PROBLEMS ANALYSIS  – A SKILL TO BE LEARNED

It was 2nd day of orientation for EMBA28 at the LBS. I walked in confidently, though unsure what the day would present. The 1^st day had gone well, with introductions, a bit about Opus Dei and a number of addresses by staff with very welcoming demeanor. We had also been treated to very sumptuous lunch. Though we had been given a program of events, I chose to keep my mind open. Much as I had mixed feelings about EMBA, I was sure I wanted to do this. I knew it would be demanding on my time, given that my paid job already chokes me up, I was determined to go through this. Taking things, a bit at a time. Rather than count the days to go, I chose to count days gone by.

 So at 9:45am on the 21^st of Jan, Segun Shogbamu walked into the intercontinental bank classroom, being venue of our EMBA orientation sessions . He introduced himself and the course. I shifted in my seat, as I tried to make myself comfortable. His appearance was casual, as I felt the Executives (as we were fondly called by Toyin and many of the lecturers) came across a bit more uptight than our lecturer. Post the pleasantries, Segun said “so executives have you read your case?” I thought to myself…case? From where? How? What case? Oh my gosh!… I am in for a long ride…Its just day 2! Anyway thanks to Toyin who saved the day. She had not seen nor sent the case material, so we were excused. It became obvious to me that as an MBA executive, there will be no time to waste time. So, though I had come in that morning with an open mind, I unconsciously had my expectations, of an easy day, with a bit more intros. But khalas!, the honeymoon was over. We were going to dive straight into analyzing business problems.

We were given some 10mins thereabout to read the case… and I spent about 7 minutes of that time looking for were to find the material. I reached out for help from the lady seated next to me; Abimbola. She kindly sent the material to my email box. By now, I had less than 2 minutes to read a material of about 5 pages and make sense of it… Gosh! Where was I to start from? Thankfully, it was class work. The analysis started and executives began doing justice to the case. Honestly, for most of the session, I struggled to catch up. I resolved never again to let that happen. I was going to stay abreast of activities and be up to date, understand how to navigate the E-learn and get up to speed. It was the first problem I had to solve.

Analysis of Business problems is an interesting course. One that I find applicable to solving real life problems. It emphasizes the need to think through problems systematically and objectively, while minimizing biases in decision making. It brought to my consciousness, the importance of context and problem definition/identification in problem solving. If in a context symptoms are wrongly identified as problems, solutions proffered are unlikely going to be effective and problem will persist. I learnt the 7 methodical steps of analyzing business problems. I also learnt to keep analysis within the limits of data provided. By the end of the 2^nd day of orientation I walked out of the EMBA class knowing I had become a notch better at defining and analyzing business problems and by extension proffering solutions to business problems. I looked forward to the next class on analysis of business problems ever since.