Lagos Business School (LBS) is renowned for executive manpower training. A faculty member and head of the First Bank Centre for Sustainability, Christopher Ogbechie, who is a former National Sales Manager of Nestle Foods, speaks on the contributions LBS has made to economic growth.
He also touches on other issues in this interview conducted by TheNiche team comprising Ngozi Asoya and Emeka Orji.
Relationship between Pan Atlantic University and LBS
Pan Atlantic University (PAU) is the parent body of the Lagos Business School (LBS). Graduates from LBS are awarded the degree of Pan Atlantic University. Just as you have Harvard University with Harvard Business School and University of Manchester with Manchester Business School. So they are not two different institutions.
Our MBA and PhD degrees are awarded by Pan Atlantic University.
Executive management training in Nigeria
We see it as executive development where we help organisations to develop executive capacity required for moving companies to the next level. Because of the importance we attach to it, the school on its own has been able to break away in such a way that it could rank as one of the top universities in the world.
In Nigeria, corporate executives can afford to go to school in any part of the world, especially the senior management level. Competition for such intake is keen and we need to also have world-class facilities and offerings to compete favourably.
We partner with companies to help them develop executive capacities at different levels. We also help them to prepare their own executives to grow and fit into different positions as the company grows and that’s why a lot of emphasis is placed on cost of programmes.
We have open enrolment programmes but not as many as our custom programmes because ideally sitting down with top management team of a company and figuring out what their own strategy is, how they want to grow, what their human capital requirements are, will enable us plan this effectively.
But we also have certain programmes geared towards helping in developing executive capacities – like senior management programmes, advance management programme, chief executive programme, and international management programme.
The beauty of it is that we are not only preparing them to assume higher responsibilities but we also help them to network and interact with colleagues and share experiences.
And we also move it beyond big corporate organisations down to family businesses, medium sized businesses, and that’s why we started another programme called owner-manager programme.
Most of the businesses in Nigeria are family businesses. So, we help them to transit from one-man-business into corporate organisations and help them to build institutions.
How LBS competes with other universities in the world
Top universities all over the world have pedigrees and unique selling propositions. These universities we are competing with are very old and LBS is just 23 years old.
Those other business schools have been there for centuries. Many years of experience have helped them a lot. Also, they have been able to produce world renowned professors.
But we have something that is peculiar, which we think is the in-thing to us. Yes we can talk of theoretical frameworks applicable anywhere in the world but none of those foreign universities can teach our people or share the experiences of doing business in Nigeria.
Every country has its own peculiarities and doing business in Nigeria is not the same as doing business in England.
For those who want to do business in Africa, if they can conquer Nigeria, they will be able to do business anywhere in Africa. For those who want to come into Africa, the starting point is Nigeria because the Nigerian market itself is over three times that of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States).
That is something we have and offer. We are not asking our Nigerian executives not to go to other places; they should travel to other parts of the world and network with people. But to succeed in Nigeria, they have to partner with us. That is what we have going for us.
How the partnership impacts on the quality of managers in Nigeria?
There is virtually no big organisation that you go to and not find an alumnus of LBS at top management level and that again is an indication of our contribution. Note that Nigeria is one of the most profitable markets in the world, and most companies that operate here succeed.
Nigerian companies also contribute towards the growth of the economy. Nigeria is still one of the fastest growing economies in the world. So, if companies’ managers, many of whom are trained at LBS, are not doing the right thing, I don’t think their contributions would have been this significant in the economy. That is an indication that somewhere along the line we have also contributed in one way or the other towards the growth and development of the economy.
Criteria for creating centres in LBS
The centres we have in the school are geared towards helping us in carrying out more research in particular areas, applied research that can help industries and companies to improve their competitiveness and effectiveness in the market place.
We have First Bank Sustainability Centre, for example. Today’s sustainability is something that is shaping the way companies operate. Sustainability will do to business in the near future what technology did in the past, and if you notice from the pipeline of LBS, we say that we produce responsible managers for Africa and the world.
Responsible in the sense that we produce managers who are conscious of their environment and community, who look at both the social and economic dimensions of business and who also look at the humanistic approach to management.
That is how we get managers to see that society and business are two sides of the same coin; both exist side by side not one against the other. Managers who are ethical and realise ethical values are critical for the long term success of business.
That is the kind of managers we produce, and the kind of things the centres try to project through research and apply them.
We have Research Centre for Leadership and Ethics which also bothers on developing leaders at all levels. It is not only in Aso Rock you have leaders or the executives of companies.
We have a Centre for Strategy and Competiveness where we look at the competitiveness of different states in Nigeria. We are doing some work with Lagos State and intend to extend it to other states and in the end come up with Annual Competitiveness Report for investors in and outside Nigeria to see how attractive Lagos is for investment.
