Interview with Shell’s Kofo Obasanjo-Blackshire

Kofo Obasanjo-Blackshire is an inspiring woman who, through various roles at Shell, reflects a commitment to innovation, resilience, and continuous growth. Joining Shell marked the beginning of Kofo's adventure into the world of energy and beyond. From marketing roles exploring the application of gas to liquid in emerging markets to global process design and supply chain management, Kofo's journey has been characterized by a relentless pursuit of excellence. In this interview, Kofo shares insights into her career, balancing professional aspirations with personal fulfilment, and the importance of finding joy and meaning beyond the workplace. Join us as we explore the remarkable journey of Kofo, a leader navigating complexity with passion and purpose! How has your journey to Shell been like? My journey began at the end of my PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at King's College. As I was coming towards the end of the PhD, fuelled by my curiosity about the world outside of pipettes and test tubes, I began asking myself the question of what else is out there. This led me to explore options in energy, consulting and various other areas outside of science. When Shell came along, I considered myself very fortunate because I was working within a sector that had a very strong research element to it. We were exploring the application of gas to liquid, GTL for short, to kerosene as domestic fuel in emerging markets. After having looked into a number of countries, Kenya became our ideal pilot market for this exercise. So, we partnered with the University of California at Berkeley and really started to dig into how to place and position GTL kerosene as domestic fuel in the country. I absolutely loved this project because, growing up in Nigeria, I would often find myself doing my homework and studying by a kerosene lamp, so it had a personal resonance to me. The good thing with GTL kerosene is that unlike conventional kerosene it doesn't have any of the unhealthy particulates, nitrogen, sulphur or aromatics, that you get with conventional kerosene. I thought, wow, there could be health benefits. There also was a CSR, so a social responsibility angle to it, in terms of high-computer precision. This is why I thought I’d landed on my feet. In the years after, I moved into a global process design role, GSAP architecture, and after having spent some time in that position I had my first foray into supply chains as global key account supply planner. I was building up my supply chain expertise. Then from this job, curiosity got the better of me once again, and I started to wonder what Shell could offer to be beyond supply chains.

At that point, I moved into UK mobility marketing as product owner for our fuels portfolio, both the main grade fuels, Shell, main grade proposition, and our premium offering, V-Power. That was fantastic, but towards the back end of the pandemic, we had this massive reorganisation and I fell back into supply chain as the Global Supply Development Manager, first for automotive accounts and now for mining and industry. Out of the roles you’ve occupied at Shell, do you have one that you're particularly fond of? That's really tough to say because it’s like asking me who’s my favourite child. I think because of my temperament, wherever I find myself I view it as where I'm supposed to be. But, the position where I believe to have had a towering accomplishment is my previous role in the UK marketing team, as we saved the organization $10 million by harmonizing and consolidating the portfolio. Still, I love where I am today, my journey has brought me thus far and it feels great. I was reflecting on this even this morning, comparing May or April when I ran the Paris Marathon, to where I am today on the 18th of December, and I almost feel like somebody has put a cord at the top of my head and the soles of my feet and has drag me up. I feel that growth has been so exponential. If I can describe 2023 in one word, I would say that it was a year of abundance or richness, with so many things having happened. I know I sound excited when I talk about these things, and it’s because I'm where I'm meant to be and this feels like a great place. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to 2024 because I have some big plans in my head. The change in scope from automotive to mining and industry happened in August, so it is still rather fresh. It feels like I've had enough time to grow and now I can hit the ground running with this new scope. I will be discussing some of my future strategic objectives in my book. So, I’m ready to go into 2024 and just kill it, slay it and nail it. This job will be my best one.

What do you think about the stigmas around Shell now that you know the  company so well? Coming from Nigeria, I was exposed to the issues that my country has with Shell. In Nigeria, oil spill stories circulate habitually, so I'm familiar with them. But, being one of the top organizations in the world, Shell is a top brand, it's a good place to work. So, while at the back of my mind, there were some reservations, I thought that overall, if you have to take the big picture into account, Shell is a good arena for personal growth and development, and that’s what I found when I joined. Still, as an industry, there's always much more to do. The energy transition, the climate change emergency, they’re all crisis that nobody can get away from. But I feel that Shell, as an organization, is actually in a prime position to live up to its ambitions of powering progress and powering us into that future where we address the climate change emergency. Climate change emergency is an existential threat; the whole of humanity is facing it, and I believe Shell can truly innovate, lead, and provide those solutions that will enable us to enter the future and actually achieve those aspirations of being net zero by 2050 or before. But, while on one hand there’s climate change emergency, on the other, people want reliable, safe and affordable energy. Squaring that circle is difficult. But, as I was saying, Shell is in a prime position to do that, and we have a number of changes that Shell has achieved as of 2023. For instance, we’ve reached the goal level of the Golab of Tini, a wind and solar powered platform in Malaysia, and we've launched our biggest electric vehicle charging site in the world in China. Nonetheless, Shell is a for-profit organization, not a not-for-profit one. Therefore, you need the legislation to encourage more vehicles to be produced and to then meet the charge point and the solutions that Shell provides. Your role and the roles that you've been in seem to be so multifaceted that your days must look very different depending on what you're currently working on, but could you give us a play-by-play of what one of your normal, standard days might look like? Let me start by saying that there is no normal, standard day, because, and that's what I love about the job, it is multifaceted that each day looks very different. But, if I had to paint a bit of a picture, I would start by saying that my team has a slogan, we say that we're the voice of the supply chain to the customer, and the voice of the customer to the supply chain.

