Amaka Kolawole began her career in Arla in the International Business Development team as part of Arla’s Corporate Strategy and Execution Office. In her backpack she had a successful MBA and over 10 years of working experience in consulting, technology, e-commerce and finance. Today she works as Head of Business Development and Innovation for Arla in Africa, and as part of the Corporate Strategy and Transformation team. Her main role is to drive key strategic projects across sub-Saharan Africa markets and build Arla’s product portfolio across the region.
Amaka’s job in 3 words: Impactful. Dynamic. Exciting.
Significant impact
“My primary responsibility is to ensure that our strategy projects are driven efficiently, stakeholders managed accordingly and that significant positive impact is created across the region,” and Amaka further highlights that in her role, it is very important to identify opportunities for sustainable growth of our business in Africa – new channels, new products, new markets or optimizing existing ones – and facilitate the successful execution of such growth opportunities. “By so doing, we are able to move more milk for our farmer owners at the highest value possible, which is Arla’s mission.”
The Corporate Strategy team devotes time and effort to coaching and developing one another, and as a member of this team it is very important to stay on top of trends and changes in our industries and markets. Amaka is passionate about contributing to the global agenda, and was proud when the SSA regional team was awarded the #1 Strategy Executer award by the Corporate Strategy Execution Office in Denmark for December 2017. “I am particularly proud of this as it shows our passion and drive as a team to con-tinuously deliver on our strategic agenda.”
Great network
Working at Arla as a business development manager has exposed Amaka to many parts of the business in a short period of time, and according to her this has provided her with vast knowledge and experience base which is great for her career. She says
“Being part of the Corporate Strategy team, I have a great network of supportive team members around the world and a ready toolkit of business tools at my fingertips, which has helped with my continuous development. Finally, I also have been fortunate to have great managers who are willing to coach and providing actionable feedback for my personal and professional development.“
When asked if Amaka has a personal philosophy she is very clear in phrasing that anything that is worth doing is worth doing well. “Always put your best foot forward. As the popular quote says; Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.”
