Business Management & Leadership Speaker

Femi Adebanji

Femi Adebanji

Location : JHB

“Please thank Femi on behalf of the Corporate Affairs, Femi Adebanji was amazing in both cities, as an MC and a facilitator. On behalf of the Corporate Affairs department, I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to Femi Adebanji for both his professionalism and dedication as an MC and a facilitator, he really was awesome and professional.  We received an overwhelming positive feedback on the panel discussion and on him as an MC.” TIGER BRANDS

With client feedback such as “YOU ROCK!, Femi Adebanji ‘s career as a dynamic, insightful and fresh business motivational speaker has been featured in interviews with international leading publications such as Wealth Magazine,  the Business Day, Entrepreneur Magazine and on many mainstream radio stations.  His high-energy business talks and TV interviews on the “Good Morning Africa’s” Business Leadership series on Dstv, have been flighted in over 20 countries on the continent.

His ability to intelligently deliver solid business content on creating high- performance business culture, leadership and motivation, has earned him the privilege of working with blue-chip clients such as the Office of the Presidency, Barclays Africa, Tiger Brands, Unilever, TSOGO Sun, Duke Corporate Education, Of Cape Town, Standard Bank, Old Mutual, Nedbank, the Endangered Wild-Life Trust, UNISA, First National Bank and many more.

He is the Research Director at the Mind-Advance, a think-tank consultancy dedicated to researching and formulating cutting edge strategies for unlocking human potential as well as releasing the often untapped performance potential within businesses and organizations. Based on years of research into some of the most effective techniques and successful methodologies being applied by companies all over the globe, the proprietary Mind-Advance Maxima SystemTM for unlocking organizational performance was created. A methodology that forms the basis of all his talks.

Femi has also been invited to feature as a panelist at the African Leadership Academy’s Enke Project with past panelists being the likes of Alan Knott Craig Jr, McIntosh Polela and Nathan Roberts.  Formerly, as divisional head of investment strategy within the Momentum Group, Femi and his team grew client assets under advice from R1 billion to just over R5 billion within 2 years; while quadrupling their client base in the process.  During this period, he consulted on strategy issues to premier clients such as BHP Billiton, Rand Merchant Bank and Discovery.

With over 15 years’ experience in building successful businesses (both within the corporate space and as an entrepreneur), leading diverse teams and working with businesses to unlock their performance potential, Femi now shares his insights with corporates and organizations all over South Africa and abroad, on how to design and develop high-performance business cultures, create an inspirational leadership culture, motivate their employees and ultimately unleash business greatness!  Femi holds a Post-Graduate degree in Economics and a Masters Degree in Financial Economics.

Femi’s business and motivational talks include:

GAME CHANGER – Building A High-Performance Organisation Culture

  1. LEADING THE CHARGE – Achieving Inspired Leadership in Organisations
  2. ADAPT AND THRIVE – Successfully Managing the Impact of Change in Organisations
  3. BE DISTINCT OR BE EXTINCT – How to create a high-impact customer service culture

1  HIGH PERFORMANCE BUSINESS CULTURE

The business landscape is rapidly changing, competition has ramped up significantly, technology is simultaneously creating and destroying opportunities, what worked yesterday is no longer effective today and according to research by the year 2020, the lifespan of the average business will shorten from 45 years to less than 10 years.

For businesses and teams to leverage off the growth opportunities even in the context of a challenging business environment, it will become imperative to do the following:

Firstly, become clear of how to embed a “High-Performance” culture into the very DNA of their businesses. Secondly, begin to see “value-driven innovation and creativity” an integral part of their business and not just a “problem-fixer”. Thirdly, evaluate and build the quality of their business leadership – as leadership is the primary driver of business performance, high-performance and innovation.

In his dynamic interactive style, Femi will share with the audience practical and workable strategies to create and sustain a winning performance-driven business culture. He will share the keys that separate great businesses from the multitude and how they keep on being great in spite of massively disruptive change, decreasing business margins and tough competition.

The number one factor that sets extraordinary businesses apart from the rest is simply this – their business culture – what their people value, what they do and how they do it.

Furthermore, based on first-hand experience from building and successfully running business both in corporate world and as entrepreneur, Femi will share powerful insights for creating an innovation-driven business and EXACTLY HOW to create and shape an innovative organizational culture – a blueprint that works irrespective of the size of the business!

Some key areas of focus of the talk include:

  • Why the Future Business Landscape REALLY Has No Place for Mediocrity – The New Laws of the Business Jungle
  • The Top 5% – the difference between good and great organisations
  • Understanding the power of culture in shaping business success or failure
  • How to practically embed a high performance culture into your business DNA
  • Creating high-performer employees – how to successfully and permanently shift behaviours
  • Does the Vision Excite us? – How to create a compelling vision that drives business success
  • How to create and establish collective ownership and responsibility for the organisation’s vision.
  • Strategies for translating vision into concrete action
  • How to build High-Performance Leaders within the business
  • Values, Vision, Leadership, Strategy, and Process – the Pillars of Business Success

2  LEADING THE CHARGE (LEADERSHIP)

If the leadership within businesses were able to focus half as much time and energy spent on solving problems and addressing issues, to rather creating and sustaining high-performance businesses, many more businesses would be delivering outstanding results (and many more employees would be enjoying what they do…)

EVERYTHING rests on leadership.

