Abiola Adediran is an innovative and dynamic change leader, having over thirteen years of seasoned financial experience with exposure in both local and international financial markets.
Abiola Adediran’s diverse experience in providing core business strategy, auditing, financial management, corporate valuation, and investment management services has provided her with the ability to provide unique and authentic perspectives to support various facets of business.
In this interview with 9to5Chick, Africa’s foremost career development and networking platform for Africa’s most ambitious women, Abiola Adediran talks about how business owners can navigate the inflation crisis to build profitable and sustainable businesses.
Read details of the Interview Between The 9to5Chick And Abiola Adediran below;
Q: You recently transitioned from working in the financial sector to becoming self-employed, what prompted this transition and how has the journey been so far?
A: My career journey in the last 15 years has been marked with transitions and reinventions as I consistently develop myself and evolve into someone who can deliver more value, and give expression to that value through enabling platforms for higher impact and ultimately greater transformation for the organization and my personal fulfillment.
Starting out as an Investment Banker, becoming a “big 4” Audit Manager, and then moving on to become the Group Chief Financial Officer of a financial services conglomerate as well as a family office, and now transitioning to become a Family Business Advisor and Wealth Manager, has really been a journey of resilience, belief in my abilities, and trusting the process of becoming.
Every step in my evolution has been a stretch and has often demanded a higher degree of discipline and focus. It has made me a more valuable professional with deep expert knowledge that produces innovative solutions to the clients I serve.
It’s been an interesting journey so far and I’m loving the twists and turns that come with it. I believe it’s a call to a higher dimension of more impactful work and I’m here for it.
Q: How can business owners navigate the recent spike in the cost of production to improve their overall business financial performance?
A: We live in interesting times with rising interest rates, high inflation, geopolitical risk, disrupted supply chain, etc which all contribute to the increased cost of business operations, potentially reducing profit margins.
To thrive, business owners need to rethink their business models and cost structures to be able to find creative and innovative ways to offer their services or products while focusing on optimization to achieve cost efficiency in the business.
As entrepreneurs, we need to determine the absolute imperatives for our business and the “nice to haves”.
That is, we need to look at how we extract value from every dollar spent, paying attention to the cash and non-cash leakages in our system which has an impact on the company’s profitability and sustainability.
We also need to leverage technology to replace manual processes that are costing the company more and remove any excesses that are not adding value to the company’s bottom line.
