Footprints 1st Issue 2021

Alumni in the News

Full-time MBA ranked

LBS Insight

in the World

top 100

BLAZING THROUGH: Olawale Rotimi Opeyemi stamps his own footprints in Agribusiness

Content Editor's desk

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About Lagos Business School

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About Lagos business School Alumni Association

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From the Corporate Communications desk

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Faculty update

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Cover story: Blazing through: Olawale Rotimi Opeyemi

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stamps his own footprints in Agribusiness Research News

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Home front

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LBSAA EXCo appoints 5 new members 2020 Alumni Day Alumni happenings

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LBS INSIGHT

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Leading Self and Others in Uncertain times Enhancing employee engagement in the New Normal Footprints is published by the Lagos Business School Alumni Association ( LBSAA) Editor Henry Andoh Deputy Editor Uzo Ofoma Chukwuma Editorial Advisers Aderayo Bankole Dr. Eugene Ohu Joan Egwuterai All correspondence goes to: handoh@lbs.edu.ng

Features

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Positioning Nigeria as the Positioning Nigeria as the preferred country of origin in exports Resilience in Times of Crisis & Uncertainties - 10 Practices that Work Alumni in the news

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Class spotlight

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Class notes

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

Onward!

T

he year 2020 was an extraordinary year. For the first time, every level of society was affected in one way or the other by the global pandemic. People lost their loved ones, jobs, and businesses. It seemed like a never-ending nightmare that would not end.

However, in the midst of all the turmoil, there was hope. People rose to the challenge of being their brothers' keepers. Others who gained during the chaos, shared their resources, and created jobs for those who needed them. The world became smaller and distances between family members and friends were shortened, thanks to the virtual conferencing software and applications. The pandemic forced us to change, and though it was tough and uncomfortable at first, it has led us to a higher level of self-awareness and humanity.

One of the positive changes brought by the pandemic is an increase in our measure of Resilience. No matter the challenges of facing previously unknown events such as lockdowns and highly contagious viruses, we had no choice but to press on. We all had to find a way to get by each passing day. In this issue, we speak to one of our own young and rising stars who found his path in Agribusiness, creating jobs and opportunities on his path to expansion beyond the shores of Nigeria. His resilience and tenacity despite the myriad of challenges and early failures is exemplary in these times.

We bring you news from the home front, including introductions to the new members of the Executive council of our noble association. We hope you participated in the first virtual Alumni Day in the Association's history which featured a speech by the President of the African Export-Import Bank and interesting breakout sessions facilitated by top-notch industry experts including some of our Alumni and faculty members. We celebrate promotions and notable achievements of our alumni in “Alumni in the News” and share some exciting activities of our members in “Alumni happenings” and “Class notes”.

This year, we have listened to you and have lined up many intellectual and exciting events for you. For the first time, the annual Alumni Day and President's Dinner are slated for the same weekend in November. The Alumni Day is the apex learning conference, while the President's Dinner is the apex social & networking event of the association.

Slated for Friday, November 19 and Saturday, November 20, 2021, the events promise to deliver on their promise to provide top-notch learning and entertainment to Alumni and friends. Also look out for the upcoming MBA Hangout themed “Turaka” (relax and enjoy) slated for Saturday, June 26, 2021. All events will be hybrid: limited physical participation with live streaming.

I encourage you to stay strong, while knowing that all that we are experiencing is building our measure of resilience even more. Brighter days are already here; keep on crawling on, and if you must fall, fall onward.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

ABOUT

LAGOS BUSINESS SCHOOL

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agos Business School (LBS) is the graduate business school of Pan-Atlantic University, owned by the Pan-Atlantic University Fo u n d a t i o n ( PA U F ) , a n o n - p r o fi t foundation registered in Nigeria. LBS was founded on inspirations from the teachings of St Josemaria Escrivá, the fo u n d e r o f O p u s D e i . L B S o f fe r s academic programmes, executive programmes and short courses (customised to specific company needs, as well as open-enrolment courses) in management. Its offerings have been accredited globally and ranked among the best in Africa, as it systematically strives to improve the practice of management on the continent. The business school's efforts have been recognised by several world-class accreditations and rankings. Besides the quality bar set at world-standards, L B S p ro g ra m m e s a l s o s ta n d o ut because of the emphasis on professional ethics and service to the community.

Education at LBS is comprehensive, drawing on the experiences of a multinational faculty and participants.

Learning is participant-centred and uses the case study method. Activities hold on the school's purpose-built facilities which serve more than 3,000

participants yearly from indigenous and multinational companies. These attest to the expert teaching, the relevance of the programmes and the overall benefits derived from attending.

LBS has a robust alumni association with more than 6,000 members. This asset base, as well as the close relationship with the corporate world, ensures that the programmes offered, as well as having international standards, also has local relevance.

Learning at LBS is based on a Christian conception of the dignity of man, of society and economic activity. The Prelature of Opus Dei, an institution of the Catholic Church, takes responsibility for guaranteeing that this vision underlies all teaching, publishing and research activities of the School.

LBS is a member of the Association of African Business Schools (AABS), the Global Business School Network (GBSN), the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), AACSB International-T he Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), alongside 220 leading graduate business schools

worldwide. GMAC is an organisation of leading graduate management schools in the world and the owner of the GMAT exam.

In recognition of the quality of Lagos Business School's programmes and of being structured in line with global best practices, it has received several international accreditations. LBS is the first business school in West, East and Central Africa regions to be accredited

by The Association of MBAs (AMBA). This puts LBS amongst the exclusive group of only 2% of business schools in 70 countries to achieve this accreditation.

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has also accredited LBS, the first institution to be so recognised in all of West Africa. LBS thus joined the league of less than 5% of b u s i n e s s s c h o o l s g lo b a lly, to b e accredited by AACSB in December 2016.

T his accreditation af firms Lagos Business School's undeniable commitment, over the last 29 years, to world-class standards in teaching, learning, research, academic and professional management.

LBS has been ranked every year since 2007 by the Financial Times of London, among the top global providers of open enrolment executive education and in custom executive education since 2015. The latter ranked number one in Africa on the 2020 Financial Times list. LBS' MBA programmes have held Tier One positions on CEO Magazine's Global MBA rankings for three consecutive years. The School is listed among the top 50 global business schools on The Economist magazine's 2018 Executive MBA ranking.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

ABOUT

LBS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

The Lagos Business School Alumni Association (LBSAA) draws its charter from the vision of Lagos Business School (LBS). The Association is not a social organisation. It exists to support the aims and objectives of LBS.

AIMS OF THE LBSAA The aims of the LBS Alumni Association are linked with those of the School. They include: · To promote continuous education for its members and forge a stronger relationship among them · To support LBS in its aims and objectives · To render service to the society, especially in the area of public and private management · To adopt such other objectives as may generally be in the interest of the Association and/or Lagos Business School

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embers actively receive continuous education through alumni sessions held all year long. There is also the annual alumni conference held in November which features very high-profile speakers.

Active participation in the sessions affords alumni the opportunity to effectively and continually update their knowledge of general management and business subjects.

In addition, there are a variety of discounts from corporate bodies ranging from international airlines and major hotels within and outside the country to internet service providers, bookshops, laundry services, etc. available to financial members of the LBSAA. They also benefit from discounts on all LBS executive programmes and seminars throughout the year.

The LBS alumni network is one of the most influential among business schools in Africa. Active participation in alumni programmes and constant visits to the alumni networking platform, https://lbsalumniconnect.com help members stay connected with former course mates, faculty and other alumni. Alumni also benefit from access to research materials available in the LBS library.

MEMBERSHIP Currently, the LBSAA has a membership of over 6,700. The Association comprises chief executives, owner managers, executive directors, senior and middle-level managers who have successfully completed the School's varying executive programmes, namely: the Chief Executive Programme (CEP), the Owner Manager Programme (OMP), the Advanced Management Programme (AMP), the Senior Management Programme (SMP), the Management Acceleration Programme (MAP), the AgriBusiness Management Programme (AgMP) and the various MBA programmes. It also includes full-time faculty of the School.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS From The Corporate Communications Desk

Full-time MBA ranked top 100 in the world by The Economist According to Lagos Business School's MBA Impact Report, its Full-time MBA graduates record an 87 percent increase in their salary upon completing the programme. 83 percent are promoted after the programme, 50 percent get jobs three months after the programme, and 73 percent get their first post-programme jobs through the School's Career Office.

Lagos Business School's Full-time MBA is the only programme and business school in Africa to be ranked on the 2021 list and was well rated in categories such as number of overseas alumni chapters, diversity of recruiters, and student-faculty diversity.

Dean, Professor Chris Ogbechie said, “This ranking is a fantastic way to begin the year at Lagos Business School. We are happy to be recognised for maintaining the quality of our MBA programmes despite the challenges of the previous year. This recognition challenges us to intensify our efforts towards developing responsible business leaders who will solve Africa's business, economic, social and institutional challenges.”

“I congratulate every member of the LBS community who has worked arduously to ensure that we have, yet again, gained another international recognition. We, at the MBA department, The Full-time MBA programme of Lagos Business School has are intent on creating and delivering transformational been ranked among the top 100 in the world according to The experiences to our participants and this ranking is fuel to our Economist's WhichMBA? 2021 ranking. fire”, MBA Director, Dr Henrietta Onwuegbuzie added.

Released on Thursday, 21 January, The Economist 2021 ranking evaluated full-time MBA programmes from 90 business schools across the world based on four broad criteria, including Open new career opportunities, Personal development and educational experience, Salary, and Potential to network.

This is the first time the Lagos Business School Full-time MBA programme would be ranked by The Economist. However, its Executive MBA has been ranked for two years in a row and emerged among the top 50 in 2019.

Other top business schools on the list include IESE Business School, which was ranked number one.

The Economist collated data from eligible schools on areas such as the percentage of graduates who receive a job offer after 3 months of graduation, ratio of faculty to students, average GMAT score, student and faculty gender diversity, among others. Current MBA students and recent alumni are also contacted to rate their school on areas such as faculty quality, post MBA salary, salary increase, etc.

Lagos Business School's range of MBA programmes equip students with a thorough knowledge of the main business disciplines, analytical competencies and problem-solving capabilities in addition to strong industry engagement.

LBS 18th MBA Talent Forum emphasises the need to embrace change Students of the Lagos Business School Full-time MBA 18 and 19 classes interacted with 28 top Nigerian companies at the 18th edition of the biannual MBA Talent Forum which held virtually on Thursday, November 5, 2020. Themed “Embracing Change and Transformation”, the Talent Forum aimed to provide a recruitment interaction platform for full-time MBA students and top companies across industries.

The Managing Director of Guinness Nigeria, Baker Magunda who was the keynote speaker at the event, addressed the theme using his organisation as a case study. Magunda noted the importance of understanding organisational purpose and

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using it to inspire employees to remain enthused about the organisation's operations and service to the community.

Magunda went on to discuss how internal operations at Guinness Nigeria changed in line with the demands of COVID-19 through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics. “For the three months when we were in the depths of the lockdown, we used big data analytics to understand our employees and focus on what they want to hear from us. The data collected help us change how organisational leaders interact with other employees, change structures in a matter of weeks, create new teams and abandon our traditional approach to leadership,”, he said.

LBS FOOTPRINTS He added that technology and AI have now forced the team at Guinness Nigeria to become fluid, dismantle the hierarchy of authority and manage people better using data-driven insight.

Split into groups, the MBA 18 students delivered detailed presentations on previously chosen topics to the recruiters.

The topics ranged from The Global Economy, Challenges and Opportunities in the Oil and Gas Industry, Insights into the ICT Industry among others.

