The latest warning of fast approaching environmental catastrophe arrived a few days ago, in the form of the UN report on declining biodiversity (“a million species are on the verge of extinction”). The authors stress this is a worldwide issue, and the impact on humanity, in particular from the effects […]
Burial and Resurrection (in Business & Financial Times, 25 April 2019)
I hope you’ve had an Easter that was enjoyable, and perhaps even proved to be a time of discovering new life where death had seemed to be the final word. If you are drawn by themes of life and death, and are looking for a Ghanaian film to watch that […]
The Uber Revolution (in Business & Financial Times, 12 April 2019)
Uber, the phone app based ride-hailing company (now reinventing itself as a transport and logistics brand), is an intriguing business. It turns the gold of its investors (around $25bn of it so far) into paper debt and stock – with 2018 revenues of around $11bn and losses of around $2bn, […]
In Whom We Trust (Business and Financial Times, 28 March 2019)
The issue of NPP and NDC party militias has highlighted the importance of trust (or rather the lack of it) to me over the last few weeks. Superficially, it may seem odd that Ghana’s two major political parties are struggling to even meet to discuss the issue of disbanding their […]
Dissecting Corruption (Business & Financial Times, 15 March 2019)
Corruption – which can be defined as the abuse of public office for private gain – is one of the most fundamental barriers to Ghana’s progress. It impedes both the overall progress of Ghana, and the equitable sharing of the benefits of such progress as is made. Much has been […]
The Importance of Modelling (in Business and Financial Times, 1 Mar 2019)
Models have always intrigued me. I suppose a fashion model is called such because they demonstrate how good clothes can look, at least when draped over a perfect figure. Yet what they really offer their paymasters is the communication of a dream to the watchers, that they could look as […]
Our Key Resource (Business & Financial Times, 22 Feb 2019)
Is being local a good thing or a bad thing? In Ghana many of us seem to prefer some goods if they come from abroad. Our breakfasts have changed to centre on bread made from imported wheat rather than the local cereal-based foods of my childhood such as kenkey or […]
Challenges, Opportunities and the Entrepreneur (in Business & Financial Times, 15 Feb 2019)
It’s been said that an entrepreneur is someone who can see opportunities where others see only problems. I’d change that saying slightly: an entrepreneur not only sees opportunities but is able to seize them, and turn them into value for customers and cash for her (or his) business. So I’ll […]
The Brand of the Year of Return (in Business & Financial Times 18 Jan 2019)
2019 is the 400th anniversary of the landing of the first ship bearing enslaved Africans in the North America. In January 2018 the USA set up a Commission to organise commemorative activities, which aim not just to recognise the horrors of the cross Atlantic slave trade, but also the immense […]
New Year, New Opportunities (in Business & Financial Times, 4 Jan 2019)
I hope you had a happy Christmas season, and trust that 2019 will be a year of progress and prosperity for you and for Ghana. Christmas is a paradoxical time. On the one hand it is the culmination of weeks of mass consumer spending. Such spending often seems to be […]