LBS: Two Decades After, Where Are The Published Works?

It is been over two decades since Lagos Business School came into being. LBS is business management arm of Pan African University in Lagos. When Post graduate education was reeling in decay, LBS emerged to rescue and notched up the quality of business knowledge education. It has continued in that fashion and as a result earned for itself a pride of place in African and global ranking while her individual academics shone brightly

LBS has been an oasis in the face of fledging and declining quality in education, both nationally and regionally. Like an oak, it has grown in size as well as its delivery with her; like an octopus her alumni spread across nearly every sector of Nigeria’s economy. It has for this reason earned the name ‘wellspring’ of business knowledge.

As one of African’s admired university, it can’t be separated from the performance of its economies. That is where the issue lies. The past decades reflect a fearful reality: the pace of knowledge decay. We might prefer to be in a state of self-denial. It is about the absence of any published research material for the school with few young and ambitious researchers. It is hard to lay hands on any published research work by it. I haven’t seen any research material conducted by it regarding the impact of knowledge, ideas and models it is imparting to students and professionals who brag about its brand prominence.

With the rate of knowledge decay enabled by the force of creative destruction, knowledge garnered within a span of two years could become irrelevant in our dynamic world. It is as a result we are seeing a shift in learning, something that is putting an end to classroom case studies and citadel-walled intellectualism. Welcome the arrival of live case studies driven by urgency to solve problems via live data, new business models. LBS is in the rear in this.

Also, in a re-adjusting world economy, our schools’ ranking hasn’t been anything cheery. We still lag behind with moribund curriculum that mocks our vision of being one of the top 20 economies in the world. It is even troubling for us as we are not showing the any capacity to mine billions of data and information on the internet. This is where academic research plays a critical role and lead to the production of outstanding knowledge workers.  That is why and LBS’s upgrade should be now, overhaul of its intellectual assets.

Since the world can only be grasped by action and not contemplation, we need to see LBS with world-class alliance that prepares executives to transform complex business challenges into global business opportunities. We need blended programs (combination of face-to-face learning period and online interactive distance learning); one that stimulates intellectual development with exclusive lifelong professional learning and personal networks.

Importantly, our economy needs to be a vital node in the global networks of commerce and innovation; LBS can lead in new learning methodology which can help us capture actionable strategic insights on what it takes to play in the global economy.

In all, LBS inspires change. It can sustain that. As our oasis of hope, it can do more by looking inward through reforms that can lead us to forward-focused transformation ideas. With its great vision, it can begin to align it with new strategies that look at the real Africa and Nigeria behind the headlines. I expect to see the sprouting of silicon valley-like hubs in the school this coming unraveling decade. Politics or whatever is the game mustn’t stop LBS from taking the next leap; resistance is futile.