proportion of our class on a regular basis.

Lolade: We’ve made some really good friends, business partners and associates for life. Quite a lot of the people we work with now were not even in our class – that came from the alumni community. That’s the whole point of coming to Cranfield School of Management – meet, start a relationship and hopefully dip into those relationships.

The alumni community in Nigeria organised an event as part of the Worldwide Alumni Celebration in September 2019 which involved going into a local school for girls. There were about 20 or 30 Cranfield alumni and we stood in front of those girls and told them our stories. I could see them thinking “if these people can, then I can.” It was exciting and it told us that we had to keep doing this – it made us realise that we were in their position before and now look at us today. It means those girls can do even better – we decided as a group to do this every year. We had an amazing time and we supplied computer equipment to the girls’ school, offering mentoring and coaching. Some of the Cranfield alumni have taken up sponsoring the girls, too. There is huge value in the alumni community in Nigeria – and that provides inspiration for current MBA students too – that’s where they get their “light bulb” moments from.

Advice to current students

Lolade: My advice would be that you’ve already made the decision to come to Cranfield, live it, enjoy it and just embrace it. Don’t hold back, don’t question yourself. Just soak it all in and be a part of the community.

Paul: Embrace it, and start networking immediately – but don’t pester people.

Lolade: I would live my MBA life again if I could – it was one of the best years of my life. I allowed myself to enjoy, I did everything, so I have no regrets.

A big thank you to Lolade and Paul for sharing their #CranfieldConnections story. If you would like to share your story, contact the Alumni Communications team.