Interview: Shared Experience of Fellow, Ayobami Marcus Olasupo (Winner P & G CEO Challenge)

One of the fellows of the StudentBuild Incubator recently won the regionals of the CEO Challenge Global competition organized by P & G, a multinational company. Marcus and his team competed with teams across universities in Nigeria and top teams from India, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia to emerge as the winners.

At StudentBuild we love to support and celebrate the successes and wins of our fellows and community members. We also create avenues for the fellows to learn from the success of one another by sharing the stories of how they won, the obstacles that they encountered on the way and the lessons learned.

We, therefore, had an interview with Marcus to get him to share the ‘behind the scenes’ story of this major win so that we all could learn from it.
We are sure that you are excited to learn from this interview, so keep reading…

StudentBuild: We know you’re a fellow of the StudentBuild Incubator. Beyond StudentBuild, who is Marcus? Let’s get to meet you. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Marcus: I’m Ayobami Marcus Olasupo, recently finished from the University of Ibadan. I enjoy solving problems for businesses and organisations. I can cook the most amazing spaghetti.

StudentBuild: How has been a fellow of StudentBuild been for you? How would you describe your experience so far?

Marcus: It’s been all I expected — and more! It’s been an immersive experience with loads of learning and opportunities. The incubator has given me the chance to get hands-on with some of the things I know.
The conversations with the mentors and guest lecturers are just top-notch. I would say joining the incubator is one of the best decisions I made during my final years in college.

StudentBuild: What informed your decision to sign up for this competition and how did you get your team together?

Marcus: I love seeing how businesses work, especially at the corporate level.
So, the thing is…this isn’t my first attempt, I’ve won and failed a number of such competitions before. What sets P&G CEO Challenge apart is that it’s hosted by the company itself with real challenges the FMCG multinational is facing and I really wanted to take a stab at that.
Getting my team together was quite easy, Seun is a close friend and we both crushed the CFO Global Case Competition at Johannesburg last year (https://thenationonlineng.net/nigerian-students-shine-at-cfo-global-competition- 2019/), so having him on my team was a no-brainer.

Early on, I realized we were going to be working on Pantene (a million-dollar hair care brand of P&G), so we needed someone who’s clued up in that aspect.
Besides, I wanted a diverse team. That was how Temitope got on the team. I had earlier admired the amazing job she’s doing with her temporary hair colour gels brand. Absolutely glad we had her; she did a whole lot on the project.

StudentBuild: Do you mind telling us exactly what the competition is about, based on your experience? Hearing from you will give us better insights into what the competition is about.

Marcus: The P&G CEO Challenge is an annual competition where participants get to solve business problems for an actual P&G brand. You’re given a case problem with lots of information and required to make a recommendation.

There was an online country round that attracted entries from teams across
universities in Nigeria. So, we aced the local finals and was chosen to represent the country in the regional finals. We then had to compete with the top teams from India, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.

The final stage left is the global finals where we’ll compete with the top teams from other regions in Mexico. That has been postponed to next year.

StudentBuild: What challenges did you face along the way and how did you overcome them?

Marcus: So, I think we had three primary challenges.
The first challenge was dealing with a brand that’s not very popular in Nigeria. They had billions of dollars in sales in the North America region, but mostly not known in Nigeria. So, it required us to do a lot of internet research to learn a whole lot about Pantene. And that formed part of the actual case problem, helping Pantene grow its sales in the IMEA Region

The other two major challenges were in the regional finals. First being that we had to compete virtually, as it was previously scheduled to hold in P&G India HQ (thanks for COVID-19 by the way, for letting me miss visiting Agra’s Taj Mahal this year).

So, we had to make use of digital channels to collaborate and brainstorm. I think we were having catch-up calls every 4 hours or so for the two-day duration of the competition. It was a lot of work, trust me.

The other challenge was when we found out MBA students from other countries in the region were competing. I mean, that was overwhelming. At that point, we decided to focus our energy on giving the best to the case problem, and not necessarily winning the competition, to be honest. So, we made sure every slide we turned in was done to the best of our ability. Will I approve this recommended decision if I’m the CEO? Would I actually make use of this distribution channel if I happen to be P&G Sales Manager?
Does this proposition look convincing as a product customer? Those thoughts
essentially guided our recommendations.

StudentBuild: What qualities do you possess that made this success possible? Would you say StudentBuild played a role in that?

Marcus: Oh Well…

I think I have the drive and energy. I pride myself on seeing things getting completed and I take charge when necessary. That strong desire is pretty important, it’s so easy to back down after a while if you don’t have the drive.
Another quality is taking bold steps and StudentBuild has played a huge role in that. I remembered when I sent a LinkedIn message to a top manager of a multinational firm and I got a reply.
I’ve been sending more cold emails too. So, whenever I need something, I just go for it.
Not sure if this is a skill or quality but being data-driven. And that just becomes a part of you as a management consultant. I don’t watch a movie without checking reviews for instance. I look for patterns everywhere, whether I’m wondering how my data subscription gets exhausted or when I’m getting Youtube video recommendations. And the same applies in business, decisions aren’t made based on guts or mere
opinions. Everybody has an opinion, right? But what does the data say?

StudentBuild: How was the experience like for you? How has been a winner of the competition changed you? What new lessons have you gained from the competition?

Marcus: Honestly, after the competition, I wasn’t sure my team was gonna win, but I knew we’d emerge the first runner-up at least. I mentioned earlier about not excessively focusing on outperforming the other teams. The process itself is more important. because now you’ve won, so what? These things are journeys, as opposed to discrete events.
So, the major thing is learning. Competitions are a great setting to learn in, failure does not bear any severe consequences and you can measure your skills in the subject against others, in a fail-safe environment transcends giving instruction alone but rather about being supportive and being able
to encourage people to express themselves and ideas.
Winning the competition helped reaffirm my credibility. You know this feeling where you know you’re good and still retreat.
I also learnt more about the discipline itself through the other participants from other countries. I had a chat with one of the participants from India after the competition.

StudentBuild: What are your opinions on leadership and the importance of collaboration? How were you able to cope with your team members, motivate each other and leverage each other’s strengths and abilities to win?

Marcus: I always describe empathy as my superpower, and I believe that’s crucial in leading others. So, we were working under pressure for the two days, but a teammate had an interview on the first day and I had to make room for that. We had an injured dog too. So, beyond crunching numbers on Excel or developing user personas, teammates are real people with concerns, right? So, there’s a need to master the mechanics of reason and emotion.
About leveraging each other’s strengths, we knew each other well and we were not trying to prove something to one another. So, we had a healthy sense of collaboration and mutual trust.

SudentBuild: We understand that you served as the president at Engineers Without Borders in University of Ibadan, could you tell us a bit about your experience and how you landed the position?

Marcus: Oh. Yeah. EWB. So glad I joined in my early years in Uni. The position was by nomination based on previous activities in the society. I had my first case competition there, by the way. Pre-COVID19, we were working on a social project to distribute solar lamps to neighbouring communities. The supply of the needed components from China has been abrupted but I’m sure the new team will pick up the project after this is all over.

StudentBuild: There are a lot of awesome skills you possess including Data Analysis, customer experience and project management. Can you tell us what your motivation has been that sponsored the acquisition of these skills?

Marcus: It’s basically personal development. I’ve dabbled into a lot. The motivation came from trying to see what you’re really good at and then experimenting. Those three skills still form the core of what I do now actually.

StudentBuild: What’s your advice to undergraduate across Africa?

Marcus: Worry less. Keep upgrading your skills and make an effort to play in the global arena. There’s so much space there.