With Jamaica still grappling with rapid workplace shifts, post-crisis uncertainty, and growing demands for resilient leadership, the Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM) has stepped forward with a new national initiative aimed at strengthening the country’s managerial capacity.

MSBM recently launched its Strategic Insights Seminar Series, a high-level knowledge forum designed to equip executives, policymakers, and entrepreneurs with the tools needed to navigate ongoing national and regional challenges.

The inaugural event, ‘Thriving in Change: A Leadership Imperative‘, drew leaders from across multiple sectors to the UWI Regional Headquarters.

The seminar—facilitated by international change management expert Cheryl Hall—comes at a time when organisational resilience, employee engagement, and adaptive strategy are becoming urgent priorities across Jamaica’s public and private sectors. Hall emphasised that successful transformation requires structured, intentional leadership rather than reactive decision-making.

“Change management is a science. It’s not just a matter of chance or reaction,” said Diane Edwards, director of MSBM’s Professional Services Unit, in her opening remarks. “That is the motivation behind this seminar series.”

Participants engaged in hands-on exercises exploring how to stabilise teams, lead amid disruption, and embed change management practices into organisational culture. One of the morning’s most critical takeaways was Hall’s caution for leaders:

“The biggest mistake leaders make when facing change is not involving key stakeholders—especially the teams that execute the change.”

The launch signals MSBM’s broader strategy to position itself not only as an academic institution, but as a national thought leader shaping business, governance, and economic resilience.

Building on the momentum, MSBM announced the second instalment of the series: ‘Strategic Resilience: Embedding Sustainability in Post-Crisis Recovery’, scheduled for February 17, 2026.

The seminar will be led by Professor Judy Muthuri, a globally recognised scholar and sustainability strategist with nearly 30 years of experience advancing ethical and responsible business practices across the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe.

Her insights will be especially relevant as Jamaica continues to recover from Hurricane Melissa, which exposed major vulnerabilities in environmental planning, organisational preparedness, and national infrastructure.

Professor Muthuri, who has advised governments and multinational organisations— including developing a sustainable mining strategy for Kenya—will guide Jamaican leaders on embedding sustainability into recovery planning, crisis preparedness, and long-term national strategy.

A national platform for executive learning

MSBM’s Strategic Insights Seminar Series is part of a wider effort to strengthen Jamaica’s leadership pipeline and fortify institutional resilience across the region. It also reinforces MSBM’s growing role as a platform for executive learning, applied research, and public-sector and private-sector collaboration.