NSE Victoria Island branch to inaugurate subcommittees……Holds Annual Dinner

CHINYERE IKEANYI

Chairman, Victoria Island branch Lagos of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Engr. Emeka Ibeh, has disclosed that the branch would soon inaugurate five strategic subcommittees to, among others, proffer engineering  solutions to key societal problems.

Engr. Ibeh stated this last weekend during the branch’s Annual Dinner held at the Main Auditorium, National Engineering Center, Victoria Island Lagos.

According to him, the subcommittees are: Pervasive Innovation (PI); Human Capacity Development (HCD); Save Our Society (SOS); Enhance Welfare (EW) and Infrastructure Scorecard Committee.

Commending the Executive Committee members for a job well done so far, the Chairman said their commitment to the Vision and Mission of the branch has led the branch to place 3^rd out of the 73 NSE branches.

In his speech on “Advancing Engineering Invention and Innovation Amidst Global Economic Crisis”, the Guest Speaker, Engr.Staeve Obiago, who is also the Head, Group IT Infrastructure Management, Access Bank, traced the World Greatest Innovations from 1436 to 1880 and agreed with some executives that “changes brought about by COVID-19 will be a big opportunity for growth with variation across industries”.

Engr. Obiago stated that setting a new aspiration should act as a North Statr that defines a combination of capabilities and strengths that will persist in the current Global crisis.

“To do that”, he said: “leaders may need to reframe their business and challenge orthodoxies that shaped the previous aspiration”, he said.

He also said as engineers, they needed to reconstruct the innovation portfolio  based on what  will drive the most value to enable them reallocate resources towards best “next formal” opportunities, away from opportunities for which previous assumptions no longer apply.

Stating that during crisis the market context is dynamic, with little certainty about what will define the world when things stabilize, Obiago stated that as “Engineers, we must develop the ability to rapidly synthesize the many signals coming into an organization, recognize new patterns of customer behaviour, and take action quickly can give companies a head start in innovation race”.

The Guest Speaker, who said the global pandemic has significantly accelerated thev pace at which companies are bringing new ideas to market, stated that “it is important to ensure that supply chains and other enablers of scale keep pace to meet demand”.

Engr.Obiago then concluded: “Above all, as Engineers, we must realize that innovation, now more than ever, is “NOT” a CHOICE. Innovation will continue to be critical in navigating and emerging even stronger from this crisis”.

For a better society