In corporate history, building a large company is difficult. Building one that survives its founders is rarer still. So much so that researchers have noted the average lifespan of companies on the S&P 500 index has compressed from about 61 years in 1958 to less than 18 years today, and projections suggest many large firms that exist today will disappear by 2027 as markets evolve and competitive pressures intensify.
That dynamic sits quietly at the heart of a recent three-part documentary on Oando and its principals, Wale Tinubu and Mofe Boyo. Beyond the familiar milestones of acquisitions and expansion, the documentary offers something more instructive.
It shows how leadership choices, made under pressure, begin to hard-wire institutional memory into a business that operates in one of the world’s most volatile sectors.One of the clearest examples comes from the 2014 oil price collapse, when Brent crude fell sharply, creating one of the most extended downturns in modern energy markets.
According to McKinsey & Company, the oil and gas industry underwent repeated price shocks and is now navigating structural shifts driven by technology, demand transitions, and capital market scepticism.
As companies around the world responded with layoffs and cost cutting, a labour market research by Harvard Business Review shows that layoffs tend to have long-lasting negative effects on worker engagement, morale and loyalty, delaying organisational recovery after downturns.
Read also: Oando: 9M profit grows to N210bn, stock price down 29.09% YtD
In the documentary, Ayotola Jagun, Oando’s Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer, recounts a Board discussion during that period where Tinubu rejected proposals to cut staff pay or reduce headcount. It was not a sentimental decision. Labour market studies consistently show that mass layoffs can erode institutional knowledge and weaken productivity recovery.
McKinsey research on organisational resilience notes that preserving talent through downturns improves an organisation’s ability to rebound when conditions improve.This human-capital focus appears to have shaped how Oando’s workforce sees itself. Staff-led initiatives such as the employee, The Aggregator Platform (TAP), which mobilised support for vulnerable communities during the pandemic, reflect a workforce that sees itself as custodians of a shared institution rather than temporary labour.
In many organisations, employee-driven philanthropy at scale is rare; when it occurs, it often signals a depth of internal trust that goes beyond typical corporate social responsibility.Longevity is also shaped by leadership structure.
Tinubu and Boyo’s three-decade partnership runs against the grain of the dominant corporate model in Nigeria and much of Africa, where authority is often concentrated around a single public figure. In global corporate history, durable leadership partnerships (such as those seen in the early decades of firms like Intel or Toyota during key growth periods), have helped stabilise companies by balancing external vision with internal execution.
These structures help reduce founder dependency and help create a more distributed set of organisational capabilities.Succession planning reinforces this architecture. In the documentary, Oando outlines what it describes as a “plus one, plus two” leadership framework.
In practice, each senior leader is required to identify an immediate successor and a second successor in development, creating a visible and layered chain of continuity Without such systems, many African conglomerates struggle when founders exit, even if financial performance remains strong.
Beyond the organisation itself, the documentary situates corporate longevity within a broader social contract. The Oando Foundation’s education programmes focus on strengthening public primary education and teacher capacity.
Globally, evidence shows that investing in education is among the most potent ways to drive human capital development: each additional year of schooling is associated with roughly a 9–10% increase in earnings, reflecting both individual and societal returns on investment. For emerging economies, deeper investments in education contribute to workforce readiness, innovation and long-term economic growth, factors that matter for sustained corporate performance.
The empirical results emerging from Oando’s own performance also support the idea that institutional resilience and continuity matter. In the first nine months of 2025, Oando reported a 59% year-on-year increase in crude oil and gas production and a ₦210 billion profit, up 164% on the prior period.
These figures follow Oando’s consolidation of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) assets, underscoring how disciplined execution across acquired assets can reinforce financial strength. Globally, energy markets are undergoing structural change.
International Oil Companies are divesting from mature onshore assets, while governments push for gas utilisation, energy security, and cleaner transitions.
Nigeria’s own “Decade of Gas” strategy reflects this shift. Indigenous operators that combine technical capability with organisational stability will determine whether these ambitions translate into reliable domestic supply and sustainable employment.To be sure, no documentary can fully capture the complexity of running a large energy company in a frontier market.
Asset cycles, capital markets, and regulatory environments remain unpredictable. Institutional design does not immunise any company from shocks. But the patterns highlighted in the documentary point toward a more durable corporate logic: protect people in downturns, formalise leadership continuity early, embed culture beyond founders, and invest outward into the communities that supply future talent.
In an era where headlines often reward speed, disruption and short-term wins, the quieter work of building institutions rarely attracts attention. Yet history suggests that endurance, not spectacle, defines lasting corporate value. If African companies are to compete credibly on the global stage, the question is no longer who grows fastest, but who remains standing decades after their founders step aside.You can watch the Oando documentary series on YouTube.
