Black Rise

Scaling Your Business to Multimillion-Pound Success: Insights from Frank Okoisor, CEO of Toyota Connected Europe

• Black Rise • Season 1 • Episode 3

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Get ready for an extraordinary conversation with Frank Okoisor, the CEO of Toyota Connected Europe and Executive Sponsor of ERG for Culture, Race, and Ethnicity at Toyota Motor Europe. In this episode, we uncover the remarkable journey of Frank, a man who defied the odds and rose to the top through determination and a thirst for knowledge. From his humble beginnings in Nigeria to his pivotal role in transforming businesses and driving innovation, Frank shares invaluable insights on leadership, career planning, and the importance of diversity. Prepare to be inspired as we delve into the mind of a visionary leader who believes in the power of empathy and creating an inclusive environment.

Join us as we dive into the fascinating world of Frank Okoisor, a true trailblazer in the automotive industry. Discover how he earned his credibility as a project manager through empathy and listening skills, and how he embraced a variety of roles to avoid being pigeonholed as a subject matter expert. Frank's unconventional approach to career progression will challenge your mindset and inspire you to challenge yourself and others. With his mantra of "forget the numbers," Frank shares his strategies for business transformation and innovation, and how storytelling played a vital role in his company's exponential growth.

In this thought-provoking episode, we explore the importance of innovation and staying ahead of the curve with Frank Okoisor. Learn about his breakthrough into the connected technology space and how he adapted his career path to succeed in this ever-evolving industry. Frank shares his top three career achievements, including the game-changing Toyota Igo product and the transformative Project. But it's not all about success; Frank also candidly reflects on what he would have done differently. Tune in for an enlightening conversation on leadership, diversity, and the power of learning from our mistakes to become better leaders.

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Speaker 1:

And I faced a huge backlash. Literally the whole retailer network ganged up against me. When I look back now, it was quite incredible to see, but I became public enemy number one.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Black rice podcast. You'll get a way to inspiring conversation with Black Rhyme, de la Crème of Black talent, who are leaders of seven figure and above businesses across a spectrum of industries. I'm your host, flavilla Fongang, an award-winning serial entrepreneur, who will guide you on his journey. Black rice isn't just a podcast. It's an extension of our business platform, allowing the business world to connect with skilled, talented and experienced Black talent. Our mission is to serve as a bridge, connecting businesses with vast opportunities that lie. In working with Black professionals, entrepreneurs and enterprises, we strive to showcase the value, creativity and innovation that Black talent brings to the table, fostering partnerships that drive economic growth, diversity and mutual success. Visit theblackricecom to find out more.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the second episode of the Black rice podcast, where we explore the compelling journey of extraordinary guest Frank Auquizzeaux, ceo of Toyota Connected Europe. Our guest story is a testament to the impact of self-worth, continuous learning. He navigated the path to leadership with unwavering determination, emphasizing the often overlooked truths of leadership. Frank Auquizzeaux, the CEO of Toyota Connected Europe and the executive sponsor of ERG for Culture, race and Ethnicity at Toyota Motor Europe, combining several years of strategic management with extensive product management experience and outstanding people management and development skills. Thanks, thank you so much for being with us today on Black rice podcast, and before we even get to talk about who you are and what you've achieved for your career, I would love to know who you were when you were a child and you're upbringing. Tell us about your heritage, tell us about your childhood. How was it? Where did you grow up and really, do you have any influential roles for your life?

Speaker 1:

Thanks, flavilla. So who am I? I mean, I grew up in Lagos, nigeria. I grew up, I think, in a household where there was a heavy premium put on learning and education. My father is a professor of dentistry and my mother is a gynecologist, both very much celebrated in their fields. I grew up with two siblings and actually we grew up on the university campus. You know, growing up in one of the major learning institutions in Nigeria itself had an impact on me. You know being surrounded by academics and the children of academics. But I think in our home, particularly as I said, there was this premium in education.

Speaker 1:

But also I grew up and it may seem a strange word to use, but I grew up in a proud home, and it's a conversation I had with my parents many times, because sometimes when you hear the word proud it can be seen as negative. But my father always explained to us that you know it's good to have pride, it's good to be proud about what you do, and that you know being proud is a recognition of what you're capable in. It's about showing what you're capable of and delivering that on a regular basis. The challenge is when your pride turns into arrogance, right when arrogance is much more about you thinking that you are better than you are. So there's nothing wrong with you celebrating yourself for being as good as you are, which is pride. But you don't want to go beyond that and turn into arrogance, and that's something that stayed with me for a very, very long time. I grew up very proud, very confident about the home that I came from, about what I was capable of and therefore what I could achieve. It's something that prepared me for challenges in the future. It's something that I think gave me a very different mindset when I left that you know, somewhat homogeneous environment of Nigeria to move abroad.

