An Unending Relationship 

It is not every day you hear of employees who leave and return to an organisation many years after. There are not many organisations that will allow a return. Usually, the leaving is not without rancor and quite often there is some bad blood on, at least, one side if not both. This wasn’t my experience with the Honeywell Group. 

I am a chartered engineer with over 36 years of work experience. Currently, I am also the Chairman of the Committee for Codes and Standards of the Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers, National Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Safety Engineers and Chairman of the Lagos Chapter, both of which Institutions are divisions of the Nigerian Society of Engineers. 

My first experience with the Honeywell Group was when I joined the business as the Group Head, Power in 2005 to help set up its Independent Power Plant (IPP) business, Hudson Power Limited. I however left the Group two years later when I was headhunted to start up a design engineering business in the oil & gas industry. Our parting in 2007 was very amicable, such that I continued providing support in an advisory role for a few more years before disengaging fully after the power privatisation exercise in the Nigerian electricity sector in 2014. 

For my second act, I returned to the Honeywell Group in 2018 as the CEO of Uraga Power Solutions. Leaving a particular place of employment usually happens when people feel disenchanted; going back is therefore not a usual occurrence. I was happy to return to Honeywell Group and I will like to explain why.

Prior to joining Honeywell in 2005, I had worked in Accenture, a global management consulting firm. I had grown in my career, became a Senior Manager, and I was positioned to ultimately become a local Partner in the firm. I had enjoyed my career and found Accenture to be a great place to work and so had high expectations for any place of employment that I would subsequently join. 

My First Sojourn

My experience in Honeywell Group during my first sojourn however convinced me that the Group is equally a great place to work. As I joined it was clear that I had a really exciting task ahead of me – starting up an operational company, an IPP in the hugely challenging Nigerian electricity supply industry. My prior experience was as a consultant, but now the new role required that I become an entrepreneur, think like an entrepreneur and grow in a sector that is a traditional whipping boy that few people had any confidence in.

I enjoyed the work environment very much. I had access to, and lots of encouragement from, the Group Chairman, Dr Oba Otudeko, himself. I also had a great relationship with the Executive Director Honeywell Group. He would regularly pop into my office and even share my biscuits with me, a practice that we jokingly claimed led to unintended consequences as he, and a number of other colleagues who would also stop over in my office at the time, all seemed to have their wives pregnant about the same time and it was claimed that my biscuits were the culprits! I was warned to desist from allowing more people take biscuits from me so that Honeywell Group would not have to start a school for the kids! 

I could see the genuine efforts by the business to promote diversity and inclusiveness. Individuals in Honeywell are respected regardless of their place of origin, gender or religious beliefs. It has been said that being in the minority is a test of courage but being in the majority is the test of tolerance. Honeywell Group welcomed individuals regardless of their background and tolerance is a virtue that the Chairman has personally championed in the Group.

Honeywell Group is more than a workplace, it is a community of friends. I became friends with individuals from various companies across the Group. I went along on several business trips with the Chairman but the Chairman made those trips more like fun excursions! People actually worked much harder doing what they had to do, not just because they had to do it but because it was fun and there is a sense of job ownership among the staff. The Chairman loves and encourages young, energetic people and as we know, young people can be fun to be with! I have memories and photographs of some of those unforgettable moments and times. With the Chairman’s mentoring and encouragement, I was proud to secure one of the earliest generation licenses issued by the Nigerian Electricity Commission at that time for Hudson Power.

A Second Coming

Honeywell Group was and is for me; a truly great place to work. When I was informed about an opening to lead Uraga Power Solutions, it was easy for me to be re-recruited. I already loved the people and had happy memories of the work there. The fact that that the situation was challenging and would require a really competent engineer and business manager, was enough to attract me. I saw an opportunity to grow and expand the business into a formidable power generation business and I seized it with both hands. The combination was too tempting to refuse, and I was successfully re-recruited, back into the Honeywell Group. 

So far, my opinion of the Honeywell Group remains the same; great place to work, great people to work with and great challenges to tackle in a power business.