It was a mix of verbal skills yesterday, when a group of Lagos Business School MBA students proved their mettle during an Accenture-sponsored internal case competition.
Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. In this case, Accenture will provide the winning team sponsorship worth N1million to international case competitions that LBS will be involved in.
“It’s a great way for Accenture to add value to LBS, its students and the country as a whole,” said Alexander Babs-Jonah, the Programme, Project and Service Manager.
The teams took the floor by turns to make their presentations with slides and verbal arguments. They kept the audience engaged with varying recommendations for a hypothetical pharmacist forced to adopt new strategies in compliance with NAFDAC regulations in 2002.
Good presentation skills placed Group 5 first; while Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 came second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Henrietta Onwuegbuzie, lead faculty, Entrepreneurship unit, who spoke for the panel of judges, thanked participants for their efforts. “I think they all did well. This is basically a developmental event and everyone will take one or two things home from it. They’ll do even better next time,” she assured.
Mentor of Group Five, Remi Adegoke, could not contain her elation at the success of her team. She said, “I emphasised good presentation skills because in previous competitions, lots of teams with great ideas did not win due to a shortfall in that area.”
Indeed, great opportunities are ahead for members of the winning team, who will be mentored by Accenture on presentation flow, problem-solving and more, before squaring off with their international counterparts.
“They’ll get general mentoring and at the end of the day, will be able to identify case problems within 2-3 minutes,” said Babs-Jonah.
