VanillaPlus: What was your first job?
Benedict Enweani: I guess there have been two. My initial experience in the world of gainful employment was at age 12 when I started a lawn mowing service with 3 partners. That was a crash course in entrepreneurship; financial forecasting (gotta pay for fuel and make a profit), marketing (flyers), investor relations (thanks Dad), supplier relations (Sorry ‘bout the mower Dad), customer relations (sorry about the flowerbed, Ma’am) and finally working with others and sharing dividends. My telco career really started with Newbridge Networks. We had the best NMS/OSS system in the industry; it was a huge USP because it tangibly made life easier for our customers. It was a pleasure to use because it was cherished by a dedicated development team. That lesson is one I try never to forget.
VP: What led you into a career in telecoms?
BE: Physics and storytelling – as a child programming with family in Denmark and Nigeria, growing up in Saskatchewan I connected to people all over the world by programming early PC’s, and using the very early Internet. Telco was about connecting stories across the world and the physics involved seduced me.
VP: Without naming and shaming, tell us about your worst ever boss.
BE: OH that’s easy – myself. Once I decided to start my first company (after a few other start-ups) I quickly realized how much I needed to step up and improve my soft and hard skills in order to both direct myself and convince anyone sane to join me. That process continues…
VP: What has been your worst business travel experience?
BE: On a recent trip in central Africa I was stopped by a “Health Official” at the airport who was demanding a specific inoculation report. Although I had the doc, and despite the fact that the inoculation is not necessary for passengers coming from the UK he wasn’t happy and told me that I wold have to stay in the quarantine section or return home. He also called over an armed guard to demand my passport. It was clearly a bit of an act to gain a few hundred US dollars of contribution, all because I was a ”VIP and maybe I could help a health official”. My father is African and like him I detest corruption especially after seeing first-hand the negative impact it has had on my Father’s homeland.
I had an adventurous friend who had trekked across Africa, largely via a Bus tour. She had told me that when they were asked for bribes at border posts, the bus driver would shout: “Everybody off! We’re staying here for the night.” and everyone would duly begin to pitch camp and start to light fires. The border guards would inevitably realize that their tranquil day was about to be noisily disrupted, for no profit whatsoever, and lo-and-behold, the Bus would be waved through.
So I said, “OK if I have the wrong docs then I have the wrong docs, I see the BA desk behind me so I’ll just run and ask their help to get back on the plane, I’m sure they will agree with your opinion.” The official practically grabbed my arm to stop me as I turned around and after telling me that he was “Only trying to giving me good travel advice” let me go through the gate.”
VP: What has been the proudest moment in your career?
BE: A month ago Ontology’s Intelligent 360 went live at a wonderful customer in Asia. A person I have come to deeply respect there told me that he was proud of the joint team and the long sought after achievement of creating an end-to-end topology in only 6 months. He went on to say that the project was part of the legacy that he wanted to leave after his retirement.
I was stunned, for me starting a company is embarking on an uncharted journey to a better place. Moments like this leave you grateful for the intellect and dedication of one’s colleagues, and proud of the completely novel and fundamentally powerful OSS solution that they have built.
VP: Where do you see yourself in five years?
BE: My hope is that in five years Ontology will have changed the way that people expect to visualize their global infrastructures: they should expect to have customers, topology and inventory linked in real-time.
NFV and the need for automatic service assurance is driving us forward. The fact that we can already link practically every raw Network and customer data source to give real-time inventory/topology is the fundamental building block of a new autonomous OSS. That would be wonderful.
