Tsotsi in the boardroom: Alex Okosi

Written by Brendah Nyakudya
Monday, 03 October 2011 17:22

ALEX OKOSI, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT & MANAGING DIRECTOR, MTV NETWORKS AFRICA

The name MTV Networks Africa is synonymous with African success. The legend of MTV Base as a music channel has shed the spotlight firmly on a calibre of African performers that have the confidence to pit themselves against the best musical talent on the international stage. This pan-African entertainment network launched in early 2005, and since its launch, the channel has experienced an intense period of growth. It went from a pay-TV channel to a pan-African TV network that is accessible to more than 90 million viewers across Africa.

All this began with a dream and the unwavering dedication of the senior vice-president and managing director of MTV Networks Africa, Alex Okosi, the man at the helm of business operations of MTV Networks International’s emerging markets group.

A passion for success

Alex was only 12 years old when he moved to the United States from Nigeria. A young boy inspired by his parents from an early age, he grew up focused on becoming a successful and positive role model who could inspire others in his community. His passion for success, whether it was on the soccer field or basketball court, was something that was inherent in his character. And so when he was given an opportunity to attend prep school at Phillips Exeter Academy in the United States, he took full advantage of it. He subsequently received a full basketball scholarship to attend Saint Michael’s College University in Vermont. This experience was defining time for him as he excelled in both sporting and academic disciplines; he graduated magna cum laude with a double major in business administration and economics.

After completing his studies, Alex was afforded an opportunity to start his career as part of the MTV marketing team in New York with subsequent moves to the MTV Networks’ affiliate team in Los Angeles and the international strategy and business development team in London, where he was able to develop the business plan for the MTV Base Africa channel.

But it was in 2005 that he finally came into his own as he was instrumental in realising MTV’s long-held ambitions on the African continent with the conception and launch of MTV’s 100th channel and first localised television service targeted exclusively at sub-Saharan Africa, MTV Base.

On the strategy to launch MTV Base, Alex says, “This was never an initiative just to say we created an African MTV service; the plan was always to launch and run a successful business.” And launch a successful business they did! And the manner in which the channel and brand has been so readily received and entrenched in African music culture comes as no surprise to Alex. He always believed in and worked towards MTV Base being successful both as a creative and financial proposition that would inspire positive change within the African youth space.

Three years after launching MTV base, Alex went on to launch Nickelodeon Africa, a 24-hour Nickelodeon service for African kids. Under his stewardship, MTV Networks Africa has grown into a fully fledged network reaching in excess of 90 million viewers across Africa via a combination of satellite pay-TV distribution and terrestrial programming partnerships in key African markets including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

In praise of the team effort

It would be naïve to assume the success of MTV Base was a stroke of luck as Alex is a firm believer in sheer hard work mixed with a dash of inspiration and a twist of creativity. A tough boss who expects perfection with every task, he inspires his team to believe that there is nothing they cannot achieve if they put their minds to it.

“You should go out every day thinking you are a winner and strive to win at everything you do. However, you must also have a team of people who are passionate and skilled and who also pursue excellence,” he says. While he has been at the forefront of all the MTV Africa efforts, he acknowledges the success of the brands is a testament to the efforts of the team of people that work incredibly hard with him every day.

The power of mentorship

Alex was fortunate enough to have benefited from extraordinary mentors who have been there throughout his life. These individuals have been instrumental in getting him to this point in his career. For many young people these relationships are hard to come by as opportunities to mentor are few and far between. Reasons for the scarcity of mentorship could include, according to Alex, the perception that the development and operation of mentorship programmes are resource intensive processes.

“Mentorship is not easy as are asking people to take time out of their busy schedules to help develop someone else,” he acknowledges. “However, I would argue that any such investment is money and time well spent.”

In his personal experience, however, the relationships between himself and his mentors generally developed naturally as he interacted with them to get guidance. There were also times when he consciously sought out individuals who inspired him with their character and accomplishments.