That means that my job is to reconcile the customer needs with our supply capabilities. So my job is really to strengthen the health of each account for the maximum benefit for my organization and for that of the customer. Thus, what the customer needs is our departure point, from which we then try to understand how we can satisfy those needs with the supply chain capabilities we have today, and our investments. Ultimately, following the customer requirements is necessary for Shell to stay in the business and not collapse. At the same time, when I have conversations with a customer, I bring that input from the supply chain part into the discussions. Bringing these two perspectives together is, I believe, what my job is really about, and I absolutely love this collaborative element. This is to say that, during my days, I often work in teams. Being in a global role, one minute I could be talking to a team in India, the next day, to one in the US, Australia or some parts of Europe. There’s a very strong link with local and global sales as well as the regional supply chain team. It's very much a collaborative endeavour. Dealing with so many different people, minor conflicts might arise due to cultural differences, contrasting opinions or other types of clashes. How have you personally adapted to that in your role so far? To answer this question, I can give you a live example. I won’t go into details, but currently, I am working on a project that's been set up to address this particular custom knowledge, which arose at the beginning of the year, from some supply chain issues that have threatened the relationship with that account. This was last January, and looking back on it now in December, we've made quite a bit of progress, but while the team was hoping that closer to 2024 we would have started to dismantle the project team, that's not looking likely. I had a face-to-face conversation with the customer and while at first we proposed some solutions that they were happy with, they have now said that they want something else. So, long story short, I had a call with the team this morning and I let them know it's not looking like we're going to be able to dismantle the project team in Q1, we have to protract it for longer. But, while we're doing all that, I have to make sure that we manage everybody's well-being, because if people were expecting to be able to move on from this project by, let’s say, April next year, and it extends beyond that, we’ll have to do something about it. So, it's finding ways to handle those complexities that arise, those surprises that you can't really plan for. The way I approach these unforeseen challenges is working with the team to make sure that their health is prioritized. Safety for Shell is always paramount. 

You just have to find a way forward and make sure that your priorities are around those areas of safety, compliance, and customer needs. Moving past the work-place, talking about interactions with people and individuals, one thing I tend to say is that I'm not anyone's therapist. If people come with an attitude or comment that I think is negative and unpalatable, I won't stand for it, it's not for me to decipher where that is coming from. My job is to be professional, to treat everybody with respect, and to hold that as my expectation from everybody else. Regardless of what is happening in my life, the minimum I expect from myself and from others is professionalism and respect. You’ve mentioned that you travel quite a lot for work. For how long has your role at Shell required you to travel, and how do you see that going in the future? When I was in certain roles pre-pandemic, my travel was on average once a month, and it got to a point where it was quite heavy. Then it reduced to about once every other month, and after the pandemic introduced new ways of working, Shell is now in an era where the guidelines are about performance, simplification, and discipline. So the message from senior leaders, from the CEO down is that we need to be disciplined about how we deploy our budget. For this reason, this year, my travel has reduced to once every two months, and going into 2024 I think it will decrease even more with that principle of discipline really coming into play. Travel now needs to be limited to face-to-face customer meetings, while we have to cut back on team meetings, which, although important for team spirit, should be restricted to important updates or changes. Hence, I envisage 2024 being a year of maybe a once every two months or once a quarter type of travel. Do you feel like your marriage has allowed you to maintain sustenance in your role at Shell and your progression to where you are now? When it comes to marriage, I think it’s all about prioritisation and having support at home. As you may know, this year, I published a book, I ran marathons, raised my children, and did many more things, and while work is quite demanding, having that support at home was absolutely fundamental.

I wouldn’t have been able to do what I do without it. Training for marathons alone, that's hours and hours of dedication. Still, you know how they say you can have it all, well I say you can have it all, but not all at the same time. That's my experience at least. Prioritizing is necessary, and with time, prevailing circumstances change. For example, I didn't start running marathons until my kids were a little bit older. Training for a marathon, working full-time in a demanding role, finishing a course at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2020 and publishing a book on the premise of creating a fair and just world are all very demanding activities, but having a husband and children who are supportive it's absolutely paramount. Is there any advice that you would give to women specifically looking to pursue a career in your fields, or just in general, to ambitious women? I love the expression ambitious women, because I think that, for a long time, the word ambition has been a dirty word. I think ambition is a great. I think it's absolutely fantastic. And I read something the other day where somebody wrote “I'm thankful for what I have, but I don't stop fighting for what I want to become”. That really resonated with me. I'm thankful and content where I am, but there's still hunger and passion in me for what I can become tomorrow. I'm not done. I'm far from settled. So, to your question, one of the things I think is really important for everybody, but especially for women, is to fill your life with more than just work. They say no one on their deathbed ever said they wished they had worked more, and I agree with that. You should fill your life with whatever brings you meaning, purpose and joy. Because when the going gets tough at work, and believe me, it will, it's important to have those aspects of your life that still make you happy. I was running this morning and when I run, a lot of reflections come into my head. I was thinking that this year has been one of abundance, but that goes beyond my achievements at work. Work has been a big part of my growth of course, but it's been broader than that. It's been the book. It's been going to Kenya to promote the book. It's been going back to Nigeria to launch the book. It's been the children doing well and thriving. It's been the family being healthy and well, it's been the friendships I've made this year. I just feel like this year my life has been enriched in so many ways, and I think it’s all because I filled my life with more than just work, so when the challenges came, I had the motivation to be resilient and push through.