Marketing Guru and brand building expert, Abiodun Ajiborode has bagged a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree from the prestigious Swiss Business School.
Taking to his LinkedIn handle to write on the academic journey in a piece he entitled ‘Becoming a doctor’, Ajiborode who is a career and business coach, and the founder of one of the foremost practical marketing training schools in on the continent – Brand Management Academy – in part wrote, “The past three years have been challenging yet immensely rewarding. In 2020, amid the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic while leading the marketing function at Coca-Cola Nigeria, I made a bold decision to enroll in a doctoral programme with SBS Swiss Business School through their African partner, Nobel International Business School (NiBS) Accra, Ghana.
“Becoming a doctor is a journey that demands immense dedication, not only financially but also in terms of time, energy, and emotional commitment. It involved countless sleepless nights, reviewing over 400 articles, formulating research hypotheses, collecting data from over 300 respondents, analyzing and interpreting data, and deriving practical recommendations. I am grateful that my dream has been realized, and I now proudly hold the title of Doctor of Business Administration,” he wrote.
A consummate commercial leader with 20 years’ experience in Business Leadership, Strategic Brand and Marketing Management, Leading Commercial Operations, Business Model Re-engineering and Steering Growth and Innovation, Ajiborode started his career with MTN as customer service executive, from where He joined H. Pierson Consulting as an Associate Consultant focusing on Marketing and Business Development.
He later joined Promasidor Nigeria as the Category Brand Manager, and since then has worked in various multinational companies, such as – Coca-Cola International, Coca-Cola Hellenic, AB INBEV, PZ Cussons, Grand Oak Limited, and now in Monument Distillers Limited, the makers of the famous Four Cousins Wine, as the Brand and Trade Marketing Director for Nigeria.
He has successfully managed leading brands such as Coca-Cola, 5 Alive, Schweppes, Cowbell Milk, Loya Milk, Canoe and Zip Detergent, Castle Milk Stout, Miller Lager Beer, Castle Lite Beer, 1960 Rootz Bitters, Seaman Schnapp, Lords Dry Gin to mention a few. He led Coca-Cola Marketing during the 2020 Pandemic to deliver record breaking performance – 300MUC despite several operational challenges.
He holds a B.Sc from Ambrose Alli University and an MBA from the Lagos Business School. He is a chartered marketer, both with the Chartered Institute of Marketing of UK and The National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria. He has attended several executive training programmes in top institutions including Kellogg Business School, Harvard University and Connell University.