Reminiscences from Dick Kramer’s “factory of professionals”

When, nineteen years ago, I was employed by the leading global professional services/accounting/consulting firm, Arthur Andersen, I did not think that the organization was going to have a significant impact on my career and certain life choices.

My career journey to that inimitable firm was fortuitous. I had won the Andersen Honours List, an award instituted by the firm to recognize best ten (10) students in each of five (5) selected universities at the time- OAU Ife, ABU Zaria, University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, and University of Nigeria Nsukka. It turned out that out of the 10 students picked for the award in ABU Zaria, I was the only one from the entire Kongo Mini Campus. This first contact eventually encouraged me to make the trip to Lagos to submit my curriculum vitae at the firm’s Gerrard Road Ikoyi office. I was invited for the recruitment test and the ensuing rigorous set of interviews; as they say, the rest is history.

Unequivocally, the firm Arthur Andersen (now KPMG Nigeria) was the Holy Grail among the ‘big 5’, globally-acclaimed multi-disciplinary firms, starting from 1978 when it began operations in Nigeria followingthe work of a young American, now a grand old 85-year old man, Dick Kramer. In those times, and till today, best graduates of diverse disciplines were employed there; the firm deliberately sought the best people as a policy.

In a tribute to Dick Kramer(Officer of the Federal Republic-OFR-, Founder/Vice Chairman Nigeria Economic Summit Group, NESG, President Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria, HBSAN, Head of Technical Team/Member Vision 2010 Committee, Recipient of Zik Prize in Leadership, Member Lagos Business School-LBS- Advisory Board, etc), who finally leftNigeria, a few weeks ago, I discuss my following takeaways from the firm:

1. Integrity: The firm had a mantra called “think straight, talk straight”, i.e. maintaining integrityin both official and personal matters was sine qua non. As an employee, you were praised, and not reprimanded,if you lost a potential customer’s business becauseof any hint of threat to personal or official integrity.

1. Professionalism: You just had to get the job done; no consideration was given for cronyism, bootlicking, ‘eye-service’, being a ‘yes man’, etc for career growth. The level of professionalism was almost an obsession.

1. Drive for competence, confidence, and healthy competition among employees:  The firm provided staff with very challenging, but professionally beneficial exposure. You could not work in the firm and be timid; even if you had the trait owing to initial socio-cultural circumstances, you would beweaned off it.

1. Early exposure to senior-level clientele: It was the norm at the firm to expose young consultants to rigorous projects with executive management and Board of Directors of multinational organizations and big local conglomerates. At that time, very, very few organizations provided that opportunity.

1. Absolute objectivity in career progression/appraisal system: The system was pivoted on concrete bases, and you could easily determine your career path/future before the formal process commenced. It isa culture I am yet to find on that scale in any organization in Nigeria or elsewhere.

1. Challenging, fast-paced work environment: It was an organization where laggards were not entertained and where ‘coasting along’ or merely getting by was an aberration. The case was one of ‘shape up or ship out’; without exception, without bias.

1. Inculcating the “can-do-spirit” in staff: In many instances, you got taken to the deep end of clients’ significant projects across diverse sectors. In response, you went beyond the call of duty in consonance with your career goals and the firm’s growth.

1. Mentorship: It was given that the firm was an agglomeration of very smart people, yet, supervisors provided the platform for mentoring, without any negative effect on objectivity and merit.

1. Knowing something, however little, about almost everything: Owing toyour diverse clientele in various sectors, you had opportunities for applied learning regarding so many things.

1. Other diverse skills: The make-up of the true professional was accentuated at the firm. There, skills such as business/opinion/report writing, presentation, listening, coaching, negotiation, etc, were formed, honed, and in some cases, mastered.

As I attended every single send-offsession held for Dick Kramerand his ever-supportive wife, Wanda, in June: on June 14, by Andersen Tax; on June 20, jointly by the three legacy firms of KPMG (formerly Arthur Andersen), Verraki (formerly Accenture), and African Capital Alliance; on June 24, by Business Day Editorial Advisory Board; and on June 28, during KPMG Alumni Cocktail 2019; I sincerely wished that our country could have many more Dick Kramers, who would continue to improveand extend the frontiers regarding integrity in corporate and personal affairs, innovative thinking, competence and meritocracy, and unwavering optimism about the future of our dear country, Nigeria, in spite of obviously debilitating challenges.

One of the common themes I noticed in testimonies ofpeople who worked with Dick during his 41 years in Nigeria was hisimpenitent, almost fanatical, belief in Nigeria’s future greatness. He hinged his optimism on the fact that his home country, the US, attained independence in 1776, fought wars, and experienced upheavals, including The Great Depression and recessions, before it became the world’smost powerful country today, whereas Nigeria only gained independence in 1960. Where Nigerians saw forlornness, Dick saw hope; where we felt doom and gloom, he felt positivity.

I join senior alumni of the legacy firms Richard (“Dick”) Kramer built and influenced, brilliant minds such as the “ancestors” and “grandfathers”, as some of them were jocularly but aptly described during the KPMG Alumni Cocktail on June 28 2019: Dotun Sulaiman, Mobola Johnson, IfuekoOmoigui-Okauru, SeyiBickersteth, OkeyEnelamah, TundeLemo, KunleElebute, YomiSanni,Victor Onyenkpa, BisiLamikanra, JosephTegbe,Tola Adeyemi, OlumideOlayinka, WoleObayomi, RoliPogoson, Mariam Abdulai, LeyeAdebiyi, Sam Oniovosa, Ola Oyelolaand others; the “fathers”; the “children” (my peers), as well as younger alumni who constitute the “grand children”, “great grandchildren”, “great, great grandchildren”; and future generations of smart professionals who will later work in the solid institutions Dick berthed, to wish Dick and Wanda Kramer the very best as they departed Nigeria a few weeks ago for a well-deserved retirement in their home country.

Tajudeen Ahmed

Tajudeen Ahmed, FCA, HCIB, a strategy expert, with several years of senior management experience in consulting, commercial banking, and FMCG, is the General Manager/Group Head Business Development at BUA Group.