Alex Liu, who is the Managing Partner & Chairman at a global management consulting firm, Kearney, was the Special Guest at the event. Liu shared a brief but insightful feedback on the presentations delivered by the talent, encouraging them to improve on their communication skills and to incorporate a more holistic approach when presenting to executives.

MBA Director, Dr Henrietta Onwuegbuzie said the theme of the event is relevant because the global health pandemic has changed the way companies work and LBS MBA students have also been imparted with skills that help them stay agile and adapt to unfamiliar demands wherever they find themselves.

Some of the 28 participating companies at this edition of the event include Nigerian Breweries, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Nigerian Bottling Company, Nestle, UAC, Maersk, Interswitch, Ernst & Young, MTN, Lafarge, Konga and IHS Towers.

The LBS Talent Forum is organised by the Lagos Business School MBA Careers and Placement Office.

MBA 18's Olayide Opaola declared winner at 2020 LBS mini-keynote competition Olayide Opaola of the Full-time MBA 18 class emerged winner of the 2020 edition of the Lagos Business School Mini-Keynote Competition that held virtually on Saturday, November 14, 2020.

In its second year, the Mini-Keynote Competition is an innovative and engaging activity that allows students on Lagos Business School's Full-time and Executive MBA programmes to showcase their oratory skills and improve on their knowledge of effective public speaking.

Opaola impressed the five-man panel of judges with a presentation on the Pros and Cons of Attracting External Funding. He, along with four other finalists, were judged based on factors such as the organisation of presentation, common ground & persuasion, verbal and non-verbal delivery, knowledge of the subject and use of time.

The first runner-up, Nancy Njoku-Attah (MBA 18) delivered a presentation on the Rules of Effectiveness for Women in the CSuite while second runner-up, Chukwuemeka Anyiam-Osigwe (MBA 19) spoke on the Role of Youth as Catalysts for Economic Growth.

This year's edition of the TED-style event was judged by members of Lagos Business School faculty, Dr Eugene Ohu and Lucille Ossai; LBS Alumni Association President and Publisher, Business Day, Frank Aigbogun; and members of the School's chapter of academic honour society, Beta Gamma Sigma.

Opaola and the first and second runners-up will be rewarded with cash prizes. The annual competition is sponsored by the LBS Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) society.

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Olayide Opaola

LBS FOOTPRINTS

Conversations on zero hunger and circular economy held at 2020 International Sustainability Conference At the 2020 edition of the annual Lagos Business School International Sustainability Conference, experts across sectors discussed sustainable recovery from COVID-19 and proffered business and policy solutions for job creation in emerging markets.

Held virtually on November 21, the International Sustainability Conference is an annual dialogue platform to inspire business leaders to embed sustainability and responsible business practices in their organisation's strategy and operations to make a positive impact on their business performance and society.

Lagos Business School Deputy Dean and Director, LBS Sustainability Centre, Professor Chris Ogbechie set the tone for the conference in his welcome address by emphasising the need for business leaders to run purpose-driven organisations.

On the panel session, Managing Director, SMEFunds Capital, Dr Jubril Adeojo was joined by CEO, Nigerian Climate Innovation Centre, Bankole Oloruntoba and Deputy Director, Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) Nneka Okekearu.

Oloruntoba exposed the audience to the immense benefits of building a circular economy, especially for small and mediumsized businesses. He said, “We've not tapped up to 3% of the immense opportunities in the circular economy. Opportunities abound for SMEs as they are the lifeline of the economy and they feed the value chain in the emerging green sector.”

“Africa's youth bulge presents both risks and opportunities. Governments need to make agriculture attractive by introducing technology, something that fascinates young people. So rather than the dreary humdrum work in the fields, they are working with tools that interest them and are helping to keep the population fed and sustained.”

He added that “The green sector increasingly will find more application in different areas: lifestyle products, waste conversion to gas for cooking, solar for greenhouse and hunger, they are most likely to truly address the root causes of irrigation, and enabling access to safe drinking water; brickets hunger and food insecurity, most of which some of us educated for cooking, plastics for powering vehicles, sustainable people may not understand.” buildings, etc.”

CEO, AFEX Nigeria Commodities Exchange, Ayodeji Balogun For Okekearu, the business case for a circular economy and emphasised on the need for African government to make green growth is yet to be fully understood by entrepreneurs technology attractive to its youth. He said, “Africa's youth bulge and investors. She recommended that storytelling should be presents both risks and opportunities. Governments need to make agriculture attractive by introducing technology, adopted to communicate the opportunities and benefits. something that fascinates young people. So rather than the She said, “Investors and entrepreneurs will not all immediately dreary humdrum work in the fields, they are working with tools jump on to the green growth bandwagon. Like was seen in the IT that interest them and are helping to keep the population fed sector, it will take a while to convince many to take the plunge. and sustained.”

But in effectively communicating the success stories of those who have, we can persuade many more on the opportunities in The conference closed with LBS Strategy faculty, Dr Franklin green growth. Storytelling just might be the key to unlocking Ngwu summarising the key lessons and encouraging every member of the audience to ensure that conversations on greater interest in the sector”. business sustainability continue.

In the second session, the conversation centred on eliminating the bottlenecks in achieving zero hunger. Global Vice President, The Hunger Project, Rowlands Kaotcha addressed the topic from the angle of sustainable grassroot strategies for eliminating hunger.

Kaotcha concluded that “community leaders need to be involved in the design of initiatives aimed at promoting zero

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

Lagos Business School MBA students shine at 2020 Africa Business Ethics Conference First-year students of the Lagos Business School Full-time MBA (MBA 19) took the lead at the 2020 Africa Business Ethics Conference pitch awards by emerging in the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th positions.

The Africa Business Ethics Conference (ABEC) is a businesscommunity-led global forum for convening a broad stakeholder group that for the first time includes the private sector in Africa to address the complex and peculiar challenges posed by corruption in the host country and in the region.

T h e m e d “ Ta c k l i n g C o r r u p t i o n t o R e d u c e P o v e r t y, Unemployment and Insecurity in Africa: A Necessity for Building Resilience”, the 2020 edition of the conference held in with Artificial Intelligence and automation. She suggested a Lagos, Nigeria from December 7 – 9. website that will employ cloud and blockchain technology to store information across government MDAs and agencies.

The pitch awards of the conference required participants to According to Ibeh, this would not only cure the scourge of pitch innovative ideas to mitigate corruption in Nigeria. The 3- corruption but would improve operational efficiency. minute visual pitch was to articulate the problem, discuss the proposed solution, and analyse the anticipated results. Out of The first and second place winners were presented with a the 84 entries received, the Lagos Business School MBA token of N400,000 and will, alongside others on the top six, students clinched the leading positions. attend a boot camp to refine their ideas into implementable proposals. The first place will also have an opportunity to pitch Chukwuemeka Anyiam-Osigwe, who landed the first position, to donors for seed funding or further assistance and will be proposed an innovative game that would keep ethics at the top sponsored to participate in ABEC 2021, which is set to hold in of human consciousness especially when they have to make Ethiopia. decisions. He suggested that the game is incorporated in primary and secondary school curricula across Africa to LBS Business Ethics Faculty and Director of the Centre, Dr ensure early awareness of ethics and its implications.

Kemi Ogunyemi commented on the wins by emphasising the relevance of Ethics in the development of managers and For the second position, Chiamaka Ibeh proposed a solution to business leaders who hold the responsibility of making tackle corruption in Nigeria's public sector by eliminating the decisions that affect many lives and impact the planet. human element in government transactions and replacing

Lagos Business School Recognised as Beta Gamma Sigma's 2021 Best Practice in Academic Achievement Award Winner The Lagos Business School chapter of the Beta Gamma Sigma society has been selected as the winner of the 2021 Outstanding Chapter Award – Best Practice in Academic Achievement. The award recognized LBS for exceptionally utilising her BGS chapter to encourage lasting academic success.

Gamma Sigma is highly selective, reserved for top students within the top 5% of business schools around the world. Beta Gamma Sigma has inducted more than 830,000 members worldwide since its founding.

In 2020, The LBS BGS society was bestowed with the Highest Honours status for the 2019-2020 academic year. The Highest The LBS BGS chapter was selected as the winner of this award Honours status is the highest distinction possible for Beta out of more than 615 global chapters, found in AACSB- Gamma Sigma chapters. accredited schools in 38 countries.

The Lagos Business School BGS chapter was established in The Best Practice Award is a merit recognition presented to November 2017. chapters who participate in a variety of chapter and Society activities and exemplify outstanding commitment to the mission of Beta Gamma Sigma. The award results from the exemplary work done by the school's BGS team and its continuing support of the society.

Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) is the exclusive international business honour society for students enrolled in business and management programmes accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Established in 1913, Beta Gamma Sigma operates exclusively for AACSB accredited business programs. Membership in Beta

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

LBS Dean, Professor Ogbechie speech on driving growth with Social Entrepreneurship at Global Forum On Thursday, 18th of March, LBS Dean and Professor of Strategic Management, Chris Ogbechie delivered a speech at the third session of the CLADEA 2021 Global forum. The global forum organised in cooperation with Montpellier Business School (MBS), Montpellier, France caters to professors and researchers representing top business schools and universities in Latin America, Europe, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

The CLADEA Global forum comprises a cycle of 8 sessions from December 2020 to October 2022, all structured around the theme “Management between Universality and Diversity.” The forum aims at highlighting the importance of International Partner Associations such as the Association of African Business School (AABS), Association of AsiaPacific Business Schools (AAPBS), Central and East European Management Development Association (CEEMAN), and Global Business School Network (GBSN) in the development of international cooperation.

Professor Chris Ogbechie spoke on the topic – Social Entrepreneurship as a Driver of Growth in Africa: the Role of Business Schools. In his presentation, he highlighted how business schools can adapt to this much-needed change in their approach to teaching for impact and business success.

Ogbechie discussed how business schools can play a critical role in promoting social entrepreneurship ranging from curriculum development to engagement activities and research. According to him, “Social entrepreneurship is the catalyst to drive growth in Africa. It has created a significant number of jobs across sub-Saharan Africa and the jobs created are typically for people from underserved communities. They don't just exist to support poorer or marginalised groups; they employ them as well.” He concluded by stating the intrinsic interdependence of social and economic development in Africa makes a strong case for social entrepreneurship.

The forum brought together new perspectives on ways business schools can foster a better relationship with the community to accelerate growth and unlock innovation in the current new world reality. This initiative aligns with the schools' sustainability centre to enable constructive dialogue and collaboration between various stakeholders to find solutions to sustainable development challenges in Africa. The final two sessions will hold on May 6, 2021, and September 9, 2021.

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“Social entrepreneurship is the catalyst to drive growth in Africa. It has created a significant number of jobs across sub-Saharan Africa and the jobs created are typically for people from underserved communities.

They don't just exist to support poorer or marginalised groups; they employ them as well.”

LBS FOOTPRINTS Faculty Update

LBS Faculty, Ijeoma Nwagwu selected as one of the 40 Leading Ladies driving the SDGs in Nigeria sector in Nigeria. The thrust of the PSAG Recognition Initiative is the Agenda 2030 tagline “Leave no one behind” and its goal to engender inclusivity and women empowerment. The announcement of the 40 Leading Ladies was done as part of the commemoration of the UN International Day for Violence Against Women on November 25.

Lagos Business School faculty, Dr Ijeoma Nwagwu has been selected by the 2020 PSAG Recognition Initiative as one of 40 women who are driving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria.

The Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) Nigeria was created to provide PSAG Global, an arm of the United Nations with guidance and strategic support to achieve better development results in coordination with the private

The list highlights the importance of the active involvement of women in the achievement of the UN SDGs. Commenting on this, Dr Nwagwu said, “the most prosperous countries are those that are inclusive and supportive of women as a key part of the human family. Women's financial inclusion, for example, which is the focus of our work on financial inclusion at LBS, opens the door to healthy and well-educated households. Research shows that when women are economically empowered and financially included, their decisionmaking power, opportunities, esteem and well-being improve. When women are able to spend, save and borrow in meaningful ways, the resilience of households to economic shocks such as we are experiencing now also improves.”

Other notable women selected alongside Dr Nwagwu include Nigeria's Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed;

Special Advisor to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Investments and member of LBS Advisory Board, Maryam Uwais; CEO Aspire Coronation Trust Foundation, Osayi Alile; and co-founder, Sahel Consulting, Ndidi Nwuneli.

Speaking on the recognition and its relevance for her role as a Sustainability Faculty at Lagos Business School, Dr Nwagwu said, “it renews the opportunity through my work at Lagos Business S c h o o l t o p a r t n e r w i t h i n d u s t r y, government and civil society organisations to take action on key sustainable development goals such as no poverty (Goal 1) zero hunger (Goal 2) and so on. These partnerships are crucial if we are to meet the 2030 deadline to realise the SDGs and thereby ensure economic, social and environmental sustainability for all.”

She added that these partnerships are crucial to the applied capacity-building and research carried out at LBS. Through its Sustainability Centre, LBS combines theory and practice on sustainability, build leadership skills and support constructive dialogue and c o ll a b o r a t i o n b et we e n b u s i n e s s , government, civil society and academics to find solutions to critical sustainability challenges.

Olayinka David-West as Associate Dean at Lagos Business School Professor of Information Systems, Olayinka DavidWest is now Associate Dean of Lagos Business School. The appointment was approved on Wednesday, December 9, 2020 by the University Management Council (UMC) of the Pan-Atlantic University; and is preceded by the appointment of Professor of Strategic Management, Chris Ogbechie as the School's new Dean.

In her new role as Associate Dean, David-West who is a member of the LBS Management Board and Team Lead at the Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services (SIDFS), will now be responsible for Faculty, Research, MBA programmes, DBA programme, Learning Innovation, Accreditations and Rankings.

With over two decades of experience in the information technology and systems industry, David-West combines her teaching and research

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interests with industry consulting engagements in the areas of strategic IS planning, IT personnel selection, IT assessment & review/due diligence, e-business, business planning, software selection & management, systems implementation, project & change management, business process improvement and systems design.

She holds a doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) from Manchester Business School; an MSc in Business Systems Analysis and Design from City University, London; and a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Lagos.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

Lagos Business School has a new Director of Executive Education The graduate school of Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos Business School, has appointed Victor Banjo as its new Director of Executive Education.

Banjo has worked in the FMCG, Aviation, Manufacturing, Consulting, Maritime and Financial Services industries in the United Kingdom, Africa and the United Arab Emirates. He brings to this role a working knowledge of over twenty African countries. Banjo is an alumnus of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, and an International Finance Corporation (IFC) certified trainer for Corporate Governance and Director Development.

Effective January 1, 2021, Banjo became responsible for the department that manages Lagos Business School's executive education. He will lead the strategic direction and marketing of executive programmes, open seminars and custom programmes.

Before joining Lagos Business School, Banjo functioned as the Chief People Officer of Green Africa, where he led strategic people leadership and direction for a culturally diverse workforce as a member of the airline's leadership team. His career in people management started with Spicers Limited in the United Kingdom as a regional training and development officer. He has also held the Human Resources leadership position (or its equivalent) at British American Tobacco, Virgin Group, Jagal Group, Oceanic Bank and developed/implemented HR strategy involving career management and succession planning, performance management and competency design.

“I am excited to be joining Lagos Business School, the leader in executive education in Africa. I look forward to raising the bar of excellence that the school is known for through innovative, researchbased business solutions developed from our deep knowledge of doing business in Africa”.

Banjo replaces Lilian Uwaeme who led the Executive Education team for nearly three years. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development UK, with 21 years of experience as an accomplished human resources practitioner and business leader. On his plans for the Executive Education department, Banjo said, “I am excited to be joining Lagos Business School, the leader in executive education in Africa. I look forward to raising the bar of excellence that the school is known for through innovative, research-based business solutions developed from our deep knowledge of doing business in Africa”.

Victor Banjo Director of Executive Education Lagos Business School

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LBS FOOTPRINTS Cover Story

Blazing through: Olawale Rotimi Opeyemi stamps his own footprints in Agribusiness Story by: Uzo Ofoma Chukwuma

LBS FOOTPRINTS Cover Story On the evening of December 10, 1914, a massive explosion occurred in New Jersey, USA. More than half of the factory buildings belonging to the famed inventor of the light bulb, Thomas Edison, were engulfed in flames.

Despite the efforts of more than five fire departments, the fire was too powerful to put. As the inventor stood watching his life's work burn to the ground, his son walked up to him to offer his consolation. He looked over and told his son to call his mother and her friends to watch the fire burn, “They will never see a fire like this again”, he said in awe. His surprised son initially objected, to which Edison famously replied, “It is all right, we have just got rid of a lot of rubbish.” Edison later told the New York Times that he was going to start all over again the next day, even at 67 years old.

This ability to bounce back and recover quickly from difficult situations is called Resilience.

The importance of resilience in individual achievements and business success have been established over time. There is no business or industry leader who has achieved success without a fair measure of resilience. Their approach to challenges and difficulties are different and have been curated over the years for our learning. As leaders, they influence the organisational culture of their companies, building resilient workforces that enable the company to build its own resilience to external disruptions. A company's capacity to absorb stress, recover critical functionality, and thrive in altered circumstances will determine its future in an ever-changing world.

The current global pandemic revealed vulnerabilities in our systems and forced change on everyone. During times like this, resilience plays a major part in our individual & corporate success.

In this issue, we sit down with a young entrepreneur known for his resilience and impact on agribusiness in a short period. Olawale Rotimi Opeyemi is the Founder and CEO of JR Farms Limited, a company “determined to transform agriculture in Africa”. The T-shirt clad CEO who is currently 31, is a proud agribusiness advocate focused on five main goals: create decent jobs for youth and women, ensure food security in Africa, end hunger in Africa, raise the next-gen of agrarian leaders in Africa and add value to African agrocommodities. Operating in three African countries and the Netherlands, the young company has been steadily growing at a fast pace in valuation and its i m p a c t o n s o c i e t y, t h r o u g h t h e empowerment of farmers. Olawale is also the founder of Green Agribusiness

Fund, which in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the the United Nations (FAO), is designed to invest in youth-led agribusinesses across Africa.

The beginning: Exposure Olawale was born in an intellectual home. His father is a lecturer in French and his mother worked as a trader whose family traded across West Africa. His father was a major influence on the children: all of them currently work in or with a university. Olawale's initial path was not different; it was geared towards studying French like his father.

However, during weekends and holidays as a child in Oyo town, Olawale was always in the farms and local processing factories of his relatives and friends, playing and working in cassava farms,garri processing facilities and poultries. This exposure stirred a love for agriculture in him. The growing teen developed a concrete plan: study French or International relations; work in the UN; save lots of money and retire into farming.

The first challenge Armed with his plan, Olawale wrote the necessary exams to enter university. He got admitted into University of Illorin pre-degree (Remedial) programme in 2005, aiming for French. However, he was offered Comparative Religions (now Philosophy of Religion) as a study. He was devastated. What was he going to use a degree in Religion for?

Discovering purpose Determined to start university, Olawale went on to study religion. He concluded that he could learn French alongside his studies. After his youth corps' service, he decided to apply to study for a master's in the same field. During this time of “nothingness”, he started writing blog stories on his pressing passion: agriculture. Olawale wrote consistently about agriculture, its history, and its role in national development. His stories began to gain traction: news agencies, international NGOs and other media outlets reached out to him. He was encouraged; he had discovered his purpose in agribusiness.

Patience with the process According to Olawale, some young people are not patient to discover and pass through a process: “there is always a process in every field, and one must be patient to find it and pass through it to succeed”, he insists. For him, this process required his participation with key institutions in agribusiness. With his written stories gaining traction, Olawale knew he was ready to make the next step of participation. He visited the website of the African Development Bank and applied to attend its annual meeting in 2015. There was one major challenge: he did not have the funds to fly to Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) for the meeting. He reached out to his mum for advice. “My mum grew up in Togo and used to tell us stories of her family travels within West Africa. I knew she would have a way for me to get to Ivory Coast from Nigeria.” He was right. Olawale made the long road journey to Ivory Coast for the annual meeting, possessing just his ideas and determination to network for learning

Olawale says he is driven by the need to ensure that the livelihoods of people who work for him are protected. He says “I think about the women who depend on the company. Anytime I shut down for any reason, the women have no money to send their children to school or provide for their families.”

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LBS FOOTPRINTS Failing forward Undeterred, Olawale worked on ensuring that the other farmers did well and paid their loans from their increased produce. He was happy to go through this process because it enabled him to clearly see the gaps and work on closing them.

Connecting the dots How did a graduate of Philosophy of Religion become an Agribusiness entrepreneur?

From his exposure to agriculture at an early age to his postgraduate activities as a blogger, every activity (including failed ones) led to his current success. His degrees in Philosophy of Religion were borne out of a need to pick a course to study when he could not enter university to study French. “Choosing religion broadened my thinking. The study of world religions enabled me to appreciate diversity to culture and life and the variations in the world today”, Olawale shares, “In my dealings, I never stigmatise people no matter their background or belief”. Wherever he goes, he eats the local food and respectfully relates with them. This is one reason he has been able to find reliable partners in business across Africa and beyond.

When asked what drives him in challenging times, Olawale says he is driven by the need to ensure that the livelihoods of people who work for him are protected. He says “I think about the women who depend on the company. Anytime I shut down for any reason, the women have no money to send their children to school or provide for their families.”

and opportunities. At the conference, Olawale met the current President of the African development Bank and other dignitaries who were interested in the young man's passion and ideas. It was here that he learnt the concept of farmers' cooperatives and he left with the one of the bank's frameworks to start one.

Presently, JR farms Africa is involved in the entire Cassave value chain, from cassava to garri, consumed by more than 80 million Nigerians on a daily basis. In Rwanda, they work in the Coffee value chain with over 4000 farmers spread across the country processing, packaging and exporting coffee to various parts of the world. Their two main products JR Garri and JR Coffee are on sale across Africa and beyond.

Action…and failure Olawale returned to Nigeria and immediately set out to his wife's village in Kwara state, where he knew there were many cassava farmers. He quickly made a call out to farmers and created a cooperative, with the promise that funding will come through the channel to assist in their farming activities.

However, it failed woefully. They could not receive funding and the integrity of Olawale, his wife and family were at stake.

To be resilient, Olawale believes one must have passion and vision. His passion to create jobs and vision to ensure food security and increased incomes for farmers, are the keys to his resilience. In challenging times, he stays solutionfocused, as he believes that “all problems have a solution.”

This credence is evident in JR Farms, as Olawale deliberately hires people who share in the same belief. “We are always looking forward. We do not focus on the problem; we always seek solutions.”

Back to the drawing table Olawale was under pressure. The farmers who he had promised funding to scale and process, were on his neck. He could have blamed the Financial Instiution for giving him false hope or just thrown in the towel. Instead, he went back to the bank framework to find out what may have gone wrong. “I always believe that no problem or challenge is insurmountable. All problems have a solution”, says Olawale.

