It was a cold evening, I just received a mail from Toyin my class supervisor. the mail stated details of the coming intensive week, which was to run from 6th-10th of March. I had no idea of the intensity of the week before me. As each day passed during the intensive week, I felt so drained. classes ran from 9am in the morning to 4pm in the evening. there were intermediate breaks between each lecture and each class is typically for an 1hr15 mins.
On the Thursday, of the intensive week, we had a class on Analysis of Business problems (ABP). The ABP lectures took us through different cases ranging from united cereal company to a group role play.in the group role play, each member was to play a different role in the company. I was to play Chris; who was the VP of business development and the leader of the internet strategy team. we were instructed not to share our sheet with any team members, but we could discuss about the information available to us. Our group consisted of about 10 people and there were only 5 roles from the plot, so we had to double in as the same individual. Adesina and I both played the role of “Chris”. We began to have discussions based on our various roles and had to take a decision to launch, or not to launch the product. I started to notice how various roles shared different perspectives on the launch of our product. Those who played the operations role felt they didn’t have the technical capacity to launch the product, while those in finance seemed to be slightly undecided but decided not to launch the product. The marketing team believed we should launch and every other detail like customer satisfaction could be worked out since this product was very desirable and was a sure revenue generator.
After the group task, we reconvened with the rest of the class, what I discovered was the personal bias of the people in the group and how some other people voluntarily hid information, such as they not being prepared for the meeting. The exercise displayed and reflected the bias in our everyday lives. It showed that everyone usually has a motivating influence and they have desires and goals they wanted from the company, colleagues and for themselves. I came to realize that people don’t have rational and logical thought on issues without a type of bias. When you are dealing with individuals, in order to successfully communicate and persuade them, you should have an understanding of what it truly feels like, to be in their shoes. Knowing where the pains are, and where there’s comfort. Navigating this terrain, leads to the skills of a good communicator.
The ABP cases reflects life issues and how you analyze business problems correctly and come up with solutions. At the end of the day, you realize that there truly is no correct answer. what are important is the method in which you analyze the problems, how you take a decision and having the right knowledge of being mindful to bias in any given situation. Both you and those around you are operating on a bias and being mindful of the presence of the bias in every situation would help you to always have better communication with others. Handling things this way has brought about a paradigm shift in my thought process on how to deal with problems and provide solutions.
EXPERIENCE AS AN MMBA STUDENT