E-Business
Re-imagining the Business School Model
By Austin Okere
This pandemic has uncovered the soft underbelly of our unwillingness to think beyond the present and anticipate future eventualities.
There have been various experiences and pronouncements regarding the education of our youth in the past couple of weeks. At the local secondary level, my son’s school completed the syllabus for the current term through online classes at home.
Far afield, the Harvard University is offering 67 online courses for free to help academics through lockdown and quarantine; while Coursera is partnered with 192 institutions from 43 countries and offering more than 3,200 online courses in 13 languages.
In sharp contrast, the Kano State Government has ordered all schools to stop online classes immediately, while the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) through an interview of their President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi with the Punch Newspaper has declared that E-Learning cannot work in Nigeria.
In his TED talk on the three ways to plan for the very long term, Ari Wallach canvasses: Trans-generational Thinking (thinking beyond just your own lifetime), Thinking of possible futures and not just one future, in case of eventualities. And having a 30-year horizon in our thinking process, not just the next couple of years.
I wrote this article four years ago, when I was invited as the Keynote Speaker at the GBSN/EFMD joint Conference at Accra, Ghana in November 2016.
It seems that the chickens have come home to roost.
The EFMD is a leading international network of business schools and companies (820 members from 82 countries) at the forefront or raising the standards of management education and development globally. EFMD runs the EQUIS and EPAS accreditation systems as well as the EFMD Deans Across Frontiers development programme (EDAF) and is one of the key reference points for management education worldwide.
The GBSN is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening management, entrepreneurial and leadership talent for the developing world through better access to quality, locally relevant education. GBSN harnesses the power of a network of nearly 70 leading business schools that share a dedication to their mission to build management education capacity for the developing world.
Even though I spoke about Business Schools. The insights stretch across the whole educational system. The Chinese use the same expression for Challenge and Opportunity because they are the two sides of the same coin.
We should not waste the crises of this painful pandemic, but rather exploit the opportunity to plan for Sustainability in our education system across all levels.
Time there was when an MBA from an Ivy League College will guarantee you a very lucrative high-profile job. This seems no longer to be the case.
I must tell you this story about a Kenyan lady who was settled in the UK. She had borrowed heavily to do an MBA at a business school hoping that this will secure her future.
Three years after graduation, she was facing eviction from her Council accommodation for back rents and no job in sight, albeit with a huge student loan overhang.
You cannot but empathise with her in her confusion, when through streaming tears, she told the court bailiffs how disappointed she was that she did everything right and felt rather short-changed by the system.
In my view, the real questions become: Are we setting the right expectation for Business School aspirants? Have schools missed the train of the Digital Revolution? Why are they refusing to innovate in today’s age of Digital Platforms?
After over a decade of being an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Columbia Business School in New York, and serving on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Innovation and Intrapreneurship, these are my insights about the need to re-imagine the Business School model to produce graduates who can thrive now and into the future:
- We need to start teaching people to learn “how to learn” than just to learn to master something, in this fast-disruptive world.
- The inverted classroom should be the new norm – the creative contribution of the class with a facilitator is much more effective than the messianic delivering of long lectures by a “professor”.
- To what extent are business schools allowing influence from markets – is there a concept of Entrepreneur-in-Residence or Professor of Practice attached to the school, linking industry experience and market expectation with learning concepts in business schools?
- Are we empowering students to create their own entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial spaces after graduation – today’s knowledge workers prefer to sell their time and talents to many organisations and be paid on an outcome basis than get stuck in a “9 to 5” job with one company – For example, Upwork provides a platform for matching requirements with skills in the shared economy.
- How can we encourage business schools to explore structures that teach how to leverage the need for inclusiveness, by bringing products and services to non-consumers through low-cost efficiencies and wider availability than fierce competition in a shrinking pie of current consumers?
- How can education reach more people more affordably? Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs is gradually taking the toll off traditional schools leveraging the ubiquity of broadband and connected devices – how well have we embraced the concept of MOOCs – concerns around quality of programs and teachers, while relevant, should not stop this viable way of reaching more people. They should be seen as a complement to traditional business schools than competition, especially in emerging markets, where 80% of the world resides, and are more likely to be excluded in formal settings.
