In spite of the current economic crisis, Dr. Ishmael Yamson has urged chief executive officers (CEOs) to have the guts to look for possibilities to expand their businesses.
In Accra, Ghana, at the first CEO Dialogues, a business discussion titled: “How your business might survive the economic catastrophe,” Dr. Yamson said:
“There is uncertainty and complexity, which is not ending any time soon. You need the courage to take the strong decisions that will allow you to grow even in these times”.
He argued that there were new opportunities and markets that could be conquered with the right decisions.
The CEO Dialogues is a capacity building, thought leadership vehicle organised by Base Element Ghana in collaboration with Ishmael Yamson and Associates.
Delivering a paper on the subject, Kwame Sarpong Barnieh of KPMG pointed out the importance of working capital management in order to build resilience during these periods.
Actions
A marketing expert, Adam Sulley, who represented the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana, outlined a number of actions that were relevant from marketing perspective.
He said the customer needed to be the foremost consideration, while “actions must be supported by strategy”, arguing further that the most significant brands within a company’s portfolio needed to be valued.
The Accra Chair of the Association of Ghana Industries, Tsonam Akpeloo, outlined the myriad of challenges that most local industries were presently enduring.
CEOs from across industries, including banks, manufacturing, health and IT, attended the event.