Judith Irwin is a Board member, These Young Minds, a firm that provides management training for executives. In this interview with SIMON EJEMBI, she talks about major management mistakes Nigerian companies make and how they can remedy them.
Many experts attribute the failure of organisations in Nigeria to the difficulties in the economy or operational environment, but some insist that poor management is the main challenge. What is your opinion on this?
There are many and varying reasons why organisations trying to do businesses in Nigeria fail. There is no doubt that poor infrastructure, corruption, a somewhat delicate political climate and a weak judicial system affect the ease with which organisations can carry out business. But such challenges are not unique to Nigeria and do not prevent organisations being successful in markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Brazil. Management issues include many indigenous organisations working in Nigeria have limited or ineffective long term plan, others include nepotism in promotion and reward systems; vague vision and poor market intelligence just to mention a few.
A real stumbling block for many foreign-owned organisations entering the Nigerian market is their lack of understanding of the local context and culture. They take an ethnocentric approach, that is, they assume that products and practices that succeed in their home country will ultimately be successful anywhere. This approach is unlikely to work in Nigeria. What is needed is a polycentric approach where companies adapt in response to different market conditions. Integral to this approach is hiring skilled local workers. Unfortunately, the talent pool for skilled local workers with knowledge of good management practice and grasp of international business markets is relatively small in Nigeria (ratio of well-grounded management professionals in Nigeria to the total population is miniscule). Thus, there is the need for continuous capacity development for senior executives in the public and private sector to enhance skill-sets of senior managers.
Another key management challenge is high operating cost that organisations incur in Nigeria, where some organisations expend between 20-40 per cent on power and security. Another is the high cost of financial capital in Nigeria partly due to the high risk the financial organisations take on when issuing loans to the public and private sector.
How important is human resource management to organisations?
Taking human resource management to mean the strategic management of employees, who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the strategic objectives of the organisation, then human resource management is an absolutely essential ingredient to a successful organisation. By attracting, retaining and developing employees, to believe and drive organisation vision the HRM function helps the organisation to achieve its strategic goals.
How would you rate the level of attention that is given to human resource management?
Many companies do not fully understand the importance of human capital in achieving a successful organisation. Often, little attention is paid to hiring the right people to do the job and favouritism amongst friends and family in the recruitment process remains common. Another problem is the level of attention given to the development of human capital within the organisation. A lot of top management appear to have a short-term view of human resource management thus giving this key resource a low priority.
What would you say are the biggest management mistakes made by organisations?
Placing too much focus on the quantitative elements of short time organisations performance and not considering some of the qualitative aspects that are sometimes difficult to measure which are critical of any organisation. Not listening to employees, failing to communicate with their stakeholders and not accepting responsibility for ones actions are some of the biggest management mistakes. Some of the biggest challenges that organisations face in today’s business climate are developing and utilising knowledge dissemination and innovation, engaging and motivating employees and maintaining trust with customers and other members of the society by operating with high ethical standards. New challenges are constantly arising and will never cease to emerge.
Tell us more about your organisation
These Young Minds is an innovative service-based social enterprise that provides learning platforms for social executives to develop fresh ideas, reinvent themselves, managing change, challenge dominant assumptions, and solve societal challenges and continuously adding value to themselves, their team and organisation.
We partner with top business schools to design and deliver customised contemporary executive education programmes for senior executives in the public and private sector in Africa.
The focus on business leaders from Africa reflects the need to improve organisational performance where it is needed the most. Through our executive education programme, we help leaders improve their capacity as strategic leaders to prepare for change in an increasingly competitive and challenging business environment and to enhance their organisation’s productivity to deliver research, high-profile conferences and capacity building events and have established links with organisations based in Nigeria.
Your company organises management programmes and trainings. What impact can such trainings really have?
Our programmes are developed and delivered in partnership with top international business schools to offer unique executive education programmes, designed and delivered specifically for executives from both the private and public sector in Nigeria and reflect contextual realities of operating in Africa. Through these capacity development programmes, we challenge assumptions, broaden horizons, stimulate long term thinking and enhance organisation’s productivity of delegates. The management programmes that These Young Minds delivers take an interdisciplinary approach to solving emerging challenges with tuition delivered by world class academics and practitioners who have pedigree in value-adding research and providing cutting edge solutions to the diverse but interesting problems of public and private organisations. Our executive programmes delivered by world renowned academics equips participants with knowledge about global contextual business opportunities, strategic thinking, context-specific perspectives of authentic leadership, building organisation’s capacity for change and sustainable organisational competitive advantage among others. Thus our customised executive education programmes inspire leaders to change their world.
Would you say Nigerian organisations and businesses have the right attitude towards capacity development or training?
I would say not really. Many organisations do not conduct skill needs assessment; those that do, do not always expend resources dedicated for capacity development and sometimes divert human capital development budget to cover for other operational costs. Also, many small and medium-sized organisations do not have an annual budget for capacity development.
What do Nigerian organisations need to do to become more competitive and sustainable?
To be more competitive and sustainable, Nigerian organisations need to develop a knowledge-driven economy, pay more attention to human resource management (including employee reward systems and talent development) drive out corruption and think more about the long term viability of their organisation. Also for Nigerian organisations to develop a competitive advantage and become more sustainable they need to creatively harness the new ideas, innovations and technologies that are rapidly being created in today’s global knowledge-driven economy. They can do this by carrying out more research, managing the external environment and developing learning organisation via capacity development.
Are the management institutions in the country capable of helping the nation overcome its management problems?
Not really, many academic institutions in the country are lacking in the requisite up-to-date skill-set required to design programmes that address the countries myriad management challenges. Also, most researches in management do not incorporate sound methodology that reflects contextual realities of organisations operating in Nigeria. Furthermore, many academics/faculty are not motivated to do research because it does not have a large financial incentive, thus they prefer to invest their time in other money spinning ventures. Furthermore, the international quality control of the plethora of executive education providers available in Nigeria is at best questionable. In fact, there is no academic institution in Nigeria that has all the three global business education accreditation i.e. The Association of MBAs, the European Quality Improvement System and Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business which are the global benchmark for quality control in management education. As at today, only one institution in the whole of Africa has all three accreditations.
How can they become more effective?
Enhancing organisational effectiveness is all about goal management i.e. creating continuous learning and growth, improving organisational processes, accelerating customer satisfaction and achieving financial sustainability while maintaining strategic direction. An organisation can be more effective if it incorporates a robust organisational governance structure that enables proper processes to be followed without being bureaucratic while still being agile. Organisations need to continuously clarify and improve its strategy and vision as well as translate the latter and the former into action. Unfortunately, corporate governance appears to be the bane of many Nigerian organisations.
