IoD canvasses innovative workplace for business growth

For the growth and sustainability of organisations, especially in disruptive times, the Institute of Directors (IoD) Nigeria has said that leaders can help businesses survive by developing and supervising a more agile and innovative workplace.

The institute, which noted the uncertainties and challenges businesses are facing, said the role of business leaders in helping organisations wade through the turbulent times could not be over-emphasised.

President and Chairman of Council, IoD Nigeria, Dr. Ije Jidenma, said this at this year’s edition of the institute’s fellows’ investiture with the theme ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times: Surviving the Uncertainties’.

She said it was only through the intervention of efficient, knowledgeable and effective leaders that organisations could survive the perilous times.

The IoD chief said it was important to build capacities of business leaders to provide dynamic strategies that would help build organisational resilience, help businesses to identify and leverage opportunities, as well as drive innovation to remain competitive in the face of uncertainties.

The guest speaker and Director-General, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Prof. Ayo Omotayo, harped on apparent attractiveness, instinctive appeal, fit with conventional wisdom and apparent credibility, forecasting and planning as a more appropriate approach for addressing future uncertainty.

The don argued that instead of trying to avoid uncertainty, organisations should work out ways to inculcate a different philosophy and approach.

According to him, “rather than trying to narrow things down to certainties by prior logical prediction and analysis, a disruptive leader needs to be able to, by different thinking, open things up to the possibilities inherent in uncertainty by being more ‘right-brained’, to be anti-fragile so that, if the unexpected happens, as it will, we are ready to profit from it.”

He added that a disruptive leader, rather than choose research, forecasts and plans, might more often embrace exploration, effectuation and anti-fragility, bearing in mind that the situation determines the approach.

While felicitating the new fellows, the institute urged members to continue to uphold good corporate governance principles and be guided by the institute’s code of ethics in their businesses and personal lives.