As an experienced professional in sustainability and workplace health and safety, I never could have imagined the experience and relevance I would have gained going for an MBA degree – from an AMBA (Association of MBAs) and AACSB (Association to Advanced Collegiate Schools of Business) accredited institution.
My admission process into Lagos Business School was thorough, having gone through the milestones of admission application, the LBS executive MEMBA (Modular Executive MBA) test, the interview stage, and finally admission letter receipt and initial payment deposit.
I was excited when the orientation commenced at the end of July 2023 with the MBA director and other members of staff giving us a brief introduction on some areas i.e., business problem analysis methods, speed reading, case study methods, and so on. To me, this was a dream come true as I sat in the IMRC room listening to all the presentations made and making my contributions to the orientation class.
Having gone through some courses in the first semester, I will share how a certain MEMBA course relates to the sustainability space.
Analysis of business problems (ABP): this is a course within the program teaching executives to follow an iterative process in identifying the core of a business problem, establishing the context of the situations leading to the problem, defining the problem statement, identifying options, establishing criteria, ranking and weighing them, and carrying out your analysis in determining viable options to deal with the problem while you develop recommendations to management. It emphasizes the need to ensure that (as much as possible) biases are eliminated and that a standardized method is used to arrive at a reasonable and fair solution to organizational problems.
Likewise, the above method is used in sustainability management when investigations are made to know why accidents happen at work, i.e., major oil leaks into rivers and deep oceans (BP Macondo Disaster, 2010), Bhopal Incident in India – Union Carbide India Ltd (1984) where over 40 metric tons of methyl isocyanide were released into the atmosphere (a chemical used in pesticide manufacturing) killing over 3,800 people, and over 40,000 people being affected with health symptoms such as itching eyes and respiratory systems, lack of sleep and skin issues were revealed. ABP process engaged showed several management lapses with the maintenance of engineering assets, failures in instrumented safety systems, and so on. All these enable the sustainability professional address root causes of management system failures revealing where C-level leadership is contributing to these negative outcomes such as risk tolerance levels, management commitment – policy development and implementation, empowering line heads to exercise their authority in areas affecting sustainability within their control, funding and budgeting for sustainability/ESG and so on.
This course has also strengthened my ability to assess other corporate/business sustainability-related issues i.e., marketing and sales (including product launches), customer satisfaction, and product performance as they affect revenue inflows, effects of cannibalization on products within brands, and so on.
I have also learned to adequately frame problems – using effective framing techniques so that the right questions are asked around the right problems leading us to the right alternatives/options in solving the problem.
The course requires one to be numerically literate enough, while also having regard for qualitative aspects. As our facilitator typically says – ”anyone who is not familiar with numbers, should not be a manager”. ”You cannot manage what you cannot quantify”.
This MEMBA (Modular Executive MBA) program has opened my eyes to sustainability beyond the materiality of ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) issues, but also how sustainability in business answers to effective organizational processes affecting growth, profits, ethics, and compliance, brand perception, investment decisions, and enterprise continuity.
I look forward to developing my strengths in business management (via the MBA modules) to improve the overall sustainability strategy of organizations across multiple business disciplines.
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