NIESV plans workshop on sustainable professional practice

MEMBERS of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) will next week Thursday hold its second National Continuous Professional Development Programme at the Lagoon Restaurant, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island in Lagos.

The programme would dwell on ‘Modern Business Innovations to Sustainable Professional Practice’ and expected to attract distinguished speakers such as Managing Director, CMC Connect, Mr. Yomi Badejo-Okusanya who will be making a presentation from a Branding/Business Development perspective.

Other speakers in the event to be chaired by former NIESV President, Mr. Joe Idudu are Partner, KPMG, Mr. Wole Obayomi, who will be making a presentation from a Management perspective (to cover such salient issues as Customer Service, Creating Enduring structures, Partnership, Recruitment, Appraisal and Promotion. Mr. Chudi Ubosi of Ubosi Eleh & Company will also make presentation from an estate surveyor’s perspective.

The Chairman, National CPD Committee, Azubike Unigwe explained, “like any other profession, we face a wide range of challenges in our profession. First, there is the immediate challenge associated with the current macro-economic issues, which our country is battling with, which has naturally affected the pace of business generally.

“But even more compelling are the challenges arising from the structural deficiencies associated with the way we run our professional firms as estate surveyors and valuers. A fundamental flaw observed with the structure derives from the fact that from the very inception of the profession in Nigeria, estate surveyors were made to use their family names (as opposed to pseudonyms) in setting up their firms; and that tend to create the impression that the founder and the firm are one and the same – and this naturally limits the firm both in terms of scope and even loyalty from professional staff.

“We had attempted to deal with this issue a few years ago (Ada Retreat) by trying to remove the restriction against the use of pseudonyms (and by so doing encourage the emergence of mega firms), but there is still the limitation associated with our concept of running our firms as practices rather than as businesses.”

Unigwe, a fellow of the institution said: “We have, therefore, ‘head-hunted’ experts in branding, Business Development and business management whose specific mandate is to help us change that mind-set; and using modern business principles, guide us to unleash the possibilities of efficiency, growth, profitably and longevity, which remain largely untapped in our industry.”