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By Gabriel Dike,
The Centre for Research in Enterprise and Action in Management (CREM), established in 2018, relaunched its brand recently at the Grooming multipurpose hall, Iyana-Ejigbo, Lagos.
Driven by a desire to reposition its brand in the corporate world, the centre hosted over 100 of professionals from different walks of life. At the event was one of the nation’s foremost political economy and management experts, Prof. Pat Utomi, the chief executive officer of Grooming Centre, Dr. Godwin Nwabunka, and other top executives from the business world.
With the theme of the event, “Promoting research, learning and innovation as key drivers to economic growth,” Utomi, the special guest of honour at the event, buttressed the importance of research and innovation in the growth and development of business entities, especially in the face of stiffening competition.
According to him, many organizations have become moribund due to dearth of innovation. He commended CREM for paying attention to research and innovation and tasked the staff members to match words with actions by promoting research.
The former presidential candidate said research ought to come from the universities to private organizations or industries that require results to produce goods and services or proffer solutions to issues confronting society.
He called for collaboration between the universities and the private sector in research funding and how to apply the outcomes to produce goods and service or solve societal issues.
Utomi said: “A lot of products we see are the outcome of research. So, government must fund research and the results are used to solve problems. The power of creativity is in us to make things happen. Two things we need for the society to move on are education and health, and this can be achieved through research.
“Developed countries are doing well because of research. Research has helped to produce many goods and services. We can dream it and make it happen.’’
He commended CREM for paying attention to research and innovation and tasked the workers to march action with words by promoting research.
Earlier, the chairman of CREM, Dr. Nwakunka, said CREM started in 2018 and was propelled by experience gathered from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), stating, “We thought we could replicate some of the things we learnt at UNDP. Our objective is to satisfy our clients.’’
According to him, the relaunch of CREM is to reach more people and clients and the outfit has mentored small firms and other agencies. He further explained that the management of CREM has put in place modern facilities to help achieve the objectives and also set up an endowment fund to provide seed money for ventures and small businesses.
He stated that knowledge development, management and information technology were at the heart of research, which is vital for the growth of a nation: ‘’We need data and outcome of research to provide goods and service or solve issues affecting people in the society; the bottom of the pyramid is the people who need help and support, which is what research is all about.’’
The chairman of CREM said the reason Nigeria has white elephants scattered all over the place is because of a lack of research.
He explained that government provides research grants to tertiary institutions and asked what they have done with the research outputs, adding, “finance is not the problem but what we make of the results of the outcome of the research.”
Nwakunka said CREM is positioned
