Jide Gerald Aluka is a strong believer in lifelong learning and sharing the knowledge he acquires. He also looks to create shared value with whoever he meets. A law student friend with connections to the Urbanize Africa committee proposed they invite Gerald to speak at the next summit. Thus, Gerald was given the opportunity to share his knowledge and experience at the Urbanize Africa Summit 2022 which took place on 24 October, 2022.
The annual Urbanize Africa Summit was created to unite Africa through promoting sustainable ideas, attitudes, commerce, infrastructure, and activities. Held in Nigeria and open to the African continent, the Summit is streamed online but is mainly attended in person by regional participants. This year’s theme was business intelligence, including data management and organizing business. The summit focused on helping African business leaders improve their strategy, visualise possibilities made possible through applications and artificial intelligence, and overcome cultural beliefs that hinder their success.
Gerald’s presentation was entitled Structured Thinking and included ideas he has recently been studying in UBI’s MBA programme. He explained that structured thinking is the process of creating a structured framework to solve an unstructured problem. He presented several structured thinking techniques and walked participants through how to use them. His objective was to help participants understand the importance of being structured in their decision making and how to set up a framework to make that possible.
“I like connecting with people because you never know what opportunity your next connection might bring you."
Reflecting on his presentation at the close of the summit, he realised he had overlooked a powerful learning and teaching technique, that of asking for feedback. He experienced this technique first-hand through UBI’s practice of asking for feedback from students after each module. UBI uses this feedback to inform and improve future modules. Gerald decided he will apply UBI’s feedback mechanism in future presentations. He recognised using this technique in his presentation would have taught a powerful business practice through the personal experience of the participants. This analysis of his performance and application of acquired knowledge shows what an effective business leader Gerald has become.
Gerald is grateful to have participated in the Urbanize Africa Summit 2022 and will continue to promote sustainable business practices in Africa. He uses his work at Griots Lounge Publishing, as well as his podcast Small Business Questions, to set an example of positive leadership in business. He is always looking to create shared value with those he meets because he believes that you never know what opportunity your next connection might bring you.