Former Ipsos-Synovate managing director, who is now heading a sports marketing firm, shares insights on leadership and growth in the corporate world
It takes courage to quit a high-profile job for a startup. It is even more complicated when the new venture is a totally new field. After several brushes with the public over opinion polls as head of Ipsos-Synovate, the local polling company, Ms Maggie Ireri felt it was time to leave the company and do something different. “It may sound crazy but when you feel it’s time to try a new challenge, don’t procrastinate,” says Ms Ireri.
In September, she moved to TransAfrica Media, a sports marketing company with roots in South Africa. “Kenya has good sports marketing companies but they lack strategic positioning that gives sponsors value for money,” notes Ms Ireri. “TransAfrica Media is bridging this gap because we are using international experience from South Africa, India and United Kingdom. In fact our digital communications manager used to work for Arsenal.”
Ms Ireri recently shared her management insights with BUSINESS TODAY and how she rose to the top. She says she joined Steadman Synovate Uganda in 2000 as a research executive and was promoted to research manager the following year, a post she held for two-and-a-half years. She was then promoted to country manager in May 2004. Her career went a notch higher in 2005 when she became Steadman Synovate business development director for Pan Africa for six years.
After Synovate acquired Steadman Group in 2008, Ms Ireri continued in her pan-African role before she was named the Ipsos Synovate Kenya managing director in 2011, taking over from Mr George Waititu. Her first few months as the MD of Ipsos-Synovate were baptism of fire, she says, but she soon fitted into the shoes. During her tenure, French research firm Ipsos acquired Synovate, creating the third largest market research company in the world.
Consequently, the company was renamed as Ipsos-Synovate, the company renowned for conducting media monitoring, opinion polls on politics as well as market research. Ms Ireri holds a Bachelor of Education degree from Kenyatta University. She recalls that in her graduation year, the government froze hiring of teachers. She had to make ends meet and so she took a casual job as a volunteer at a research company. “I would do fieldwork and prepare reports and this shaped my research skills,” she says. She says growing in the corporate world calls for resilience and being on top of the game.
Mentoring young leaders
Before leaving Ipsos-Synovate, Ms Ireri launched the Mentor to Leader (MTL) in
itiative, an online mentorship programme aimed at sharing her leadership and management experiences with young people. MTL seeks to develop the next generation of leaders for Kenya and its activities are 80% online, with a small fraction left for face-to-face interactions. “Lack of trusted advisers on careers and people who can help our youth prosper in their careers made me venture into this initiative,” she notes. “Our first class had around 450 participants while the second one had 336, a sign that Kenyan youth are in dire need of mentorship.”
Targeting youth aged between 18 and 30, the programme hopes to save employers the headache of hiring professional mentors and career guides to hone the skills of the new recruits. “I don’t want the youth to suffer my fate where I had to hire a professional career coach after taking over as Ipsos-Synovate MD in 2011. Although management books came in handy, I found the value of my mentor incalculable,” says Ms Ireri.
The online initiative is ideal because anyone can log in and ask for advice from mentors. Responses to the questions are published. “Every day presents a learning experience to me. I have made mistakes just like everyone else,” she says, recalling that she once vouched strongly for an employee who later proved to have no integrity. “Firing someone is not easy, but you have to crack the whip at some time. Preparing someone for a sack it’s quite hectic.”
Quitting her job to join TransAfrica Media involved a lot of soul-searching and consultation. “There’s no timeframe in moving on in your career. However, in your current job you need to learn multiple roles especially if you are planning to venture into entrepreneurship,” she says. This is crucial because you will wear many hearts and emotional intelligence is a key ingredient in managing people. “I want to share my experience and use it to make others succeed,” she says.
