Title: ICT and Leadership: A Catalyst for Business Success in Ghana
1ICT 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
2Content
- 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
3The 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.
4The 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.
5The 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.
6Fundamentals 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.
7Fundamentals 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
8What 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.
9Leadership 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.
10Leadership and ICT (contd)Some differences
between Managers Leaders
- 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.
11Leadership 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
12Leadership 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)
13Leadership and ICT (contd)
- Leadership and three levels of ICT implementation
- Considering technologies that
- Step 1 Are directly relevant or fundamental to
organizations 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
14Next 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
15The 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.
16The 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.
17The 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.
18The 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.
19Conclusion
- To our business leaders, the basis of good
leadership is honourable character and selfless
service to ones organization. In the employees
eyes, ones leadership is everything one does
that affects the organizations 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)
20Conclusion
- Companies that create the future are rebels.
Theyre subversies. They break the rules. Theyre
filled with people who take the other side of an
issue just to spark a debate. In fact, theyre
probably filled with people who didnt mind being
sent to the principals office once a while. - -Gary Hamel and C.K Prahalad,
- Seeing the Future First,
- Harvard Business Review.
21Finally
- Thank you for your attention