Speaker 1:

You asked what kind of child I was. I was actually with my parents over the weekend and my father said I was one of these children who was very determined. I spent one year less in primary school than my peers because I was desperate to get into high school. I spent one year less in high school than my peers because I was desperate to get into universities. That confidence to say, right, I can do the exam to move from primary to high school, I'm ready for it. That confidence to say I'm ready to move from high school to university. I've done the work. I think I can do it. It was really, I think, a reflection of my character as it turned out and a reflection of what I call this desire to learn and to continuously be challenged, to learn and to grow. That's the kind of child I was and I think, largely speaking, that's the kind of adult I've grown into.

Speaker 2:

I think it's so good that you mentioned the importance of mindset and also being in a family that brings and raises you in a positive environment and it becomes so natural to do. You don't doubt yourself, you understand the importance of learning and the importance of self-worth, and so much more so. From Nigeria to now being in London, what has been that journey? Can you tell us more about your educational and career beginnings?

Speaker 1:

Of course, I started my first degree in economics in Nigeria, at the university at which I grew up, on the University of Lagos, and then I finished my first degree in 1990, at the ripe old age of 20 years old. I started working. I started working in a merchant bank, as I guess you would call it a graduate, graduate training program, and then I very quickly realized that, you know, I wanted to move abroad. I wanted to, as I said before, continue learning and continue growing. So I made the decision to move to the UK to do an MBA. Cardiff Business School in Wales came over in 1992 to start my MBA and it was a one year MBA, full time spent a year in Cardiff, which was an incredible year for me.

Speaker 1:

It was an entirely new culture, even if Nigeria is very close to the UK in many ways, having been a British colony. You know our education system is the same as the British education system. We spent a lot of time as kids, you know whether it was on holiday or whatever in the UK. So, but still, living, learning in that environment was a bit of a change for me. So very quickly I had to adapt and you know that adaptation beyond the weather of course, which was a challenge was just recognizing that I was no longer in a homogeneous environment. I was in an environment where there were many people who didn't look like me and for the very first time, I have to say, in my life, I was in the minority. I grew up in Nigeria where pretty much 99% of the people looked like me and we were certainly in the majority, but now I was in a minority position in what was altogether a strange land, and then the journey into employment began.

Speaker 1:

I had a couple of decisions to make at that point. Do I go back to Nigeria? But you know, I felt at that stage I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to look at businesses here and then potentially go back to Nigeria with one of those businesses. So I started working with Ford after my MBA. I did most of the traditional roles that you do when you join an automotive company. I worked in the field as a zone manager, I worked in brand with commercial vehicles. I worked in training. I went on an international assignment, which was quite unusual at that point. I went on an international assignment to Germany to work in the European headquarters, which is one of those things where I look back and it was a very tough period for me because again, it was coming into a very new environment. I worked with a very challenging manager and when I look back, much as it was challenging, I learned a lot during that period and I think that point was really the point that set me up for what the future of my career looked like.

Speaker 1:

I realized at that point that I did my best work and I felt I grew the most when I was uncomfortable, when I was challenged, when I was outside of my comfort zone, when I can even use the word nervous, when I was a little bit nervous about. You know, are you the right person for this role? Can you really deliver in this role? That challenge, that on ease, actually worked for me, and I fully recognize that this may not work for everybody, but you know, this is about my journey and that really worked for me. Being at the edge of discomfort really helped set me up for success.

Speaker 1:

So after a while with Ford, I recognized that I'd had this hankering to go into consulting. There was something glamorous about consulting and I felt you know I want to be a consultant. You know I want to go and tell people how to run their businesses. I want to tell people how they can be better at what they're doing. Don't ask me exactly what that was about, but it was the feeling that I had.

Speaker 1:

But I was also conscious of the fact that the expertise I had at that point was in automotive and my first foray into consulting should be within the automotive space. And before I went out to Germany I'd been approached by VW to come and work for their consulting business and after some time in Germany I realized, okay, now was the time. So I came back to the UK to work for what was then Volkswagen Gadas, which was VW's in-house consulting firm, and I spent about 18 months working in consulting, primarily strategy consulting, with the Audi brand. Again, a lot of learning, very new space for me. It was the early days of bringing technology into automotive, the early days of vehicle configurators, fleet management systems, and it was really an opportunity and my first foray into technology as it were, again, a lot of learning, a lot of growth in that period and a lot of discomfort After about 18 months.

