Conference participants from various higher educational institutions and corporate organisations within and outside Nigeria, including Morocco, Qatar, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America recently converged at the Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos State, Nigeria.
The event held virtually and physically was a three-day Annual Academic Conference on “Business Not As Usual: Milestones and Challenges.”
The objective of the Conference was to create a platform and stimulate robust discussions for the exchange of problem-solving cutting-edge ideas between academics and industry-based professionals within and outside Nigeria, to enhance the relevance of knowledge production in the Faculty of Management Sciences from the perspectives of Accounting, Actuarial Science, Business Administration, Employment Relations, Finance, Human Resource Management, and Insurance, among others.
At the conference chaired by Professor Folashade Ogunsola represented by Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, the Chairman of the Faculty of Management Sciences’ Annual Academic Conference, Prof. Abdul-Hameed Adeola Sulaimon welcome participants.
The Keynote Speaker and Lead Paper Presenter, Prof. Hakeem Adeniyi Ajonbadi from College of Business, University of Doha for Science and Technology, Qatar, presented a thought-provoking keynote address titled: “Learning, Unlearning, and Relearning: Addressing the Anathema of the Precarity of Management in A Disruptive Age.“
The conference featured a total of 20 sessions, including two plenary sessions and 18 parallel sessions, while 74 papers were presented on different topics that are relevant to the following themes: Accounting, Actuarial Science, and Insurance Business Administration, Management, and Organisational Behaviour Artificial Intelligence, Digital Technologies, and Technological Solutions Finance and Banking, Operations Research, and Production Management Employment Relations and Human Resource Management Entrepreneurship and Marketing across Borders.
After observations and discussions, the participant recommended as follows:
Recommendations
. Developing new skills, knowledge, and competencies should be a top priority for managers at all levels across business organisations in Nigeria.
. The managers of small businesses should continually implement business resilience strategies to enhance the sustainability of small businesses in Nigeria.
. Business owners should actively participate in the use of Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms to enhance the visibility of their products.
. Employee assistance programmes (EAP) should be established in public hospitals to help health workers deal with work-related stress, emotional traumas related to the job, and work-related behaviour that is deviant in nature.
. The independent electoral commission should demonstrate proof of integrity and transparency as a top priority in the transmission of election results in Nigeria.
. Managers should learn skills like new technologies and methodologies, agility and adaptability, data analytics and decision-making, and empathy and emotional intelligence, among others to remain relevant in the disruptive business landscape.
. Managers should unlearn the following skills to remain relevant in the disruptive business landscape: outdated management practices, resistance to change, fear of failure, overreliance on traditional metrics, and command-and-control leadership, among others.
. Managers should relearn the following skills to remain relevant in the disruptive business landscape: embracing lifelong learning, the importance of human and social capital, effective communication, sustainability and ethical leadership, and strategic agility, among others.
. Directors and managers of business organisations should provide adequate opportunities for employees to participate in learning and development programmes tailored towards enhancing their capacity for utilisation of digital technologies to optimise job performance in a disruptive age.
. The curriculum of the educational system should equip students with knowledge, skills, and competencies in design-thinking, digital transformation and entrepreneurial spirit.
. Management scholars should be active in the production of research-based relevant knowledge concerning contemporary management practices.
. The university management should help management scholars to drive the needed change in a business not as usual context.
. The stakeholders in the Nigerian educational system should provide adequate infrastructure to ensure integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching pedagogy across schools in Nigeria.
. The Nigerian Tax Laws should be modified to promote the use of digital transactions and digital currencies for tax purposes.
. Directors and managers of business organisations should encourage research and development on the valuation implications of their enterprise risk management (ERM).
. The Nigerian government should support the spirit of entrepreneurship among the Nigerian business executives sponsoring international trips in metropolitan cities, especially in Europe and North America.
. There should be collaboration among governments, businesses, educational institutions, and civil society organisations for the development and implementation of appropriate policies in support of youth-led businesses.
. The Nigerian government should make the financial system more inclusive to drive economic growth and development in Nigeria.
. The employers and labour unions in Nigeria should adopt a more productive strategy to resolving their differences in a way that contributes to the competitiveness of organisations in a peaceful atmosphere.
. The Conference expressed optimism that all the deliberations and recommendations would be translated into pragmatic actions for significant improvement in the disruptive business landscape in Nigeria.
