Hot SourceIn today’s volatile and uncertain environment, organisations and their leaders in Nigeria are confronted with a complex web of strategic challenges that demand more than operational excellence. Indeed, they require courageous governance, visionary foresight, and agile execution. One of the most critical issues is the persistent gap between short-term survival and enduring profitable growth. Boards and executive teams often find themselves reacting to daily fires, unable to pause, reflect, and recalibrate their organisations to remain resilient and relevant in a world of constant disruption. The story of Volkswagen Nigeria serves as a cautionary tale in this regard. Once a beacon of industrial promise, it failed to adapt to evolving market realities and industrial policy shifts, eventually shutting down. What could have been a thriving automotive hub turned into an emblem of missed strategic renewal. Fast forward to recent years, even multinational giants have not been immune—GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), after operating for over five decades in Nigeria, exited in 2023, citing a harsh business environment and supply chain disruptions that leadership failed to foresee or sufficiently mitigate.
Stakeholder trust, once easily assumed, is now increasingly fragile. Governance lapses, inconsistent communication, and a disconnect between leadership decisions and societal realities have eroded confidence. Today’s leaders must move beyond compliance and embrace strategic empathy, while boards must evolve from ceremonial oversight to active custodians of purpose and accountability. This erosion of trust was palpable in the downfall of Savannah Bank. The bank once held strong public confidence, but inadequate risk management, weak board oversight, and governance failings undermined its credibility and led to its eventual revocation. The lessons are clear: trust, once lost, is hard to regain, and its loss has institutional consequences that can be existential. Procter & Gamble (P&G), another global powerhouse, also closed its Nigerian manufacturing operations in 2023. While they remain present via imports, the strategic withdrawal from local production reflected not just currency volatility, but a deeper governance gap in adapting to regulatory shifts and aligning operations with evolving local realities.
As digital disruption accelerates, many organisations remain stuck in outdated modes of operation. Executives may lack the fluency to drive innovation, and boardrooms often struggle to frame the right strategic questions around cybersecurity, platform shifts, and future-of-work dynamics, leaving critical blind spots unaddressed. The collapse of NITEL exemplifies this. As Nigeria’s national telecoms provider, NITEL stood at the centre of a digital revolution it failed to lead. Mired in bureaucracy and bereft of bold leadership, it missed pivotal transitions to mobile and data-led services. Private competitors surged ahead while NITEL clung to outdated infrastructure and hierarchical governance models. What was once a national asset became a casualty of digital stagnation and strategic inertia. Similarly, Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical giant, halted local operations and shifted to an import-based model in 2023. This decision reflected the consequences of poor long-range planning and an overdependence on fragile supply chains without the buffers or scenario plans that effective boards ought to oversee.
The dissonance between strategy and execution is another silent saboteur. Grand visions articulated in the boardroom frequently lose momentum as they cascade, if at all, through layers of management. Performance frameworks remain fixated on lagging indicators, missing the very metrics that drive agility, innovation, and stakeholder impact. Today, similar gaps are visible in the retail sector. Shoprite, once hailed as the gateway to modern retail in Nigeria, exited in 2021. Rising operating costs, insecurity, and supply chain challenges were contributing factors, but at the heart of it was an inability to localise strategy, strengthen stakeholder partnerships, and empower in-market leadership to execute effectively in a dynamic environment.
Meanwhile, few leadership teams are truly prepared for the geopolitical shifts and regulatory unpredictability that increasingly shape the African and global business terrain. Boards and executives must cultivate the ability to read these signals early and act with speed, clarity, and conviction. Those who fail to anticipate disruption often become overwhelmed by it. The experience of Niger Insurance offers yet another telling lesson. Once a strong player in Nigeria’s insurance sector, its fall was driven by undercapitalisation, regulatory breaches, and insufficient board oversight on financial sustainability. Strategic drift over the years, worsened by governance complacency, led to regulatory sanctions and loss of market relevance. Its story reflects the cost of reactive, rather than anticipatory, leadership.
Equally pressing is the issue of talent flight and the growing leadership vacuum. Experienced professionals leave, promising talent becomes disillusioned, and without deliberate action, the winning culture erodes. Succession becomes reactive rather than strategic, and organisations lose the very people who should shape their future. Underpinning all of this is the absence of a compelling strategic narrative. In too many organisations, there is no single, shared story that inspires alignment, enables execution, and rallies internal and external stakeholders around a unifying purpose. When the narrative is unclear, the mission falters. When leadership is silent or misaligned, organisations lose their moral and strategic compass—and eventually, their market position.
These challenges, while daunting, are not insurmountable. They are inflection points. They are urgent calls for directors, executives, and public sector leaders to think differently, lead boldly, and govern strategically. This is exactly what TEXEM’s powerful executive development programme, Strategic Governance and Leadership: Steering Excellence in Turbulent Times, scheduled between 16–17 July at Wheatbaker, Ikoyi, is designed to deliver. It is a transformative platform for those ready to lead their organisations with clarity, courage, and a deep sense of purpose.
Guided by an exceptional faculty, this programme brings together rare insight and practical relevance. Bradley Jones, Executive Director of the UAE–UK Business Council, offers participants the benefit of a global perspective shaped at the highest levels of government and corporate diplomacy. His expertise is shaped by his work as a former advisor to five foreign ministers in the UK and his proven experience in equipping leaders to navigate complexity, drive performance, and lead change. Leveraging TEXEM’s tested and proven methodology, he will provoke critical thinking, challenge assumptions, and foster deep learning that endures long after the programme ends.
What makes TEXEM different is not just what is taught, but how it is delivered. This isn’t passive learning—it’s an immersive experience that blends robust academic content with experiential techniques. Participants engage in simulations, live case studies, reflective assessments, gamified learning, and peer-driven dialogue. It is a rich, dynamic environment where knowledge is not just acquired but tested, contextualised, and applied. This methodology ensures leaders leave not with notes, but with new mindsets, frameworks, and strategies they can immediately put to work.
For organisations, the value is tangible and lasting. Boards emerge better equipped to steer strategic direction and ensure long-term value creation. Executive teams gain the confidence and capacity to lead in uncertainty and translate vision into measurable impact. Governance mechanisms are recalibrated to reinforce strategic priorities, enhancing performance and stakeholder alignment. Transparency and accountability become cultural anchors, not mere aspirations. The ability to lead digital and structural transformation becomes embedded, rather than outsourced. Internal leadership pipelines are reinvigorated, and the seeds of succession are planted with intention. And, perhaps most powerfully, a shared strategic language begins to emerge—one that cuts through noise, dissolves silos, and aligns the entire organisation behind a common purpose.
The exits of GSK, P&G, Sanofi, and Shoprite from Nigeria serve as sobering reminders of what happens when strategic misalignment, weak foresight, and inadequate governance go unaddressed. TEXEM’s programme empowers leaders to anticipate disruption, align boards and management with clarity of purpose, and embed resilience into the very fabric of the organisation. It is not just an opportunity—it is an antidote to organisational fragility, a lifeline for those who wish to lead with impact, and a strategic imperative for those determined to thrive in turbulent times.
•For more information, visit https://texem.co.uk/strategic-governance-and-leadership-steering-excellence-in-turbulent-times/
