“The Honeywell Group allows you to be entrepreneurial” was my response when someone asked why I have stayed with the Group for such a long time. Working at the Group is the closest you can get to running your own business. This realisation became apparent only a few weeks into my resumption during a group retreat. I remember the Chairman putting his arms around the shoulders of my boss and I in a friendly pose asking, “why can’t we do 132kV transmission line projects?” Here I was; I had just left a consulting engineering firm to join this contracting company that previously only installed building engineering services working at a maximum of 33kV. Typically, projects at that voltage level were usually handled by companies with the required experience. And here was the Chairman speaking to us about 132kV projects. As things turned out, Pivot Engineering Company Limited (PECL) became one of the leading high voltage engineering contractors in the country. The clear learning point was; we can do whatever we set our minds to do.

I joined PECL as a Business Development Manager. Prior to that, I had worked as an engineer in an engineering consulting firm and had become an Executive Director. I was however interested in the oil and gas sector and could not convince my previous employers to make the necessary investment. So, I made a career change from engineering design to sales. It wasn’t my first career change and as things would turn out not the last. After four proposals to the Managing Director at PECL and the intervention of the Chairman we began to bid for projects in the oil and gas sector. Bidding in the Nigerian oil and gas sector is quite challenging given the various requirements for qualification. 

Winning our first bid took some time; getting a letter of award took even more time but with our success on the Chevron Crew and Equipment contract, we were well on our way to becoming an oil industry contractor. By that time, Pivot-GIS Ltd. had been incorporated as a Joint Venture (JV) between PECL and GIS Inc. from Galliano, New Orleans, United States of America.

Pivot-GIS Ltd. has since those early days successfully bid for many projects, built a great team and we have worked with most of the international oil companies operating in Nigeria and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). We have competed with and beat international companies that have been in the industry well before us. In addition to this, Pivot-GIS Ltd. is the largest contractor at the Bonny Island production facility of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NNLG) company. And through that project, we have become the largest oil industry maintenance organisation in Nigeria. The journey that commenced fifteen years ago, propelled by vision, courage and determination, has become a success story for indigenous enterprise. 

Apart from Pivot-GIS Ltd. I was involved in developing other new businesses at Pivot, notably Pivot GSM. We were part of the teams that set-up the first GSM cell sites in Nigeria for both MTN and Econet (now Airtel). 

We continue to develop and execute new projects and opportunities and that entrepreneurial drive is embedded in the DNA of the Group. From my first interaction with our Chairman Oba Otudeko, the clear feeling I got is that we can achieve whatever goals we focus our minds on. And, doing new things is welcome here, especially when we create value. 

If you think you have that entrepreneurial drive, Honeywell Group is the place for you.