Speaker 1:

One thing became quite apparent to me was that, while it was glamorous to be a consultant, the downside of being a consultant was that the brilliant ideas that you had, or the brilliant solutions that you may have, would not necessarily be implemented. And for me that was a little bit of a shock the fact that we could put a lot of effort into coming up with a solution and the client could say, yeah, great idea, but we're not going to do it. I think there's various reasons why that happens. It may be that the resources that are required are not available. It may be that the business feels now is not the right time to make that change. It may be that there is a global activity that's going on that necessitates waiting, for example, which we saw in some cases. So there's a whole variety of reasons, and I think when a lot of businesses go out to consultants, they go out to consultants with good intentions. They say, right, we want to try and fix this problem, but then sometimes reality bites right and you say, well, okay, that may be the right solution, but we don't have the resource, the business is not ready, the mindset is not ready, the talent is not ready. There are many reasons why that can happen. I felt right I want to go back into automotive. I want to go back into a position where I can actually make things happen, and that's something that you'll hear from me quite a lot. It's important to me to be able to make things happen. It's important to me to be able to bring change. It's important to me to be able to bring transformation. So I went back to automotive core automotive as I would call it.

Speaker 1:

At that point, while I was in with VW, I saw an opportunity to work with Toyota. I joined Toyota about 20 years ago now as a project manager for a joint venture with what was then the PSA group, which today is Stellantis, and I was the project manager for a small car that these companies were building together. In the case of Toyota, it became Toyota Igo or C1, citroen and Peugeot 107. And it was my first job in Toyota. But I was responsible for managing about 10 different working groups which, incidentally, were led by people who were senior to me in positioning Toyota. So you can imagine this young I still think young 33 year old, going into a new company for the first time, having to gain credibility very quickly with people senior to you in a project that was the first time for the company, first time building a small car, first time trying to get a car in at a very low price I think the target in those days was 7,500 euros Working with a third party partner lots of challenges in that.

Speaker 1:

One very small one I'll give you is we were working with the French and Japanese, and the language for working was English. So you can imagine being in a room with 50, 60 people, half of them with French as a first language, another half with Japanese as a first language and me the only native English speaker in the room. The one thing you very quickly realize in that environment is that words are not sufficient. You need to be visual, you need to be descriptive, because words are very, very easily misunderstood. That was the start of my 20-year journey with Toyota and I can tell you a little bit more about that as we go along. That's what brought me to where I am here.

Speaker 2:

I do love your story but at the same time, your story sounds almost as if everything was perfect. You did add your challenges, your challenges, which were somehow you managed to cope with it and do and proceed and keep on going. I think, coming back to what you said, your mindset, make it happen, change and also having a level of discipline and being very curious and observant, that if something doesn't go where it's supposed to go, then you learn quickly how to re-adapt. I think there are some important skills, Something else that you want to prepare for did it really go as easy? As you explained as well, the element of having difficulty. I love this problem of my mantra never get too comfortable. I think it's important that you convert as the enemy of progress and you have perfect demonstration of that. Is there anything that you want to prepare for? But you still managed to overcome?

Speaker 1:

Yes, there are many things, but just talking about mantras, it's a good time to introduce minds, so my mantra is very similar don't be afraid to suck at something new, which literally is what you said it's okay to fail. The worst thing that you can do to yourself is not take those chances to learn and to grow. What is it we always say? If you fail, at least you learn something. So there were challenges. There was the first challenge of being seen as a credible project manager. You've come from outside of the business, very simply put, and it's not just about that but you don't look like anybody else in the room, so really that's a question mark. People are asking is this individual really capable of helping us deliver? What is Toilet-intents and purposes are once in a lifetime project for the business? So the first hurdle was credibility. Gaining credibility and how did I overcome that?

Speaker 1:

I think the first thing that I've always done to gain credibility is listen, show empathy. Empathy literally means trying to imagine what is going on in the other person's head, trying to imagine what obstacles they're trying to overcome, to believe that you are credible. And it's not always verbal, as I said right, there are some subtle hints that you have to pick up on. So the first thing I needed to do was listen listen for what is said and what is not said and then make sure that I could address those very quickly in my actions, in the plans that I was able to develop and in keeping commitments, because I think that when you're trying to gain credibility, the first thing you can do is say if I say I'm going to do X, I will do X. So keeping your commitments and showing that in keeping your commitment, you are delivering at the highest possible level, that's the first thing that you need to do to overcome credibility. But I don't want to play the importance of listening and showing empathy, because as you listen and show empathy, people open up to you even more.

Speaker 1:

And I've said this many times before majority of people in the work environment really want to talk. They want to talk about what the job is like for them, they want to talk about what the challenges are for them. They want to talk about how to improve. So the fact that you're listening here, the fact that you show that you understand, the fact that you can work with them to overcome the challenges that they have, that gives you a lot of credibility, and I think that's one of the biggest challenges I had in the first instance was gaining that credibility.