Re-evaluating the framework helped Olawale to see the gaps in his process.

With the operations of JR Farms spreading fast across Africa, Olawale's goal of creating jobs and contributing to food security is beginning to be realised, regardless of challenges from all fronts.

More action …and more failure Using a Baale in the community as a guarantor for the farmers, the number of actual farmers reduced to 93 from 200+. The Baale knew the real farmers. The others were fraudulent; claiming farms that did not belong to them in order to receive funds fraudulently. This was an important piece to the puzzle. However, some of the farmers refused to pay back on the loads; one farmer actually issued a death threat to Olawale and his family!

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

LBS Publications November 2020 – April 2021.

Journal Articles Subject Category

S/No.

Title

Journal Title

Faculty

Strategy & Sustainability

1.

Utilisation and Development of Systematic Reviews in Management Research: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go from Here?

International Journal of Management Reviews

Okupe, Adun

Information Systems

1.

The Role of Product Development Practices on New Product Performance: Evidence from Nigeria's Financial Services Providers

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

2.

Business model innovation at the bottom of the pyramid – A case of mobile money agents

Journal of Business Research

1.

Digital Financial Inclusion, Informal Economy and Poverty Reduction in Africa

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy

Kelikume, Ikechukwu

2.

Oil Price Shock and Civil Conflict: Evidence from Nigeria

World Bank Economic Review

Nwokolo, Arinze

3.

An Assessment of Foreign Direct Investment and Sustainable Development Nexus: The Nigerian and Ghanaian Perspectives" (AFRICAN DATA)

International journal of management, economics, and social sciences

Iheanachor, Nkemdilim

4.

The Role of Networks in the Internationalization Process of Firms from Emerging Economies: The Nigerian Perspectives (NIGERIAN DATA)

International journal of management, economics, and social sciences

Iheanachor, Nkemdilim

1.

The Two Sides of a Pandemic in I-O Psychology Research

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Ohu, Eugene

2.

The relationship between political will and organizational political behavior: The moderating roles of political prudence and political skill.

Journal of Business Research

Amah, Okechukwu

1.

Antecedents of Customer Bargain Satisfaction in Informal Retail Markets: Insights from Street Shoppers in Lagos, Nigeria

Journal of Customer Behaviour

Uzo, Uchenna

Economics & Finance

Human Resource Management & Organisational Behaviour

Sales & Marketing

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18

Iheanachor, Nkemdilim & DavidWest Olayinka

Iheanachor, Nkemdilim & DavidWest, Olayinka

LBS FOOTPRINTS Subject Category

S/No.

Title

Journal Title

Faculty

How Informality Affects Habitual Improvisation in Firms: Insights from the Nigerian Movie Industry

International Studies of Management & Organization

Uzo, Uchenna

Marketing Bank Services to Financially Vulnerable Customers: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

International Journal of Bank Marketing

1.

Natural disasters, trade openness and international tourism: The role of income levels across countries

Tourism Recreation Research

Subject Category

S/No.

Title

Editors, Book Title and Publisher.

Human Resource Management & Organisational Behaviour

1.

Globalization/Liberalization and Poverty Level in Africa: The Role of African Leaders – Okechukwu Amah

In Amah, O. (Ed.) Handbook of Research on Institutional, Economic, and Social Impacts of Globalization and Liberalization, IGI Global.

Branding & Marketing

1.

Place, branding and smart growth – Otubanjo Tayo & Ogechi Adeola

In Otubanjo, T. & Adeola, O. (Eds.) Sustainable Branding: Ethical, Social, and Environmental Cases and Perspectives, Routledge.

2.

3.

Tourism & Research

Adeola, Ogechi et al.

Adeola, Ogechi et al.

Book Chapters

In Hinson, Robert E., Adeola, Ogechi, Adisa, Isaiah (Eds.) Green Marketing and Management in Emerging Markets: The Crucial Role of People in Management in Successful Implementation, Palgrave Macmillan.

2.

Harnessing the Potentials of the Green Generation for Green Marketing Success in Africa's Emerging Economies – Ogechi Adeola

3.

Indigenous Financial Practices of Igbo MicroEntrepreneurs in Lagos. – Ogechi Adeola & Uchenna Uzo

In Adeola, O (Ed.) The Indigenous African Enterprise, Emerald Publishing.

Tourism & Research

1.

Investigating the Dialogic Communications Potential of the Botswana Trade and Investment Centre Website for Destination Branding – Ogechi Adeola

In Ngoasong, M.Z., Adeola, O., Kimbu, A.N., Hinson, R. E (Eds.) New Frontiers in Hospitality and Tourism Management in Africa, Springer.

Sustainability

1.

African Women's Participation in Business and Politics:Challenges and Recommendations – Yetunde Anibaba

In Adeola, O. (Ed). Empowering African Women for Sustainable Development, SpringerLink.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

Books Subject Category

Title

Publisher

Faculty

Cooperate Governance & Strategy

Corporate Governance Toolkit for SMEs in Emerging Markets

CLDS Publishing.

Chris Ogbechie

Marketing

Business-to-Business Marketing: An African Perspective - How to understand and succeed in business marketing in an emerging Africa

Routledge (Taylor & Francis)

Ogechi Adeola, et al.

Human Resource Management

Work-Life Integration in Africa: A Multidimensional Approach to Achieve Balance

Palgrave Macmillan

Okechukwu Amah & Marvel Ogah

Books Title

Abstract

Author

This is a case of a resilient African entrepreneur of Nigerian origin, who went from start-up to market leader in less than ten (10) years. Through his mindset of problem-solving and optimising value for customers, he disrupted the motorcycle industry, competing favourably with well-established multinationals even in turbulent times. He started his entrepreneurial journey during his teenage years. While waiting to gain admission to the university, he took up a temporary job working for his elder brother who was a patent medicine dealer in the eastern part of Nigeria. Although he was eventually unable to continue his studies to tertiary levels, he went on to acquire trading and entrepreneurship skills as an apprentice under a successful businessman, who traded motorcycle spare parts. When his apprenticeship tenure was over, he started a similar business, but wanted to create more value. Consequently, he went into trading motorbikes. However, rather than provide used motorcycles like other players were doing, he felt his people deserved better and wanted to provide new motorcycles for them instead. Recognising that price was an issue, he sought ways to provide them affordably. Faced with various challenges, the entrepreneur constantly found ways to overcome them, and remained focused on delivering affordable solutions in a profitable way. He was also passionate about creating employment and a firm believer in acquiring prior knowledge and first-hand experience before venturing into a business.

Thus, when he decided to pivot from trading motorbikes to an automobile business, though already an experienced and successful entrepreneur, he went to understudy automobile dealers across the world before launching his own business.

Upon realising that the importation of cars for sale would make them unaffordable to most Nigerians, he decided to explore local manufacturing of cars, a feat none had dared to embark on as yet. His goal was to bring down the cost of cars, ensuring that as many Nigerians as possible could afford a new car. Consequently, he went from being a market leader in the motorcycle industry to becoming a pioneer of indigenously manufactured automobiles in Nigeria. He has done this successfully since 2009. The case is a good illustration of the potential of African indigenous

Henrietta Onwuegbuzie

Entreprenurship Innoson Group: Against All Odds.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

Title

Abstract

Author

entrepreneurship models, which are based on the experiential apprenticeship system. It highlights how this system facilitates the successful transmission of entrepreneurial skills and the achievement of successful entrepreneurial outcomes.

Henrietta Onwuegbuzie

The AgroLo case explores the capacity and process flow challenges confronting Lagos-based James Oni, a budding industrialist, in his existing agro-based factory involved in the processing of palm kernel seeds (PKS) into palm kernel oil (PKO) and palm kernel cake (PKC). Situated in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the indigenous manufacturing company had 30 employees. AgroLo was confronted by capacity issues occasioned by the seasonal challenge of sourcing PKS, epileptic public power supply, inadequate storage facility and labour challenges, which had all stifled the smooth operations of the firm.

Marvel Ogah

Multipro Consumer Products Limited (MCPL) was recently appointed to distribute the Colgate toothpaste brand in Nigeria. As a result, the Board asked Abiodun, the Sales Director of MCPL, to develop a sales and distribution strategy that would increase the product's visibility, availability and accessibility in Nigeria. Abiodun was aware of data that showed that Colgate was not among the top five toothpaste brands in Nigeria. Also, brand awareness was at 4%, and 23% of Nigerian households had purchased the brand at least once. Only 4% of customers had bought the brand in the last month. In developing his sales and distribution strategy, the Sales Director had three strategic options. These options have several implications for sales allocation, motivation, attrition and distributor effectiveness.

Uchenna Uzo

Nestle Nigeria boasts of being one of the largest food and beverage companies in Africa, with over six decades of meeting consumers' needs in Nigeria, and a high market penetration of many of its iconic products, such as Maggi, Milo, Cerelac, Golden Morn, Nescafe and Nestle Pure Life table water. The blossoming FMCG brand had over 2,300 direct employees, three manufacturing sites, seven branch offices and a head office located in Lagos, Nigeria. Nestle Nigeria continued to grow extensively within the nation's vibrant market space, and the question of how Nestle had kept its dominance at the top of the competitive FMCG market comes to the fore. As the case highlights, Nestle had achieved all these by maintaining its corporate integrity and commitment to ethics. How did Nestle, despite the difficulties in the operating environment, achieve high performance, and continued to live the ethical values and integrity for which Nestle worldwide is known? This was the question that Mr Mauricio Alarcon, the Managing Director of the food product giant addressed in this case.

Rose Ogbechie

Operations Management AgroLo

Sales & Marketing Multipro Consumer Products Ltd: Managing Sales and Channel Performance

Business Ethics Nestlé Nigeria Plc.: Doing Business the Right Way

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21

LBS FOOTPRINTS Home front

LBSAA EXCo appoints 5 new members Following the handover from the previous leadership in June, five seats became vacant in the Executive Council of the Lagos Business School Alumni Association.

on October 6, 2020.

Meet the new members of EXCo: Babatunde Daramola (AMP 25): Executive Director, Finance, Systems & Investment at Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc.

For two consecutive terms, Akin Fatunke (AMP 22), AVM Femi Gbadebo Rtd. (OMP 15), Mr Bili Odum (CEP 18), Anu Eso (CEP 22) and Dapo Egbeyemi (OMP 1) served LBSAA faithfully and tirelessly. As members of the Council, they contributed their 4 T's: Time, Treasure, Tribe & Talent to the advancement of the Association. A fifth seat was left vacant by the outgoing Secretary of the Association, Olajumoke Olusoga (EMBA 20), who also served diligently, ensuring the excellent capture and dissemination of information to the Council and Association at large.

Bayo Olugbemi (CEP 11): MD/CEO, First Registrars & Investor Services Ltd & President, The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.

Bisi Adeyemi (EMBA 11): MD/CEO, DCSL Corporate Services Ltd. & Deputy President, Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce

For their valuable contribution, the four members and exsecretary were recognised during the Handover ceremony in June 2020 where the outgoing President, Mrs Clare Omatseye, expressed her sincere gratitude to them for their unwavering support & loyalty.

Funmi Omo (AMP 26): MD, Life Insurance, Enterprise Life Insurance; Founder, Funmi Omo Initiative; & Current President of AMP 26 Class Kyari Bukar (CEP 19): Chaiman, SUNU Assurances Plc; CoFounder and Managing Partner, Trans-Sahara Investment Corporation

It became imperative that the new leadership nominate new members to the Council to fill in the vacant seats left by these astute Alumni. This was achieved during the first Executive Council meeting under the new President, Mr Frank Aigbogun,

Babatunde Daramola

Bayo Olugbemi

Funmi Omo

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Bisi Adeyemi

Kyari Bukar

22

LBS FOOTPRINTS

2020

Alumni Day

A sufficiently sizable labour force is germane to building a competitive economy and gaining a share of global trade and economy. This was the submission at the 2020 edition of the annual Lagos Business School Alumni Day that held virtually on Thursday, November 19.

