“I worked right through December,” Bola recalls. “Then I just threw everything into a storage unit, jumped on a plane, and flew to Switzerland to start my MBA.”
“But what were you doing before you arrived?”
She laughs, “Oh, sorry. Let me back up. I was up in the North Sea, working as an engineer on an oil rig.”
That’s Bola Bamidele, an IMD MBA graduate and the inaugural Nestlé Scholar. Today, Bola is the International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s Regional Lead for Corporate Finance Advisory in Africa. Her extensive career in development finance since graduating from IMD in 1997 is a testament to her resilience and leadership. Through her stories of agency and agility, Bola teaches us that leadership is a never-ending journey, one that is best traveled when we put ourselves in other people’s shoes.
You said, “oil rig?”
IMD alumnae are already remarkable people before they set foot on campus. Bola loved being an offshore engineer and had traveled extensively in her twenties. She had gone out on assignments that would have given most people pause, “like Angola, when there was still a war going on.”
By the time Bola received the Cosmopolitan Achievement Award for Science & Technology in 1995, she admitted that “curiosity had gotten the better part of me.” Bola wrote to the Royal Academy of Engineers to see what career paths were available to someone like herself. “I didn’t see myself staying in engineering and then retiring and earning a pension. There was just a yearning that there is more out there that I could be doing.”
The representative at the Royal Academy of Engineers saw that Bola had potential beyond engineering and encouraged her to pursue an MBA to build on her strong leadership abilities. They were aware of other options in the UK, but said to Bola, “I think you would be better suited for IMD.”
The IMD Director for Marketing and Career Services at the time, Kalpana Bagamane, flew to London to interview Bola in person. It was there that Bola learned about the IMD MBA Nestlé Scholarship for Women.
Bola sits back and reflects on this moment, “You know, I see this when I mentor young female engineers and businesswomen. I see women struggle to recognize their own skills.” But IMD and the Royal Academy of Engineers saw something in her. “I think that sometimes other people see a woman’s leadership abilities better than we can see for ourselves,” she says.
In the weeks that followed, Bola took the advice and applied. Thanks to the combined resources of the Sainsbury Management Fellowship Award and the IMD MBA Nestlé Scholarship for Women, she set off for the next adventure.
A new way of learning at IMD
The experience at IMD was wildly different from what Bola knew: “As an engineer, you are accustomed to learning in a completely different way: these are the facts, consume the information, and then design and develop the solution. But with the MBA, it is completely different. The goal is not to master all the information before you. Instead, you need to find what is relevant, distill information, and prioritize how you will act upon it.”
The monthly modules, tight deadlines, and new team configurations were a challenge for Bola during her year at IMD. “Did I ever doubt myself?” she pondered. “I remember that it was a lot to handle at times, but I’m the type of person who is determined to complete something once they’ve started. But you learn to delegate tasks and trust others. That was a part of the journey.”
IMD classmates were always there for one another and the friendships Bola formed during her MBA endure today. “Madhu Kapisthalam used to cook for me every single night at IMD. He just loved cooking, and we’ve stayed in touch.” She smiles, “He lives in London now, and was instrumental when I had my baby three years ago. These types of relationships are special. It’s just amazing.”
From loss comes clarity
Bola was preparing for the MBA graduation ceremony, weighing a couple of post-graduation job offers, when the students received terrible news. Their classmate, Michael Hepper, had passed away suddenly. For Bola, the tragedy altered her perspective. She decided to defer an offer from the World Bank in Washington, D.C., for an entire year, and opted to spend that time with her family. “Despite all this education,” she recalls, “things can be taken away from you, and we need to be grateful. I learned that day that our opportunities must be built on gratitude.” For Bola, the experience at IMD, and the tragedy that punctuated it, set the tone and style of her leadership in the years to come.
Life’s Lessons, Leadership’s Wisdom
#1: Put yourself in another’s position
Back when Bola was working on oil rigs, she found that team respect takes principles and patience. Bola emphasizes the importance of staying true to one’s sense of self and using those convictions to lead in any environment:
“I had to rely on a lot of male operators to get my job done. They spent a lot of time there and knew the terrain of the platforms, so it was important to listen to them to arrive at a formalized solution for the problem at hand. So, you had to have good listening skills. You had to be sympathetic because typically operators spend at least a month out on the rig at a time. So, you have to be able to listen to all kinds of wild stories. You would end up in the rig’s operating room, and on the wall, you would see their magazine posters. Occasionally, I even had to share and sleep in cabins with them due to a shortage of space on the rigs.”