Speaker 1:

The other thing that I pick on, particularly to the start of my career in Toyota, is the fact that we were working with Japan. Japan works in a very different way to Europe. We were working with two different companies. The culture in French companies is completely different to the culture in Japanese companies. But again going back to the first point, in that case what I needed to bring to both sides and help in both sides was empathy. I think it's something that we underplay the importance of, but with me it's hugely important.

Speaker 1:

What I've said many times is that if everybody looks the same in a room, empathy is less of an issue. If everybody thinks the same in a room, empathy is less of an issue. But when everybody is different in a room, empathy goes right to the top of the list of what is really important to break through. And that's what I try to do is bring empathy to break through to some of the initial challenges that I had Many other challenges. I think the working style in Toyota was completely different to the working style that I've been used to in my other companies. It wasn't unusual for us to be in meetings till 11 PM at night in the office. You don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing, but it was something that I needed to overcome. It was about being absolutely prepared for whatever was going to come next, and that's a mindset change. The mindset change in some regard is you have to do what it takes to overcome the obstacles whatever it takes to overcome the obstacles.

Speaker 1:

I wouldn't advise that anybody works till 11 o'clock at night on a regular basis, but sometimes at least in my case, in those early days, we needed to do that to overcome the initial obstacles that we had, and you have to be willing to be flexible in that way. So, to overcome those initial obstacles, empathy, flexibility and a lot of listening.

Speaker 2:

Wow, I think you really emphasise the importance of when you think about success. Success not just about capabilities and skills, but also, as you say, a mindset, and I keep emphasising that because it's so important. When I speak to all the successful people, mindset always comes back and, as you say as well, soft skills and empathy, which is quite often undervalued and I think really makes a difference. And when I look at what you share, it comes out in a few minutes. You listen first before you talk, because I think when you have this image that as a leader, you tell people, or maybe as a manager, maybe as a leader, but a successful leader, they listen, they build empathy and they find ways to really bring everybody together, who will share or maybe have different needs and desire, and how you can take that on board and bring it together, isn't it?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's two things in what you just said. One of the things that a lot of leaders don't express to people is that getting to a leadership position is hard work. It takes a lot of hard work.

Speaker 1:

One of my favourite words is strive to work hard to achieve something, and it's something that I use with my kids a lot. Certainly, nothing is going to be given to you for free. You need to put in the work. I think that's a message that we need to make sure that we give across our society, across the Black society, that there is work to be done. Nobody is going to give anything to you. You need to be willing to commit, to work hard, to strive. I think, flavilla, you understand this very well, coming from Africa. We strive, it's what we do. The environment doesn't make it easy for us to achieve things without hard work, so that striving has become a part of our mentality and that striving is something that I've brought with me to my everyday work, the fact that I recognise that, even as a leader of an organisation, you need to continue to strive. That's the second part of what you said, because I really wanted to address that.

Speaker 2:

We talk about the importance of mindsets, skills, soft skills and skills.

Speaker 1:

And I think you're right. We talk a lot about mindset and we say you need to have a specific type of mindset to be successful. And it's true, if you're willing to give up easy, it can be more difficult for you to succeed. If you fall back at the first obstacle, it's going to be a bit more difficult for you to succeed. And there is a mindset I think that we need to inculcate in people that says you have to persevere. Perseverance is a mindset and very conscious. You know, I don't want this interview to come across as if we're saying, oh, you've got to work your fingers to the bone to be successful, because that is not at all what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is that you have to have the mindset that says I want to consistently deliver my very best work. If I fail, it won't be because I didn't do my best. It will be for whatever other reason. That it will never be because I didn't bring my very best self to whatever task, whatever role, whatever opportunity I was given.

Speaker 2:

And I love that, and I think you realize that nobody owes you anything. It's up to you to put the effort and the work that is required to get to the next stage of your career, of what you want to achieve. The world doesn't owe you anything. It's up to you to do the work. And now you know you are the CEO of Toyota Connected Europe, and that's a massive achievement. You're probably among the reference of black individuals, black leaders that always talk about with pride and say if Frank did it, so anybody can do it too. But we want to know how did you get there? Because tell us your secret this is amazing.

Speaker 1:

Oh, is there a secret? Well, I'll tell you how I got there. Again, I always say you know, my story is personal to me. It may not work for everybody.