Business success requires managerial leaders that must not only be able to strategise and be insightful decision-makers; however OUTSTANDING business success is driven by quality leadership that is able to motivate employees to higher levels of performance and delivery, inspire employees to commit to the organizational vision, and establish the type of performance-driven culture that becomes the true source of the organization’s competitive advantage. This dynamic and content-rich talk will share with the audience how to achieve exactly that

“Leading the Charge” focuses on empowering management-level employees to excel in their leadership roles and evolve to become high-performance leaders – influential leaders that inspire the rest to raise their game and exemplify actions and behaviours that ultimately facilitate positive bottom line business results.

This talk will share insights that will empower leaders to speak to the “hearts and minds” of their followers and drive up commitment to the extent that their followers will be willing to “go to hell and back for their leader” – after all, that is the true mark of influential leadership.

Based on over 15 years’ experience of leading and managing diverse teams towards the attainment of specific business goals, Femi will share insights and concepts that leaders can use to “lead the charge” toward  business success. He will share what works and what “definitely does not work”!

He will share the inspiring story of how high-performance leadership was instrumental in empowering himself and his team in turning around a failing business unit with less than R1billion in assets under advice to grow to just over R5billion in assets under advice, within 24 months.

Some of the key insights shared in this talk include:

◾The linkage between leadership and business results

◾How to avoid “over-managing” and “under-leading”

◾“Our platform is burning” – How to know we need a leadership check-up – and what to do about it!

◾What separate high-performance leaders from the rest

◾The Pillars of High-Performance Leadership – Vision, Influence, Integrity, Trust and Mind-set

◾Speaking to the hearts and mind

◾Courage – the ability to lead, inspire and motivate in the face of challenges

◾The leader’s greatest asset and how to channel it to success

◾How to create passion within your team and inspire them to deliver excellence

◾Credibility, Character and Commitment – Why they Matter!

◾How to consistently deliver peak performance driven by inspired leadership

◾Keys to harnessing and channeling employee motivation to deliver productivity and great work ethic.

3    ADAPT AND THRIVE (CHANGE MANAGEMENT)

Change is an inevitability that will face or take place within any organization and in today’s rapidly “changing” world, those organizations that do not know how to successfully navigate the change experience will lag their competition and even worse still, may ultimately fail.

Knowing how to successfully manage the change process is a powerful key for unlocking innovation and creativity within any organization; and embedding a culture of innovation and creativity within a business is one of the factors that set a business apart from the competition. Furthermore, when organizations have the tools to embrace and adapt to change, this almost always results in new performance levels and consequently, business success.

In “Adapt and Thrive”, Femi shares practical insights that businesses can use, particularly during chaotic and disruptive times, to comprehend, adapt to and capitalise on change! He details how businesses can successfully leverage off the change experience to identify and capitalise on potential growth opportunities, well ahead of the competition.

In “Adapt and Thrive”, Femi details the fact that successful change management is not simply about tactical and strategic plans for engaging the change process. Instead, successful change management relies on the effective combination of strategic planning as well as factoring in the “people side” of change. In other words for any change management process to succeed, it must align the change objective with the human side of the change equation.

Femi will also share how individuals within organizations can overcome the fear of change by knowing how to shift their attitudes, beliefs and responses. Using inspiring stories and drawing from his own experience he will highlight a much under-appreciated fact – WITH CHANGE COMES OPPORTUNITIES! By showing how organizations can shift from a “challenge-focus” to an “opportunity-focus”, Femi shows how organizations can successfully embrace change and thrive even in disruptive circumstances!

“Adapt and Thrive” is a talk that is ideal for any organization that is facing significant change and is looking to successfully overcome the challenges that are an intrinsic part of the change experience. In his usual energetic style, Femi will take the audience through an exciting journey that will empower them to successfully embrace the change experience in a manner that allows them to capitalise on potential growth opportunities and put them ahead of the competition.

4    BE DISTINCT OR BE EXTINCT (SUCCESSFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE CULTURE)

In the “Distinct or Be Extinct” talk, Femi shares unique customer service insights that sets successful organizations apart from the rest. The fact is that competition has ramped up significantly over the years and unless there is something distinct about the service you offer (or how you offer it….), you might not be able to retain your competitive advantage for much longer.

Great businesses are based on service. They differentiate their offering on service and not necessarily price alone because research has proven again and again that consumers are willing to pay a premium, provided they “get great service”. For consumers, it’s never just about the product, it’s all about the “experience that comes with buying the product”

In a world where social media is integrated into our lifestyles, customers no longer just buy based on your advertising – they now base their buying decisions on what other consumers say about your brand, your products and most of all your service! Based on your service, a client’s feedback can make your brand either a “hero or zero” to potentially hundreds of thousands of people in literally a few seconds! Knowing how to positively leverage this dynamic is what will make businesses distinct from their competition and keep them positioned for success!

