Chuks Umeche

IESE Business School, University of Navarra

“The smiley avant-garde, avid reader and flaneur.”

Hometown: Nnewi, Nigeria

Fun Fact About Yourself: Tended for 5 beautiful cats while growing up. “Retired” amateur portrait artist.

Undergraduate School and Major:

• Federal University of Technology, Owerri (Nigeria). Major: Electrical & Electronics Engineering
• Middlesex University, London (United Kingdom). Post Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Finance

Most Recent Employer and Job Title:

• Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited (a member of Standard Bank Group)
• Senior Associate – Investment Banking

What makes the case method so attractive as a means to learn and become a better manager? Observing people who are already practicing the intended skill is a good way to learn. A great way to learn is to not only observe them, but also to walk in their shoes. The case method is a perfect metaphor for “walking in the different shoes of different mentors”. It provides amazing opportunities to solve business challenges faced by real companies by collaborating with a diverse multicultural team to co-create optimal solutions. Given that we are exposed to over 600 cases over the course of the IESE MBA program, the multiple data points will give us useful mental models to apply in our various endeavors post-MBA.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the school’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? I will summarize this in three words: “The Happy Family”. The culture and mission of an institution is not what you read in their respective publications (i.e. what they imagine or intend it to be) but the experience you have when interacting with the multiple facets of the company. At every touchpoint – alumni, current students, faculty and the admissions team  – I could see a community that felt like a happy family.

In a happy family, there is love and a sense of belonging.  There is a sense of supporting you to become all you can be, to achieve the dreams you thought were impossible. In a happy family, they are pulling resources to change your world (starting from the neighborhood to the larger society), to have the freedom to find your unique contribution while not forgetting the openness to support everyone else to become all they can be. There is a mantra – “A way to learn, a mark to make, a world to change” – comes alive in IESE and like a happy family, IESE does well while doing good.

What club or activity excites you most at this school? Professionally, I look forward to the Finance Club, Private Equity Club, and Tech Club. The Finance and Private Equity clubs connect with a key interest of understanding capital allocation and value creation. This one excites me due to my prior experience as a developer and as an adventurer seeking various confluence points between finance and technology.

Socially, I look forward to the Music Club and Sailing Club. With a latent interest in music, I am an avid Harmonica player and budding pianist. Having left the keyboard in high school, I recently reconnected with my musical love with a birthday gift to self (an electronic keyboard) in 2019. Although I may be tired after a long day, I find some time to hum along before I retire for the day. I grew up in a coastal city.  Although the beach was over 25 minutes’ drive from our house and we could not go to the beach as often as we would have loved, it was an exciting trip each time. I am looking to recreate these experiences in IESE via the Sailing Club.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: It was 2015. Technology was driving the next wave of innovation globally across several industries and verticals. Upstarts grabbed market share from established incumbents. My previous experience as a developer prepared me for this – it was a great time to pivot.

On a sunny day in April 2015, I read an Internal Communication: “Calling all innovators for an exciting adventure” – I applied. Through a competitive process, two Innovation Czars emerged to lead the digitization process of my organization as volunteers (over 10 subsidiaries and 3,000+ staff).

The nomination was impactful for me because the company originally planned to appoint 1 Czar. I was barely 2 years into banking at the time and the other Czar, a senior banker [with over 12 years’ experience at the time], was my peer on the role. While my full-time analyst role had over 5-levels of separation from the Group CE, my innovation role had a direct reporting line to the Group CE which accelerated my exposure to leadership, management and strategy.

Together with the second Co-Innovation Czar and stakeholders in Nigeria and South Africa (the headquarters of the parent organisation), we crafted an innovation strategy, assembled a team of over 10 diverse professionals, and were on our way to impacting the financial services industry in Nigeria.

Some of my learnings from the process included the following:

• Innovation is not driven by age or experience but by a willingness to try several bets in a low-risk way and scale-up your successes.
• A multi-disciplinary approach (e.g. technology plus finance) to problem-solving is the key to crafting innovative solutions in an era of rapid technological change.
• Engagement with top-level management and key decision-makers early in the process shortens the product development lifecycle.
• Co-creating solutions with customers is critical to a sustainable innovation strategy.
• Emerging markets offer enormous opportunities given a dearth of resources and infrastructure
• Applying innovation models directly from developed markets may not always work in emerging markets.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I was at a transition point in my investment banking career – stay on and become a vice president (consolidating on my previous gains) or explore other options. I had been working non-stop for over 8 years since I left school (first in a startup, then as an oil and gas project manager prior to my financial services career). After some reflection on my past interests, my current experience and emerging options, the aphorism “you cannot inspect or change a flat tyre while a car is running at 50mph” rang so true. It was clear I needed some time to rest and reflect. Taking an “aimless” break did not look like an interesting proposition. Instead, I chose to spend the next few quarters in business school to learn from a diverse international environment and have the freedom to explore several options (in line with my parent’s approach. Who knows, I may be back to investment banking post-MBA or pursue a mission to Mars!