- It is important for Regulation to catch up in this new area, as we open the door to online education and degrees
Clearly, hoping for an automatic lucrative job after an MBA is now a myth. The reality is that you should think along the lines of Bring Your Own Work (BYOW) to the party – this speaks to the need for deep entrepreneurial empowerment in the business school curriculum, and alignment to industry and social realities.
In my view, it is an indictment on the education system that many companies are now acting as their own incubation centres with University-like academies for new employees, following the apparent disconnect between graduating students and the job requirements of today. I believe that Universities should be collaborating with these centres to obtain valuable feedback for their curricula.
The biggest threat to success is success itself. Business Schools have been very successful over centuries. It is difficult to simulate hunger when you are full. You get into a comfort zone, and complacency sets in. You tend to assume an arrogance borne out of a false sense of invincibility that prevents you from opening yourself to any new ideas.
As change is the only constant in life, the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn, and continuously adapt has become crucial for survival and sustainability in the education sector. The global leadership space is like a game of musical chairs; always one chair short, to eject whoever is not able to adapt fast enough. Business Schools have to get on the innovation train in order not to be left behind on the tracks.
We used to say that big fish eat small fish, today it seems that it is the fast fish that eats the slow fish. It seems to me that there is no better time for deeper collaboration between town and gown than now.
Austin Okere is the Founder of CWG Plc, the largest security in the technology sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at CBS, New York. Austin also serves on the Advisory Board of the Global Business School Network, and on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Innovation and Intrapreneurship. Austin now runs the Ausso Leadership Academy focused on Business and Entrepreneurial Mentorship.
Microsoft is planning to unveil its new Maia 300 AI chip this fall, potentially as soon as next month, The Information reported on Monday, citing people with direct knowledge of the plans.
The company introduced its Maia AI chip in November 2023 but has lagged rivals such as Alphabet and Amazon in scaling up its in-house chip efforts as it seeks to reduce its reliance on Nvidia’s costly processors.
Google began recognizing revenue from direct sales of its custom AI chips, called Tensor Processing Units, in the quarter ended June, while Amazon has also seen growing adoption of its processors, including its Trainium chips.
Microsoft has been in talks with chipmaker TSMC to secure manufacturing capacity for more than 300,000 units of the chip for delivery in 2027, according to the report. It is also looking to significantly ramp up production and persuade major cloud customers such as Anthropic to adopt the chip.
Microsoft ultimately aims to secure capacity for more than 1 million Maia 300 chips, though component supplies and ongoing capacity negotiations with TSMC could constrain its plans, according to the report.
It unveiled its second-generation Maia 200 in January, built by TSMC using 3-nanometer technology.
Microsoft packed the chip with a significant amount of SRAM, a type of memory that can provide speed advantages for AI systems handling large numbers of user requests.
X has announced plans to discontinue its Revenue Sharing programme and introduce a new Original Content Rewards programme to reward creators for producing original content on the platform.
The social media company announced the changes at the weekend in a post on its X Creators handle, saying the new programme would reward creators who contribute original content.
“Today, we’re introducing the Original Content Rewards Program, a new way to reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity, and commentary to X,” the company said.
X said it would stop accepting new enrolments into the Revenue Sharing programme from Friday, while existing participants would continue earning until September 7, 2026.
“Starting today, we’re no longer accepting new enrollments into Revenue Sharing,” it said.
According to the company, existing Revenue Sharing participants will receive three final payouts, with two scheduled for August 14 and August 28, while the final payment for earnings accrued through September 7 is expected around September 11.
X said existing Revenue Sharing participants would begin getting access to apply for the new programme from September 8, subject to meeting its eligibility requirements.
The first payout under the Original Content Rewards programme will be made on August 28, 2026, while existing Revenue Sharing creators who enrol in the new programme from September 8 will receive their first payment on September 25.
Under the new programme, eligible creators will earn from qualified impressions generated by their original content, with payments made every two weeks.
X defined qualified impressions as unique impressions from Premium users on the Home Timeline feed, where at least 50 per cent of a post is visible.
On the other hand, “The following are excluded from qualified impressions: impressions from the same account counted more than once per post; paid, promoted, or artificially generated impressions; and fraudulent impressions,” it said.
To qualify, creators must be at least 18 years old, live in a country where the programme is available, maintain an account in good standing and have either a personal or vusiness account.
