African standards, euphemism for mediocrity - Albert Essien
Long before technology turned the world into a global village, many people and institutions looked up to their environments and communities for inspirations in the running of either their own lives, businesses or countries.
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As a result, a lot of business executives aspired to raise their businesses to the standards of celebrated ones found in neigbouring communities.
But as time went on, technology and globalisation soon broke the physical barriers that surrounded the world. It then turned the entire world into one big village, where things are almost of the same standard everywhere.
Beyond easing the challenges of doing business, this development also meant that the standards that apply in the United States of America (USA) in the running of businesses also apply here in Ghana and Africa as a whole.
Thus, for any Ghanaian to operate a successful business akin to what happens in the developed world, he or she must observe, respect and apply the standards that businesses anywhere adopt and apply.
Sadly however, not many business people have imbibed this reality. A lot of them are still stacked with the verbose African standards, which celebrated banker and former Group Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank ETI, Mr Albert Essien, described as euphemism for mediocrity.
“When people tell me that they are using African standards, I tell them that African standards is a euphemism for mediocrity.
“I believe that any business in this world should aspire to what is known as world standards,” he said at this year’s Festival of Ideal.
His presentation which touched on world class business, what it entails and how to achieve it here in Ghana.
The presentation was replayed on the September 11 edition of the Springboard, Your Virtual, on JOY FM.
World standards
On what constitute world standards, MrEssien, who is the first Ghanaian to head the Ecobank , said he has, over the years, come to realise that five things define a business as world class.
He mentioned effective governance and strong leadership, the right talent, strategic excellence and execution,culture and innovation as the things critical to building a business that is world class.
“When you talk of world class business with effective governance and leadership, then you are talking of a governance structure that has a very strong and functioning and efficient board. It is not just any board but a board that is part of policy formulation and implementation,” he said.
He explained that the board was critical to the survival of the business that its members needed to possess diverse skills and be well informed about the day to day running of the institution.
This, he said was needed to ensure that the business puts in place the right risk management mechanisms to help forestall crises.
“Strong leaders of world class businesses have this simple model: they have personal humility, integrity, ambitious for the company and not themselves, they work on succession planning, they have workman-like diligence and are more lough horses than show horses,” he said.
On talent, MrEssien said although people are the anchor of every business, getting the right talent was needed to propel a business to the status of a world class.
“We always say that the people are our assets in the business. Now, it is the right people; the right people or talent is the business’s greatest talent. World class businesses will want to make sure that they have the right talentand they will only hire if they have the right talent,” he said.
Strategic intent
Mr. Essien also explained that businesses that aspire to be world class normally explain their strategic intents in plain, clear language, which then guides the operation of the business, going forward.
They also focus on what they can be great at, he said, noting that passion normally become the guiding principle in this regard.
“They do not focus on ‘to do list.’ They actually focus on ‘the stop doing list.’ They tend to have very strong culture, which is the bedrock of every strong institution, and they actually encourage people to achieve consistent high results. They actually pay for performance,” he said, noting that paying for performance was rare in the country.
“They also have appraisals as we all do but the appraisals are not focused on the technical aspect but also on the attitude and the soft skills. So, they actually lead to build a merit based system, which I call a ‘meritocracy.’ That is the culture world class businesses have,” he said
He noted that world-class businesses also adapt to change due to the natural nature of change in the business world.
This, he said leads to innovation, which ensures that the business revolves and survives as the environment changes.
“So, it is not the point that if it is not broken, do not fi it. They do not leave on the status quo,” he said.