We also help companies as clusters, companies that could benefit from similar products. Take gas for example. We have companies whose businesses are tied to gas. How can they cluster around and benefit from one another. That is the kind of thing the centres embark upon.
The last is the Centre for Infrastructure, which has come up with a series of reports. It has a report on the state of transport infrastructure in Nigeria, and also produced a report on power, oil and gas. This centre looks at industries and the opportunities therein.
These reports will help those who want to invest in particular areas to know what the issues are, what they can battle with, what they have to overcome if they have to make a success in the industry.
So it is not just academic, the centres actually bring both the business and academic worlds together.
State of infrastructure in Nigeria
I have two sides to that answer. The state of infrastructure in Nigeria is poor but that means enormous opportunities in the sense that we should not expect the government alone to provide all the infrastructural needs. That’s where public private partnership (PPP), which happens everywhere in the world, comes to play.
So, in as much as the state of infrastructure is poor, it only signifies enormous opportunities. It is like coming to a place and you see people walking without shoes. A smart person will tell you that this is an enormous potential for the shoe business.
Some people may be screaming and crying that the state of infrastructure is poor and is affecting business but that presents a big opportunity just like power. We can do, hundred times, with what we have now. Increase our capacity by hundred times today, we can still do with what we have.
Given the risks, who will invest in Nigerian infrastructural market?
There is risk everywhere in the world. You heard what happened in Ferguson, United States, Ukraine, and the Middles East. Africa has enjoyed peace in the past few decades. We only have pockets of insecurity.
Economic slowdown in Asia; America’s is marginal increase. Africa is growing. By 2050, 40 per cent of youths in the world will be from Africa. Africa has a young population. About 70 per cent of the population is under 30 years of age; that is market and labour force.
This is where the future is and investors are looking for long term returns rather than short term returns, and there is a correlation between risk and return which is standard in business. That is why many investors are here.
Do LBS students have practical experience in corporations?
LSB Centres are sponsored by companies and they do so because many of what they do are in line with what the centres stand for. They are only making their own contribution towards the success of the programme.
Buildings in the premises are sponsored by companies because they believe the school is also adding value to them. They are not doing it just for publicity, else they would rather divert the money to TV commercials and other adverts.
View on cashless economy
There is a significant drift particularly in the urban areas towards it.
You cannot be carrying cash around because it affects the velocity and volume of transactions.
For instance, if you run a farm and at the end of every month you must carry cash to pay your workers, that’s cumbersome. So, you have to leave whatever you are doing and run to the farm to pay your workers. If you don’t pay them on time, it will affect their livelihoods, and those they take care of.
So you look at the cost of doing it. If you can transfer money to them electronically, you don’t have to travel. The money is instant, they can cash it wherever they want to.
E-commerce is something that is with us. The convenience of buying things, you stay in your house, pick what you want to buy and it will be shipped to you, can only be achieved if we have a payment system that is convenient. You will find out that it will help the velocity of business.
Some have argued that cashless economy will help in curbing corruption, but who said that bribery is only done through cash. A cashless system is only a way of making business transactions more efficient, and that is it.
Why will a cashless system not curb corruption?
Corruption is an English word. Do you know that the level of corruption in Russia is worse than Nigeria? How many heads of state in Italy have been indicted? How many politicians in the United Kingdom have been indicted? How many politicians and government officials in America have been indicted?
Those are corruption cases and you ask yourself, were they carrying cash? I don’t think so. I don’t look at going cashless as a way of curbing corruption but more as a way of making business transactions more efficient and convenient.
Can you imagine if you are going to the market and you are going to carry a whole bag full of money because you want to buy all the things you need for the month?
Another advantage to it is that it reduces temptation to robbery because a jobless and hungry guy who sees you carrying cash can steal it but if he sees your credit card, he can’t use it.
So, that to me is a positive social dimension we must look at. I am absolutely in support of a cashless society.
How well we are in the cashless economy
Well, from my experience, looking at how it is done in other countries and the emergence of e-commerce operators, buy something from Konga or Jumia and it is most likely you will pay with your credit card; and in most shops, too.
I took a taxi when I got stranded somewhere. I got a taxi, first I asked the driver, “Do you have a Diamond Bank account?” and he said yes. As soon as I got to my destination, I opened my Diamond Bank app and transferred money (my fare) to his account in less than fifteen minutes.
If a taxi driver can accept that I think market women can also accept it. When transactions are agreed, you transfer the monetary value of goods bought or services rendered and they will get the transaction alert instantly. I think it will be better than counting money and after the counting you go and wash your hands.
How state of electricity affects business
There is power in Nigeria, but it is expensive. There is power in the offices but the costs are high because you have to generate it yourself.
I assume that public power supply generated by the power stations should be cheaper than you doing it yourself.
The whole idea of privatising the sector is to attract investors who will invest in it. Again, to me, a lack of electric power is an enormous opportunity for investors.