Themed 'Africa's Economic Interests in a Changing Global Landscape', the keynote speaker at this year's edition of the conference, President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Professor Benedict Oramah delivered an extensive speech on the vast potentials that exist in Africa's labour force and why governments on the continent must channel resources to building this aspect of the economy.

According to Professor Oramah, “Africa accounts for about 17 percent of world population with a young and dynamic labour force and African governments must begin to focus on the abundance of cheap labour as it is our greatest resource.”

He further advised that governments must “increase investments in research and development, support innovation and technology-related initiatives, and facilitate import of technologies that will boost manufacturing productivity and efficiency of trade-related services.”

Professor Oramah added that these interventions should be accompanied by investments in human capital.

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The conversation continued in a panel session moderated by Lagos Business School's Entrepreneurship faculty, Dr Henrietta Onwuegbuzie. The panel comprised business leaders who represented various sectors including manufacturing, agriculture, finance and technology. The panel discussion was followed by breakout sessions featuring the panellists with members of LBS Faculty: Dr Chidi Okoro (Manufacturing), Dr Adi Bongo (Infrastructure Finance/Development), Dr Ikechukwu Ke l i k u m e ( A g r i b u s i n e s s ) a n d D r Henrietta Onwuegbuzie doubling as the anchor for Finance.

Deputy Managing Director, UK-Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility, Obinna Ihedioha approached the conference theme from the angle of ease of trade across countries on the continent. Citing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a welcome opportunity, Ihedioha challenged African governments to connect the economic corridors in the continent. He also made reference to Asian economies, China and India, who have created “hygiene and discipline in how they activate the potentials in their countries”.

Other members of the panel include Founder/Chief Realisation Officer, Fa r m s h o p p e ™ , C y n t h i a U m o r u ; Managing Director, Cadbury Nigeria, Oyeyimika Adeboye and Group CEO, Emerging Africa Capital Group, Toyin Sanni.

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Sanni spoke on how the banking and finance industry is ensuring there is a shift in funding to other critical industries in the country. She added that the industry has an opportunity to fund and invest in human capital development to retool the young, techsavvy population thus buttressing the points made by the keynote speaker.

Along the same lines, Umoru advised that the government and other stakeholders must develop the agricultural sector such that it attracts the youth. She said, “Agriculture should no longer be considered a retirement plan. So we must incentivize young people to take on agribusiness by encouraging them to use their existing skill sets and their knowledge of technology to transform the sector”.

This year's edition of the Alumni Day was sponsored by the Global CEO 1 class. The event closed with the class president, Valentine Ozigbo expressing gratitude to everyone who participated; the Lagos Business School Dean, Professor Enase Okonedo, the President of the LBS Alumni Association Frank Aigbogun, and t h e m e m b e r s o f t h e L B S A lu m n i Relations team.

The Alumni Day is one of the platforms LBS uses to ensure continuous learning for its alumni while also facilitating networking opportunities across the alumni association.

LBS FOOTPRINTS Alumni happenings

Surprise, Surprise!

This year, the alumni relations department at LBS decided to appreciate alumni with cakes on their birthdays. Alumni were randomly chosen who had their birthdays on Valentine's day and Easter Sunday.

The following alumni were pleasantly surprised on their birthdays: (1.) Adetokunbo Omolase SMP 32 (2.) Aihe Okoh SMP 30 (3.) Anthony Okeke FtMBA 7 (4.) Cakes for Alumni (5.) Igho Dafinone AMP 3 (6.) Ikechukwu Kalu SMP 25 (7.) John Soberekon MEMBA 2 (8.) Ogunnowo Yetunde FTMBA 7 (9.) Uche Okoli Akuchukwu SMP 51

1

2

6

3

4

7

8

5

9

Breaded Life!What's bread got to do with it?

The EMBA 23 Class threw their support behind their colleagues during an exclusive of their movie “Breaded Life”. Lara Ajibulu and Kayode Sowade are Executive producers of the extremely hilarious, thought-provoking movie.

The premiere was held at FilmHouse, Twin Waters with most of the members of the class in attendance. LBS Alumni Relations team was represented by the Director of Alumni Relations, Henry Andoh, and Uzoma Chukwuma. The event was coordinated by their very able Social Secretary, Charles Aigbona.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS LBS Insights

Leading Self and Others in

Uncertain times Dr Yetunde Anibaba One of the most critical responsibilities of a leader is to provide direction. When the leader does not do this, at least either of two things happens: 1. the team loses focus, and each member does what they deem fit such that there is no harmonisation around a unified objective, 2. a de-facto leader emerges.

If the new leader is one that shares the original goals of the team and commands as much respect or more, then the original equilibrium is maintained or restored depending on how quickly the leader emerges. If the emerged leader has a different but valuable vision for the team, a new equilibrium is reached eventually. Where neither of these is the case, then chaos is probably inevitable. There are other possibilities, but the point is that without leadership, there is no direction; without direction, there is a lack of focused motion, and if taken to the extreme, the result is chaos. So how does the leader ensure that he continues to guide his team through a period of uncertainty effectively?

Stay calm and project calmness. A key characteristic of uncertainty is the absence or dearth of information with w h i c h y o u c a n m a ke r e a s o n a b le judgements about cause and effect relationships. So, the first thing that is challenged in such times is your clarity of vision or sight, and consequently, your ability to set the right direction for your team. For many people, this naturally

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translates to discomfort and even a lack of confidence to move forward. In the extreme case, complete inertia. If not quickly arrested, the lack of confidence filters through the ranks and confusion is the result. Therefore, one of the first things a leader must guard is their ability to remain calm amid uncertainty, as this is probably the first signal that the team members will receive regarding how they should behave in the situation.

Being calm amid uncertainty or crisis does not only affect your team positively, it can also determine your ability to regain sight and therefore craft a new viable direction for the team. Research suggests that anxiety affects your capacity to make sound judgements about the way forward for the team by causing you to be more inclined toward threat-related information (risk-averse) and to interpret ambiguous (a characteristic of uncertainty) information automatically as a threat.

Naturally, you will move away from the threat rather than towards it, such that the focus will be on avoidance than action. However, calmness, defined as the ability to maintain a stable disposition under stress, predisposes you to a balanced evaluation of the information available to you, and therefore reasonable judgement. Which leads us to another thing that is important for leading yourself and others during periods of uncertainty.

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Develop agility. You do not need to have all the answers upfront, but you should demonstrate some measure of clarity about and a growing understanding of the situation, as well as relevant action steps which you can communicate to your team in a timely, consistent fashion.

So, another essential attribute a leader must possess/develop to lead successfully under conditions of uncertainty is agility. According to some research, leadership agility is essentially a suite of competencies that are involved in leading under conditions of rapid change and complexity, including context-setting agility, creative agility, stakeholder agility and self-leadership agility. But underlying these suites of competencies is the ability to take reflective action, where reflective action involves speed-reading the changes around you, the scope of its effect on your context and relevant stakeholders, identifying or crafting the appropriate response, as well as assessing and

LBS FOOTPRINTS building your capabilities on the go.

Simply put, the ability to learn quickly, come to reasonable judgements about the events happening around you, and take reasonable actions as a result.

Developing leadership agility comes from developmental activities that focus on reflective action such as coaching relationships and actionoriented training programmes. It is also developed in the cyclical process of acting (experience), reflecting over your actions and the outcomes, extracting the learning from the process and applying them.

Communicate. A calm disposition may have put the mind of your team at rest in the short term, but they will soon want to know the next line of action as long as the condition of uncertainty subsists.

You may have observed in the course of this COVID-19 pandemic that leaders of several organisations that provide one form of service or the other have communicated to their customer base by email, social media or other means.

The earlier they did this, the more confident you probably felt about them being on top of their game. Many have also sent follow on emails as the situation unfolded to assure you that they were actively monitoring the events, articulating the actions they were taking to mitigate any form of losses that may accrue to you and the reasoning behind such actions. You

could call this signaling. Signaling is an attempt to reduce information asymmetry between two parties. In other words, it is the signaler's (leader) attempt to bring the receiver (team) up to speed with the information the signaler possesses about the situation and minimise or eliminate ambiguity. But for a signal to be useful, it must be clear, consistent, and relatively frequent, at the minimum. This implies that keeping your team on track in times of uncertainty requires you to keep them informed adequately and consistently.

Embrace vulnerability. Finally, while leaders should be able to demonstrate a measure of calmness amid crisis and uncertainty, they should also be willing to be vulnerable. According to vulnerability expert, Brene Brown, leadership is synonymous with courage, and you cannot be courageous without being vulnerable. Vulnerability here does not imply weakness or submissiveness; it is instead, the quality of being authentic, the willingness to be wrong and to take responsibility for your wrong judgements. The fact that an action can be described as courageous implies there was an element of risk in the action, and risk suggests the possibility of failure. Accepting this possibility knowing that you have put in every reasonable effort to get it right, is the

quality of being human. On one hand, it helps your team members connect with you on another level – they are able to bring up issues to you they would ordinarily have suppressed till it blows up in the face of everyone, they are able to offer solutions to challenges the team/organisation may be facing. On the other hand, it reduces stress on the part of the leader and the led, helping everyone deal even better with the period of uncertainty.

In summary, I have articulated four complementary strategies for effectively leading yourself and others in periods of uncertainty. They include maintaining and projecting a calm d i s p o s i t i o n , d e v e l o p i n g a g i l i t y, communicating comprehensively and frequently, and embracing vulnerability.

It is, however, essential to note that the trajectory of the evolution of today's world suggests that uncertainty is the new normal, and these strategies need to be too.

Dr Yetunde Anibaba teaches Analysis of Business Problems at Lagos Business School

Being calm amid uncertainty or crisis does not only affect your team positively, it can also determine your ability to regain sight and therefore craft a new viable direction for the team.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

Enhancing employee engagement in the New Normal Dr Okechukwu Amah

Engaged employees apply their total self (physical, emotional, mental) to their roles. They are creative, innovative, and go the extra mile in executing their assigned tasks. Engaged employees recover quickly when their companies go through challenging times; they provide competitive advantage to organisations. Engaged employees are valuable in a pandemic where uncertainty is a norm because they help organisations to keep afloat in the shortterm and to work towards long-term recovery. However, the challenge is that before the pandemic, employee engagement was low across the world.

Depending on the source of information, the level is put between 35% and 50%.

Unless something is done differently, this is likely to decline. What are the drivers of employee engagement in a pandemic? The answer is the essence of this article.

Studies have shown that employee engagement elicits positive emotions from employees and thrives in a work climate that favours communication; growth and development; recognition and appreciation; and trust. A work climate is the outcome of leadership First Issue 2021

behaviour; hence, the foundational driver of employee engagement is leadership behaviour. With declining revenue owing to the global crisis, a leader cannot leverage the hard aspects of these drivers – growth and development – and the hard aspects of recognition and reward based on monetary incentives.

Consequently, this article will discuss how the leader can use soft drivers such as leadership behaviour, communication, trust, and eliciting positive emotions to drive employee engagement.