Speaker 1:

When I started out in Ford 30 years ago, almost one of the very first things I did was find myself a mentor. And I remember very early on in my career so probably about one year in I sat with my mentor and I said to him look, if I want to get to a specific position and at that point my ambition, very transparently, was to run an automotive business in Africa. You know, I wanted to be the president or CEO of, I don't know, ford Africa or Toyota Africa, whatever it was. And I remember sitting with him and saying to him if I want to get to that position, if that's my ambition, what kind of skills and experiences do I need to build up through my career to get to that point? So that was the first thing. The first thing was really about intention. The second thing was really about making the plan, and what I did with my mentor was literally draw out all of the boxes that I needed to complete, all of the roles that I needed to complete, all of the roles I needed to do all of the experiences I needed to have, you know, a high level of all of the things I needed to learn. That was just from the learning perspective, without getting into the behaviors that I needed to exhibit and that. So we'll come to that later. But the first thing was understanding what kind of jobs do I need to do? And actually, in terms of the way my career has panned out since then, it's actually been very deliberate Because there were a whole variety of roles that I recognized that I needed to do.

Speaker 1:

I consciously avoided being a subject matter expert and this is a very important point I always wanted to avoid being pigeonholed. I didn't want them to say, oh Frank is a manufacturing guy, oh Frank is a sales guy, oh Frank is a marketing guy. The message that I wanted the organization to have was always Frank is a leader, we can put him in any business and he will deliver because he has the right behaviors, he's built up the right experience, he's built up the right knowledge, the right skills. So he's a leader. He's broad, he is not one function or one silo. So if you look across my career and I think we've had this conversation before I've deliberately done very different jobs over the years. I always joke with people.

Speaker 1:

Prior to me taking over as the CEO of a tech business, I was the VP of HR. I don't think you could get two jobs that are more different than that. But for me that's a recognition within the company of this guy has built up the skills we can put him in a business. He knows how to galvanize the team. He knows how to get the best out of the team. He knows how to create the plan, the strategy. He doesn't need to be the technical expert.

Speaker 1:

So, from that project manager who joined 20 years ago to the guy leading the tech company today, it's because I've deliberately tried to learn as much as I can across the entire business and not wanted to be pigeonholed into being a subject matter expert. So, as I said, it's very personal to me. It's very deliberate because it fits with who I am the guy who wants to keep learning, the guy who wants to keep getting challenged. I think that if I ever sat in one job for five, six, seven years, honestly speaking I would get bored, and if an individual gets bored, then you don't get the best out of them. That's been my journey. It's been planned Right from the start. I made the plan and that's what I encourage people to do. If you want to build a career very early on, you should know where you want to get to in your career, which doesn't mean that picture never changes, right, but you continue to iterate. But you must always have a plan.

Speaker 2:

I love that. I think a lot of young people are going to be listening to this podcast right now, and I say that all the time. You need to have a mentor. I got a mentor when I went into the entrepreneurship journey and, as you say yourself, you don't have to figure it out all on your own. Somebody can help you, somebody who's already been there can give you the roadmap, as you say yourself.

Speaker 2:

But again, sometimes from the mindset of the world always means that whatever expect things to be delivered to them, and I was in that mindset before, where I would sit at my desk and I was waiting for someone to give me a promotion. Being intentional about this is what I want, and I go to my manager, I want to go to the CEO's where I want to get, and I couldn't get that. I went somewhere else. And I think when I listen to what you say and I see a lot of successful leaders, they change over time. You say that, okay, I do one thing, I'm bored, time to do something else If the challenge is not there. They don't stay stuck in the same room for years and years and years and years, and that really seems to be one of the beautiful part of that DNA of successful CEO. We've done that really really well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think you're absolutely right. You need to be willing to challenge, right? I really want to pick up on that point. A lot of people, particularly particularly black people, I would say quite broadly, we have the tendency to think well, if I do a good job, somebody will recognize me. That's not true. It's simply not true. I'm not saying it never happens, but it's not true. You have to challenge, and the only way you challenge, as we said before, is by knowing what it is that you want. So you've got to invest the time in understanding what it is that you want. You've got to invest the time in building your skills and your experiences so that you're ready to have what it is that you want. But then you've got to challenge. You've got to constructively challenge, but you absolutely have to challenge.

Speaker 2:

Can I just take you on this question? When you say challenge, do you mean challenge the leadership above you for them to recognize that you can bring more to the table? Or do you mean you challenge yourself in what you are capable of doing in your own role? Because to one of our events, one lady say I prepare myself in the role that I am for the next role I want to be in. I thought, wow, that's powerful. She prepares herself. She's in the role right now. She's already playing herself with the skills. Even she's not there yet. So it can be an easy decision for somebody to take her into the next role. So when you say challenge, do you mean by that?

