As part of its commitment to equip civil and public servants with basic knowledge and tools befitting a 21st century work environment, the Edo State Government through the John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy (JOOPSA) has engaged it workforce on a three-day commercial acumen training in Benin City.
The training, which took place between May 30th to June 1st at JOOPSA, centred on the different domains of commercial acumen, including global perspectives, strategies for profitability and effectiveness; gig economy and the workforce culture; competitive forces within the gig economy, winning processes, advantages and disadvantages as well as emerging business models.
According to one of the facilitators, Jacob Adewumi, “Commercial acumen, often used interchangeably with business acumen, is the skill of being able to make sound, beneficial decisions using data and insights in the area of exchange of goods and services between two or more entities. The goods and services may be in the form of projects or public infrastructure development or other social interventions. Thus, commercial acumen is what is needed for businesses/organisations to make impactful success.”
In addition, he defined commercial awareness generally as the “knowledge of how business makes money, the needs of customers and problems noticeable in a particular area of business.” He added that it is the understanding of what a company needs to do in order to be profitable, successful and efficient in customer services delivery.
When responding to the questions asked by some of the participants, Adewumi explained that the difference between commercial and business acumen is based on scope and time. On scope, the facilitator said “Commercial acumen focuses on selling existing products and services as well as improving on them within short term period, while business acumen incorporates commercial acumen but is also keen on offering additional products and services for core customers within a longer period of time.”
Highlighting significant attributes of commercial acumen, Adewumi said they are: “insights into trends and technologies, tapping into trends to streamline performance and grow market share, flexibility and adaptability to change, strategic development, out-performing the competitions, assessing risks and opportunities.
On gig economy and workforce culture, the facilitator explained that it is the future of work because the labour market relies heavily on temporary and part-time positions filled by independent contractors and freelancers. The gig economy, according to him, “is based on the concept of work independence and flexibility.” Unlike full-time jobs, he categorised gig economy into three segments such as full-time independent, part-time independent and occasional independent, adding that jobs under each of the categories are transportation (Uber/Bolt), services like cleaning of the home/laundering, selling in Amazon and Jumia, among others.
While addressing participants on the final day of the training, Adewumi told them that “Competitive forces emerged within the gig because the economy enhances operational agility, its tasks are variable, work hours are flexible and ICT plays a major role. However, he said its challenges are legal ambiguity of workers’ classifications and less control over them.”
During his explanation on emerging business models which he said revolves on developing a blue ocean shift strategy, Adewumi urged trainees to embrace the new trends in the business economy. Highlighting the new models to include rrive for Uber or Lyft, freelance on Fiverr or Upwork, Babysitter or nanny on Care.com, Running errands with TaskRabbit, delivering food with Door-Dash or Postmates and Renting out of home on Airbnb or VRBO, among others.
As a way of recapitulation and individual assessment, all participants were divided into groups in order to showcase their understanding through presentations on all the training areas for the three-day period.
The participants who turned up massively for the training were from the office of the Deputy Governor, the State Public Procurement Agency, Ministry of Communication and Orientation, other media houses/stations, among others.
