A Background to The Business Case for Working Through Alumni Groups for Success

Long background alert: I graduated from the 2010 MBA International Oil and Gas Management class at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum, Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP), University of Dundee with BIG dreams. Wow....!! An MBA, a distinction ....WOW...!!! To top this up the CEPMLP has this prestige about it; the pride I had in the new found status was 'through the roof' !! I had my sights set on joining one of the Big Oil and Gas or Energy Businesses upon return to Nigeria!!!

I was greeted to a rude shock by the sector upon my return. The World Economy and indeed Nigeria's Oil and Gas sector were still in recovery mode from the 2007/2008 Financial crash and the 2009 Oil price collapse. Consequently, the dream jobs I had with some of my targets proved illusive; I just could not get a foot through the door; despite having a distinction and having co-founded a company in 2009 !!! Whither way, Feso ?!! A lot happened fast so I opted to continue life in a family business and pursued some projects with the business I had co-founded with by brother in 2009; of course income was the big issue. Where was my first " real " Oil and Gas Sector pay check post-MBA to surface from?!

Immediately after my return, one of my first projects was to create a 'Community of Practice' and Networking Platform known as ' The Mix: Oil and Water! '- which served to help Oil & Gas professionals sustain an intellectual ecosystem of ideas in "Oil & Gas, Economic Policy & Business, Strategy, Venture Philanthropy, New and Art" . I have recently revived this project with a similar but refreshing focus and a new name: The SEER Project. The delivery format was via a blog and I ran this community for about 3 to 5 years till I decided to shut it down in 2013/2014 so I could focus on new priorities at the time.

Alumni Everything: Around Q3/ Q4 2010 I met up with an alumnus of the CEPMLP who had set up an Oil and Gas Club earlier that year with the help of two other alumni. He had observed that I was gaining traction with ' The Mix ' while he had some brilliant ideas about getting people with an Oil & Gas/ Energy background together for the purpose of networking; we connected ! Months earlier we had chatted loosely about our ideas and the major catalyst for working together was a meeting he had pulled off with some bigwigs in the local Oil & Gas sector. We consequently met up several times and talked about having a pub quiz. The idea was refined and once we had an opportunity we set up the first meeting at Roberts Cafe : a Q+A with Paul Parks/ Toyin Akinosho- I ended up being involved in organization and running of the club from that point up until September 2012 when I set my sights on some new priorities. The big take away was the power of collaboration from within an alumni community.

A defining moment for me on the Business Case for Alumni Networks probably started with my experience with an alumnus of the CEPMLP who I will not mention for her privacy. Some time in the middle of 2011- perhaps May, I received a call from a former classmate to see her at her office immediately. Their company had just let go of a Consultant (currently one of the major Oil and Gas consultancies in Nigeria today) and they needed someone who could deliver equal quality. My name came up as she had seen the work I had done with ' The Mix '. In actual fact she did make reference to her review of one of my papers which I had authored and posted on the platform. She had made a justification to the company management that I fit the criteria based on quality of my work and perhaps a trust relationship given the fact that we had attended the same high quality MBA programme and that she knew me personally. About a month later I landed the contract to offer Business Advisory Services for this company and my first Oil and Gas sector pay check was secured. For whatever reason, this gesture of my fellow alumni has resounded in my mind till this very day: there is power in Alumni Networks. This contract gave me the platform upon which I was able to build and grow into the industry professional that I am today. I have resolved since then to pay forward the kind gesture. But then, was this really about kindness from one person to another or about strong organizational identification and cultural fit.

Did we have a natural chemistry based on the fact that we equally identified strongly with the brand- CEPMLP, University of Dundee. Did we have a sense of assurance of quality by merely connecting through our alma mater? I recently organized a maiden International Reunion of the CEPMLP Alumni at Dundee and made a presentation at our Inaugural Seminar, making a case for working through alumni groups for success. There is much to research on this topic. However in a few more posts I hope to elaborate on one or two of the ideas I shared at our Reunion.

It is my view that involvement in Alumni activities will naturally create a self-sustaining wheel of progress in your life. I hope you learn, follow and develop that alumni acumen.