Strong Organisations Are Built By Good Leaders- Stephen Asamoah Boateng
Executive Chairman for the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA)says the importance of leadership in the growth, success, and survival of an institution cannot be underestimated.
According to him, an organization’s potential is almost endless if it hires good people, develops them as leaders, and continues to grow them.
“Leadership is the driving force behind successful businesses. To develop vital and viable organizations, leadership is essential to generate a new vision of what organizations can be and then urge the organization to shift in that direction,” Mr. Asamoah Boateng has stated.
Hon Boateng said these when he was delivering an address as the Special Guest at the opening ceremony of the board/CEO/CAE governance workshop of the Institute of Internal Auditors Ghana on Thursday, 11th November 2021, in Accra.
DETAILS:
He stated that the previous themes of the annual conferences Institute of Internal Auditors have always struck him as being particularly pertinent to our current corporate governance challenges, and this year’s theme, Leadership: Imperative for Institutional Survival, is no exception.
He stated that multiple audit reports from the Auditor-General, as well as a detailed examination of the global financial crisis and the recent bankruptcy of several banks in Ghana, all point to and underline leadership flaws. The words “financial mismanagement,” “mismanagement,” and “corruption” come up repeatedly.
“Change is the only constant in life. Nothing stays forever, but change happens all the time. You will also agree with me that as a leader of an organisation, the most difficult challenge you have is managing change,” he stated.
He touched on changes that have taken place that places heightened demands on leaders, such as Covid-19, Technological Adoption, Demographic changes, Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability, and Labour of the future.
COVID-19 BREAK OUT:
On Covid-19, he stated that the onslaught of COVID-19 on businesses and other operational environments led to the adoption of new ways of working, and pointing out the need to acquire new skills.
He stated that businesses as well as public organisations have been stretched to their limits.
“Of course, a few businesses, particularly those that provided solutions to the challenges of COVID-19 benefited from the pandemic,” he noted.
He stated that governments have had to spend on welfare activities at the expense of physical development. “Despite rapid response relief financing by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), many are the countries that are still struggling to get back onto their feet. Businesses were not spared either. Some businesses lost markets, others lost key personnel while others had to contend with supply chain disruptions.
“If there are any lessons to learn at all from the experience of COVID-19, one of them is that leaders should sometimes give thought to extreme possibilities and spend some time thinking through what actions to take in case of the worst case scenario,” he said.
TECHNOLOGY:
On Technological Adoption, he said that the technological adoption has always been on the horizon but never was it as rapidly witnessed as we have seen in the past couple of years.
“Businesses have bought into varying technologies that promise different rewards. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cloud computing, data analysis and now, quantum computing are available for the taking by any tech-loving organisation or government.
“As leaders, do not be left behind in the digitization of the Ghanaian economy.
“Much as these technologies offer great benefits, there are the attendant risks for leaders to consider. The issue of cyber security should be at the forefront of business leaders,” he stated.
DYNAMICS:
He stated that demographical changes have created a hiatus between generations.
“There is a gap in the perception of what is formal or informal,” he stated.
He stated that while the modern generations would want to carry out all their transactions on social media, the pre-baby boomers and baby boomers still want to do things through the prim and proper methodical approach (the hitherto, known formal ways of doing things).
“Meanwhile, there are those who fall in the middle of the generations’ continuum and appear lost about what to do. “So, it is not surprising that one thing that leaders have to contend with at the workplace is inter-generational differences. Dealing with these differences could be a major source of success for the organisation,” he said.
OBSERVATIONS:
He noted that we all might have been overwhelmed by endless discussions about climatic change.
“Almost all leading prominent business magazines: be they Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg, The Economist, The Internal Auditor, the Financial Manager, Strategy+Business or many of the other magazines. One common issue under discussion within all these magazines is environmental, social and governance (ESG).
“Just about a couple of weeks ago the world gathered in Glasgow to discuss environment sustainability and dubbed this meeting COP26.
“World leaders highlighted the effect of climate change and challenged themselves to commit to saving the environment. In response to environmental changes, various treaties are being signed. At organisational levels financiers are posturing to only sponsor eco-friendly activities.
“The issues around environmental sustainability pose a challenge to any business leader or any public leader. As leaders you are required to maintain a balance between the business success as well as environmental sustainability.
“In fact, the world has since stopped talking about the bottom line. Now, we talk about triple bottom line. By that, emphasis is placed not just on profitability but also serving a social purpose and ensuring environmental sustenance. So it is no wonder that professional bodies now are clamouring to formulate standards and guides on environmental reporting,” he said.
THOUGHTS:
He stated that as a fall out from the various changes and adapting to the changing operational environment, there is a concern about skills gaps that threaten the future workforce. The education, experiences, and skill-set from the past are no longer suitable for today’s business processes and the future.
“There are varied predictions about the trajectory of change or suitability of various skills. What is certain is that the success of organisations, going into the future require reskilling, upskilling, or redeployment of the human resources. Leaders cannot play the ostrich regarding this critical issue. There will be a new focus on improving employee experience,” he said.
Mr. Asaamoah Boateng stated that given the myriad of factors that today’s leaders are expected to pay attention to, and respond to, it is impossible for an accountant to ‘stay in his lane’ and only study accounting and expect to hold a good grasp of some of these matters.
“It is also impossible for an engineer to stay in his lane and only learn about engineering and expect to function well. And Auditors cannot continue in the old ways of carrying out their responsibilities. We all must respond to the changes and adapt appropriately,” he said.
WORKSHOPS:
He noted as heart-warming that there are workshops that offer an opportunity to interact.
“It should be welcoming to hold such workshops every now and then and moderate them to enable executives such as you, who have no time to spend in the classroom anymore, to quickly deliberate on these matters within a short time, gain some insight and go back to play your roles.
“The demands of our challenging environment leave no leader in a comfortable state. Whether the leader is in public service or the private sector s/he faces a serious challenge.
“For the private sector, competition alone serves as a leveller. It challenges leaders of organisations to review their processes, adopt new ways, change strategy, and change course to stay competitive.
“In the public sector, efficient comparative products from the private sector have given rise to discussions about public-private partnerships, private sector participation in the hitherto of the public sector space, as well as new indicators for assessing public sector performance,” he said.
ROLE AT SIGA:
Mr. Asamoah Boateng said that citizens are becoming more assertive and are asking questions of state owned enterprises.
“There are questions as to “why these enterprises exist?” and “what do they bring to the table?”
“As the person charged with the responsibility of overseeing the state interest in all entities in which government has an interest, I have had an unpleasant duty of having to task chief executives to operate with a view of realizing maximum benefits.
“SIGA has resorted to signing performance contracts with all State-owned enterprises and public corporations and other bodies established by statutes. Through these performance contracts, we demand set performance standards for leaders.
“Having these contracts does not mean we envisage that the operational environments will be static. As I stated in the early part of my speech, changes are bound to challenge leaders all the time. These changes require leaders to adjust all the time in order to deliver on their mandates.
“I advise all leaders participating in this workshop to implement effective performance management systems in your institutions in order to deliver on your mandates,” he said.