“But I didn’t fuss about it. These guys were self-described “roughnecks.” Some of them have worked on rigs since they were just 16. Instead, I focused on the work, listened to their stories, and quickly established a good rapport with them. I was focused on getting the job done. And once we gained each other’s respect, they slowly started taking those posters off the wall. I didn’t have to demand it.”
“Would you say it was like being ‘one of the guys?’” I ask.
“No,” Bola clarifies, “It was more about staying true to your identity and values while respecting theirs. It showed that I valued them and that I could focus on the bigger picture: collaboration towards our desired outcome.”
“Remember,” she concludes, “listening and collaborating doesn’t mean losing who you are. It’s about building and expanding your perspective.”
#2: True leadership is about continuous learning
To this day, Bola enjoys challenging and enriching her leadership skills. For example, she is an active member of the Royal Academy of Engineers and enjoys mentoring women engineers in the UK and elsewhere. She’s an advocate of reverse mentoring, citing all that she has learned from her younger counterparts’ careers.
Bola’s faith plays a big role in every facet of her life, including her activities that give back to the community. As a certified hospitality trainer for the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute, Bola helps provide internationally recognized certifications to hospitality professionals in Africa who are mostly young and from less privileged backgrounds.
There’s also still a place for formal education on leadership at every stage of life. Bola became a certified health coach at the New York Institute of Integrative Nutrition and plans
to get more involved in board member roles in the future. She completed two board training programs: Getting African Women on Board (a partnership with Women Working for Change & KPMG) and Harvard Business School’s Corporate Women on Boards to ensure she is well-prepared for additional responsibilities.
“I have been a recipient of five scholarships over the course of my career and I strongly believe that scholarships like the Nestlé Scholarship for Women can help address gender inequality and foster opportunities for cross-border and cross-cultural collaborations. I’ll never forget meeting Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman emeritus and former CEO of Nestlé during my time at IMD. He was, and still is, a remarkable role model and leader to me.”– Bola Bamidele (MBA ’97)
A future for everyone
Bola understands the difficulty of balancing personal and professional responsibilities. “I recall spending nearly nine months working from a room in Ethiopia or working in southern Sudan before it was a separate country. And I loved all these opportunities, but in terms of building a family, it would have been impossible then. That’s why I applaud the financial institutions that have return-to-work initiatives aimed at encouraging women who have taken a career break to look after their children. It’s a step in the right direction.”
She insists that organizations and policymakers offer flexible options to balance career and family life. “I feel very privileged to be working for an organization like the World Bank/IFC for the last 20 years,” she says. “There is a clear alignment in values.” Bola acknowledges that financial institutions have done a lot to engage women and believes that more is required to support them through the different cycles of life. Women typically slow their careers to have and care for children. The burden of care tends to grow as women become caregivers to aging parents.
Just like her decision to postpone a job offer after her MBA, Bola’s experience shows that it may not be possible to have it all, all at the same time. She just wants us to have the courage to speak up and say it. “I see women…juggling parenting responsibilities while still trying to figure themselves out in the workforce. Since more and more women are having children later in life, I want more women to be able to ask for career breaks, and for that to be treated positively by employers.” She adds, “I think as women, we must have the confidence to say, ‘Look, I can take a career break, I can reinvent myself, and I can come back into the industry.’”
Conclusion
What is remarkable when you talk to Bola is that she describes the chapters of her story without the typical markers of urgency or propriety. As readers, we may believe that oil rigs, MBAs, global finance, motherhood, and boardrooms are things that need to be completed in a certain sequence within a certain age, or by a certain gender. And yet, Bola recounts her life with uncompromised agency, hopeful agility, and profound humility. For someone who has so clearly proven their grit for decades, Bola is now embracing this time as a proud mother of a little boy. “Motherhood has made me a better leader. It’s enhanced me and I am more empathetic towards issues. It’s an interesting point to be at in my life, as I think through what I want to contribute to and leave for my child.”
