Close to 200 people including men and women, and comprising fellows, associates and graduates who were recently inducted into the membership of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), having successfully completed their various courses at the institute, have been charged to maintain a competitive edge as professionals who desire to be successful in life.
Making the charge at the 17th induction ceremony of the institute in Lagos, John Aboh, chairman, Ecobank, and guest speaker who spoke on “Maintaining a Competitive Edge as a Professional,” said for a professional to maintain a competitive edge, he or she must maintain a reputation for integrity, accountability and industry.
Aboh said he or she must hone both professional and leadership skills, keep pace with changes in customer needs, industry, technology and the economy as a whole, stressing that the professional must equally maintain visibility in his or her your industry and expand his or her professional networks.
He noted that the professional must participate in his or her professional groups and associations such as the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria
“By being inducted into the Institute as members today, each and everyone of you already have a competitive edge. This is because ICSAN’s qualifying scheme is unique.
“No other professional body provides a post-graduate qualification that is as broad-based. Chartered Secretaries and Administrators are trained in business, company law, corporate governance, management, finance, administration and company secretaryship,” he said.
Explaining why a competitive edge is important as a professional, the guest speaker said without it, you have no economic reason to exist as a professional, adding that with professional ethics on your side already, competitive advantage is key to raising performance levels. “As gatekeepers of corporate governance in Nigeria, our nation’s economy depends on your collective competitive edge.”
In his welcome address, the president and chairman of the governing council of the institute, Samuel Kolawole, said, “The induction we are holding today constitutes a rite of passage in your professional development and it signals, not only your admission into membership of the noble profession of Chartered Secretaryship, but also the beginning of a lifetime professional development journey.
“By your induction, you automatically gain the membership or attain higher cadre of membership (as the case may be) of a reputable Institute that is in a class of its own as far as knowledge, skills and competencies in Secretarial Practice and Corporate Governance are concerned.”
In her remarks, the registrar of the institute, Nkechi Onyenso, said “You have commenced a journey into a profession that promises to give you an edge in the socio-economic world of this 21st Century.
For our Inductees being conferred with higher grades, I warmly congratulate you for your sustained commitment and dogged determination for improvement, which has culminated in your elevation today.
“I will want you to see your elevation as a call to higher responsibilities. All categories of inductees should bear it in mind that your induction today puts on you an added responsibility to be on top of your game as far as continuous acquisition of sound knowledge and proficiency in your fields are concerned.”
