The School of Postgraduate Studies at the Nile University of Nigeria, organized a free one-day, certificate-awarding professional training Master Class for the purpose of helping individuals, businessmen, and professionals in developing their skills, adjusting to new work environments, and ultimately succeed in today’s dynamic world of work.
The masterclass which had the theme “Managing Work and Business in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) environment,” drew in participants and representatives from the military, paramilitary, civilian, and all walks of life. Prof. Dileep Mohanachandran Kumar, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Nile University, and Prof. Joseph Nnanna, the Chief Economist of the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), were two of the main speakers at the event.
Welcoming all participants, the registrar of Nile University of Nigeria, Mr. David Olowola stated that the free masterclass was organized to give back to society as part of the institution’s commitment to excellence and service to humanity. While highlighting the school’s achievements since joining the Honoris United Universities Network, he said that Nile University’s postgraduate school has about 50 different programmes across 6 different faculties and runs flexible programmes tailored to meet the academic needs of individuals from all walks of life.
Nile University’s Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Dileep Kumar, kicked off the two-part lecture with a presentation titled ” Managing Change in the VUCA time.” According to him, the Covid-19 pandemic has altered the nature of business and the workplace, and from a business management point of view, it has provided people with a lot of new things to think about that were previously not identified.
Prof. Kumar went on to explain how the business world of today is shifting away from manual and face-to-face interaction towards a technologically fortified sophistication, and how only those with the necessary skills and technical know-how can adapt to the changing circumstances and keep their jobs.
He also discussed how education in the metaverse is the new standard of learning, and how the merging of actual and virtual worlds, known as “mixed reality” is becoming the norm in our everyday life. According to him, organizations that successfully manage change do so by integrating the processes of transformation associated with competency, resources, and attitudes of workers.
While teaching also on “Managing Work and Business in a VUCA Environment” in the second part of the masterclass, the Chief Economist of the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), Prof. Joseph Nnanna, agreed with all of the changes in the workplace outlined by Prof. Kumar, adding that indeed the workplace has become volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He stated that the DBN like all other workplaces was hard hit by the outbreak, and the bank was forced to adopt “internal and external” impact measures to cope with VUCA environment created by the pandemic. He said that the internal impact measures deployed by the bank focused on the health and safety of its employees to keep business operations running as smoothly as possible. Some of these measures included a remote-working policy, free covid-19 testing for staff, their spouses, and dependents to ensure early detection and management of infections, as well as a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to staff salaries, while the external impact measures adopted included fulfilling its responsibility as a corporate entity giving monetary support to the efforts of the Federal Government in combating the impact of covid-19 in Nigeria. The lecture sessions concluded with a forum for participant questions and speaker responses.
To wrap up the learning session, Mr. Gerald Osugo, Director of Business Development and Strategy of Nile University of Nigeria, offered a vote of thanks to all the speakers and participants. He advised the attendees to take advantage of the institution’s postgraduate courses, which will equip them with the 21st-century skills and ideas they’ll need to succeed in their jobs and run their businesses in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment.
