Each month, we spotlight one piece of thinking from a senior leader in the WiM Africa community — an article, report, talk or point of view that genuinely adds to industry conversations.
By Jean Okech - Head of Whisky for Africa Partner Markets, Diageo east Africa Ltd
I am where I am today because people took a chance on me – not because I was fully capable or ready – but because someone took a bet on me pegged on potential they saw. And in turn, I learnt early on as well – to dial up my curiosity; to seek to understand and to steep myself in the opportunities that I have been given – so that I can make the best of them.
As I have progressed in my career, I have learned that leadership is less about having all the answers and more about creating clarity amidst complexity. Whether leading field sales teams, transforming portfolios, revitalizing heritage brands or taking on increasingly expansive regional mandates, my approach has remained consistent: begin with curiosity, listen deeply, build capability and create the conditions for people to succeed.
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We spend millions of shillings trying to understand consumer behavior, yet we routinely ignore the human behavior inside our own office walls. In a world obsessed with data points, algorithms, and automated funnels, we often forget the most fundamental rule of marketing: we are humans selling to humans.
If we want our teams to look past raw numbers and tap into a genuine, authentic curiosity about the consumer, we have to change how we lead them. Consumer curiosity cannot thrive in a corporate culture built on rigid perfectionism. It requires a fundamental shift toward humanising leadership—a philosophy that balances commercial ambition with radical empathy, psychological safety, and the humility to learn from failure.
The Illusion of the Perfect Metric
My team and I were living the marketer’s dream on Johnnie Walker. We (and the amazing brand builders before us) had put in years of relentless work- and the metrics reflected it: from year on year commercial growth, to setting up a winning consumer engagement platform( Walker Town) to global and local industry awards – we were in a great space!
When you are winning, it is easy for leadership to become a victory lap. The data naturally emboldens you to take bigger risks. Backed by our success, we decided to push the boundaries of Walker Town 2024, expanding it into an ambitious two-day festival and elevating our lineup to feature global icons. Then Murphy’s Law walked in….
A turn in weather conditions triggered severe, insurmountable technical issues (which in retrospect we were nowhere capable to handle) marred the second day. Highly anticipated performances were delayed or cancelled. In full view of thousands of passionate fans, our big, beautiful property faced its most public crisis.
In the immediate aftermath of a brand crisis, traditional corporate leadership dictates a familiar playbook: find someone to blame, draft a sanitised corporate statement, and protect the financial bottom line at all costs.
But a humanised leader understands that a brand is not built on a transaction; it is built on a relationship. And relationships require accountability.
Led by our executive team, we made a radical, first-of-its-kind decision in the market to issue a 100% refund for all Day Two ticket sales. It was a massive financial hit, but it was a necessary reflection of fairness and respect for the trust consumers had placed in us. We chose human integrity over short-term revenue.
Simultaneously, an internal crisis was unfolding. My team was devastated, exhausted, and facing intense scrutiny during the subsequent investigations. Humanising leadership meant providing "air cover." It meant reassuring the team, absorbing the external pressure so they could focus, and reminding them of the very mantra we sell to the world: #KeepWalking. We still had a massive brand performance to deliver, and they needed to know their leaders had their backs, even when the “shiny toys” broke.
The ROI of Vulnerability
We gave the team the psychological safety and space to continue pushing boundaries, albeit at a smaller, more controlled scale – with clear accountabilities. We didn't withdraw into safe, defensive marketing; we banked the lessons and kept moving forward.
The ultimate test of this approach came during our next equity read. By all traditional corporate logic, that incident should have damaged our standing. Instead, the data revealed something extraordinary: Johnnie Walker’s brand equity grew. We retained our position as Kenya’s most loved premium spirits brand, but more importantly, we saw significant growth in our brand’s meaningfulness.
Why? Because consumers do not expect brands to be flawless corporations; they expect them to be human. By taking accountability, issuing refunds, and then continuing to show up - we proved that we cared.
But the biggest lesson belonged to us as leaders. The crisis forced us to pivot away from our over-reliance on the "big shiny toys"—the massive, loud experiential executions—and return to baseline consumer curiosity. It forced us to ask deeper questions: How do we truly understand the micro-moments of our consumer's day? How do we use deep consumer knowledge to take smarter, more meaningful bets that drive genuine desire for our brand?
Curiosity Starts at the Top
When leaders model vulnerability—when we admit that things went wrong, protect our people, and openly treat failures as data points—we give our marketing teams the permission to be brave. We unlock the curiosity required to listen to consumers instead of just pitching to them.
To the person reading this: take off the corporate armor. The next time your team takes a bet that doesn't go to plan, don't ask who failed. Onboard the learnings, hold the accountability – as you provide the air cover they need to #KeepWallking. Leading with humanity inside your organisation is the only way to build authentic, human connections outside it.