­Standards promote a culture of continuous improvement and help organisations to identify their risks and minimise them.

It is for this reason, that Springboard, Your Virtual University, a radio programme on Joy FM, used this week’s edition to educate organisations on how to set and maintain world-class standards at their organisations.

The programme, which is hosted by Rev. Albert Ocran, had the Executive Director of Ecobank Venture Capital, Mrs Rita Nana Aba Tsegah, who shared her ideas on what it took for an organisation to develop world-class standards.

Mrs Nana Aba Tsegah said standards were established norms and requirements that were very critical in business because it ensured uniformity and a process that allowed for measurement and evaluation.

“Standards is an enabler for so many other things such as interoperability which helps things to work together and actually get done. Also from the consumer’s perspective, it gives a lot of confidence to consumers so there is very little consumer dissonance because standards prevents errors,” she stated.

She said world-class standards were standards of excellence and best practices which had to be adopted by organisations that wanted to remain in business and grow.

“To ensure that you are sustainable as a business, you must imbibe world-class standards and conform to international practices and this will allow your company to be sustainable,” she mentioned.

Benchmarks for world-class standards

Touching on what constituted world-class standards, Mrs Tsegah, said it depended on the particular firm because there were various standards across the globe.

However, she said, there were some parameters that could be used to measure world-class standards.
She said some of the parameters included the competitiveness of the company both domestically and globally, and how engaged the company was with regards to continuous improvement.

“We are looking at companies who take the process of re-engineering very serious and those that see training as a critical investment,” she noted.

“Normally, with such firms, when they adopt a critical process, there are no excuses or exceptions and this is because everybody in the company knows what the key performance indicators are and what the key metrics are,” she added.

She pointed out that such companies also normally had a lot of data integrity which was reliable and usually used to monitor and review the company’s operations.

Succession planning

Giving her take on the importance of succession planning in an organisation, Mrs Tsegah said succession planning ensured that key roles had substantive backups, and added that this was critical for all organisations whether it was a government agency or professional body.

She said succession planning also prevented chaotic power struggle and leaders of organisations should, therefore, ensure that they already had replacements on standby for the top positions in the organisation before they became vacant.

To ensure this, she said, organisations had to develop their employees that had the skill set and potential to fill in those positions.

Festival of ideas

This weekend’s edition of the Springboard was the final part of the build up to this year’s ‘Festival of Ideas’ business conference which is scheduled for this Thursday. The festival is being organised on the theme: ‘Grooming the next CEOs’.

Rev. Ocran, touching on the conference said the process of raising leaders was a deliberate process and there was therefore, the need to create a platform where people who aspired to be top executives and CEOs could inculcate the various attributes of leadership.

The speakers for the morning session of the conference include the Managing Director of Barclays Bank Ghana, Mrs Patience Akyianu who will speak on the ‘pursuit of world standards’, the Group CEO of Enterprise Group, Mr Keli Gadzekpo, who will also speak about ‘corporate governance and board relations’, the President of the Capital Africa Group, Mr William AtoEssien, will talk on ‘a culture of performance and execution, and the Managing Partner of Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa and Ankomah will explore on the topic ‘succession guide for practices and professionals’.

Others also include the Managing Director of Airtel Ghana, Mrs Lucy Quist, who will give an insight into ‘developing leaders around you’, the CEO of Capital Bank, Rev. Fitzgerald Odonkor who will address the audience on the topic ‘developing the leader in you, the CEO of Margins Group, Mr Moses Baiden who will treat the topic ‘leadership decision making and risk management, and the CEO of Reroy Cables, Mrs Kate Quartey-Papafio, who will also speak on ‘versatility and adaptability as assets in a leader.

The rest are the CEO of Rancard, Mr Kofi Dadzie who will treat the topic ‘leveraging technology and smart solutions, the MD of Fidelity Bank Ghana, Mr Jim Baiden will give insight into ‘ideas and innovations as growth pillars’, Partner at KPMG Ghana, Mr Andrew Akoto, will address issues regarding ‘building systems and structures, and the Corporate Services Executive at MTN, Mrs Cynthia Lumor, who will throw more light on ‘corporate communications and media relations’.

The evening session would also have the Minister of Finance, Mr ken Ofori-Atta, as the main speaker and the General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Dr Mensa Otabil ,as the keynote speaker.

A documentary on succession planning will be premiered during the evening session. The documentary is on Ghanaian businesses that are transitioning from the usual one-man business to structures that will last for the next 100 years.