Students of the Lagos Business School Full-time MBA 18 and 19 classes interacted with 28 top Nigerian companies at the 18th edition of the biannual MBA Talent Forum which held virtually on Thursday, November 5.
Themed Embracing Change and Transformation, the Talent Forum aimed to provide a recruitment interaction platform for full-time MBA students and top companies across industries.
Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria, Baker Magunda who was the keynote speaker at the event addressed the theme using his organisation as a case study. Magunda noted the importance of understanding organisational purpose and using it to inspire employees to remain enthused about the organisation’s operations and service to the community.
Magunda went on to discuss how internal operations at Guinness Nigeria changed in line with the demands of COVID-19 through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics. “For the three months when we were in the depths of the lockdown, we used big data analytics to understand our employees and focus on what they want to hear from us. The data collected help us change how organisational leaders interact with other employees, change structures in a matter of weeks, create new teams and abandon our traditional approach to leadership,”, he said.
He added that technology and AI have now forced the team at Guinness Nigeria to become fluid, dismantle the hierarchy of authority and manage people better using data-driven insight.
Split into groups, the MBA 18 students delivered detailed presentations on previously chosen topics to the recruiters. The topics ranged from The Global Economy, Challenges and Opportunities in the Oil and Gas Industry, Insights into the ICT Industry among others.
Alex Liu, who is the Managing Partner & Chairman at a global management consulting firm, Kearney, was the Special Guest at the event. Liu shared a brief but insightful feedback on the presentations delivered by the talent, encouraging them to improve on their communication skills and to incorporate a more holistic approach when presenting to executives.
MBA Director, Dr Henrietta Onwuegbuzie said the theme of the event is relevant because the global health pandemic has changed the way companies work and LBS MBA students have also been imparted with skills that help them stay agile and adapt to unfamiliar demands wherever they find themselves.
Some of the 28 participating companies at this edition of the event include Nigerian Breweries, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Nigerian Bottling Company, Nestle, UAC, Maersk, Interswitch, Ernst & Young, MTN, Lafarge, Konga and IHS Towers.
The LBS Talent Forum is organised by the Lagos Business School MBA Careers and Placement Office.
