MY ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS PROBLEMS (ABP) FIRST EXPERIENCE, WITH LAGOS BUSINESS SCHOOL AS AN EXECUTIVE MBA STUDENT.

Analysis of Business Problem is a managerial program that challenges one critical reasoning ability to rigorously develop analytical and problem-solving skills to enable better decision-making.

My prior idea of an Executive master’s in business administration (EMBA) Program at the prestigious Lagos Business School (LBS) was one to afford me to pursue advanced education in a cool and serene manner without the usual unnecessary stress one is subjected to and the different approach of learning from the conventional academic system. I never knew I wouldn’t be allowing sleeping dogs to lie.

My first Analysis of Business Problems (ABP) class/session with Mr. Segun Shogbanmu as the facilitator was my initial experience attending, reading through, and attempting to treat a company’s case with the mindset of analyzing risks and problems in business for decision-making and advancement.

To mention here, I happened to be among the last in-takes to the Executive MBA (EMBA 28) class, we joined after the executive had gone through the initial sessions on orientation, Brush-up sessions, and up to 4 sessions and discussions on Analysis of Business Problems, so we start at the 5^th and 6^th session, hence to understand the focus point and steps to take in breaking down the cases for identifying problem areas and solving for decision making advice, was tough for me at the initial.

There were two (2) cases treated at the session were –

1. 1, DIASTOP: – A pharmaceutical company needs to decide whether to immediately Launch or delay the launch of its product, after putting all requirements in place in readiness, but an unfortunate incident happened backed by a negative research report of a renowned Professor (Prof. Rivers) in the field against the company.
2. Case of a company named, Eólica de Composites, S.A. (ECSA) a manufacturer of a wide variety of metal and composite parts for the aerospace, automobile, public lighting, and farm machinery industries, needs to decide where to locate a new plant either in a city or a small town with varying factors to consider, with an expected turnover of 141 million euros within the year.

In the DIASTOP Company case, the facilitator successfully threw the challenge back to the class to advise and justify either Immediately Launching the Product or delaying the Launch of the product. The Launch Immediately team gave the following justifications to support their Decision:

The facilitator concluded that both decisions either to Launch or not can be correct in this case, but justifications highlighted for both must be explored critically to give concrete advice for the final decision to be made.

On Eólica de Composites, S.A. (ECSA) case: He reiterated that in making decisions for the company, we will deploy similar criteria as the first by developing factors of measuring or comparing the two locations. Hence, the under-listed factors were generated from the report:

1. Labour Availability, Costs, Unionization, Resale Value, Accessibility, Timeline to deliver, Contract size, Opportunity for a subsidy, Research and Development possibility.

CRITERION TABLE:

Consequently, these sessions with the group tutorial we had on Analysing Business Problems have given me insight into critically conducting comparative analyses of case studies considering basic steps and elements for standard Decision-Making procedures.