Professionals must re-brand themselves now or expire
Professor of Finance and management, Ben Osisioma, has examined the current dynamic world where changes occur fast in all facets and come clean to various professionals and managers in Nigeria to re-brand themselves to current realities or perish.
Osisioma who spoke on ‘Re-branding the Nigerian professional manager: From good to great’ at the Nigerian Institute of Management, NIM lecture, believed that the call for professional re-branding is an acknowledgement that the times have changed, and the choice before the professional is clear: “we must either bend or break.”
According to him, “Our world is changing fast, with each day being completely different from the one before it” and therefore, this age heralds global imperatives which require that managers are able to think critically and make judgments, assess the credibility, accuracy and value of information, analyse and evaluate information, make reasoned decisions, and take purposeful action.”
Professional managers, he said, should be able to solve complex, multi-disciplinary, open-ended problems, think creatively – challenge the status quo, think outside the box, and question the herd. “They must develop the ability to recognise and act on opportunities, ever willing to embrace risk and responsibility in the pursuit of profitable outcomes. They need to learn to communicate and collaborate with groups and teams, skilled at interacting competently and respectfully with others, demonstrate new specialised skills, and make innovative and creative use of knowledge, information and opportunities to create new products, services and processes.”
Osisioma who is professor of Accountancy at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in Anambra State noted that the new generation is already very adept on new skills, stating that the young’s disaffection is perhaps the clash between old style emphasis on content and control, versus a new value emphasis on emotional intelligence. “What we are witnessing is a redefinition of the knowledge base: a move away from the traditions of formal and explicit knowledge as primary to the inclusion of increasingly greater emphasis on the intangible in all its guises.
Still on dynamic world, he said for instance, successful organisations in the past, required an internal focus, structured interaction, self-sufficiency, and a top-down approach, but today the rules of the game have changed as organisational structure now reflects an external focus, flexible interaction, interdependency, and a bottom-up approach. “Globalisation and the arrival of the information economy have rapidly demolished all the old precepts. Old rigid hierarchies are out, and flat; speedy, virtual organisations are in.”
The importance of the lecture which kept the audience reflecting is to push professionals to deliver real benefit to customers, remaining relevant on the leading edge, satisfying customers’ perception of value, properly positioned to occupy niches in minds of customers, and consistently striking a balance between continuity and change.
“The Nigerian professional manager must provide professional leadership. He should raise the bar and standard of professional discourse, skilful in practice and committed to the epitome of ethical conduct,” he said.
According to Osisioma who has initiated and supervised about 30 doctoral research studies with the 10 of the candidates attaining the rank of professor said the professional manager must stand on a tripod of values, which are competence, discipline and integrity.
Also speaking, President of NIM, Munzali Jibril, said Fellow’s upgrade is not a destination or an end in itself; therefore, he implored the recipients not to be contented with just adding the designation (FNIM) but see it as a call to higher responsibility and service to the Institute, the management profession, and the nation.