“I have been very lucky in that when I am faced with challenges or opportunities, I have a wealth of people who know me and care about me whom I can call on for guidance,” he says. “The most important lesson I have learnt from my mentors is that there are good people out there who are genuinely interested in helping other people grow.”

More than just music

Anyone who has encountered MTV will know that it is about more than the music. Over the past number of years the channel has initiated many projects that serve to empower youths including the Choose or Lose campaign, which encouraged youth to vote smart. There was also MTV Base Meets, an eight-part youth empowerment initiative to inspire African youth by connecting them with some of the world’s most influential personalities. One of the most important initiatives for Africa has been the MTV Staying Alive Campaign, which has become the world’s largest HIV mass-media-awareness and prevention campaign encouraging HIV prevention, safer lifestyle choices and fighting the stigma and discrimination that fuels the HIV pandemic. In a continent where HIV is rife, this campaign has been groundbreaking.

“I have a real passion to serve the continent in which I was born,” Alex comments about the need for such campaigns. “After all the many opportunities I have had and the wonderful individuals who have given me a helping hand along the way, I definitely believe in giving back.”

A lot of what they do at MTV is about giving back. Whether it is teaching new skills or giving young people access to new ideas and people, the brand is grounded in a culture that looks to face challenges and find solutions for them. The African continent faces many challenges, and Alex is not oblivious to this fact.

“Like every nation or continent, Africa has its share of individuals that do not show it in its best light,” he says. “However, I believe that there are far more people doing great things with tremendous integrity that are not having their stories told. Ever since we started our Africa business, we have been focused on highlighting a re-imagined Africa, with its amazing and vibrant youth culture, so that we can help to showcase the far more positive stories that the continent has to offer and which are not currently being captured by other media.”

Re-imagining Africa

As one who chose to come back to use what he had learnt in order to better the continent, Alex is one who has given the state of Africa some thought. He laments that Africa keeps failing to understand that it needs to invest in the basic needs and infrastructure to help eradicate poverty. In most countries these include adequate education, water supply and electricity. Without these basic needs being satisfied, the gap between the rich and poor will continue to widen. His opinion is based in the belief that most of the crises the continent has seen – be they greed, corruption or indiscipline – come from the struggle for the basics.

“You have to invest in education – that’s for sure – but you can’t just blame government spending or lack of it!” he says. “In my opinion, there are three key components to solving this challenge. The first is that government needs to make sure that it provides children – no matter what their socio-economic background – access to high-quality primary education, free of charge. This means that government should make sure that teachers are well trained and classrooms are resourced with the right number of books and so forth. The second and third go hand in hand – government needs to find ways to address the basic needs of families, so that the parents can put greater value on education, and the children themselves need to be willing to learn.”

But the onus is not only on government, he states. As individuals, Africans need to make sure they do the absolute best they can in every corner of their lives – be it careers, families or our communities. Africans need to make an effort to participate in being part of the solution to most of their challenges and take an active role in helping to build their communities.

“If we want to help fight some of the stereotypes of the continent – corruption, for example – then, as individuals, we must make sure that we don’t compromise ourselves in any way and pursue our daily dealings with great integrity.”

Alex believes if everyone makes just a little effort, change will come. “I believe that we can make a real difference that will propel our continent to a better place,” he says. “You can only do Africa right if you do right by it by working as hard as you can. We need to make ourselves and Africa successful and to invest back in the individuals and institutions that can make us great.”

With what he has achieved in such a short period of time, Alex is a true inspiration to Africans. A Nigerian who, like most Nigerians, has learnt to never take no for an answer. A leader who knows that nothing is going to be given to him by anyone, so his success is completely self-determined. And he is nowhere near resting on his laurels.

“We have been successful in getting many of our pro-social messages across but, as a TV channel, our penetration drops off significantly outside key territories like South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda where we have a strong pay-TV or terrestrial-TV presence,” he says. “We are constantly working to increase our distribution by leveraging other platforms such as radio, online and mobile, so that more young people can have access to the positive initiatives and messages that we advocate. While we are happy with what we have accomplished to date, we still have aggressive goals for the future.”