Don’t consider initial challenges of businesses as failure — Prof. Boso
African business owners have been encouraged not to consider initial challenges they encounter in their operations as failures but rather see them as learning curves to achieve better results.
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A lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Nathaniel Boso, said for African entrepreneurs to compete effectively on the international market, they must not be stigmatised when they failed in the process but rather be encouraged to learn to channel their experiences into new ventures.
“Many societies in Africa do not accept failure. The educational system in many African countries is such that failure is punished and stigmatised. “In some African societies, schoolchildren are likely to receive corporal punishment if they fail an exam. Parents are likely to scold their children for failing school exams.
“Yet, we know that approximately 65 per cent of new businesses fail during the first 10 years, and only 25 per cent make it to 15 years or more. We also know that on average, 50 to 90 per cent of new products fail,” he said.
Event
The Professor in International Marketing and Strategy at the Department of Marketing and Corporate Strategy of KNUST made these assertions at a Professorial Inaugural Lecture series held at the Great Hall of KNUST in Kumasi last Friday.
Held on the theme: “International business: Why care about Africa?”, the well-attended lecture was chaired by Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson, the Vice-Chancellor of KNUST.
Also present were Prof. Kwasi Obiri-Danso, a former V-C; Professor Elis Owusu-Dabo, the Pro V-C, some heads of departments and colleges, as well as students of KNUST and some students of selected senior high schools.
Academic research
Prof. Boso stated that research he conducted in 2019 on the study of how African entrepreneurs benefit from business failure experiences and published in the Journal of Business Research gathered that because failure is punishable and stigmatised, business leaders were unwilling to take risks to pioneer major innovations and new ventures.
He proposed for mechanisms to be put in place — probably at enterprise development centres - to provide relevant support services, including psychological support and advisory services to entrepreneurs who experience failure in their businesses and innovation trials as a way of lifting them from the “scars” of failure to try new ventures and innovations.
Prof. Boso seized the opportunity to appeal to the government to allocate enough resources to enhance quality research in academia, adding that the 1 per cent GDP allocated for research was woefully inadequate to conduct intensive research relevant to pushing local businesses on the world market and to access international grants.
Ground rules
As per the ground rules of the Professorial Public Lecture series, Prof. Boso was decorated in a gown and after that, all professors at the university who had already delivered their lectures took turns to shake hands with the speaker for his accomplishment.