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, but it's both. Flavilla, you've got to challenge yourself, which is exactly what this lady is describing. You have to challenge yourself, you have to get comfortable, prepare yourself for the next role, but you've got to challenge upwards. Now, I think that sometimes, the way that we're brought up, particularly those that are brought up quite traditionally, you don't challenge people that are older than you. There is always the respect element, et cetera, et cetera. But you have to challenge upwards and that's why I say, constructively, challenge. Go to your boss. You say, well, look, I've done XYZ, these are the skills that I have. That's where I want to be. Have that conversation. What does it take to go there? What am I missing? Don't wait for somebody to come and tell you ah well, we didn't give you that job because we didn't think you were ready. No, no, I think I'm ready. What do you think I'm missing? All right, how do we close that gap? When the opportunity comes up, I want my name to be the first name on the list, that's, on you as an individual to challenge upwards.

Speaker 2:

As we continue this engaging conversation, remember that Black Rise is more than just a podcast. Where dynamic platform, where businesses can connect, collaborate and prosper with black professionals, entrepreneurs and black owned companies. Our commitment to diversity, inclusion and empowerment reshapes industries and builds a future where black excellence thrives globally. So don't forget to subscribe and give us a five star review on iTunes. Love, love, love it. I love it because that's what you do. I'm always very cheeky, but I think it's the nature of you know, afraid to be bold and ask for what you deserve. But it can come back to also knowing what you deserve, and I love that. As a CEO of Toyota Connected Europe, is it how you expected it? But also, I'm curious to understand in terms of the need for innovation, innovation, transformation. How do you cope with that demand as well, on a large scale?

Speaker 1:

So let's take the first part of the question. Is it what I expected? Honestly speaking, I didn't know what to expect. When I was running HR, we had a challenge in the leadership of this organization and we they were going to bring in somebody from outside and at the last minute, that candidate fell out and decided not to join. And, as the VP of HR, this came to my table and the question was look, where can we find another candidate? And I remember I was just about to go on holiday and my boss at the time was about to go on holiday and I said look, let's both go on holiday, let's take a little bit of time to think about it. And you know, we're back in a week, ten days. We'll have a conversation then.

Speaker 1:

And two days into my holiday, I get a call from my boss saying you know what? Why has it been out? We've had a little bit of a think about it and we think you're the right person to do it. I said whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on a minute, guys.

Speaker 1:

I've just been in my job for eight months as the VP of HR. We are in the middle of a cultural transformation program and you want to pull me out of that to go and run a tech company in London and you know it was like a joke. I'm like, come on, guys, you can't be serious. But the message that they gave me was that it's a challenge. We think that with your experience, again cutting across multiple areas, you can help tie all of this together so that we can be successful. You know, I had a long thing about it and I said, right, okay, I'll go do it. But what I walked into wasn't of what I expected. What I walked into was a Business that was 12 intents and purposes, very much start-up mentality, a business that was trying to do many Different things at the same time, and I think you know it's not to be critical of the business at that.

Speaker 1:

I think a lot of businesses go through that phase of you know who are we, what do we do, how do we do it. And I came in while the business was still in the midst of that and I very Quickly had to understand what the business was about, what its potential was, and then Narrow the focus of the business. So we ended up going from trying to do all things to focus in on three main things, and the thinking behind those three main things was what is it that we're good at, what is it that we do that no other company within the Toyota group does, and what is it that we see as a Huge potential for the future of the connected technology space? So we decided to orient the business around data Mobility and what we call design. So user experience and that change. It sounds very simple when I've used the words here, but it was a dramatic change versus the kind of business that existed before. And then you get into mindset, then you get into culture, then you get into having to Storytell to the organization that where we're going is the promised land.

Speaker 1:

Almost. You know where we're going is the right direction for the business and you won't bring everybody along with you. Right, and that's part of the challenge that we had is we didn't necessarily bring everybody along with us. But you know, if I put it in numbers because numbers always easy for people to understand the fiscal year that ended when I took over, our revenue was 5.7 million. Last year our revenue was 42.5 million. So that's within a three-year period and nine times growth. And for me that kind of gives me the Assurance that the decisions we made three years ago were the right decisions, that the direction we're going in is the right direction.

Speaker 1:

But it's been challenging. It's very difficult to put into words sometimes, but it has been a huge challenge to change the direction of the ship but also, at the same time, to make sure that the bigger Toyota entity Understands the importance of what it is that we're doing. By the way, on that last bit, that's a journey that we're still on, because we haven't we haven't really delivered on that yet. You know, my mantra or my message to the organization is Forget the numbers. We will be truly successful when the products and services that we build End up in the hands of the 10 million Toyota customers that buy our cars each year. That's the real mark of success. So we have a long journey. We have a long journey, but it's been. It's been a hell of a ride in the last three years, yes, but I love it what you say.

