Ini Abimbola’s ‘The Operator’s Trap’ to launch in October

Zainab Aderounmu

September 28, 2026

What happens when operational excellence, the very skill that got African executives promoted, keeps them stuck? The book, “The Operator’s Trap”, by Dr Abimbola Ini, is set to answer that question. 

The book argues that operational excellence, the quality that carries an executive up through the ranks, becomes the very constraint that holds them back. It draws on the author’s almost three decades of experience in consulting and advisory on governance, strategy and sustainability across public and private sectors, including her nine years as Chief Executive of ThistlePraxis Consulting, the management consulting firm she founded in 2010. 

The book further purports that nobody warns executives at the point of appointment, because the organisation has every reason to keep rewarding what it already values.

It highlights the cause in the conditions executives work under, and argues that talent pipelines remain thin enough that delegation carries real risk, institutional processes often live in individuals rather than in documented systems, and the strategy models taught on most MBA programmes assume stable currencies, deep capital markets and predictable regulation that African markets do not reliably supply. Therefore, executives who fall back on operating under pressure respond rationally to the environment they work in, and the book treats what follows as a design problem with solutions.

“I spent years looking for this book before I wrote it,” said Abimbola. “I watched executives who were among the most capable people I had ever met make decisions well below their intelligence, and the reason was never ability. The tools they had been handed were built for a different environment, and this book is my attempt to give them something built for where they actually stand.” 

The foreword is written by Bola Adesola, Chairman of Ecobank Nigeria, who has spent more than three decades in banking. In twelve chapters, across four parts, and supported by twenty-two frameworks and diagnostic tools, it covers strategy in volatile markets, understanding boards and stakeholders, the move from doing to deciding, strategy that survives economic instability, people and attrition as strategic issues, financial fluency for the executive who is not a finance specialist, cross-sector transition, women in the boardroom, communicating strategy to different audiences, and the measurement of execution. The argument is carried by a composite chief executive, Emmanuel Okafor, whom the reader follows across five years, a device intended to make the frameworks legible in practice as well as on the page.

With preorders now open, the book will be launched on 31 October 2026 in Lagos, but preorders placed now will be dispatched from October 12, 2026. 

The author, Dr Abimbola Ini, has spent more than twenty-five years across the public and private sectors advising institutions on governance, strategy, public policy execution, and sustainability, including fifteen years in development sector programme management and results-based monitoring and evaluation. She founded ThistlePraxis Consulting in 2010 and led it as Chief Executive for nine years before stepping down in 2020. She served until 2023 as the United Nations Technical Expert on Women’s Political Leadership, supporting the Office of the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives. She teaches international corporate social responsibility management on the MBA programme at the University of Applied Sciences in Austria, is Vice President and a founding trustee of the Sustainability Professionals Institute of Nigeria, holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from Rome Business School, sits on the Governing Council of Wigwe University and works from Lagos.

About Author

Zainab Aderounmu A. W.

Zainab ADEROUNMU A. W. is a First Class graduate of English Language and the Overall Best Graduating Student from the Lagos State University, Lagos Nigeria. She’s a professional Master of Ceremonies, known as The Hijabi Compere , a public speaking coach and Communications Professional. She is currently a Youth advisor to the European Union where she doubles as the Spokesperson and Head of Communications & PR for the Youth Sounding Board.