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Wharton Business School and Columbia Business School

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process?  I cannot remember everything I said, but it was along the lines of this: Give us an understanding of doing business in Africa (and as an analogue for other emerging markets) from your experience as an engineer, finance professional and innovation manager. Technology: data analytics has become a key business decision-making tool and requires an understanding of coding to some degree. My experience as a developer (I’ve been picking up Python/Machine Learning on weekends) will come in handy. Taking the leap to share – in social engagements, while many people may be shy to make the first move – I usually break the ice. The worst outcome is that the other person says no, best outcome is that you meet a lifelong friend. Most of my deepest friendships were from random encounters where I said “hi” first (public events, flights etc.) or offered to share first (at training programs, at work etc.).

How did you determine your fit at various schools?  Culture, Diversity, and Career Outcomes.

Culture: There is a dichotomy between what a school says they are (their website and social media channels) and what everyone else says they are (alumni, recruiters, interactions with potential students, market information etc.). The lower the dichotomy, the more endeared I was to the schools.

Diversity: I grew up in a diverse campus environment in a coastal city in Nigeria. I focused on schools with a diverse student group and faculty. (IESE has around 85% international students).

Outcomes: I asked myself, What had alumni gone on to achieve 30 years, 20 years, 10 years or 5 years down the road? The alumni stories tell a stronger story of the outcomes. Based on the Lindy effect, if alumni were making an impact in the world, I should naturally expect to tow similar lines if I stayed focused.

What was your defining moment and how did it prepare you for business school? My parents (university lecturers) were very open and flexible. They were always willing to support whatever path or vocation we chose provided it made us happy and we could excel at it. I have had several imaginary micro-careers. When I was 9, I thought about being an architect – and they linked me up with a family friend who was an established architect to learn about his work and see if it was something I would be interested in. At 12, I morphed into becoming an artist and painter; I was connected to another family friend, an Indian who was an established artist and teacher. I spent my summer vacation going for art lessons. At 14, music became my next passion and I enrolled at a summer music program organized by the religious community.

The fundamental lesson was this: If you thought you may like a path, rather than imagine and go through so many “if else” or “what if’s”, simply find the lowest risk way to try it out. In college, away from home, I was finally on my own! When the “siren call” of technology came, I was inspired to listen. I taught myself how to code and sometimes missed classes to complete personal coding projects. Early exposure to technology has led to many turning points in my life:

• The process of learning coding taught me that you can learn and become good at [almost] anything you choose. (I have applied this principle to my over 7 years career in finance to excel at portfolio management, oil and gas, real estate etc.) It also taught me “mental alchemy” – creating substance out of something intangible, “an idea”. Serendipity: When faced with coding challenges, you usually find answers when going on long walks. Community: There was a community that has experienced a similar coding puzzle or challenge – engaging in the community will help with the pieces of the puzzle and your imagination creates the rest.
• My Innovation Czar role was due to my prior experience in technology (from college).

My parents’ explorative approach has been the defining catalyst of my life.

What is your favorite company and what could business students learn from them? Y Combinator. Y Combinator (an American seed money startup accelerator) was an early believer in the mantra that the critical ingredients required to launch any startup is similar and can be taught. I have followed the company and Paul Graham’s essays since 2007. Y Combinator has been used to launch over 2,000 companies, including Stripe, Airbnb, DoorDash, Coinbase and Dropbox. The combined valuation of the top YC companies was over US$100 billion. In my view one of the “secret menus” of Y Combinator is summed up in an extract form Paul Graham’s 2008 essay: Six Principles For Making New Things:

…Here it is: I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly…

This was true then and is more evident now. We are in an era of rapid change and more opportunities for upstarts to disrupt incumbent. As business leaders, we must not become complacent but find quick ways to try out new things that add value to customers.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE MBA CLASS OF 2022 AT IESE BUSINESS SCHOOL