Speaker 2:

I think you know part of being a leader is recognizing when you share the vision, you know the long term and go that you're trying to achieve. Not everybody will want the same thing and being comfortable with that and be prepared for that and you've done this and I've seen many times where this is what it is and people want to go in Different direction, but at least we are there, know why they work and why they matter, and I think it's so key and as you see as well. Second thing, people often focus on the money. Yes, exactly, if you focus on the impact and the quality of your work, money will always follow and people will not do a bling of an eye, will choose you because you understand that it's not just about conversion but about a real value to bringing. I think I love that a lot hundred percent.

Speaker 1:

And that leads into your second part of your question around innovation. Right, because we bring value through innovation. You know, we have really clever people within this organization and if we spend all of our time doing, let's say, foundational stuff you know Stuff that okay is. You know stuff that's not hugely challenging If we, if we, stay in that place where we're doing stuff that's not usually challenging, we will lose the talent that we have. So we invest Quite a bit in hackathons. We invest in, you know, developing an innovation roadmap, and that innovation is really about spending time with our customers, understanding what their challenges are, what their problems are, some element of co-creation but coming back to our house and saying, right, how do we fix that problem? That's what our hackathons about. Here's a list of problems. Go away, come up with ideas on how we fix them, and we'll pick the best one, two, three ideas and Invest in them so that we can bring them to market to address those customer concerns.

Speaker 1:

Within the connected technology space, the most innovative companies are the ones that will win, but I think you can say this at anything within the tech space, right? So that's where we are now. That's, you know. We're starting to invest heavily innovation in innovation, because not only does it help us bring new products into the hands of customers but, very importantly for us as a business, it keeps our talent engaged. Tech talent wants to do innovative stuff. They don't want to do run-of-the-mill stuff. They don't want to do standard stuff. They want to do exciting, clever stuff. But you know, my message to my tech talent here is we don't want to do exciting clever stuff that is only used by three people, or ten people, or twenty. We want to do exciting clever stuff that is used by Millions of people.

Speaker 1:

That's that's the challenge for us as a business.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful challenge, though, but beautiful, excited challenge, because when a challenge means that you know you can enjoy the journey, you're more likely to put the effort into it. I think you know when you say something wow, you know the numbers, you know you can talk about success, but numbers is easy for everybody to understand. Is that one of your top career achievements? And if?

Speaker 1:

it is really proud of? Is that one achievement in my career, in this job, because in my career there's probably many?

Speaker 2:

Many your career, your top three career achievements, oh my top three.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's go top three in chronological order them. I think the first thing that I'm really proud of is Toyota Igo, which is the project that I joined Toyota to manage. So that was First generation was launched in 2005 and we're on the third generation now. I don't know by by design or by accident, I've actually been involved in every generation in One way or the other, so I'm really proud of that. I think it's a really clever product at. It opened a new segment of the automotive market to Toyota, which we were not very good at, you know. It introduced Younger customers to the brand, gave them the access to the brand and hopefully we keep them within the brand. So that's one thing that I'm really really, really proud of.

Speaker 1:

I think the other thing that I'm proud of is the ability To pivot across functions. You know, as I said, moving from product to sales, from sales to marketing and then going into HR. And when I took over HR, one of the things first things that I did was actually changed the name of the function. So instead of HR, I called it people and innovation, which is what it's still called today. That, for me, was a big step forward and it did a few things. It was about Putting people again at the center of the business. It was about putting technology as an enabler, or innovation as an enabler, at the center of our business and it was about starting to change the mindset, or should we say, evolve the mindset. You know, toyota has a very, very strong culture built up over years. But as Toyota moves from automotive to mobility company, there was a need to evolve that mindset and the transformation program I mentioned at the beginning in Project Phoenix, which we started when I was running People and Innovation, was about that Primarily evolving that mindset, and I think we had some good wins.

Speaker 1:

The third thing is, I guess Toyota connected Europe. You know, three years here, very different business to the business that I took over, lots of things that we can be proud of in terms of what we've delivered to our customers. But beyond any of that, I think it's the personal challenge. This has been, honestly speaking, my most difficult job in 20 years at Toyota. Difficult from the point of view of having to learn quickly. Difficult from the point of view of the complexity within the space. Difficult from the point of view of, like all OEMs, toyota not really being clear as to what it wants to achieve in this space and therefore the pressure is on you to help define what needs to be achieved. But I think you know, in the last three years, I can look back on those tough times, those sleepless nights, and say we made real progress. We're not there yet I'm always the first person to say that but I think we've made a huge progress in the last three years and that's something I'm proud of.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was worth it, because the results as well speak for themselves. I want to ask another question Is there anything that you think you would have done differently in your career? I'm sure there are many things, no doubt.