With his trademark humorous style, he cites stories and examples of organizations that have successfully embodied a true service culture, and how they kept on being successful in spite of tough market and economic conditions. He shares his unique “Knock-My-Socks-Off” service success insights that customer service professionals can apply to ensure that they deliver a truly memorable experience to their customers again and again and again.  He outlines how service professionals can make a powerful positive impression in less than 30 seconds and set the tone for closing the deal.

The talk also focuses on how a team can create a “high-impact service culture”, because when the culture exists, the right behaviours will follow. And whenever employees display the right service behaviours, success is always a guarantee.

Some of the key areas that talk will focus on include:

– The fundamentals of world-class customer service

– The fundamental success principles for working with customers

– How to successfully engage and deal with different customer profiles

– How to build credibility with your customers in 30 seconds

– Master how to “think like the client”

– Would I do business with me? – If not, how do we turn this around

– Customer service recovery tips for turning mistakes into profits

– How to identify and avoid customer turn-offs

– The tough customer – what works and what does not work!

– Learn how to provide value at every point of interaction

– Give me a SOLUTION – Just don’t offer products offer solutions!

– Creating A “Customer-Focused” Culture

– What must we do differently to keep our customers loyal

– The current customer service culture – strengths and weaknesses

– How to build on the positive aspects of our current customer culture

– How to use vision to entrench a powerful customer-focused culture

Testimonials

You Rocked!  Barclays Africa

Please thank Femi on behalf of the Corporate Affairs, he was amazing in both cities, as an MC and a facilitator. On behalf of the Corporate Affairs department, I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to Femi for both his professionalism and dedication as an MC and a facilitator, he really was awesome and professional.  We received an overwhelming positive feedback on the panel discussion and on him as an MC.  Tiger Brands

Brought energy and passion to the whole room.  WBHO

Dear Femi, just wanted to say thanks for a great morning on Tues. I have had the wonderful privilege in life of seeing some of the top leaders like John Maxwell, and Robert Kiyosaki, and I certainly thought the way you handled that entire subject in 2 hrs was fantastic and well packaged, and I had a wonderful learning experience. Thanks again! Dr Tony Garwood (TRG International).

“The audience at the Talent Café loved our guest, Femi Adebanji. Thank you for the service you provide in enabling us to secure great speakers at our events. Femi was a hit – he was engaging and dynamic

Please pass our sentiments on to Femi. Our Deputy Director of HR at our School for Business Leadership would like to engage Femi’s services, but she will be in touch with you when she is ready. Once again, many many thanks.” UNISA

“Good morning Femi

I have just gotten off the phone with UCT and they are raving about you – they thought that you were ‘stunning’ and they appreciate the fact that you managed to work with a group of ‘difficult people’ … I will send them an evaluation form; They will also contact me with regards to a second session.  University of Cape Town”

Thank you so much for your lively and fun presentation and interaction at our Women in Leadership breakfast in Cape Town on 26th November.  Our clients thoroughly enjoyed it, as did we. Warm Regards, Kym Jackson. Symphonia Leadership Development

Hi Femi , I just thought to share a message we just received from a client, re: the event you spoke at yesterday.  His name is Robert Jewell from Accounting for Entrepreneurs:

“Hey Carl, you gave me a big gift today. Already my team management has improved and the energy is up in my office. Thanks very much, regards Robert.” Thank you very much and kind regards, SIRDAR South Africa

Femi, .. feedback about the two talks you did in Polokwane and Nelspruit. All I can say is that it was awesome man. The guys loved you at both the sessions and they were really motivated and energized by your talk. From the business point of view, we were satisfied and I believe that we will continue to work together going forward. Well done!   Old Mutual

We rated Femi based on the responses we received from the audience. The presentation went very well. We will definitely use his services again. From the comments we received I think Femi has inspired a number of people at the Ethekwini Municipality Ethekwini Municipality, Durban 

Dear Femi, What an inspiring presentation! I greatly appreciate you making time to come through and inspire our audience. The feedback we got was very impressive. I am happy to be able to count on great people like you, doing great work.Anova Health Institute

Mr Femi Adebanji did a half-day workshop at ORT SA. We found him to be an excellent speaker with loads of energy. He kept his audience’s attention and involved them constantly so that the workshop was very involved and interactive. He was well informed and brought his knowledge across in such a way that resonated very well with his listener. He comes highly recommended and we definitely want to bring want to bring him back to do more training for ORT SA. Shira Berelowitz – HR Manager ORT SA

I just wanted to say one more time how grateful we are for you making the time to chat to us.  All staff enjoyed the session and have asked if you will be returning. Many thanks and have a fabulous weekend. Alison Jänicke – Human Resources Manager – Endangered Wildlife Trust

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