Always looking out for opportunities to learn practically and the ability to apply them to real-life scenarios, my little spell at LBS so far shows that my desire has found a place for actualization. Right from the brush-up sessions, the case study teaching and learning systems at LBS ensure I have to wear my thinking cap every time since I am not learning at the school to primarily earn a grade as in the conventional Nigerian university systems but to solve problems associated with businesses.
The brush-up sessions served preparatory roles in getting me set for life in the school, I learned the importance of self-mastery, time management, relationship management and team spirit, basic accounting details and terms, operations, and etiquette amongst other things.
The various learnings across the subjects are summarized below;
Corporate Financial Accounting – I am often bogged by the financial accounting statements and feel unconcerned whenever I encounter them at work with a nonchalant attitude that only those in accounting should always deal with them. My past experiences in the class have changed my mentality and made it clear to me that financial accounting statements are a powerful tool for communication as it shows the health of the business. Knowing fully well that if I cannot make sense of financial statements, I stand a chance of looking like a foolish leader who will be cheated, embarrassed and dealt with by colleagues who can further stimulate my appetite for the course.
Everyone involved in the business ranging from the investors to the management, human resource personnel, marketing personnel and others requires financial statements to make one decision or the other.
The various components of financial transactions have been demystified as assets, liability, owner equity, revenue, and expenses whereas the financial statements are made up of profit or loss statements (P & L), statements of financial position (balance sheet), statement of cash flow, statement of change in owner equity and the notes to the account.
Analysis of Business Problem – This subject seems to hold a more central role in the MBA since all subjects are more case study-based. The subject has been reorientating my approach to decision making from the hit-and-run or advocacy approach that I am used to which often leads to poor and catastrophic decisions to inquiry or systematic decision making process which often yields more innovative and right decisions
The decision making process entails the following;
- Understanding the problem within its context
- framing the problem objective
- Highlighting our options or alternatives
- Establishing criteria
- Analysing each option through the criteria
- Making a decision based on the outcomes of the analysis
- Instituting an action based on the decision
Data Analytics – the subject helps us in gathering data, analysing them, and reporting them to also make informed decisions in various spheres of business such as operations, marketing, finance and others. It clarified sources of data as primary such as surveys , interviews, observation and others, and secondary such as reports. It requires the ability to use excel which helps with automation. It shows the nature of data we can have as quantitative, qualitative, Boolean, formula, and functions. It also teaches various activities that can happen in the excel such as referencing, formatting, range, entering data, pivot tables, freeze panes, charts and others. It is very interesting to learn various shortcuts that can make working on excel faster such as alt+ for addition, fnf4 for holding data, shift4 to add currency and several others.
The practical and application approach in the courses are bearing more fruits although more demanding and requires a lot of practice to master the processes.
Although some of the things we are learning currently look complex, I believe dedicating more time to practice, active participation in group discussions and the class would soon make them habitual to me.
The Profit and Loss Statement, Meaning, Importance and Types