The Covid-19 pandemic is undoubtedly one of the biggest disruptions of our time. Asides the plethora of economic challenges it has birthed, it has brought to the fore many of the deficiencies that lie within existing business operations and governmental infrastructures across the world. It has dismantled systems as we knew it in such a way that the only businesses and individuals that survive the current volatile economic landscape are those who reposition themselves for existing opportunities and move with the trend.
Success in whatever form, starts from the top. For businesses or economies to succeed, they need to be led by capable individuals who are willing to put in the necessary systems in place to ensure growth regardless of what life tosses at them. With technology at the forefront of today’s disruptive business environment, leaders must seek out ways to not just optimize the technological tools at their disposal, but they must also be able to optimize all available resources so as to stay far ahead of the competition. This unprecedented digitization of business models, products and processes taking place in organizations also requires the existence of certain skills, competencies, and behaviours to navigate the increasingly complex digital workplace. For this reason, the need for capacity development cannot be overemphasized and as expected, FITC is at the forefront of addressing this knowledge gap.
The FITC Digital Innovation Summit held on Wednesday, 22ndJulywas titled “Leadership in an Agile and Digital Economy.” The Summit,which was widely attended both locally and internationally, was presided over by the Managing Director/CEO, FITC Chizor Malize. The speakers at the event were Fakumata Soukouna Coker, Board Chairman of Afrinvest Securities Ltd,Kazeem Tewogbade,CEO of Bluechip Technologies, Nkedillim Begho, Managing Director of Future Software Resources Ltd, and Bayo Adesanya, Chief Digital Officer of Axa Mansard.
In her introduction on FITC, Mrs. Chizor Malize spoke about FITC’s role in leading the digital economy. She spoke about the volatile and unpredictable business landscape (VUCA), stating the competencies of agile leadership as well as how businesses need to move from ‘surviving’ to ‘thriving’. The same technological disruption being felt across various business and political frontiers can also be felt in education and other learning services. Speaking about the said disruption, she explained that “Leaders in an economy such as what we are facing now will need to be very agile and digitally driven to rebuild their operations and begin to reinvent new ways of work that will not only position their organization for the next normal, but position their organizations to thrive and win and also sustain this growth.”
As presented, some of the Agile Leadership Values of the company include:
- Individuals and Interactions Over Large Markets
- Collaboration Over Silos and Hierarchy
- Responding to Change Over Following a Plan
- Rapid Iterations Over Big Bang Campaigns
- Testing and Data Over Opinion and Conventions
- Numerous Small Experiments Over a Few Big Bets
For companies in whatever position on the value chain of technological advancements, she had the following to say:
“If you never had the vision, now is the time to have the vision for it; if you had the vision but did not make the right investments, this is when to make those investments”.
If you made the investments but did not activate it, this is the time to activate it both in terms of creating those processes, building those processes, getting people to embrace it, work digitally as well as deliver on that for your customers.”
FITC, as an organisation practicing what it preaches, has also responded to changes in the learning service environment by launching its “Think Different Initiative” as well as an array of other programs for digital learning leadership. For companies that adapt to the changing times, she noted improved efficiencies and productivity, better & faster decision-making, innovation and new expertise, healthy bottom line, improved customer experience, improved stakeholder engagement, and employees freed up to work on value-add activities as some of the most important key performance indicators of the shift to the agile and digital landscape.
Fatumata Soukouna Coker, Board Chairman Afrinvest Securities Ltd, in a presentation titled “Leadership Knowledge, Skills and Behavior Imperative to Succeed in a Digitally Disruptive Economy” highlighted the transcendence and evolution of technology over time. From the Pre-Industrial Revolution before the 1760’s Agrarian societies which were characterised by weak productivity to the Fourth Industrial Revolution of the 2010’s characterized by Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 3D printing and the internet of things, the world has changed and entrepreneurs have had to adapt to the changing times. She highlighted some of the tools and what they do, detailing how they make processes better for organizations. In explaining the need to adapt, she said “As you examine: the top, the culture, the people and the processes of your organization, find where your organization is ready and what is missing and how you might fill the gap, so you are ready to either adapt or disrupt.”
Kazeem Tewogbade, Co-founder and GMD/ CEO Bluechip Technologies Limited spoke about “Future Proofing.” In his presentation which was on “Future Proofing the Organization for Digital Disruptions” he explained the term to mean “the change that occurs when new digital technologies and business models affect the value proposition of existing goods and services.” He went ahead to list some of the hallmarks of an agile organization to include: the existence of an actionable strategy, the existence of clear and robust structures, efficient processes; people, fostered by the existence of a cohesive community as well as entrepreneurial drive, evolving technology architecture, and a system where learning is continuous.
He explained, “The key thing for organizations will be to start seeing themselves as not so radical as even scholars say flatten things out completely…. I think it is important for business leaders and executives to start seeing the need to reorient their organizational structure such that it can actually support their quest to be able to adapt and innovate faster.”
Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho Managing Director Future Software Resources Ltd. spoke about “Shaping Digital Organizations – Creating Agile Structures” explaining that there is a need for organisations to think outside the box. In explaining the components of what makes a company agile, she explained that the company must be willing to leverage technology & automation as a strategic enabler, possess decentralized IT architecture that uses micro-services, leverage data and insights to unlock value, be flexible and have the ability to rapidly adapt and steer itself in a new direction, minimize handovers and bureaucracy, empower people by building stronger, more rounded professionals, have a culture that motivates employees to innovate and develop organization structures and governance that enable faster decision-making, partner with others in their ecosystem to gain new digital capabilities, involve customers in its design process, drive simplification, and leverage technology in the most optimal ways.
Bayo Adesanya Chief Digital Officer AXA Mansard Insurance in a presentation titled “Building Digital Leadership and Fostering Digital Sustainability” also shared his views on the transcendence of the digital age. He noted that “Digitization involves standardizing business processes and is associated with cost cutting and operational excellence. In essence, it imposes discipline on business processes that, over the years, were executed by individuals in a variety of creative (but not always optimal) ways.”
According to an attendee, Mr. Oladapo Olawuyi, Head HR, UBA Pension “the Speakers gave a deep dive on imperatives for organisations to remain agile and succeed in disruptive times.” He described the Summit as insightful and filled with practical nuggets for real world application.
The host organisation hashad an array of successful summits and learning programmes, especially with its newly launched Virtual Learning Solutions and Executive Programmes. Established as far back as 1981, FITC was created as a non-profit organisation limited by guarantee to provide capacity building and knowledge hub for the Nigerian Financial Services Sector. Today, it thrives as a professional services knowledge firm offering a wide range of Learning, Advisory and Research Services to clients within Nigeria and in the diaspora. Leveraging on its relationship with experts within and outside the country as well as its versatility across all spectrums of its service delivery, it has provided unmatched learning support to its clients who are primarily within the financial and non-financial services sectors as well as public sector of Sub-Saharan Africa. FITC is duly owned by the Bankers Committee i.e. CBN, NDIC and all deposit money banks in Nigeria.
