Entrepreneurs challenged to take their business to new heights
The Managing Director of Airtel Ghana and international business leader, Lucy Quist, has challenged young entrepreneurs to create and operate businesses that will create prosperity beyond themselves.
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She shared her thoughts and insights on the impact young entrepreneurs can make on the continent through scalable businesses during a talk session at Workshed as part of The Bold New Normal Tour.
The multiple award-winning business leader was emphatic on the role and the potential of businesses, and for that matter entrepreneurs in building economies.
As part of her opening statement during the hour-long interaction, she stated that “Throughout time, one thing that is certain is that economies have been built by businesses. Somehow, in our part of the world we have come to this expectation that government will build our economies and countries for us, they don’t. Work outputs create prosperity, government alone cannot do that.”
She posited that the responsibility of government was to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are to take advantage of the policies, laws and local conditions to build relevant businesses that will grow the economy and bring prosperity to people.
After challenging the perception on the role of government, Lucy Quist went on to challenge all entrepreneurs to have a better appreciation of their environment, industries, and economies if they are to build businesses that make a real economic impact.
Lucy Quist interacts with young entrepreneurs at The Bold New Normal event.
“If we are going to be the architects of a more prosperous continent, we need to understand what is going on around us. We need to have relevant numbers at our fingertips as we plan our businesses and think of how we are going to make them grow on a much larger scale to fit into the bigger picture.”
She cited the growth of the services sector and decline of the Agric and Industry sectors in Ghana as examples of local situations that entrepreneurs can consider in creating businesses that will fill the gaps in the economy.
“We have gaps that we need to fill and we need our young minds to think about how we can make these other sectors (agriculture and industry) grow to create prosperity for our people”.
The session at Workshed was also an opportunity to discuss how young entrepreneurs can start and grow scalable businesses through a model that outlives them, creates prosperity for more people and breaks boundaries.
Lucy Quist in a group shot with young entrepreneurs
Lucy Quist also encouraged entrepreneurs within the same industry to collaborate and push for policies that will bring about growth within their space.
Speaking at the event, Andrew Bimpong a co-founder of Workshed, hosts of the event, stated that, “Lucy touched on pertinent ideas about the entrepreneurship journey, the entrepreneurship space and doing business in Ghana at large. Through the key insights she shared, we have come to understand that for startups to have a voice in a country like Ghana, it is better we come together to form strong collaborations that will advocate for the right posture from the government.
Certainly, the Bold New Normal is the way forward for the African Entrepreneur and we at Workshed are proud to be a part of this move."
The Bold New Normal Tour is a series of interactive speaking sessions with Lucy Quist. The talks focus on how young entrepreneurial minds can take bold steps away from the norm and create prosperity for themselves, their country and continent.