Strategic Management, Key to Sustainable Development – NDDC Boss

PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – The Interim Administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Dr Efiong Akwa, has stressed the need for organisations to adopt a strategic approach to management as a critical component to the sustainable development of the Niger Delta region.

Speaking through the NDDC Director, Corporate Affairs, Dr. Ibitoye Abosede, at the Annual Mandatory Membership Revalidation Workshop of the Institute of Strategic Management Nigeria, ISMN, Rivers State Chapter, in Port Harcourt, Akwa acknowledged the importance of training in any organisation.

The NDDC Chief Executive Officer commended the efforts of the Institute in putting together a programme aimed at enhancing the management strategy of its members.

He said: “Strategic management is critical to sustainable development of every aspect of personal and organisational success. It is on this premise that the NDDC’s partnership with the ISMN on human capacity development becomes all the more important.

“We are partnering with the Institute to ensure that global best practices, through sustainable strategic management approaches, is brought to bear positively on the Niger Delta region through the NDDC.”

Akwa said that the NDDC would continue to partner with the Institute of Strategic Management Nigeria to actualize the goals of the Commission, noting that the training was very important because the issues listed for discussion were germane to strategic management.

The NDDC boss advised the Institute to broaden the scope of the training in future to include other management level staff of the Commission, noting that such trainings provide the necessary tools for individual development.

Also speaking, the Rivers State Chapter Chairman ISMN and NDDC Director Planning, Mr. Davis Okarevu extolled the NDDC management for sponsoring the workshop, stating that the Commission had been supportive of the Institute.

He urged members of the Institute to apply the knowledge acquired from the training in their various work environments.

Presenting a paper entitled: “Leading Strategic Change and Renewals; Locating Change Management within the Domain of Strategy,” one of the resource persons, Rev. Itia Otabor, said that change starts with changing the mindset.

According to him, “in the domain of strategy, you have to set the objective and proceed based on the peculiarities of the organisation, moves and the environment. What makes a change strategic is where it is connected to a strategic issue. Every change initiative must be geared towards achieving a set objective.”

In his own paper, another resource person and a Fellow of the Institute, Mr. Kennedy Dike, described Change management as the methods and manner in which a company implements change within both its internal and external processes.

He noted that in leading change management, one should always expect distractions, stating, however, that it should not be allowed to cause a loss of focus.