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April 2019

6 Reasons Why CEOs Should Sponsor High Performing Senior Managers in the Executive MBA programme offered by the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business

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This blog is a curated content piece about the benefits that CEOs can attain from sponsoring high performing senior managers in the Internationally Accredited Executive MBA programme (EMBA) offered by the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business (UWI-ALJGSB). The benefits to senior managers who enroll in the EMBA programme will also be discussed.

Corporate sponsorship of an Executive MBA (EMBA) does not solely benefit the employee but also generates a return on investment to the employer. Investing in high performing employees demonstrates a company’s commitment to the professional development of staff and contributes to a culture of learning, support and loyalty. The six (6) reasons why CEOs should sponsor their most promising senior managers can be assessed from both the employer and employee perspective.

1. Yield Immediate Returns and Cost Savings

The UWI Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business (UWI-ALJGSB) adopts an authentic teaching and learning approach which provides students with practical courses, assignments, actual project-based and problem-based learning activities and presentations. The use of case studies, simulations and real-world applications, give students the ability to integrate the knowledge and skills acquired in the classroom directly into the workplace. This allows for cost savings as competent senior managers can eliminate the need for external consultants to be hired. These knowledgeable senior managers can act as ‘homegrown’ consultants who possess an intimate understanding of their employers’ internal culture and dynamics, putting them in a better position to diagnose and resolve company issues.

2. Develop a Global Perspective on Business

The EMBA programme offered by the UWI-ALJGSB prepares senior managers to manage effectively in the international marketplace through strategically designed core courses. The enrollment of senior managers affords companies the opportunity to build global connections and learn about global opportunities that are potentially attractive for their respective businesses. A Global Mindset is also nurtured by the annual International Business Study Trip, which EMBA students can access. This pivotal experience is an essential way for our local students to gain immeasurable exposure to global markets and commerce.

3. Build a Confident and Competent Leadership Team

The ability to leverage the skills and knowledge learnt in the classroom and seamlessly incorporate this into the work environment builds the confidence of those senior managers who are enrolled in the EMBA programme. When individuals become more proficient in their respective jobs they transform into more confident decision makers. This increased confidence and competence allows senior managers to take on broader roles and greater responsibilities which ultimately contributes significantly to the successful operations of the company.

Benefits to Employee

4. Develop Leadership, Communication and Team Building Skills

The authentic teaching and learning approach adopted by the UWI-ALJGSB encourages engagement among students and between students and our astute faculty. This collaborative approach develops the leadership, communication and team-building skills of enrolled senior managers as the programme requires students to participate in group discussions, team projects, lectures, and seminars, all of these skills being easily transferred back into the work environment.

5. Ability to Resolve Company Issues and Identify New Opportunities

The leading-edge practices in management, operations and strategy gained from projects undertaken in the classroom can be directly applied to the company of the student to resolve major issues and challenges of the employer. In-class collaboration among like-minded peers and expert faculty also gives students the ability to explore and dissect ideas bringing with it clarity about new opportunities and innovative solutions. Fresh insights and potential resolutions to actual business challenges can be derived through these organic in-class discussions.

6. Access Networking and Coaching Opportunities

The composition of an EMBA class at the UWI-ALJGSB is one that includes top decision-makers from both the public and private sectors, locally and regionally. Access to this wide business network benefits future business activities and sharpens the global vision of senior managers. Interaction with persons from various companies, industries and regions bring about a fresh perspective into the workplace. Good relationships also influence the ability of new ideas to flourish. Enrolled senior managers have access to business coaches, who comprise of reputable industry experts, this being an added value to all UWI-ALJGSB EMBA students. Each student is assigned a coach, who provides assistance throughout the programme and also gives invaluable guidance to their professional endeavours.

Why choose the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business?

Choosing the right Business School at which to pursue an EMBA plays an integral role in the sponsorship arrangement between employer and employee as the EMBA programme must match the desired goals of both student and company. The Executive MBA offered by the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business (UWI-ALJGSB) is globally accredited and recognized by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), the global standard for all MBA programmes. Our esteemed faculty incites innovation, motivates changes, encourages disruptive thinking and transforms the lives of all our students as they bring with them years of local and international experience in their respective fields of study.

The Business School sparks transformation in business as it aims to reshape business and society while constantly challenging the status quo. This is evident through the work of our extensive EMBA alumni who consists of top-level business influencers in both the private and public sector companies in Guyana and the Caribbean. The EMBA programme offered at UWI-ALJGSB is also accessible to regional and international students through our Zoom Online platform, which gives students the ability to log into and participate in classes virtually.