Leadership Behaviour Leadership behaviour is the surface aspect of leadership that is apparent in an organisation. For example, one can identify autocratic and authentic leaders by their different patterns of behaviour. It is generally believed that under certain conditions, an authentic leader creates a positive work climate that will engage employees more than an autocratic leader. However, rather than focus on the surface aspect, it is better to examine the u n d e r l y i n g c a u s e s o f le a d e r s h i p behaviour which unfortunately cannot

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be noticed on the surface. This is the understanding of leadership or what some people call motive for leadership.

There are two motives for leadership; it can be a source of status or a process of service. When leadership is motivated by status, followers are made to serve the leader. The environment created will be toxic and will never engage the employees. However, when leadership is understood as a process of service, the leader creates an environment that values employees and helps them to be the best they can be. Such a leader will exhibit the positive leadership behaviour that creates a positive work climate.

Fortunately, leadership motive is not hereditary but can be changed through a deep desire to question the purpose of leadership and its effects on relationships.

In this period of uncertainty and fear, a manager's leadership motive is reflected in how they communicate, create an environment of trust, and empathise with employees. A leader whose motive is to acquire status will leave employees to care for themselves and will take decisions to enhance organisational

LBS FOOTPRINTS survival without regard for employees' survival. A service motive will work to understand and relate with what employees are passing through and would do what is possible to help them work through the challenges. Empathy is a major tool of such leader.

Communication In a survey of 1,090 people during a recent panel discussion, 28% reported that their salaries were reduced in the period of lockdown, 64% said that there was no communication between them and their organisation before the reduction, while 40% stated that the reduction affected their perception of their organisation.

The problem is not the reduction because employees know that the organisation is facing hard times that require some level of adjustment. The first problem is that most of the respondents had no communication between them and their organisations before the salary cut. This action demonstrates that many organisations are yet to recognise that communication is critical in getting employees to understand organisational challenges in this new reality. Engaged employees want to be heard in matters concerning the organisation and their wellbeing. The second report from the discussion was that the lack of communication and subsequent reduction in salary affected the employees' perception of their organisation. Engaged employees want to advance the reputation of their organisations but cannot do this when they have a negative perception of the organisation.

Communication builds a partnership between employees and their leaders.

Partnership makes the organisational actors see individual challenges as a common challenge that requires joint action. Partnership is enhanced when the communication is 2-way, authentic, optimistic, and filled with empathy. When communication is 2-way, it allows for each party to voice their concerns and empathy ensures they are heard, understood, and appreciated. For example, imagine that before the salary reduction, the leaders discussed the challenges that necessitated the reduction with employees, and both l i s t e n e d w i t h e m p a t h y. I f t h e communication is authentic and optimistic, the result would be a joint understanding of the situation and acceptance of an action plan needed to sustain the organisation in the shortterm and position it for survival in the long-term. Engaged employees study and understand the time in which they live. They recognise volatile

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environments and know that drastic actions are required to survive now and position organisations for future survival. They want to be part of the journey of the organisation now and in the future. The level of communication between them and their leaders gives an indication of how they are valued, and in turn, affects their level of engagement.

Trust Trust is built and earned. It can neither be demanded nor legislated. It does not arise from the authority the leader has.

Trust is an individual's desire to be vulnerable to the leader. It is a decision an individual makes consciously; it depends on the perception of the quality of the past, present, and future relationship between the employee and his/her leader. In a crisis, trust is enhanced by the level of interest organisational participants show in the emotional challenge and other challenges of another organisational p a r t i c i p a n t . Fo r ex a m p le , t h e organisation is uncertain and fearful about its present and future survival while employees are afraid of the health implications of COVID-19 and are uncertain about their current and future cash flow arising from the payment of their salary. Trust is built when both parties communicate honestly about each other's challenges, and there is genuine care and desire to work together to create an acceptable path to survival.

Trust does not depend on finding the best solution for each party but agreeing on a solution that is mutually satisfactory and allows for sacrifice from each party. Because trust also depends on the quality of past relationships, leaders whose relationship with employees in the past is poor will find building trust much more c h a lle n g i n g , b u t n o t i m p o s s i b le .

Engagement is enhanced when already engaged employees can offer their total self to the organisation, and trust that their leaders would not take advantage of them by refusing to do what is good for them.

Eliciting Positive Emotions from Employees The emotional climate in organisations is the result of the leader's emotional intelligence. Emotionally intelligent leaders understand their emotions and how they affect employees. They manage their emotions in ways that ensure that they do not affect the employees negatively. They are aware of the happenings in their social environment and use such awareness to design a mode of interaction that allows

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for a productive relationship between them and their employees. For example, emotionally intelligent leaders understand how emotionally depressing the COVID-19 situation can be for them and employees. They know that overemphasizing on how they are affected emotionally while disregarding that of employees will not create a positive work environment. Such leaders can manage their emotions and recognise that of employees in such a way as to elicit positive emotion from employees.

Emotionally intelligent leaders communicate authentically by telling the truth about the situation of the organisation and recognising what the employees are going through. The leader is not conservative with the truth. This would give a false impression of the severity of the situation and the need for action. While being authentic, such a leader does not lose hope that the future though uncertain, can be made remarkably interesting. The leader gives an optimistic view of the future, even when the uncertainty is recognised. In this way, the leader creates a positive emotional climate which elicits positive emotions of 'can do it now and in the future' from employees. Apart from organising seminars to help enhance emotional intelligence, pattern analysis can help in identifying emotions and reflecting on how to manage them for a productive relationship.

Conclusion Organisations may not have the resources to enhance employee engagement with the hard factors of the drivers because of the reduction in revenue and poor cash flow. They can, however, leverage the soft factors which are based on the climate created by leadership behaviour. This is the time when leaders should question their motive for leadership, especially for those that have had a continuous past poor relationship with their employees.

While organisations are using the COVID-19 situation to examine their s t r a t e g y, b u s i n e s s m o d e l s a n d processes, it is also worthwhile for leaders to question their understanding of leadership. This is the only way to enhance leadership behaviour and create a positive work climate that will improve and sustain employee engagement.

Dr Okechukwu Amah teaches Organisational Behaviour and Management Communication at Lagos Business School

LBS FOOTPRINTS Feature

Positioning Nigeria as the preferred country of origin in exports

By Adetokunbo Adewoyin (AgMP4)

As at 2016, the top 10 earners from agricultural commodities exports in the world which included USA, Brazil, Canada, India, Argentina, Australia and China earned about US$641 Billion, buttressing the massive earning potential from non-oil exports.

In 2015, faced with dwindling foreign exchange reserves and substantial reduction in the earnings from oil exports, the Nigerian government decided to diversify the economy away from oil through non-oil exports.

This led to the development of the “The National Strategic Export Products (NSEPs)” which are divided into 3 broad categories as stated below: · Agro industrial – palm oil, cocoa, sugar, rice and cashew · Mining related – cement, iron ore/metals, auto parts/cars, aluminum · Oil & gas industrial products – petroleum products, fertilizer /urea, petrochemical and menthol.

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The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), which is charged with export promotion from Nigeria, is currently promoting 22 non-oil products under the zero-oil plan which will generate an estimated annual revenue of about US$30 Billion.

It is important to note that generating this projected revenue from non-oil exports is premised on Nigeria's ability to attract buyers from around the world, and consistently record successful export transactions.

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This is largely hinged on being an attractive /preferred country of origin in a global environment which presents buyers with options to trade with any producing country.

Some buyers are concerned about other issues such as: Ÿ Child labour Ÿ Traceability of the products Ÿ Religious practices Ÿ Organic status of the products Ÿ Working conditions in the exporting country

According to Wikipedia, country of origin represents the country (or countries) of manufacture, production, design, or brand origin where an article or product /service comes from.

Where buyers are presented with the option of importing from different countries of origin, there are some criteria that these buyers would base their choices on. Some of them are: Ÿ Quality- What origin offers the best quality according to internationally accepted standards? Ÿ Quantity- Are the products/ services available in commercial quantities in the country of origin? Ÿ Pricing - What origin offers the best price? Ÿ Logistics- How easy is it to move the products to destination from origin? What is the transit time between purchase, shipment and arrival at destination? Ÿ Tariffs and waivers: Are there waivers or tariffs on purchasing from a particular origin? Ÿ Political stability: Is there any political uproar or instability in the country of origin that can hamper trade? Ÿ Economic Policies: What are the economic policies regulating international trade from the origin countries? Ÿ Country Perception/Integrity: What is the perception of the country of origin in the international market? Does the exporting country have a general reputation of not honouring contracts? Ÿ Legal issues: What are the laws governing exports from a particular origin?

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These buyers would most definitely import from origins that present them with options best suited to their preferences.

While some of the criteria listed above are within the control of the exporter, some of them are unfortunately not.

This therefore implies that for Nigeria to become a most preferred origin, it is the collective responsibility of the government, exporting authorities, exporters and other stakeholders to work collaboratively to present Nigeria as the origin of choice to buyers across the world.

Becoming a preferred country of origin will ultimately enhance our trade opportunities, increase trading activities and boost the foreign exchange earnings of our country.

About the Author Ms Adetokunbo Adewoyin CITF is an Export Consultant at Fortress20 Commodities. She is an alumna of the Agribusiness Management Programme (AgMP) 4 Class of Lagos Business School.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

Resilience in Times of Crisis & Uncertainties 10 Practices that Work Tunde Ekpekurede

"Oh! mama This choice I made didn't work out the way I thought it would, now I'm hurting" - Lucky Dube The woman who Lucky Dube had told his mama was the best woman in the world, turned out not to be so. This is the stark reality of life – our choices never always turn out to be what we expected. The financial projections never always fall into line at the end of the year; the project delivery timeline never really turns out to be what we expected; the perfect job never really turns out to be what we expected; the new investment never really yields as much as it was expected to; even the weather projections often differ from what we anticipate. What does all this mean when we are confronted with the many challenges of life? It tells us that we need an approach to life different from the fixed mindset that we often use to engage in life.

We need to engage life with an attitude that says we will find a way to our destination no matter what, or else we will redefine our destination. An attitude that has an inbuilt ability to rebound when our predictions fail to align with reality – and really, many of our predictions hardly ever go the way we planned. This attitude of mind is called resilience.

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Resilience is the ability to bounce back when confronted by a setback. It is a quality of mind possessed by every champion, whether in life or in business. To quote Dean Becker of Adaptive Learning, "More than education, more than experience, more than training, a person's level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails. That is true in the cancer ward, it's true in the Olympics, and it's true in the boardroom."

"More than education, more than experience, more than training, a person's level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails. That is true in the cancer ward, it's true in the Olympics, and it's true in the boardroom."

Since January 2020, resilience has become a buzz word in many academic literatures and for the right reason. Covid - 19 brought with it one of the most unexpected shocks in recent business history. This singular disruption has led to very severe economic, social, political, and health consequences on a global scale. These devastations notwithstanding, a crisis is not something that should be left to waste. The consequences and disruptions already experienced will be of no account if lessons are not learned and appropriate changes to how we engage with the future built into our organizational or personal thinking. Below, I will recount the story of the famous Andes flight, a flight that should have lasted under 3 hours that took 72 days with much death and pain in its troll. Much of the material in the story that follow have been taken from the books "ALIVE" by Piers Paul Reid and "MIRACLE IN THE ANDES" by Nando Parrado.

The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 – The 72 DAYS FLIGHT FROM URUGUAY TO ARGENTINA On 13 October 1972, a chartered Uruguayan Air Force plane was flying over the Andes carrying the Old Christians Club rugby union team from Montevideo, Uruguay, to play a match in Santiago, Chile. Unfortunately, due to cloud cover, the pilot, unaware that he was flying below the height of the Andes mountains crashed into the Andes.

