From a soft KPMG position to beginning afresh in a brand new nation

As a baby, it was commonplace for Wilson Dike’s associates to journey exterior the state, transferring out and in of the neighbourhood for one cause or one other. Separated, they developed a “pen pal” tradition, writing letters to 1 one other to remain in contact. However letters took weeks to ship, and replies got here again even slower. 

Then got here the e-mail. He remembers the joys of sitting in a cybercafé, sending a message to a pal, and seeing their response seem immediately on his display screen. 

That second, small because it appeared, opened his eyes to what expertise may do. He graduated from school with a level in info expertise however went into consulting.

“I began as a guide in one of many prime 4 corporations [at KPMG] on the planet,” stated Dike. “I labored at a Lagos workplace, however I all the time knew I used to be going to finally work in IT.”

Even in his early profession, he had a transparent sense of the place the long run was headed. He noticed how companies had been shifting from proudly owning whole working methods to subscribing to providers. He noticed how the cloud was rising as the subsequent nice platform for firms in every single place.

“I knew that cloud was going to be an enormous factor sooner or later the place individuals had full-on management of their safety and entry,” he stated.

Consulting days

Dike spent just a little over two years at KPMG, the place he labored on tax automations and computations for firms in Nigeria. His work uncovered him to the challenges of multinational firms, mid-sized corporations, and indigenous companies attempting to function throughout a number of tax regimes. 

It gave him perspective on how companies operate in numerous environments. That have would later show helpful.

In 2015, he give up consulting and joined a software program firm with operations throughout Africa as a gross sales lead. Right here, Dike’s consulting expertise in multi-legislative contexts turned invaluable.

Quickly, he was on planes throughout the continent: Ghana, Togo, Benin, Kenya, South Africa. He spent lengthy stretches attending Huge Tech occasions, onboarding shoppers, working demos, and placing out fires in markets the place his firm’s merchandise had been in use.

However consulting information alone couldn’t carry him. Shifting into gross sales meant beginning once more. He went by company-sponsored coaching, shadowed senior colleagues, and picked up expertise straight within the discipline. 

At instances, he was despatched exterior Africa to nations just like the UAE and Kuwait, the place he assisted with product coaching and supported native groups. It was at this firm that Dike started to seek out his ft as a tech salesperson. 

Pulling weight in tech gross sales  

After a number of years, Dike joined a UK-based cloud infrastructure firm, his first position exterior Nigeria. The agency was small—barely two years previous—and was on the lookout for methods to increase into Africa. Dike understood what they wished to realize, and he knew the market effectively.

“Being Nigerian, I had a good information of the market,” he stated. “And I already had relationships that might be leveraged.”

He constructed a gross sales playbook to seize the technique. Quickly, the corporate secured its first multi-million-dollar deal in Sub-Saharan Africa. With that, the floodgates opened. Contracts, new shoppers, and enlargement into new markets. Earlier than lengthy, Dike was main the corporate’s gross sales and nation enlargement throughout Africa.

But, because the enterprise grew, he was planning his subsequent transfer. 

Huge Tech expertise

“I needed to transfer to the UK resulting from private causes and different challenges,” he stated.

In 2022, he relocated to the UK and joined Siemens, the worldwide expertise agency, the place he led buyer discovery. His position targeted on creating consciousness round a blockchain-based monetary product. 

“International tier-1 banks have constructed layers,” he defined. “These banks had been constructing methods that allowed them to course of transactions quicker and extra securely utilizing blockchain, whereas decreasing reliance on conventional channels.” 

Dike’s job was to persuade monetary establishments and insurers to take discover and embrace what was being constructed.

Alongside this, Siemens additionally had IoT-based—web of issues—emission sensors for producers, which helped them monitor output and calculate hydrocarbon taxes. Dike was chargeable for introducing these options to shoppers as effectively. 

With Siemens, his work typically crisscrossed Europe. He often travelled throughout cities within the UK and different nations in Europe, the place cultural classes typically mattered as a lot as technical expertise. In a single nation, he realized rapidly by no means to show down a shopper’s invitation to dinner; respect for tradition was as essential as closing the sale.

Early this yr, Dike left Siemens to construct his enterprise. With companions, he’s growing a regulatory expertise (RegTech) product that simplifies legislative language for firms increasing into new markets, serving to them stay compliant whereas rising.