Speaker 1:

You know. I think if you look back on your career and you don't have to do anything in your career, you don't think there's anything that you could have done different. In some ways, you're a little bit delusional. There's many things I could have done different, I think I'm just thinking. You know, for example, when I went out to South Africa because I worked for Twitter in South Africa I went out just after Lehman shock, right.

Speaker 1:

So just after the financial crisis or during the financial crisis, toyota South Africa had a huge challenge because customers nobody was buying anything and normally they would carry about 1.2, one and a half months of stock and very quickly we were at six, seven, eight months of stock. I needed to change the way in which we ordered vehicles. I needed to change the way in which we handed those vehicles over to the retailers for sale. But my focus was very much on doing what was right for T-SAM, so Toyota South Africa, and in doing that I forgot or should I say I lost sight of the fact that whatever we did also had to work for the retailer network, because, you know, these were businesses who'd invested heavily in the Toyota franchise and whilst we were bleeding, they were also bleeding and somewhere in my rush to try and fix things again maybe in my bid to try and get credibility quickly I lost a little bit of sight of that and I faced a huge backlash. You know, literally the whole retailer network ganged up against me. It was quite. When I look back now it was quite incredible to see, but it was. You know, I became public enemy number one and I literally had to battle my way through that.

Speaker 1:

But it was a huge learning because the message was very clear. It was what I started this meeting, this discussion with. It was about empathy. I needed to spend more time with those retailers and build empathy with them, understand what they were facing, get them to understand what T-SAM was facing and not perhaps not be as one sided as I was in my approach. So that's probably one thing. I look back and I say to myself oh, frank, you could have done that differently, really could have done that differently. But you know, flavilla, I'm certain I will make more mistakes in my career. I'm absolutely still at the top of that, because as long as I continue to take chances, as long as I continue to look for those roles that put me at the edge of discomfort. I will make mistakes. One thing I've learned is I will grow from them and I will become a better leader from them, and that, for me, is that's what's important what you do with your mistakes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I agree with you. As you said, what's important is not stopping at your failure, but really carrying on to really grow and learn and never stop taking chances. My last question you've been so fabulous and I will learn so much I think that people will listen to this episode more than once but what is your vision of the future?

Speaker 1:

That's a great question, Flavilla. So one thing which I didn't touch on, actually and I think that's a good time to bring it in is, beyond being the CEO at TCEU, I'm also the executive sponsor of one of the employee resource groups at the headquarters in Brussels, which is the employee resource group of culture, race and ethnicity, and I sit on the Diversity Advisory Board. We had a diversity conference last week and actually I was asked a similar question what is your vision in this space for the future? So I want to narrow my vision around that, and I think for me, it's about getting businesses to understand that, whilst diversity is supremely important, belonging is even more so. You can make all the attempts to bring in a more diverse workforce, but if you don't create an environment where people feel that they belong, where people feel that they can bring their very best selves, then you're just doing diversity as a tick box exercise. So my vision is that we create a space where we celebrate our diversities, but we very quickly realise that there is more that binds us together than there is that separates us. The similarities across cultures, across race, across ethnicities, across religions are a lot more than we want to admit.

Speaker 1:

Right, A vision where when you look around the table in any business, when you look around any boardroom, it mirrors society. You don't have just one race around the table. You have multi-racial boardrooms, more people that look like you and me, Flavida around the table. You have more women. You have more Indians, more blacks, whites, a whole diverse room of talent that reflects society. Diverse room of talent that feels that they belong. Diverse room of talent that is able to bring their full potential to every room that they're in. That, for me, is what the future looks like. That's my vision. My vision is really to create a sense of belonging across all businesses that allows diverse talent to unleash its full potential.

Speaker 2:

I love that the great leaders bring the new leaders of tomorrow and I think that's all you're trying to do and really encompass your amazing work, your amazing success and everybody to inspire and, with this podcast, go even further. Thank you so much, frank, for being on this podcast. It was a delight to hear your story. Anything that you do not only just to impact on the success of the business, but also the success and impact that you make on people and, at the end of the day, no matter what we do, it's always about people.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. Thank you, Flavida. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Black Rice. We hope that you found this conversation as inspiring as we did. Share your takeaways on social media and tag us as we wrap up. Remember that you can always stay connected with us. Join us on this journey of elevation, motivation and empowerment. Let's rise together, break barriers and create lasting change. Subscribe now to stay updated with our latest episodes and visit the BlackRicecom to find out more. This is BlackRice, where excellence and impact converge to redefine the future. Until next time, keep rising.