The plane clipped the peak at 4,200 metres (13,800 ft), severing the right wing, which was thrown back with such force that it cut off the vertical stabilizer, leaving a gaping hole in the rear of the fuselage. The plane then clipped a second peak which severed the left wing and left the plane as just a fuselage flying through the air. The fuselage hit the ground and slid down a steep mountain

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LBS FOOTPRINTS slope before finally coming to rest in a snowbank.

Early days Of the 45 passengers on board the aircraft, 12 died on the day of the crash, 5 died the day after, and one died on the 8th day. The remainder 27 survivors suffered varying degrees of injuries from the crash, including broken legs. Aside from friends and family members who were accompanying the Old Christian Rugby players, the average age was 24 years, w i t h t h e m a j o r i t y, u n i v e r s i t y undergraduate students, that included a first- and second-year medical student.

The survivors went to work immediately and began to improvise splints with what remained of the salvaged parts of the aircraft.

Search parties from three countries looked for the missing plane. Since the plane was white, it blended in with the snow, making it invisible from the sky. At one point, the survivors tried to use several sticks of lipstick recovered from luggage to write an SOS on the roof of the plane but abandoned the effort after it became apparent that they lacked the necessary lipstick to make letters that would be plainly recognizable from the air. The initial search was cancelled after eight days. The survivors of the crash found a small transistor radio on the plane wreckage and one of the survivors Roy Harley heard the news that the search has been called off on their 11th day on the mountain after the joint search committee from the three countries concluded that it will be IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to be alive 11 d ay s a f te r a c ra s h o n t h e A n d e s mountains.

The others who had clustered around Roy, upon hearing the news, began to sob and pray, all except one named Nando Parrado, who looked calmly up the mountains which rose to the west.

Another named Gustavo came out of the plane and, seeing their faces and knowing what they had heard climbed through the hole in the wall of suitcases and rugby shirts, crouched at the mouth of the dim tunnel, and looked at the mournful faces which were turned towards him. 'Hey boys,' he shouted, 'there's some good news! We just heard on the radio. They've called off the search.' Inside the crowded plane fuselage there was silence. As the hopelessness of their predicament enveloped them, they wept. 'Why the hell is that good news?' Another survivor, Paez shouted angrily at Nicolich.

'Because it means,' Nicolich said, 'that we're going to get out of here on our own.'

The courage of this one boy prevented a flood of total despair.

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Cannibalism The survivors had a small amount of food: a few chocolate bars, assorted snacks and several bottles of wine.

During the days following the crash, they divided out this food in very small amounts so as not to exhaust their meager supply. A survivor named Fito Strauch also devised a way to melt snow into water by using metal from the seats and placing snow on it. The snow then melted in the sun and dripped into empty wine bottles. Even with this strict rationing, their food stock dwindled quickly. There was no natural vegetation o r a n i m a l s o n t h e s n ow - c ove re d mountain. T he group survived by collectively making a decision to eat flesh from the bodies of their dead comrades.

All of the passengers were Roman Catholic. The many rationalized the act of necrotic cannibalism as equivalent to the ritual of Holy Communion, or justified it according to a Bible verse (no man hath greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends). Others initially had reservations, though after realizing that it was their only means of staying alive, changed their minds a few days later.

There are reports that one older female p a s s e n g e r, Li l i a n a , a l t h o u g h n o t seriously injured in the crash, refused to eat human flesh due to her strong religious convictions – she died shortly thereafter, in the avalanche.

Avalanche Eight of the initial survivors subsequently died on the afternoon of 29 October when an avalanche cascaded

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down on them as they slept in the fuselage. For three days, they survived in an appallingly confined space since the plane was buried under several feet of snow. Nando Parrado was able to poke a hole in the roof of the fuselage with a metal pole, providing ventilation. Among the dead was Liliana Methol, wife of survivor Javier Methol. She had been the last surviving female passenger.

Hard decisions Before the avalanche, a few of the survivors became insistent that their only way of survival would be to climb over the mountains themselves and search for help. Several brief expeditions were made in the immediate vicinity of the plane in the first few weeks after the crash, but they found that a combination of altitude sickness, dehydration, snow blindness, malnourishment and the extreme cold of the nights made climbing any significant distance an impossible task.

Therefore, it was decided that a group would be chosen, and then allocated the most rations of food and the warmest of clothes and spared the daily manual labour around the crash site that was essential for the group's survival, so that they might build their strength. Although several survivors were determined to be on the expedition team no matter what, including Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, one of the two medical students, others were less willing or unsure of their ability to withstand such a physically exhausting ordeal. From the rest of the passengers, Numa Turcatti and Antonio Vizintin were chosen to accompany Canessa and Parrado. At

LBS FOOTPRINTS Canessa's urging, they waited nearly seven days, to allow for the arrival of s u m m e r, a n d w i t h - i t h i g h e r temperatures.

The sleeping bag It was now apparent that the only way out was to climb over the mountains to the west. They also realized that unless they found a way to survive the freezing temperature of the nights, a trek was impossible. It was at this point that the idea for a sleeping bag was raised.

Carlitos took on the challenge. His mother had taught him to sew when he was a boy, and with the needles and thread from the sewing kit found in his mother's cosmetic case, he began to work ... to speed the progress, Carlitos taught others to sew.

December 12 On December 12, 1972, two months after the crash, Parrado, Canessa and Vizintín began their trek up the mountain.

Parrado took the lead, and often had to be called to slow down, though the thin oxygen made it difficult for all of them. It was still bitterly cold but the sleeping bag allowed them to live through the nights. In the film Stranded, Canessa called the first night during the ascent, where they had difficulty finding a place to use the sleeping bag, the worst night of his life.

Finding help Parrado and Canessa hiked for several more days. Gradually, there appeared more and more signs of human presence, first some signs of camping, and finally on the ninth day, some cows.

When they rested that evening, they were very tired and Canessa seemed unable to proceed further. As Parrado was gathering wood to build a fire, Canessa noticed what looked like a man on a horse at the other side of the river and yelled at the near-sighted Parrado to run down to the banks. At first it seemed that Canessa had been imagining the man on the horse, but eventually they saw three men on horseback. Divided by Portillo River, Nando and Canessa tried to convey their situation, but the noise of the river made communication difficult.

One of the horsemen, a Chilean arriero named Sergio Catalán, shouted "tomorrow." The next day Catalán took some loaves of bread and went back to the river bank. There he found the two men still on the other side of the river, on their knees and asking for help. Catalán threw them the bread loaves, which they immediately ate, and a pen and paper tied to a rock. Parrado wrote a note First Issue 2021

telling about the plane crash and asking for help. Then he tied the paper to a rock and threw it back to Catalán, who read it and gave them a sign that he understood.

He was able to stop a truck and reach the police station at Puente Negro, where the news was finally dispatched to the Army command in San Fernando and then to Santiago. Afterwards, Parrado and Canessa were rescued and they reached Los Maitenes, where they were fed and allowed to rest.

The following morning the rescue expedition left Santiago, together with Nando Perrado and rescued the remainder survivors at the crash site

10 Resiliency Lessons for Life & Business 1. You don't have any control over the external environment. T he Old Christians Rugby club set out to have fun and do what they love doing, but the plane's pilot made a disastrous mistake. You only know your product.

There are a lot more other variables that you do not know. To better deal with a complex environment where predictability is impossible, organizations need to embrace what Tim Sullivan in HBR Reprint No R1109E calls Embracing Complexity. Here Tim Sullivan discusses the need for organization to staff their human resources with persons with cognitive diversity, avoiding the trap of cause of effect, going beyond expert predictions to keep a curious mind and to be open to continuous learning and exposure to different and even conflicting points of view.

2. Never underestimate the power of relationships. If only one person survived the plane crash, I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that he or she will not make it. In organizations

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and individual lives, we all need relationships that will help us overcome complex uncertainties.

There has been a lot of collaboration and alliances in the last year to deal with the Covid 19 pandemic. Some uncertainties are political, and you will need a great deal of collaboration to overcome a looming regulatory legislation that threatens to wipe out your industry.

3. Develop Leaders at all levels. On the day the survivors heard on radio that the search has been called off, it took the courage of about three survivors who showed great leadership to rescue the spirits of others.

Organizations should relentlessly develop leadership materials at all levels. In times of crisis of any kind, you will find leadership talent to be very invaluable.

4. Make it easy in your organization to experiment with new ideas. The survivors experimented with everything possible. With a diversity of young energies, the mini organization that ensued tried and experimented with whatever they could think of. In times of crisis, make it possible for leadership to hear the most stupid suggestion without any penalty. In Strategy AS Simple Rules, (https://hbr.org/2001/01/strategyas-simple-rules) Kathleen M. Eisenhardt and Donald Sull gives simple frameworks employed by companies like Amazon that make it possible for them to experiment with new ideas.

5. Infuse the organization with a resilient spirit. Nando Parrado, who emerged as the leader of the survivors, lost his mother and sister, who were accompanying him to watch him play. He never let his loss

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Last photo of Uruguayan Flight 571 before it crashed in the Andes deter him from a relentless focus on the way out of the situation. The science of Resilience is being taught today in many organizations. I have been privileged to teach this in several organizations in Nigeria, and my book, "Realizing Mental Resilience – Unleashing Individual & Team Performance," has been embraced by several leading organizations. Leaders, managers, and employees must be taught the science of bouncebackability - to count lost opportunities bygone and focus on the challenges at hand.

6. Infuse your organization with a culture of gratitude. In times of uncertainty, anxiety kills initiative.

One of the best ways to overcome this tendency is to cultivate the habit of gratitude. This is a winning personality trait. Gratitude diffuses tension and brings a fresh perspective in the midst of any challenge. The Harvard Medical School journal defines gratitude as: "a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives … As a result, gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals–whether to other people,

nature, or a higher power". According to Sabina Nawaz, (https://hbr.org/2020/05/in-timesof-crisis-a-little-thanks-goes-along-way), a little thanks goes a long way in times of crisis.

7. Reframe the situation. While we have no control over many forces that impede our world, we have the power to reframe any situation. In the article, "You're Not Powerless in the Face of Uncertainty" (https://hbr.org/2020/03/youre-notpowerless-in-the-face-ofuncertainty), Nathan Furr advises leaders to reframe the opportunity.

Reframing allows more options.

Organize a strategy meeting to reframe the challenge. The option to eat the flesh of their dead colleagues is a feat that beats imagination, given the way we are hardwired to stick with what worked yesterday. Organizations should be in the mood of always "We don't know …. "This posture creates a willingness to learn. When you already know, learning stops.

factors put in place, the survivors decided to wait for the temperature to improve a little bit. In executing a successful strategy, timing can be a make or break deciding factor. It is noteworthy that by the ninth day, Nando's accomplice was nearly at the point of losing his life. This expenditure may have been fatal if the temperatures were worse than the chosen time that they decided to set out.

9. Take Action: On the 12th of December, the two men saddled with the task of putting their lives on the line to rescue others moved. There is no strategy that has a sure-determined outcome. Every endeavor is fraught with its own set of risks. But we cannot analyze an opportunity forever. When we have done all that we can do, we will have to move. The lepers in the bible said, if we sit here, we will perish, if we go to Samaria we may perish.