Enrollment into the Executive MBA programme at the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business will certainly be mutually beneficial to both employee and employer as we aim to transform each EMBA student from a senior executive into a capable, forward-thinking global leader. Investing in high performing senior managers demonstrates a company’s commitment to the professional growth of its employees and endorses the contribution of each employee towards the successful management of the business.

Entrepreneurial Challenges in the 21st Century

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Editor:

Dr. Balraj Kistow
Lecturer and Programme Director
Lok Jack GSB

Caribbean societies have quite a few things in common.  In large part we have beautiful tropical flora and fauna, fantastic beaches, a common Euro-centric colonial past, which has influenced our legal, socio-political and administrative systems as well as our trading relations. We also have a common history in the early development of agriculture-based industries as the core of our colonial economic purpose. While some countries have moved away from this sector to varying degrees, we all in some way maintained the same principle of economic development by selling our natural endowments.  When we look at the region, we are either dependent in large parts on tourism, agriculture and oil and gas.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I am thankful for these natural resources as I am sure you are as it have sustained us for generations.  However, our continued path of being overly dependent on these resources by selling it mainly in the primary state does not only derive less values for us but have given rise to much less virtuous commonality in the region, which is, our economic well-being that’s very much vulnerabile to external events and price shocks.

When we look at regional economies we see that our prosperity could quickly turn to poverty with a crash in the fall in the prices of oil and gas, a mad man’s rant that makes people nervous to travel or an arbitrary decision by some major government or supra-national body that severely impede our ability to trade our products and services in the traditional markets.  In the highly globalized, interdependent and connected world of today it is not possible to be totally insulated from the happenings international community.  The question is how do we position our economies to be less vulnerable to these external shocks and events while at the same time creating an entrepreneurial culture in our population that facilitates and empower people to take advantage of events and current trends towards economic prosperity.

This may sound like a tall order and I can hear the less optimistic among us pointing to the reams of paper that have raised this or similar questions before, but we are still in the same place.  That might be true, but time have changed, people are changing, the world is evolving and maybe we need to change our approach and perspective.

The usual approach to trying to move to a more secure and less vulnerable economic platform has been to look to diversification as a solution.  While we have looked in that direction we cannot say we have been able to diversify in any meaningful way.  I am sure there are many components to why we have not fared well in the area of diversification but I feel that an important element is our approach that seems to suggest moving away from traditional sectors rather than an approach that emphasise on using the resources, skill sets, networks and competencies to develop new products, services and sectors.  In this way we can use the traditional sectors as focal points in creating value added solutions for the modern world.

Rather than speaking about moving away from the traditional sectors of agriculture, tourism and energy we should be asking the question as to how can we leverage these sectors such that we are able to create new and exciting products and services on the higher end of the value chain that treats with contemporary trends, issues and challenges.  For instance, rather than see agriculture as a relic from a bygone era maybe we can look to develop selected areas that can serve global and diaspora markets with traditional goods and local delicacies.  In the last few years coconut is the new craze with coconut water being demanded for its isotonic qualities, coconut oil as a health fat for cooking and in beauty products from New York to Paris and coconut flour and sugar selling at premium prices.  A company in Guyana is now canning a local delicacy called “Heart of Palm” or Palmiste, as it is traditionally known in Trinidad and Tobago, for the export market.  The leaves and the fruits of the “Sijan” or Moringa plant is now a global health phenomenon and is being sold on Amazon.  With fish stocks being depleted globally we should have the capacity to develop fish farms that can serve the domestic and international markets and the regional tourism sector.  These are few examples where we can relook, remodel and recreate the agriculture sector to generate wealth and foreign exchange and I have not even touched on the potential of medical marijuana, eco and indigenous tourism and renewable energy.

We cannot continue to see our natural resources as cash cow by being sold as a primary product, but we need to create and foster an entrepreneurial mindset where we see our resources as raw materials that can be used to create high value products.  We all have our parts to play in this regard as there are key roles for academic in research and development among other things, government in creating and maintaining a secure and predictable enabling environment and industry in taking the lead investing in value creating solutions.  Moreover, creating an entrepreneurial mind set would require a systemic change especially to the way we see education and the way we educate as the move to creating this mindset would not happen in the boardroom if it is not inculcated in the classroom. I am not saying this is an easy task as it would require many herculean changes and dealing with many moving parts at the same time, but it is not beyond us.  Frankly, I don’t think we have much of a choice.

Join us at Distinguished Leadership and Innovation Conference and gain insights from Entrepreneurial Gurus – Josh Linkner and Prof. Andrew Corbett on May 6th 2019 at the Hyatt Regency. Register now at www.dlictt.com

 

 

Neisha Ramdass “Energy Bae”

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Neisha Ramdass is a current student of the MBA in Sustainable Energy Management programme at Lok Jack GSB, taking this leap took her career to new heights. Neisha was recently published by the Newsday where she was given the opportunity to moderate and speak at a global energy forum that was held at Panama.

