In a time when Nigeria’s economic climate faced mounting pressures from inflation, currency instability, and policy ambiguity, family-owned enterprises often the backbone of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remained both vulnerable and vital.
Amid this context, November 2022 marked a pivotal period where policy makers, academic institutions, and business leaders turned their attention to how family businesses could survive beyond the founding generation.
One voice that stood out during this transformative era was that of Kenneth Obunadike, a rising Nigerian business researcher and human resources strategist whose work and innovation began reshaping how African families approach succession, talent retention, and sustainable enterprise growth.
The Wake-Up Call: A Personal Story Sparked by Loss
Obunadike’s journey began not in boardrooms or lecture halls, but in the corridors of personal adversity. His father’s family business, like many across Nigeria, suffered an abrupt collapse due to misaligned succession strategies and unresolved internal conflict. That experience deeply affected Kenneth.
“When my dad became a victim of a failed family business,” he once stated in an interview, “I knew I had to do something.” What emerged from that commitment was not merely a career in business consulting, but a mission to innovate the very foundation of family enterprise sustainability in Africa.
Graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting in 2012, Kenneth quickly realized that conventional corporate finance could not alone address the sociocultural complexities within African family firms.
His deep curiosity led him to specialize in Human Resources and Risk Management, completing additional diplomas and certifications that bolstered his analytical and strategic capabilities.
He furthered his qualifications with a Masters in Risk Management and began working in sectors that mirrored the diversity of Nigeria’s business landscape banking, telecommunications, healthcare, and construction.
Learning from the Field: Building Solutions from the Bottom Up
Between 2012 and 2022, Kenneth worked across key HR and compensation roles at Nigerian Ropes Plc, ntel, British American Tobacco Africa, and Mota-Engil.
In these roles, he honed critical skills such as payroll systems integration, compensation structure design, talent acquisition, and compliance with multi-country legal and tax regimes.
These capabilities, coupled with his command of systems like SAP and Power BI, positioned him to design processes that were not just efficient but deeply aware of the human dynamics within organizations.
Yet Kenneth did not rest within the corporate domain. In 2019, driven by a sense of duty to fill the gap in intergenerational transition, he founded Heligande Corporate (HC) Services.
Unlike conventional consultancies, HC Services was grounded in lived experience and deep academic inquiry. Its focus? To offer family-run businesses in Africa expert advisory services across payroll, social security, tax planning, talent development, and HR restructuring—all with an eye on generational continuity.
Human-Centered Consulting Model
By 2022, HC Services had begun offering a unique blend of academic insights and real-world analytics to struggling family firms, particularly in sectors like healthcare, which were already strained by rising operational costs and workforce shortages.
Kenneth’s consulting approach integrated statistical forecasting, variance analyses, and employee behavior diagnostics techniques more commonly seen in top-tier multinational operations than in family firms.
His strategy was built on aligning enterprise goals with family aspirations.
“Many founders confuse legacy with control,” Kenneth often explained in workshops and seminars. “What we advocate at HC is legacy through capability through empowering the next generation with systems and structures, not just titles.”
To facilitate this, HC Services developed modular HR systems that could be customized to match the governance complexity of family enterprises.
These included succession dashboards, benefits optimization models, and talent acquisition pipelines designed to balance professional expertise with familial trust.
This model became especially relevant in polygamous or extended family settings, where intergenerational rivalry and unclear shareholding often led to dysfunction.
Tackling Generational Bottlenecks with Data
Kenneth’s use of compensation intelligence and behavioral economics allowed family businesses to make decisions based on predictive analytics rather than impulse or cultural pressures.
One of his most praised interventions involved restructuring a mid-sized family-run hospital’s HR framework using customized salary grading systems and skill-based training schedules.
The result was a 35% reduction in staff attrition and improved operational transparency critical wins in a sector highly prone to brain drain.
His innovative use of federated data analysis where company data is analyzed across secure layers without compromising privacy also positioned HC Services as a forward-thinking consultancy.
This was particularly important in 2022 when businesses were increasingly concerned about digital compliance, especially in sectors dealing with financial or patient data.
From Lagos to Continental Conversations
Kenneth’s growing influence led to invitations from forums such as the Africa CEO Forum and virtual panels at Nelson Mandela University’s Family Business Unit.
In these settings, he advocated for the formal recognition of family businesses as strategic assets in national development planning.
He also called for state-backed policies that incentivize generational planning, including tax breaks for structured succession, grants for HR system integration, and capacity development partnerships with business schools.
Despite his national and continental engagements, Kenneth remained committed to grassroots empowerment.
Through volunteering with Hunger Reduction International and the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), he mentored young entrepreneurs and policy students, emphasizing the intersection between sustainable development and ethical leadership in business.
Academic Strength Backed by Real-World Impact
In 2022, Kenneth had already begun applying for a PhD in Business Administration, which he later commenced at Mississippi State University. His research focused on family business ownership behavior a rare but increasingly critical field for African economies.
This formal academic inquiry further grounded his consulting work, providing theoretical rigor to real-world interventions.
His previous academic work, including a 2018 publication on risk management in Nigerian shopping malls, had already illustrated his dedication to evidence-based insights. As his doctoral research progressed, he continued drawing from his fieldwork in Nigeria, creating a two-way bridge between academia and consulting.
Championing Cultural Alignment in Business Structures
Kenneth’s belief that Africa’s business problems require Afro-centric solutions is evident in his organizational design philosophy.
Rather than copy-pasting Western governance frameworks, he advocated for what he termed “culturally aligned formalism” structures and policies that respected family hierarchies and spiritual values while enabling competitiveness, equity, and professionalism.
This philosophy was particularly relevant in the Nigerian context where family firms often collapse under legal ambiguity, spiritual disputes, or patriarchal misalignment.
Through stakeholder-focused training programs, policy documents, and conflict-resolution workshops, HC Services enabled several businesses to move from informal volatility to structured resilience.
Recognition and Way Forward
Though HC Services was still scaling in 2022, its work had already influenced several small and mid-sized firms across Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt.
Kenneth’s data-rich consulting tools and his reputation as a trusted HR transformation expert earned him multiple speaking invitations and client referrals.
His recognition went beyond the boardroom. In December 2018, Kenneth had already been named Best Back Office Staff for his performance and innovation in HR processes.
That same spirit of operational excellence, human-centered leadership, and community advancement defined his work in 2022.
Conclusion: Redefining Legacy for the African Family Business
Obunadike’s rise as a transformational leader in African family businesses is not just a personal success story it is a blueprint. At a time when Nigeria and its neighbors were redefining their private sector strategies, Kenneth’s integrated model of data, cultural fluency, and strategic HR offered a viable path forward.
His legacy is not merely in the businesses he helped revive but in the generational mindsets he is helping to transform. As HC Services continues to grow and his academic work garners global attention, Kenneth stands at the forefront of a movement to redefine legacy not as what is left behind, but what is intentionally built across generations.
