EBID President urges business leaders to embrace future eventualities

Dr George Agyekum Donkor, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) has called on business leaders to position themselves to adapt to any future eventualities, drawing from recent global events. He reiterated that future-ready organisations were engineered by transformational leaders, who deliberately review and repurpose every aspect of the organisational structure and processes to be ready for challenges now and in the future. 'The character of the leader is fundamental for organisational future-readiness. The leader's vision, convictions, motivation, and direction influence the strategic direction of the organisation,' Dr Donkor said on Wednesday. He was speaking at the Future Ready Leadership Summit organised by the Nobel Business International School (NIBS) in Accra. 'In effect, future-ready organisations are led by future-ready leaders. Leaders with a strong conviction that things will not always remain the same. Leaders who believe in the constancy of change and prepare themselves against the ramifications of change, while capitalising on the positives.' Speaking on the topic, 'Re-Imagining Business Leadership: Building A Future Ready Organisation, Dr Donkor said the back-to-back external shocks, that started with the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the war in Ukraine and the recent one in Gaza, as well as domestic shocks have shaken the very foundations of most businesses across the globe. 'The supply chain disruptions fuelled inflation that ensued particularly from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine led to food and energy price hikes unprecedented since 2008,' he said. 'As if that was not enough, the global monetary hikes triggered a surge in the cost of borrowing thereby increasing the financial and operating costs of several businesses.' He underscored the need for a two-pronged approach to future-readiness, which entails anticipation of future scenarios and the incorporation of a high level of flexibility into a company's organisa tional structure to facilitate timely reactions. He called on businesses to invest in enhancing their compliance with Environmental Social Governance (ESG) requirements, which are essential for today's financial market, while proactively using technology to improve their operations. Underscoring the intentionality required to be ready for challenges both now and in the future, Dr Donkor explained that 'it takes a transformational leader to drive an organisation into a state of being future-ready.' The NIBS is the foremost African Doctoral Institution that offers top accredited degree programmes in partnership with prestigious international Universities namely SBS Swiss Business School, Zurich, Switzerland, and IPAG Business School, France. Professor Kwaku Atuahene-Gima, Founder and President of NIBS, said the NIBS was the first school in the world to start with a doctorate degree programme. He said so far, they had over 200 doctorates that they had created, not developed. Source: Ghana News Agency