#WiMMeets Owen Inyang - CMO & Co-Founder of Juststandout

Welcome to #WiMMeets - a series of short interviews with marketing leaders from across Africa and around the world. The series will present a different side to senior professionals with the aim to share the things that matter to them and inspire others. 

In this interview we sat down with Owen Inyang, CMO & Co-Founder of Juststandout, an Electrical and Mechanical company, pioneering Renewable Energy solutions across Africa. She is also Treasurer for the Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria.

Owen spent the first half of her career in the Information Technology sector (Which she constantly refers to as her first love) providing invaluable sales and marketing expertise to tech giants locally and globally, notably Cisco and MTN. 

She is a serial entrepreneur, investor and speaker. ‘Owen has many philanthropic interests which focus on bringing the vulnerable in society out of darkness into renewable light through Light Up A Precious Life, an NGO she also co-founded.

As a Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center graduate, she was featured on the Times Square building NY for her outstanding achievement in Renewable Energy in Africa. A proud member of the Womenx12 cohort sponsored by the World Bank, Owen is an EDC (Entrepreneurial Development Center a part of the Lagos Business School) life member.

‘Owen possesses extensive knowledge of trends and changing scientific approaches in international marketing especially in the Power industry, she firmly believes that the Lithium ion battery is the greatest GAME CHANGER in renewable energy in the 21st Century.

 

WiM Africa: What gives you energy and drives you forward when you are not feeling at the top of your game?

OI: Oh, so many things inspire me to move forward….Knowing that tomorrow is another day and the situation/story can still change. Recognizing that I am still a change agent and that I have come too far to so go back now. Remembering to be thankful to God for what I do have, my health, my family, my career and my friends.

 

WiM Africa: Which advertising campaign, from any brand, has been the most memorable for you and why?

OI: The Coca Cola ad – I am the future of the world ….. The lyrics were very inspiring, and personalized which gave you a sense of identity with Coca cola and the message, it involved quite a number of a segment of their target audience: children and most of all, It was fun to watch.

 

WiM Africa: What three pieces of advice would you give to a woman marketer aspiring to a senior position about getting to and staying at the top of their profession?

OI:

1. I would tell her Marketing is both a science and an art. So she should be bold, very curious, not be afraid to experiment and push the limits and most especially not to stay in her lane. That’s what great minds before her in the marketing profession have done.
2. Use both the science and art to key into the goals of her company so that she can become a valuable part of the company.
3. That life is a balancing act and she gets to define her own balance at every phase of her life, in and outside of her career. Like my favorite Marketing Director Ms. Bridget Bisnette said when I was at Cisco, and I am paraphrasing now… to define your own balance you may need to accept jobs and opportunities in tune with your phase in life. If you are a mother with young children, you may want to choose a job that allows you flexibility even if it’s for a lower pay or perks. If you are supporting a region in a different time zone, it may mean you need to hit the Gym in the afternoon or at night which may be different from the time you normally would in your time zone just so you also get your alone time.

 

WiM Africa: Which one person, dead or alive, would you say inspires you the most and why?

OI: Apart from my mother I would say Mrs Ibukun Awosika. She is a wife and a mother and has overcome tremendous obstacles along her career path, however she just finds a way to make it work and excel. Her ethics towards work is also one I imbibe in my organization 100%. No giving or taking kickbacks to win or influence bids or any business outcome. I know you may think it sounds easy, but when you are faced with higher and higher stakes you realize being and staying ethical is a daily decision, not something you check in a code of conduct box once a year. She also dedicates a large portion of her time giving back and mentoring the next generation and that really inspires me.

 

WiM Africa: If you were stuck on a desert island what three things, excluding electronics, could you not do without?

OI: A good book because I love reading, lip gloss and clean drinking water.

 

Discover more #WiMMeets interviews here!