ICT and Leadership: A Catalyst for Business Success in Ghana

ICT and Leadership: A Catalyst for Business Success in Ghana A Presentation at the 9th AITEC West Africa Conference and Workshop, La Royal Palm Beach Hotel, Accra, Ghana, 21-23 September, 2005 Robert Ankomah Opoku Research School of e-Commerce Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden

Content • The Changing Face of Business • The Case of Ghana • Fundamentals of Business Success • What ICT can do • Leadership and ICT • Leadership: What is it ? • The Way Forward • Conclusion

The Changing Face of Business the World Over • The complexity of business Note that:Globalisation and organisational issues were cited as two of the biggest challenges facing many companies in 2005. The Boston Consulting Group Innovation 2005 • The greater responsibilities of business • BUT the underlying reasons for conducting business are as constant as the basic needs for survival.

The Case of Ghana Things are not different • The intensifying competition for resources and demand. • Companies need to be more flexible, more results-focused, and more fast-acting.

The Case of Ghana (contd) • Companies are finding that such initiatives require able and visionary leadership. • The challenge to help build effective leadership both in the next generation of business leaders and throughout the organization today.

Fundamentals of Business Success in this Environment Two key issues 1. Knowing the marketplace and being able to determine the future. 2. Taking advantage of trends in ICT use. BECAUSE: ”The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.” Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation,US.

Fundamentals of Business Success in this Environment (Contd) However, • a. Success can only be maintained through effective leadership and sound management practices. • b. Technology can make things better in every aspect of the value chain -Both in primary and support activities -Creating new products -Production methods -Streamlining business processes -Opening up new export markets

What ICT can do Rudiments: ICT has changed and will continue to change the way we: • Learn, • Communicate, • Obtain information, • purchase products and do business. ICT can improve • efficiency and lower costs; • Increase your understanding of your clients, suppliers and partners; • and improve your communications.

Leadership and ICT It is up to an effective business leader: • not only to choose the best out of a pile of ICT technologies available on the market • BUT to work with a team in the implementation and diffusion of these technologies in order to achieve better results.

Managers Agenda: Managers plan steps, timelines, budgets, and resources. Structure: Managers organise structure and staff, establish procedures to monitor the implementation. Execution: Managers role is to minimise deviations and help produce predictable results. Leaders Agenda: leaders establish directions and visions. Structure: Leaders work to align people with that visions. Execution: Leaders energize and equip people with the right tools to help them overcome those obstacles. Leadership and ICT (contd)Some differences between Managers & Leaders

Leadership: What is it? And What it is not • "Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself-your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers." - Dee Hock Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa • ”Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things.” -Peter F. Drucker, American Educator and Writer

Leadership and ICT (contd) “Leadership is a complex process by which a person influences others to accomplish a mission, task, or objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. A person carries out this process by applying his/her leadership attributes (belief, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills).” -John Kotter, What Leaders do (1999)

Leadership and ICT (contd) • Leadership and three levels of ICT implementation Considering technologies that: Step 1: Are directly relevant or fundamental to organization’s core mission Step 2: Lack revolutionary potential but organizations need them anyway. For example, a website Step 3: Meticulously identifying technologies that are nothing than a distraction

Next Generation of Business Leaders • Why next generation of business leaders is coming from ICT, not from finance or marketing? -Msc MBA targeting aspiring business leaders and entrepreneurs “The idea of charging for calls belongs to the last century. Skype software gives people new power to affordably stay in touch with their friends and family by taking advantage of their technology and connectivity investments.” Niklas Zennström, CEO & Co-founder of Skype • Types of leaders we should cultivate as a nation -Values leaders -Thought leaders -Action leaders -Visionary leaders

The Way Forward Education • Building skills-development programmes and developing local capacities. Our leadership and skill development programmes should focus on developing eight core competencies: strategic thinking, influencing, leading, thinking globally, championing change, utilizing judgment, building relationships, and managing disagreements.

The Way Forward (contd) • Our Teaching Programmes Our educational curriculum should nurture thought leaders-individuals who can successfully synthesize multiple and, some conflicting agenda into a cogent strategic plan to achieve their goals by infusing ICT into their solutions.

The Way Forward (contd) • Opportunities available to the Ghanaian business leader with the use of ICT • Breaking down markets/organizations into key activities. • Assessing the potential for adding value via cost advantage or differentiation. • Identifying current activities where business appears to be at competitive disadvantage. • Determining strategies, built around and focus on activities where competitive advantage can be sustained.

The Way Forward (contd) • It is time to develop ourselves into ”connective leaders”- leaders who do not demand that everyone adheres to the vision but can tolerate a diverse range of viewpoints. • The ideal leadership in the twenty-first century must go beyond the chance factor. • Our creativity in leadership should involve resourcefulness, productivity, effective communication, innovation, imagination and persistence, thus the imperative for a mechanism to promote newer forms and levels of leadership.

Conclusion • To our business leaders, the basis of good leadership is honourable character and selfless service to one’s organization. In the employees’ eyes, one’s leadership is everything one does that affects the organization’s objectives and their well being. A respected leader concentrates on: • What s/he is (beliefs and character) • What s/he knows (job, tasks, human nature) • What s/he does (implement, motivate, provide direction)

Conclusion ”Companies that create the future are rebels. They’re subversies. They break the rules. They’re filled with people who take the other side of an issue just to spark a debate. In fact, they’re probably filled with people who didn’t mind being sent to the principal’s office once a while.” -Gary Hamel and C.K Prahalad, Seeing the Future First, Harvard Business Review.

Finally Thank you for your attention

ICT and Leadership: A Catalyst for Business Success in Ghana