Institution news
Dere Ogbe CEng wanted to do an MBA course was to aid a career switch into management, which builds on a 12-year career as a senior operations excellence engineer, implementing best technical practices and driving continuous improvement for BP Exploration across multiple operating sites in Europe, Middle East and North Africa.
Ogbe said:
“I could see how business decisions cascade down to technical and operating choices. For example, commercial choices on project development, negotiated terms and development partners in turn cascade into technical facility choices that created the operational and maintenance requirements.
“This awareness, coupled with courses such as managing engineering projects which I took as part of my CPD with IMechE, sparked my interest in learning more and moving into business management within my industry.”
Walking away from a successful job for an MBA is not an easy decision but Ogbe was determined and won a Sainsbury Management Fellows MBA scholarship.
The SMF scholarship helps engineers looking to transition into corporate roles where they can use both business and engineering skills.
Ogbe said: “The £30,000 award helped enormously with the cost and, after graduating, gave me time to find the right position.”
Straight out of London Business School, Shell appointed Ogbe as Senior Strategy & Portfolio Consultant, a role which would have been inaccessible without the MBA, which Ogbe feels galvanised his career by moving him from a focused technical leader role to a multi-disciplined business leader.
Ogbe said: “The MBA taught me how to tackle problems from multiple viewpoints. For example, I lead a project that is shaping Shell’s vision of energy transition and future global oil demand. This involves working with large numbers of industry experts to analyse multiple interacting trends in consumer behaviours, demographics, government policies and technology. With such complex issues there is a danger of the team becoming overwhelmed by data or personal biases/beliefs.
“The training on world economics, managing change and data analytics gave me the grounding and tools to lead the team through multiple workshops working with over 30 industry experts with diverse views to arrive collectively at scenarios to guide future investment decisions.”
Ogbe also led a Shell M&A team in the valuation of energy (LNG, LPG, Shale Gas) access opportunities across North America and secured leadership agreement for the recommendations. This required building a credible financial simulation model, applying strategy tools to analyse competitive situations and using data to make the case for business decisions. This would have been difficult without the financial knowledge gained during his MBA.
Ogbe uses Institution CPD resources in his role and said: “The technical resources and training events on energy available through the IMechE Portal, and the articles on energy production/efficiency in PE magazine keep me abreast of trends and issues in my field.”
Ogbe’s CPD programme is increasing his competency, especially in the areas of energy production, efficiency, transition and digitisation.
He said: “I blend the tools within the IMechE CPD – these include attending events on energy and transportation to hear the latest updates, carrying out research via the virtual library and taking an online Masters in Information Technology from the University of Liverpool. Previously my CPD included supporting course development for the Robert Gordon University as an online tutor on the Asset Integrity course and recently I became a MPDS mentor to refresh my coaching skills, and support young engineers.
“It’s important to take the time to create a career roadmap and consider the stepping stones to reach your goal. The CPD portal provides a structured way of achieving this by enabling you to capture your development plans, record progress and reflect on your learning.”