WHY LOCAL BUSINESSES FAIL.

Hello there, i want to talk HR in this write up but as i say the spirit leads me,i suspect i could end up in the pulpit because i have that calling i have avoided since childhood.Anyway i would do some HR , practical workable HR perspectives.I love to use symbolism to push forward my points and today i am motivated by situations i see , i may have found myself in, or have heard from others.There is a fish the Ga's call ''Chileh''.I have seen that fish grow to 4 feet in length but you know if you keep that fish in a jar it would not outgrow the jar, it would remain a goldfish.In a nutshell if you want to explore the full potential of an individual you don't put the individual in a cocooned environment. Once i met a Politician and he is a friend,Nana Akomeah of Npp and he told me one thing,let me say that guy is Presidential material.He said i should aim at working in environments that have best practices,because of my past.Anything short of that would render me very incompetent, i tried to function in a certain locally owned construction Company and it was the lowest point of my Professional career,they had no structures, i tried to build and indeed succeeded but the owner of that business collapsed everything later on.You dont put policies in a document and keep it on the computer and hard copy in a drawer and expect it to work countrywide when you have not circulated it, but this chap thought once it was on paper he should see results but was not interested in its introduction to workers.So the policy only worked at the head office in Accra. This MD was prevailed upon by some consultants to adopt best practice, he got competent and experienced chaps but he did not have the discipline and character to maintain an environment of best practices.He went back to the old ways and called me incompetent so i resigned after all my 6 month contract was due and i had over stayed but i told him his construction Company would collapse in maximum 2 years and thats exactly what happened.I told another business man who has an Automobile company in East Legon that he would fold up or hit a brick wall in 2 years max because of his abusive nature and that place is not only collapsed but also seized by the state and under investigations.

If you have a Company that has no structures, employing competent and experienced hands would not make that environment a place of best practices, unless of course you let go and allow those experienced hands that autonomy and freedom/authority to institute the kind of regime and changes they want to bring on board.As the owner of a business there is always that fear if you allow your officers too much freedom they may use it against you, that genuine fear is there but its also imperative that you allow that freehand and as a leader you exercise ''crafty'' control whiles allowing some freehand.If you dont want best practices then dont hire experienced and highly competent people because you only worry them, it would be better you manage with half baked people and you run an incompetent institution that would be surviving by grace.Its hard but as an experienced and competent person you should shun such institutions that have no structures because trust me that is where an incompetent lout would look you in the face and tell you that you know next to nothing.Sometimes i know people are compelled to take up such appointments just for the money or to build something that would enrich your cv, you can call it experiment.

Leaving the private sector to work in the public sector requires lots of sacrifices.The attitude at the various MDA's wont excite you if you are coming in especially from a multi national environment.My uncle trained in Britain as an accountant and worked there for many years,he returned to Ghana when i was still a kid and he changed jobs more than 10 times, he could not cope and till he died at the age of 86 he still could not cope with certain things here.At Ghana Telecom we had 2 chaps from the Government Ministries coming in as Directors and GT then being a Corporation though public, operated differently from the Ministries and these 2 chaps had it tough.Similarly officers in GT fiercely resisted transfer to the sector ministry, even for the few who left GT to start NCA it was a tough decision.

There are multi national institutions that may look glorious from outside but when you enter it may shock you that the best practices are there but you are marginalized as a local person.The expats conditions of service can be very annoying especially if they know next to nothing.I remember at Micheletti Civil Engineering there was this workshop Manager , an Italian and i had to prepare his maintenance schedule for all vehicles , plant and equipment.In multi national environments you learn a lot,i never knew how to set up a batching plant prior to this but i had that assignment as a project at Micheletti from the MD .Many regulatory policy documents regarding batching operations was done by me, this is multi-skilling. I learnt something about project management and construction.That was where my skills in HSE was greatly enhanced after what i acquired in Vodafone.In our local setting if you are HR thats it stick to HR.I must say that i would place Ghana Telecom above Vodafone and even Micheletti in some respects because in Ghana Telecom it was about developing the individual and it was a very Humane environment, they cared about the welfare of all the workers and that is what Ghanaian owned entities are expected to offer their workers, that is what identifies us.The white man would tell you this welfare system is waste of money,i beg to differ,in GT we were 4000 workers countrywide but the company was always having reserves in many financial institutions until politicians decided to devour all those monies.Vodafone cancelled this welfare system and reduced staff numbers drastically but hey is it better today than before assessing on its own merit?Some of us who know how to measure the success of a Telecom business know the answer,many would look at it superficially and conclude its better,but i have my views.In certain multi national entities you flow with the program, you dont get in and try to change things, you would be resisted and thrown out, but these same institutions would tell you not to sit on the fence but make suggestions, be assertive but you get assertive at the peril of your career there, you get assertive when its required and they ask you to and i am talking of multi national entity.The MD would tell you the one who set up the company has a vision and you came to meet it running so you dont come in and rock the boat.A wise person would find out and keep safe and that was how i survived in such institutions.Those who joined and tried to change things were shown the exit.

One thing, i am proud of is every place i worked since they offered a learning curve which was a new experience,even with the low of the lows like the local contractor.I came face to face with irresponsibility , backwardness and a corporate entity without structures, it operated on the whims of an individual who had no clue about managing a business professionally because it begun as an electrical store so when it became a group of companies with Construction as the flagship he still operated as an electrical store.At least i learnt that in some institutions you could have verbal transactions and cash based transactions without any regard for vouchers and you name it.Nothing was documented and we had to introduce these accepted ways of conducting business and even after we left that was in operation till the Company ground to a halt.Apart from these low points i say the rest were exceptional in their own ways,Beige had its challenges but it had the structures and we were upgrading to world class standards never seen before in this country before Government interfered with this progress.I say this and some may not like it but Micheal Nyinaku has high standards and Beige as an institution was far ahead of its peers and we were getting into the skies.No lazy person survives in Beige.

We should celebrate young persons like Mike Nyinaku who was a source of hope for the youth in entrepreneurship and despite his flaws and he is human but he is among the few who have a lot to offer this nation.This is one local businessman i know who invests in his business with funds generated internally, he wont spend corporate funds on himself or for the comfort of his girl friends like many local business people do.He wont take funds from one Company to bail out another.I salute Jimmy Castagna of Micheletti, you need to work there and see how structures are created and everything there is near perfection.Its not about degrees but capabilities.