…Outgoing Dean shares business growth formula

Business has grown consistently since 2021 at the Lagos Business School following a 40% drop in 2020.

While most institutions and organisations groan from reducing numbers because of costs, the renowned Lagos Business School is witnessing the reverse. Enrolment is up across board for both regular and professional courses. Classes are spilling over to the old facilities in Victoria Island.

What did LBS do differently to cause a turnaround? Prof Chris Ogbechie, dean up to the last day of December 2024, points to innovation, applying marketing principles, and stepping away from the predominant tradition of cost-cutting when businesses face headwinds. He quips, “Cost-cutting does not grow business. What grows business are customers”.

Ogbechie led his team to re-imagine the business through better customer understanding and service. Their diagnostics yielded innovation from thorough examination of existing programmes.

He affirms, “Growth in our business came from customised programmes. We also developed the executive capacity to teach and address the problems our students were bringing from their workplaces.”

The Dean recalls. “We experienced a 40% drop in 2020. The business has been growing since 2021. It was four times the level in 2024. What we did was really investing in understanding the pain point of our customers. Being a solution provider is the surest way of growing the business. We created value. The ability to help participants to reinvent themselves and grow their businesses profitably has helped us.”

Between its reputation and convenience for students, which factor accounts for the growing interest in LBS programmes? Reputation counts. The reputation that matters in this instance is the school’s growing renown as the go-to for understanding Nigerian business challenges and their solutions.
Ogbechie states: “Our reputation is that we understand how to do business in Africa. If you want to know how to build business in Nigeria and Africa, come to LBS.”

The business of LBS revolves around its degree and executive programs. The executive programs account for the bulk of revenues. LBS strengthened the programs.

• It reactivated the Chief Executives Programme that helped to build its renown.

• Added online to the MBA that was only physical.

• Introduced the Doctor in Business Administration (DBA).

• Now has the approval of the National Universities Commission to start the Master of Science in management. Unlike the MBA, the MSc management is open to anyone from any discipline who has completed NYSC. The MBA required industry experience. The MSc in management commences in January 2025.

 

LBS is also offering programs addressing various emerging sectors. These include healthcare management, family business, hospitality, and retail.

Ogbechie declares that LBS welcomes competition from the many foreign-label schools coming into the Nigerian market. “Competition will not make us bitter. Instead, competition will make us better.”

He adumbrates. “Foreign business schools have brand names older than LBS. The competitive scenario is clear. Their school fees are in dollars. They pay their foreign staff in dollars. However, they do not know how to do business in Nigeria as much as LBS does.

“Right now, we are encouraging Nigerians in Diaspora to send their children back to LBS for their MBAs. We see Nigerian business schools as collaborators and not competitors. The more business schools of the calibre of LBS we have the better for the Nigerian business community and education.”

As part of the evolution of the core and response to market dynamics, LBS has also outlined the Public Sector Leadership Program to assist the public sector to improve its value proposition. Participants are directors and above in the public sector.

Lagos Business School (LBS) is the graduate business school of Pan-Atlantic University. LBS was founded on inspiration from the teachings of St Josemaria Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei. LBS offers academic programmes, executive programmes, function-specific seminars, and custom executive programmes in management education that transform individuals, organisations, and business practices in Africa and beyond. The school says, “Our programmes also stand out because of their emphasis on professional ethics and service to the community.”

LBS has dual accreditation from two of the three global rating bodies:

• AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business): This is the oldest and most widely recognized accreditation for business schools worldwide.

• AMBA (Association of MBAs): This accreditation focuses on the quality of MBA programs, specifically. This accreditation put LBS “in an exclusive group of only 2% of business schools in 70 countries to achieve that accreditation.”.

• LBS is a member of the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM) – an alliance of 32 globally leading business schools.

• LBS also secured the ISO quality certification.

However, LBS has yet to get the EQUIS (European Foundation for `Management Development Quality Improvement System), one of the three critical accreditations. EQUIS emphasises meeting rigorous international standards, which in translation means international faculty and students.

Environmental factors outside the control of the school count against LBS in relation to EQUIS. “We cannot have 50% of our faculty or students being foreign. The Nigerian environment currently does not support it. They have invited us to reapply, but we made it clear that they need to reconsider some of the criteria.”
Professor Chris Ogbechie holds a first-class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from Manchester University, an MBA from Manchester Business School, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Brunel Business School in the 1 UK.

He is a Professor of Strategic Management with expertise in marketing, strategy, corporate governance, and social responsibility.

He has vast experience in marketing, strategy and corporate governance derived from his work as Head of Marketing/Sales at Nestle Nigeria and his consulting work with Nigerian, Ghanaian and Kenyan firms over the years. While in Nestle, he held international positions in Malaysia, Singapore and Switzerland.

Professor Ogbechie teaches strategy, sustainability and corporate governance at the Lagos Business School and Strathmore Business School in Nairobi, Kenya; he is also the founding Director of the School’s Sustainability Centre. His research interests are in strategy in turbulent environments, strategic leadership, board effectiveness, and corporate sustainability.

Professor Ogbechie has been involved with several start-ups. He was Chairman, Board of Directors, Diamond Bank Plc and is on the board of several private and public companies including Red Star Express Plc (FedEx), National Salt Company of Nigeria Plc. (NASCON), Health Partners and Palton Morgan Holdings.

Ogbechie was Director of the LBS Sustainability Centre where he proselytised for the concept and practice. He applied sustainability to LBS. The manifestations are in the ban of single-use plastics, the conversion to solar for 50% of the school’s power requirement and now growing to 80% in the second phase.

“Our next phase is the implementation of a pan-African agenda. It should also the next phase for Nigerian business as a whole. Nigerian companies should prepare to become African multinationals.”

Ogbechie is retiring after 23 years at LBS. The teaching bug remains. He will spend his time post-LBS teaching and sharing experiences with young people and writing more books.