Festival of Ideas : Point of convergence for corporate leaders
When the 10th edition of the Festival of Ideas takes place next Thursday August 18, it will once again bring together some of the nation's most prominent CEOs and corporate leaders to network, share ideas on the chosen theme and brainstorm best practices in business.
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Since the very first edition in August 2007, the high-profile event has attracted entrepreneurs, public sector heads and corporate leaders from diverse industries including banking, finance, insurance, mining, manufacturing, education, consulting, services, agribusiness, real estate, media, information technology, among others.
Every year, organisers choose a theme for the conference based on global trends or peculiar issues in the Ghanaian environment.
The theme then serves as a focal point for conference presentations and deliberations. This year, the conference will challenge participants to "DARE TO DREAM." As usual there will be two events targeted at two different categories of leaders.
In an interview, Mrs Comfort Ocran, CEO of Legacy and Legacy, organisers of the conference, stressed the importance of this year's Executive Coaching Session for the future of business organisations.
"All over the world, forward-looking companies are investing heavily in grooming a generous pool of talent to occupy top management positions. Succession planning has long ceased to be a cliche. It is now a survival issue." Mrs Ocran stressed.
The growing focus on succession planning will help correct a trend that has persisted all over the world for years. According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) in 2014, "Two-thirds of U.S. public and private companies still admit that they have no formal CEO succession plan in place. And only one-third of the executives whose companies did have such a programme were satisfied with the outcome."
This is a challenge organisers have taken up to address in this year's Festival of Ideas. The morning session will therefore be an Executive Coaching Session for middle managers, emerging leaders and prospective CEOs under the theme: "Grooming the next CEOs."
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For the first time, the workshop has been expanded to include a breakout coaching session with ten corporate leaders to deliberate on the requirements for becoming a corporate CEO.
A careful examination of the criteria used by recruiting agencies all over the world to select CEOs reveals some commonalities. Ten of the most recurrent themes have been developed into the curriculum for the morning session.
They are Building Leadership Capacity, Mastering Key Competencies, Designing A Personal Roadmap, Overcoming Setbacks, Personal Development and Innovation, Mentoring and Being Mentored, Ethics and Values, Personal Branding and Grooming, Managing Stakeholder Relationships and Health and Stress Management.
The team of respected CEOs and corporate leaders who will facilitate these sessions include Kweku Bedu-Addo, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Maidie Arkutu, CEO of Unilever Ghana, Ebenezer Asante, CEO of MTN Ghana, Jim Baiden, Deputy Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, and Keli Gadzekpo, CEO of the Enterprise Group. In what promised to be a very revealing session, each of these resource persons will use their personal experiences and observations to coach a team of prospective CEOs on one of the thematic areas.
The main conference plenary, known as the Night With Great Minds, will bring together an array of CEOs, Organisational Heads and Top Management to deliberate on the sub-theme of "Building World-Class Businesses."
The session will feature presentations from Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, founder of the Silverbird Group from Nigeria, and Mr Albert Essien, former CEO of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and Senior Executive Advisor to McKinsey and Co. The keynote presentation will be by Dr Mensa Otabil, founder of ICGC and Chancellor of Central University.
The Night With Great Minds will also feature a networking dinner and a special award ceremony. A notable feature at the event will be the sharing of revolutionary ideas by CEOs who have successfully deployed them.
The night will be interspersed with classical and operatic music by Lumina and the Accra Symphony Orchestra to provide the right ambience for ideation, contemplation and networking.
After nine successful editions, the Festival of Ideas has come to stay as Ghana's flagship business conference. The upcoming 10th edition presents a unique opportunity to prepare a new crop of CEOs to take up the mantle of corporate leadership over the next decade.
It is also hoped that it will unleash fresh ideas to propel Ghanaian businesses into a new phase of accelerated growth and prosperity.