Analysis of business problems is one of the courses an MBA student in the Lagos Business School takes in his first year. This year, the class was thought by Dr. Yetunde Anibaba, an amiable lady whose first class set most students rethinking their decision to take an MBA in LBS. She comes across as a brilliant woman whose confidence betrays her deep knowledge of the subject. She wore a smile most times, but her nonverbal communications clearly tell you that this was serious business. One thing was clear for all the MBA students from the first day of her class; she has no problem failing any student that deserved to fail. It was from her that we learnt that Marks can be deducted from students whose contributions were considered unintelligent. To give context to this, the MBA at Lagos Business School is designed to be participatory. The lecturers are not called lecturers because they do not teach. They instead facilitate the classes. One must prepare, understand and be ready to contribute meaningfully to the classes.
APB, as it is called, focuses on the process rather than the solution. Cases used in the Case studies are like everyday life and business problems an executive may encounter. Like in Harvard and many elite business schools around the world, LBS uses the Case Study Method of teaching for the MBA’s.
The first learning point is the importance of understanding the problem, from which one can arrive at a set of objectives and subsequently take a decision. It is all about decision making. That word, decision resonates in all the courses I have taken so far. Data from the financial statements guide one to take decisions. But it all depends on who is taking that decision. And the who depends on what problem the executive is trying to solve. The problem the company’s management is faced is different from the regulators’, or the investors’, equity owners or even the public who look at these statements from different angles.
Therefore, the first process involves a critical look at the event that presents itself to you as an executive, with the aim of sieving out all the noise and understanding the problem. It was interesting to note how more than half the class couldn’t identify the problem in our first case study. That was an eye opener, for many of us went for the symptoms while some went straight for the decision.
Last week, a friend needed to borrow some cash. He was in need of cash to pay for custom duty charges. at the sea port. The car was on the verge of accumulating demurrage charges, and he needed to find the cash quickly. He had a car that he wanted to replace and had put it up for sale for N2,500,000. His best offer was N2,200,000 and he wasn’t willing to lose N300,000. After my conversation with him I understood that my friend had not critically analysed his problem. From our conversation, his problem was certainly to replace the old car. To do this he needed to either get a noninterest loan or sell the car. There is no guarantee of when the former would come through. His best possible option was to sell the old car at a price that could enable him clear the new one. The offer he had could do this for him and prevent him from paying extra charges at the port. Apart from those charges, the risk of vandalization of the vehicle exist. The solution to his problem became clear to him the moment his problem was defined.
This is what APB does to you. It activates the critical thinking that allows you to find solution to a well-defined problem using the business analysis process. But first know your problem.
