Taking communication to the next level

She is the kind of person who commands attention when she walks into a room – and not just because she will tower over you, but because Dorothy Ooko is simply one of those individuals who naturally draws people to her.

Her laughter is genuine, reverberating from deep within. She laughs often, and when she does, you have no option but to join in.

Ms Ooko is Nokia’s communications manager for East and Southern Africa, a demanding position she has held for a year now. Before this, she was in charge of communications in East and Central Africa for two years.

Her job demands that she has all the answers to the questions regarding the organisation’s products and services at her finger tips. As communications manager, she is the inter-phase between Nokia and the region.

“I am also the link between the organisation and the media, as well as other stakeholders.”

These stakeholders, at least in Kenya, include organisations such as the Kenya Bureau of Standards, Communications Commission of Kenya and the Government, which she, together with her team, successfully lobbied to have mobile phones zero-rated.

Elated about the victory, contained in this year’s budget speech, she believes this is the weapon that will effectively fight the worrying proliferation of counterfeit handsets which are a danger to users.

“If mobile phones become affordable for everyone, including that person at the very bottom, imagine what a revolution this will be in communication,” she says.

Contribution

Ms Ooko may have worked here for just three years, but already, her contribution is being felt. In May this year, Nokia’s global head recognised her contribution to the organisation, a gesture she says humbled her greatly.

“It was a simple email, congratulating me for my work, but I was over the moon and very humbled that out of hundreds of outstanding communications’ managers all over the world, my efforts had been noticed.”

Then soon after, she was named her department’s employee of the year’s second quarter worldwide.

For someone holding such a senior position in a company that was recently named the top Superbrand in East Africa, one would expect that she cut her teeth in the corporate world decades ago. That, would be a wrong assumption. Until three years ago, she was a “teacher”, a job she has held for 16 years.

“When Nokia called me for the interview, I was up against individuals who had vast experience in the corporate world, yet the only work experience I had under my belt was lecturing French,” she recalls.

Her mastery of the French language is what would end up lending her the winning edge, since Nokia was looking for someone to take charge of the East and Central Africa region, where the French-speaking countries are centred.

Listening to her story, one gets the feeling that fate has an interesting way of leading one to their dream.

Ms Ooko never set out to be a teacher nor was she keen on learning the French language until she was introduced to it at Alliance Girls High school. Since she enjoyed it, she decided to pursue it to Masters level after graduating from Kenyatta University with a Bachelor of Education in 1988.

In 1991 after completing her Masters degree in French, she travelled to France for a year under the university’s programme. When she came back, she was offered a job to teach undergraduate and postgraduate students.

This she did for eight years until she joined United States International University, which had just opened its doors, as head of languages and first full-time French lecturer.

“I was excited about the new post since USIU was willing to give me a free reign to develop their curriculum, which was different from the rigid programme I had been used to.”

By the time she left USIU in 2006 to take up her new job, she was assistant French professor, having studied for a Masters degree in Business French. In between teaching at the two universities, she also taught general and business French at the Alliance Françoise for 12 years.

After years of teaching though, she was thirsty for a new experience and begun to forward her CV’s to various organisations. One after the other turned her down. Reason? She was an academician and could therefore not fit the corporate world.

“Most Kenyan firms box you. If you’re a journalist, you can only do A, if you’re a lecturer, you can only do C, therefore they won’t employ you. Experience does not necessarily make you a better worker, that’s why many firms end up dismissing competent individuals.”

She admits that each time she was turned down, she would walk out heart-broken, but she never gave up, and would keep going to the next interview, and the next, always hopeful. It finally paid off.

Her experience with Nokia – being picked over the ‘experienced’ individuals, convinced her that as long as one is willing to learn, it is possible do anything.

Ms Ooko, now 42, is anything but conventional. She got married three years ago when she turned 39, an age she feels was “just right for that major step”.

“Three of my younger sisters got married before me, which is considered a taboo in my community, but I thank God my mother, who raised us on her own, never asked, or questioned why I wasn’t getting married – she just continued being my mother,” says the first born in a family of six children.

It is from her mother, who retired from the airline industry last year, that she says she got her focus and sense of purpose from.

“At the end of the day, what defines you is ‘you’ the individual and how you feel about yourself, not external factors,” she says. Her secret for success is simple – constantly work on your attitude and be willing to learn.

“Have a positive attitude, be willing to learn from others, embrace team spirit and understand that asking for assistance is a strength,” she says.