They must also subscribe to X Premium, Premium+ or Premium Business, have at least 500 verified followers and record at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users within the previous 90 days.
X said creators must also regularly post original content to remain eligible.
“We want to recognize creators who break news, share expertise, tell stories, create entertainment, and contribute meaningful perspectives to the conversation,” the company said.
The platform said original content could include threads, videos, memes, graphics, illustrations, reporting, analysis, commentary and reactions that add meaningful value to existing conversations.
It said creators who use content produced by others would need to add meaningful commentary, context, analysis, humour or creative transformation for such posts to qualify.
“Building on existing conversations is a core part of X, but simply reposting someone else’s content is not enough,” it said.
X said minor edits such as cropping, filters, borders, watermarks, speed adjustments or simple text overlays would generally not qualify as meaningful transformation on their own.
It also warned that content copied or substantially reproduced from another creator, content downloaded and re-uploaded from X or another platform without being the original author’s, automated content, disinformation and misleading content would be ineligible.
The company said accounts that violate the programme’s requirements could be temporarily or permanently removed from it, depending on the severity of the violation.
It added that creators would be responsible for ensuring they had the necessary rights, permissions or licences to use content created by others.
“Original content is content you personally create that reflects your own voice, perspective, expertise, or creativity,” X said.
The company said the new programme was intended to reward creators who make the platform more valuable by bringing original ideas and perspectives to its conversations.
“The Original Content Rewards Program is designed to reward the creators who start them, shape them, and move them forward,” it said.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has introduced so-called Nigeria’s Certified Cloud Register, regulatory framework developed under the agency’s National Sovereign Cloud Initiative to determine which cloud providers are authorized to handle sensitive data, such as banking records.
In effect, from October, NITDA requires banks, fintech companies and other regulated organisations to source cloud infrastructure providers from a national register of certified firms approved to host sensitive financial and government data.
The Certified Cloud Register, is expected to strengthen data sovereignty, improve regulatory oversight and support the implementation of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) data localisation policy, which takes effect on January 1, 2027.
Under the framework, banks, fintechs, government institutions and other regulated entities will be able to verify whether cloud service providers, data centre operators, managed service providers and Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure companies have met NITDA’s certification requirements before entrusting them with critical digital workloads.
The initiative is expected to provide regulated institutions with a standardised process for selecting cloud infrastructure providers that satisfy Nigeria’s technical, security and regulatory requirements.
According to NITDA, the framework establishes “a common national standard, an independent assessment process and a public register of approved providers that banks, fintechs and government institutions can rely on when selecting cloud infrastructure partners.”
The register is expected to become a key compliance tool ahead of the CBN’s directive, which requires all payment transaction data generated within Nigeria to be stored and processed locally, effective from January 1, 2027.
The policy applies to deposit money banks, microfinance banks, mobile money operators, payment service providers, switching companies and other financial institutions.
The certification regime is also expected to reshape Nigeria’s cloud computing ecosystem, making regulatory approval a major requirement for cloud providers seeking to handle sensitive data for regulated industries.
Figures cited by NITDA showed that Nigeria’s 10 largest banks spent about N177.91 billion on information technology in the first quarter of 2026, representing a 31 per cent increase over the corresponding period last year.
A sizeable portion of the investment currently supports cloud infrastructure hosted outside Nigeria, a trend the new certification framework is expected to address by encouraging greater utilisation of compliant local infrastructure.
NITDA said the certification programme will apply the same technical and regulatory standards to indigenous cloud providers and international hyperscale operators, creating a level playing field for all companies seeking to provide cloud services to regulated sectors.
The agency also disclosed that more than 85 per cent of Nigerian businesses currently rely on cloud services, with the majority using infrastructure hosted outside the country.
It said the new framework is aimed at improving confidence in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure while promoting local capacity and enhancing oversight of critical national data.
Speaking on the objective of the initiative, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director-general of NITDA, said the programme is designed to strengthen Nigeria’s position in the global digital economy rather than exclude foreign technology companies.
According to him, the initiative is intended “to redefine the terms under which Nigeria participates in the global digital economy rather than isolate the country from international technology providers.”
The Certified Cloud Register forms part of broader efforts by the Federal Government to deepen digital trust, strengthen cybersecurity and ensure that critical financial and public sector data are managed in line with Nigeria’s evolving data governance and sovereignty objectives.
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