The Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity (BIMAP) and Walden University have struck a partnership which is being hailed as a union to push new thinking among Barbadian business professionals.
Walden is an internationally accredited American university that in over 40 years has graduated more than 46 500 people across the world in Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral degrees.
Speaking at a launch seminar last Thursday, BIMAP executive director Dr Sonia Greenidge-Franklyn described this university, which currently has a number of Barbadian students and graduates, as one that provides advanced educational degrees for adults without their having to leave their places of work, thereby exposing people to world-class education and enabling them to complete studies at home.
She said the partnership embodies a new strategy and defies traditional operations.
“The partnership is a strategic alliance that aims at meeting the challenges of globalization.”
According to the executive director, BIMAP expects “a long relationship which will bring a measurable difference to the workforce in Barbados”.
She spoke of current difficulties of organizations in choosing people and companies with which to do business in the international environment because they are stuck with old strategies with “substandard” approaches to new markets.
She told a gathering of prospective and current students at the Accra Beach Hotel about the complex approaches needed for the new market environment.
“The partnership between BIMAP and Walden is strategically orchestrated to enhance the future performance, the growth and the future development of Barbados.”
Greenidge-Franklyn said responsibility in the workplace is rapidly changing and BIMAP’s collusion with Walden “is also designed to prepare persons for an environment where vertical management is replaced by networking”.
She advanced the concept of initiative-taking as being more important than obedience, defying the idea that employees must be obedient, and said that through the BIMAP-Walden alliance, “We’re saying take the initiative rather than be obedient.”
