Why Integrity Is A Brand’s Last Line Of Defence – Awosika Charges Leaders At NIMN Investiture
Trust has become the most valuable currency which more often than not determines which brands thrive, which endure turbulence and which quietly fade into irrelevance. Consumers no longer merely buy products or services; they buy into the people behind them, placing their confidence in brands whose leaders show integrity, consistency and credibility over time. Where trust exists, loyalty follows, and where it is broken, even the strongest brands struggle to recover.
It was against this backdrop that Mrs Ibukun Awosika, one of Nigeria’s most respected business leaders, made the case for ethical leadership as the bedrock of brand sustainability. These reflections formed the core of her keynote address delivered at the investiture of Dr. Bolajoko Bayo-Ajaiyi as President of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), following her election in June. Speaking on the theme “Leadership, Trust, and Brand Sustainability” at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, Awosika argued that trust is first a human construct, built through relationships, performance and character, before it ever becomes a brand asset.
Mrs Awosika, who was also conferred with an honorary fellowship of the Institute at the event, challenged marketers, business leaders and professionals to recognise that at a period shaped by heightened consumer awareness, digital disruption and intense global competition, sustainable brands can only be built on the credibility of the people who lead them.
In business, she argued, trust is rooted in relationships and interactions, regardless of whether the offering is a physical product or a service. Behind every transaction, she noted, are people who deliver value and custodians who must protect the trust placed in them. According to her, trust is earned through performance, integrity and a repeated commitment to keeping promises.
She was quick to dismantle the myth that trust and sustainability imply perfection. Failure, she said, is inevitable. What defines leadership and brand credibility is not the absence of mistakes but the response when things go wrong. The real test, in her words, is whether leaders have the integrity to own their mistakes, apologise when necessary and make genuine efforts to correct what has gone wrong.
Drawing from her experience, Awosika observed that some of the most loyal and enduring customer relationships are forged in moments of crisis. Customers who stay through “serious drama,” she said, often do so not because mistakes never happened, but because of how those moments were handled. Integrity in response, she maintained, can preserve trust even when circumstances are unfavourable.
She warned that one of the greatest dangers in organisations, especially those filled with highly skilled professionals, is the temptation to shift blame. In such environments, leaders are often confronted with misinformation, excuses and attempts to deflect responsibility. Yet, she stressed, customers are not naïve. They pay for value, and when value is delivered consistently and promises are kept, trust naturally follows.
To illustrate the weight of trust, Awosika shared a practical example from her business life. In transactions where clients pay high deposits, sometimes up to seventy per cent of the value of an order, the money exchanged is fundamentally an act of trust. Failing to deliver on that trust, she said, creates reputational damage that can take years to repair, if it can be repaired at all. Reputation, she warned, is far more expensive than many people realise, yet alarmingly easy to destroy.
Reflecting on her leadership journey, Awosika described integrity and character as the most enduring assets she has carried through every season, including moments of intense crisis. She recounted a particularly challenging period marked by a public confrontation with the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Amiefele. At the height of that crisis, she said, people who did not know her formed opinions and made jokes, but those who knew her stood firmly in her defence.
She recalled being told she had an “army online” during that period, a claim that initially surprised her because many of those defending her were people she did not personally know. For Awosika, this became a powerful illustration of how a lifetime of consistent values can translate into public goodwill when it matters most.
The global implications of reputation and trust were further highlighted through her experience with international board appointments during the same crisis period. Awosika detailed an intense vetting process with a leading law firm in the United States, involving senior partners and compliance officers who needed to sign off on her suitability as a public figure. For over an hour, she answered probing questions, laying out facts as she understood them.
In that conversation, cultural and systemic differences became evident, particularly around expectations of legal redress. While her interlocutors questioned why she had not gone to court, Awosika explained the realities of operating within a system where outcomes are not always predictable, even when facts are clear. Her explanation resonated with one of the compliance officers, who shared his own experience of prolonged and ultimately futile litigation involving multinational oil companies in Nigeria.
What ultimately secured her appointment, she said, was not rhetoric but the consistency between what she said in that meeting and what the firm’s independent findings had already revealed. They signed off on her appointment because the facts aligned, backed by a credible track record, has a way of asserting itself.
For Awosika, these experiences show that trust must be built long before it is needed. The daily trail leaders leave through their actions, performance, integrity and responses to challenges is what speaks for them in their most trying moments. Without that trail, no amount of explanation can substitute for a damaged reputation. In the words of Burn boy, “you go explain tire.”
She reminded her audience that every customer encountered represents many more who may never be met directly. With over three decades in business, Awosika spoke of customers who have stayed with her company for over twenty years, some still using products purchased decades earlier. Her pride, she said, lies in her ability to meet any customer anywhere in the world without fear or shame, confident that her dealings can withstand scrutiny.
Linking personal brand to corporate brand, Awosika emphasised that when a leader’s personal integrity stands firm, the business brand inevitably benefits. She noted that many of the boards she serves on today were not positions she applied for, but roles she was invited into based on reputation, recommendations and trust built over time, sometimes by people she had never met.
In closing, Awosika returned to the inseparability of the person and the business. She argued that businesses do not exist in isolation from the people who lead them. Wherever a leader goes, a story follows, shaped by integrity, character, language and record. In turbulent times, it is that story that speaks.
Her message to marketers and leaders gathered at the NIMN investiture was unambiguous: leadership begins with who you are. The record you leave, she said, will either defend you or indict you when storms come.