Ghanaian businesses urged to be transparent with clients
Ghanaian business executives have been urged to exhibit and maintain high levels of openness, transparency, good governance and truthfulness as important virtues towards business operations.
These virtues would create the needed atmosphere for trust among clients and attract investors for the needed expansion of the business sector for national development.
Mrs Lisa Opoku, the Chief Operating Officer of the Technical Division of Goldman Sachs, an international financial services company, said this at MTN Ghana’s 18th Business World Executive Breakfast Meeting in Accra on Thursday.
She spoke on the theme: “Attracting Investments to Ghana: Lessons from Asia,” and said for local businesses to grow, they must be transparent with their clients, tell them about their difficulties, and engage them in finding sustainable solutions to the problems.
Mrs Opoku, also the Global Strategist for Goldman Sachs and one of the world’s leading investment banking executives, said the current pace of global market trends would no longer permit developing countries, including Ghana, to sit on the sideline as passive observers, but would require them to actively participate to achieve the needed growth.
According to her with her years of experience and in-depth knowledge of the Asia Pacific Region, she could admit that the high sense of discipline and effective policies for favourable business operations were among the major contributory factors for the giant leap in development of the continent.
She said attracting the needed investment into the country would require business executives and entrepreneurs to create conducive atmospheres through the encouragement of strategic policies and maintain positive attitudes towards ground-breaking improvements in their industries.
Mrs Opoku said Ghanaian businesses must also learn to deliver on time and enhance their skills on meeting deadlines with their clients.
She, however, noted that although Africa presents fertile grounds for foreign investment, businesses and entrepreneurs must be careful of the agreements they sign onto and with whom.
“You must equip yourselves with great negotiating skills, know what you negotiate for and be careful to participate actively in all the activities of the investor,” she said.
Ms Cynthia Lumor, a Corporate Services Executive of MTN, said the choice of the theme indicated that making the right investments in Ghana had a lot of positive repercussions on the growth of the country’s economy and its total development.
She said the event was a series organised by the MTN Business World Magazine to create a platform for executive briefings, networking for chief executive officers, senior management and entrepreneurs, and also as part of the company’s 20th anniversary celebration in Ghana.
Source: GNA