 

Why did you choose the Lok Jack GSB to pursue an MBA?

Coming from a technical background with my BSc, I hoped to diversify my portfolio by pursuing an MBA. ALJ GSB has the best reputation as being one of the top business schools in the country. Upon conducting extensive research on the programmes I was interested in, the feedback I received on the MBA SEM was phenomenal.

Has the MBA SEM programme influenced your professional life? If yes, how?

This programme has afforded me the opportunity to study the energy sector from different perspectives, including business, social, financial, economic, and environmental just to name a few. I have studied energy policy scrupulously and I intend to further my career in this field, since I believe Trinidad and Tobago needs to conduct some serious policy changes within the energy sector in order to achieve sustainability.

Describe your experience with the MBA SEM programme

The experience and wealth of knowledge I gained over the past two years from the SEM programme was invaluable. The all-round view of the energy sector shed a whole new light on the field in which I choose to establish a career in. The knowledge I gained led me down the path of starting and successfully running my very own energy blog (eNRgyTT.com). I believe that the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago deserve to understand their energy sector since we’re a fossil fuel-based economy. The main objective of this blog was to educate in the simplest way possible, allowing for people to formulate their own opinions on a sector which we are heavily dependent on.

Would you recommend persons to pursue the Lok Jack GSB’s MBA in Sustainable Energy Management programme? Why?

I would definitely recommend this programme to those interested because it was one of the best choices I made in my life. Though the programme is gruelling and requires absolute commitment, it was definitely worth it. The lecturers were the best and very experienced in their respective fields. Free-thinking and discussion was always encouraged in the classroom, allowing for my peers and I to become independent thinkers, challenging the norm and formulating our own opinions, instead of simply learning class materials to regurgitate for an exam.

Do you think energy efficiency is well practiced and promoted in Trinidad and Tobago?

Trinidad and Tobago has a very long way to go with regards to energy efficiency and energy conservation. We promote a culture of wastage, mostly as a result of our cheap (SUBSIDIZED) electricity and fuel prices. There have been attempts to promote EE, however, there needs to be a culture shift, which can only come from improved public education and awareness. Energy efficient practices need to be introduced into the curriculum for primary and secondary schools. There needs to be a greater emphasis put on educating the public on climate change and its effects on our country. Citizens should be made aware that their actions today will most definitely cause a huge impact on future generations.

Can you share 3 energy efficient practices for our readers?

Three simple energy efficient practice that can be employed both domestically, as well as in business places:

  1. Switching out CFL and incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs;
  2. Purchase energy efficient appliances;
  3. Conduct energy audits to access where energy is being wasted and where improvements can be made.

Attach YouTube video on EE if possible:

https://youtu.be/ZFgf6cYLwK4

 

To find out more about our MBA in Sustainable Energy Management programme please contact Mrs. Shivana Hosein at 645-6700 ext. 200 or email: admissions@lokjackgsb.edu.tt

UWI-Arthur Lok Jack GSB won two Global Awards from the International Trade Centre

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We are delighted to share that the UWI-Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business was awarded two global awards from the  International Trade Centre  related to the International Diploma in Supply Chain Management programme. The awards were as follows:  

  • 2nd Place for trainer of the year in Supply Chain Management Award  Mr. Nyron Mohammed 
  • 3rd place as training support institution for the MLS-Supply Chain Management programme awards 

The International Trade Centre (ITC) is the only development agency that is fully dedicated to supporting the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).This means that the agency enables SMEs in developing and transition economies to become more competitive and connect to international markets for trade and investment, thus raising income and creating job opportunities, especially for women, young people, and poor communities. 

UWI-ALJGSB and ITC signed an MOU in 2015 to deliver training in Supply Chain Management in Trinidad & Tobago. UWI-ALJGSB have had eight intakes between 2015 and 2018 in the Supply Chain Management field.  

The SCM programme has three levels wherein each level has six courses that are designed to teach students how to manage the sourcing, movement and storage of goods from source of production to point of consumption. For enterprises, this means practical solutions to overcome challenges of export market demands; for buyers, this means optimized sourcing options. Over the past ten years, the ITC Supply Chain Management (SCM) Programme has helped train over 25,000 students worldwide in 80+ training institutions across 50 countries. 

 

For more information about this programme, please contact Mr. Shadeed Ali-Programme Specialist, Executive Education Unit at (868) 645-6700 ext. 131 or email: s.ali@lokjackgsb.edu.tt  

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