LBS Has Taught Me…

Lagos Business School has taught me the importance of structure. How one part of a structure is not independent of another part of the same structure. It has taught me that when creating an organization, it is important to create systems interdependent, each serving the other.

For example, even though Analysis of Business Problems is not a course under data analytics, a combination of both when making business, financial and even day-to-day decisions would be more effective. Corporate Financial Accounting may not be taught directly as a tool for analysing business problems, yet the knowledge of the course would help a manager or any individual make business decisions and identify problem areas in an organization.

Assignments, class works, and exercises are all tailored towards learning to serve the aim of driving a certain culture. Little wonder why it is common to observe similar behaviours among students, alumni, and staff members.

Brush-up courses in the MBA program are designed to set the mind of students in a certain way to make assimilation easier. This blog page is designed to improve writing skills while enhancing critical thinking that would help when analysing business problems.

The stretch, it seems, is intentionally and deliberately arranged to push the mind out of its comfort zone to not just develop character, and resilience but also to make it learn faster than it used to. Just like the skin, the human mind can stretch to fit the demands of a season and shrink when not challenged to expansion.

This stretch expands the mind to capacities the bearer could never have imagined. Add this to a work environment that presents challenges that demand solutions and then we could just be the next Warren Buffets.

So often I have sat with several individuals in our local space (Nigeria) and one common excuse is that we do not have an enabling environment. Common statements like ‘there are no opportunities’ or ‘this country limits you’ are thrown around every day and everywhere. Visit Twitter or Instagram perhaps even Facebook and you would see these excuses plastered all over the place as people rant about how unfortunate they are to be born in our blessed country.

There is no place without opportunities, it only takes a discerning mind to see that which is hidden. The structure at the Lagos Business School is arranged in such a way that the individuals of this institution understand that there is always the eye of the hurricane, always a silver lining and always honey in the mouth of the lion.

Successful people are those who beyond all fear, plunge into the deep. Diamonds are hardly found on the surface; it takes the mentally tough and resilient people to dig them out. This structure was designed to teach us how to create workable structures because opportunities are created when problems are recognized with a mindset to create solutions.

Conclusively, I am sure like me, so many others currently going through the fire, may feel like giving up. I will say, first to myself and then to you – DO NOT GIVE UP, this structure was designed to break you into a beautiful shape, what you currently feel is the pain of growth and it will all be worth it in the end.