10. Commit the chosen line of action into the hands of a higher power, whatever that means to you.

8. Timing – Always watch out for the right timing. With all the risks identified in the planned trip to look for civilization and the risk mitigation

About the Author: Tunde Ekpekurede is an authority in the fields of mental toughness and resilience and has served as speaker, facilitator, and executive coach in these fields for over a decade. He has worked in executive level positions in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, and Nigeria. He is currently the CEO of Learning4Living, a Training and Leadership Development company. He is a member of the Advanced Management Programme (AMP) 12 Class of Lagos Business School.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS Alumni in the news

EMBA 10 Charles Ivenso is appointed Chief Operating Officer at Lagos Business School Lagos Business School (LBS) has announced the appointment of Charles Ivenso as its Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for all the operations and support units at the School. Prior to the appointment, he was its Director of Finance and Administration. Mr Ivenso is a finance and management professional with over 25 years' experience spanning industries such as banking, mining and oil and gas. He is also a member of the LBS Management Board in which capacity he shares responsibility with other board members for providing overall leadership and strategic direction to the business school.

Prior to joining LBS in 2003 as Finance Manager, Charles variously held senior commercial and operations roles at Marca International Limited (now Optima Energy Group Limited) and Union Petroleum Services Limited, both of which are oil trading companies with operations across several countries. He started his career in banking and subsequently co-founded a startup in the mining industry.

Charles also serves in a non-executive capacity as the Chairman of the Board of Niger Foundation Hospital, a nonprofit multi-specialist hospital in Enugu, Nigeria. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and a member of the Society for Corporate Governance, Nigeria. He holds a B.sc degree in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Nigeria and the Advanced Management Programme certificate from IESE Business School, Barcelona. He is an alumnus of the Executive MBA programme (EMBA) 10 of Lagos Business School.

EMBA 23 Temitope Adegoroye is Partner at Sahel Consulting Temitope Adegoroye has been named as Partner at Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Ltd. The company is focused on agriculture & nutrition landscape in West Africa. The appointment was announced on April 9, 2021.

Mr Adegoroye joined Sahel Consulting in 2013 as an analyst and rose to Associate partner in 2019 during his Executive MBA programme at Lagos Business School. With over 10 years of experience in agribusiness and management consulting, Adegoroye has deep knowledge of the dynamics of the formal and informal agricultural markets in West Africa. He is a respected expert in the seed systems landscape with a focus on roots and tubers, currently serves as a leader on the BASICS II project, and actively supports the YIIFSWA II project of the company.

He holds a BSc in Plant Science from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, and a Master of Science degree in Agronomy from the University of Ibadan. Mr Adegoroye is an alumnus of the Executive MBA (EMBA) 23 class of Lagos Business School, where he believes he obtained acceleration for his career progression.

FTMBA 9 Stephanie Obi is recipient of Beta Gamma Sigma 2021 Entrepreneurial Achievement Award Founder and CEO of TrainQuarters, Stephanie Obi, has been named as a Beta Gamma Sigma 2021 Entrepreneurial Achievement Award winner.

The Beta Gamma Sigma Entrepreneurial Achievement Award specifically recognises individuals who develop, organise, and enhance successful new ventures. Individuals are nominated by Beta Gamma Sigma chapters around the world and winners are selected based on criteria such as ethical business leadership and values of the Beta Gamma Sigma Society, including honour and integrity, and the pursuit of wisdom, earnestness, and service. Beta Gamma Sigma is the exclusive business honour society for students enrolled in business and management programmes accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The LBS BGS chapter was established in November 2017.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS Alumni in the news

Ms Obi has always been an entrepreneur at heart. She left her full-time position at L-Oréal a year after obtaining her MBA from Lagos Business School in 2012, to focus on building her business. She established ST Colours A-School, a fashion accessories online course, teaching women the business of creating & selling fashion accessories. She built it to become the highly successful ST Hub Ltd., an online course creation and sales strategy implementation company. Her company, TrainQuarters, an online course platform that makes it easy for African entrepreneurs to create and sell online courses, is the first of its kind in Africa. She was been named among 100 most inspiring women in Nigeria in 2017

by Leading Ladies Africa.

Ms Obi is a first-class Computer Science graduate of Covenant University. She is an alumna of the Full-time MBA programme (9) of Lagos Business School.

MEMBA 6 Olawatobi Ajayi emerges as Best Entrepreneur at 2021 AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards At its first virtual annual excellence awards, the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and Business Graduate Association (BGA) presented Olawatobi Ajayi, CEO, Nord Automobiles with the Best Entrepreneur Award for 2021. The AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards brings together leading lights from the global business education community to celebrate excellence and commend achievement among AMBAaccredited and Business Graduate Association (BGA) business schools, MBA students and graduates, suppliers and employers. Ajayi was nominated in the Best Entrepreneur Award category alongside entrepreneurs from top business schools such as Cranfield School of Management, UK; Graduate School of Management, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia; and Kent Business School, UK. Mr Ajayi started his career at Mercedes-Benz Nigeria where he rose to become the head of division (vans) at the age of twenty-four. He went on to co-found Jetvan Automobiles, an authorized dealer of Mercedes-Benz Sprinter in Nigeria. Jetvan won the award for “New Entrant of the Year” at the 2016 Nigeria Auto Journalist Awards, where Mr Ajayi was also nominated for award for the “CEO of the year”.

He founded Nord Automobiles in 2018, and in the same year, was listed as one of the most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa by Forbes.

Mr Ajayi has a bachelor's degree from Olabisi Onabanjo University in Soil Sciences & Farm mechanization. He is an alumnus of the Modular Executive MBA programme (MEMBA) 6 of Lagos Business School.

SMP 16 Chukwuemeka Obiagwu appointed as an Executive Director at Wema Bank Plc. The Board of Directors of Wema Bank Plc. announced the appointment of Chukwuemeka Obiagwu as an Executive Director of the bank. The appointment was made effective April 1, 2021.

With over 30 years' experience in banking, financial services and public service, Mr Obiagwu brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. He spent 20 years at Fidelity Bank, where he successfully repositioned and grew a subsidiary, which he eventually led as Group Managing Director & CEO. He was also a non-Executive Director of Fidelity Pension Managers, where he also served as Chairman of the Board, Audit Committee.

He joined Federal Inland Revenue Services in 2016 as a Director with the responsibility of enforcement.

He was a member of the Technical Committee of the Board and Chairman of the Budget Committee of FIRS, among many other roles.

Mr. Obiagwu is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN); Fellow, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers; Honorary Senior Member, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria; Fellow, Chartered Institute of Taxation; and Associate, Chartered Insurance Institute (London). He obtained an Executive certificate in Economic Development from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is an alumnus of the Senior Management Programme (SMP) 16 of Lagos Business School.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS Class Spotlight

Focus on the activities of some Alumni Classes of Lagos Business School

EMBA 22 Despite the large size of the Executive MBA (22) Class, the 80+ members of the class have consistently kept in touch with each other and provided care to the public with a united front.

The class members frequently met virtually, encouraging, and supporting each other through the challenging year 2020.

Apart from contributing towards the welfare of their members and others in the Lagos Business School community, the class donated food packs to the most vulnerable at Ikorodu and Barracks in Lagos during the peak of the pandemic. To commemorate Menstrual Hygiene Day, they partnered with an NGO, Padup Africa, that specialises in sensitising adolescent girls and women in Africa on good menstrual hygiene management, to provide training on social distancing, menstrual hygiene management, rape and self-defence. They also distributed sanitary pads, underwear, hand sanitisers, face masks, medicated soap, and toilet tissue paper.

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The class has an exclusive website created as a platform, just for their members, where they share notes from their days at LBS, post relevant articles & jobs for their members, advertise their services & products, and celebrate their birthdays, personal & professional achievements.

Towards the last quarter of the year 2020, the class sent a delegation to support and celebrate their colleagues, Ibrahim & Martha in their marriage. Thanks to their class President, Efosa Aigbe, the union was also celebrated on the governing council platform as #LoveMadeinLBS. Keep on keeping, EMBA 22! We are proud of you.

LBS FOOTPRINTS

EMBA 4 Celebrates

20 years of Alumni The Executive MBA (EMBA) 4 celebrated their 20th anniversary as alumni of Lagos Business School in December 2020. In commemoration of their anniversary celebration, the class members renovated the labour room and delivery ward at Mushin General Hospital. They handed over the renovated areas to Dr st Olumide, MD, Mushin General Hospital on 31 January 2021.

To celebrate their anniversary, the class members met at Backyard, Victoria Island to celebrate their anniversary on the 13th of December 2020 for a fun-filled family day.

The President of the class is Dr Alex Orewa.

Celebrating 20 years at Backyard VI - 3

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

Class Notes EMBA 16 In partnership with Caring Community Creators, the members of the Executive MBA programme (EMBA) 16 class reached out to the Tower of Refuge Orphanage home, Surulere on Valentine's Day. The visit was organised with the purpose of sharing love by donating clothes, food items, writing materials, textbooks, (amongst other items) to the orphans.

The members of the class describe the experience of bringing joy to the children as unforgettable. The President of the class is Ebi Umusu.

FtMBA 10 In partnership with Lions Club International and Kàwé, the Full-time MBA (FtMBA) 10 Class organised a medical outreach focused on eye care. The 2-day outreach which provided free eye care to public school students, included eye testing and provision of glasses to students who needed them. The President of the class is Segun Dada.

MAP 8 The Management Acceleration Programme (MAP) 8 class supported their colleague, Mercy Onyenekwe as she joined hands in holy matrimony to Augustine Ajah on January 30, 2021.

The class also joined their colleague, Chinedu Chilekezi, and his wife in celebrating the dedication of their baby on February 7, 2021. The President of the class is Chinedu Chilekezi

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

MAP 9 M e m b e r s o f t h e M a n a g e m e n t A c c e le r a t i o n Programme (MAP) 9 class joined the family of Oyibo Erere, to celebrate the dedication of their baby on Sunday, December 20, 2020. Mr Erere is also the Vice President of the class. o Celebrate the 2021 International Women's Day, Secondary Students of Greensprings School Lekki unanimously voted & awarded Joy Success-Ikpe as a 2021 Mother-of-the-Year. Her time spent with the children and leveraging her professional and Social training from the Lagos Business School was rewarded with life impact.

She is the founder of Leadership Challenge Foundation, an NGO passionate about youth empowerment and capacity building.

She attributes all glory to God for the award. The President of the class is Ene Ikpeme

MEMBA 6 The class of Modular Executive MBA (MEMBA) 6 was proud to support their colleague, Olawatobi Ajayi, during the grand opening of his automobile manufacturing company, Nord Automobiles, at Landmark Events Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. The grand opening featured the introduction of several vehicles manufactured by the company such as the "Aso Truck" and "Nord Max". The class was led by their President, Abimbola Olujide.

SMP 64 On March 25, 2021, the Senior Management Programme (SMP) 64 class visited Awoyaya Primary School and donated cartons of hand sanitizers & face masks to the pupils of the school. The excited & grateful pupils welcomed the representatives of the class led by Uzoma Dalhatu and a member of the Alumni Relations Team, Esther Ojo. The President of the class is Oladapo Akinloye.

SMP 76 The Senior Management Programme (SMP) 76 class paid a visit to the Living Fountain orphanage in Oniru, Lagos, where they supplied provisions worth N270,000.00 as well as a cash donation of N200,000.00 towards the welfare of the children of the orphanage. The President of the class isy Ayodeji Ilesanmi.

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LBS FOOTPRINTS

2021 LBSAA CALENDAR OF PROGRAMMES MONTH

PROGRAMME

NOTE

LBSAA EXCO MEETINGS: Wed Feb 10, Wed April 7, Wed June 9, Wed October 6 GOVERNING COUNCIL MEETINGS: Sat Feb 13, Sat May 8 and Sat Nov 9 Executive Programme Graduation: Saturday, November 27, 2021 Convocation Ceremony: Saturday, December 4, 2021 First Issue 2021

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