.
If you want to achieve business success in Ghana, in my opinion, it is mandatory that you learn about entrepreneurship from accomplished Ghanaian businesspeople.
Setting up a business, usually, is very challenging and many of those who have succeeded had failed several times before they achieved prosperity.
Therefore, to ensure that you are in the best position possible to become successful, I strongly recommend that you read ‘Kuenyehia on Entrepreneurship,’ written by Elikem Nutifafa Kuenyehia.
Elikem is an exceptional Ghanaian entrepreneur, who as well as being a corporate lawyer, is the founder of a leading law firm, and a lecturer of entrepreneurship at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). Kuenyehia on Entrepreneurship is the first textbook written about entrepreneurship in Ghana with an essential West-African perspective.
WHAT IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP?
Within the first chapters of Kuenyehia on Entrepreneurship, Elikem informs you that the process of entrepreneurship involves the following four steps:
- It starts with an idea around which an opportunity is developed, or it may start with an opportunity that leads to the formation of an idea.
- Once formed, the idea must cause a significant amount of people to be willing to pay for a product or service, which will result in the entrepreneur eventually obtaining a profit.
- The product or service must remove an existing pain: It must be a way to fulfil a need or to improve upon an existing solution and have the capacity to attract enough potential customers to generate a profit.
- In the process of executing the idea by providing the product or service, the entrepreneur will be risking human and financial capital, as well as time in order to create and sustain the business.
.
WHAT IS AN ENTREPRENEUR?
Attempting to define the essence of an entrepreneur, Elikem makes an important general distinction between entrepreneurs and businesspeople, stressing that people often confuse the two. He argues that while most entrepreneurs are businesspersons in the respect that they manage a business, importantly, not all businesspeople are entrepreneurs.
To distinguish the two, a businessperson is generally an individual who creates and runs a business primarily to accomplish his or her personal goals. An entrepreneur, on the other hand, establishes and manages a business, principally, for the purpose of growth and profit.
The reason is that businesspeople see their business as an extension of their personality, which is tied to their needs and desires, but an entrepreneur is only interested in a venture so long as it is the best way to achieve growth and make a profit. Therefore, if another business appears more profitable, without hesitation, an entrepreneur will attempt to pursue this greater opportunity; however, a businessperson is highly likely to remain committed to his or her original business.
There are many different types of entrepreneurs, depending on the entrepreneur’s reasons for setting up a business and his or her social and economic circumstances. Among many other possible categories, an entrepreneur may be considered one of the following:
- Social Entrepreneur – Social entrepreneurs use entrepreneurship to organise, create, and manage a business that promotes social change with social outcomes, rather than profit being the main purpose of the enterprise.
- Intrapreneur – Intrapreneurs use entrepreneurship to create new ideas or innovations within already existing enterprises. For example, an intrapreneur or teams of intrapreneurs, typically, develop new products or services whilst being employees within large organisation.
- Extrapreneur – Extrapreneurs use entrepreneurship to break away from their existing organisation in order to establish their own enterprise, possibly, with some financial or social support from their previous employers.
- Push Entrepreneur – Push entrepreneurs are generally individuals who are dissatisfied with their current jobs, therefore, are ‘pushed’ into using entrepreneurial principles to start an enterprise.
- Pull Entrepreneur – Pull entrepreneurs are generally individuals who are seduced into beginning an enterprise because of the attractiveness of a business idea and it perceived benefits.
.
.
ADVANTAGES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Even though there are always some successful entrepreneurs that run businesses which do great harm to the environment and others, Elikem informs you that in Ghana:
- Entrepreneurs have played a greater role than the government in providing jobs and career development opportunities for individuals.
- Increased participation of entrepreneurs within the economy has lead to a greater investment in many areas such as roads, telecommunications systems, energy, ICTs, education, financial services, and real estate.
- An active entrepreneurial environment has allowed healthy competition to exist within the economy. As several firms and individuals compete by producing similar goods and services, beneficially, customers are given a greater choice, which can eventually lead to a reduction in the general price of these goods and services.
- With healthy competition, entrepreneurship can create a culture of innovation as entrepreneurs compete with each other to win the custom of a limited number of customers. This can lead further to a reduction of the inefficiencies within the system, as entrepreneurs find new ways to meet customer demand, cut out waste, and reduce the time needed to deliver goods and services.
- Entrepreneurs increase the government’s revenue, as they are required by law to pay a number of direct and indirect taxes on their profits.
In Illustration of an active and beneficial entrepreneurial environment in Ghana, invaluably, Elikem provides you with a description of 23 randomly selected Ghanaian entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs have succeeded within various industries across different periods in time:
- Alhaji Asoma Banda
- Barbara Baeta Bentsi-Enchill
- Captain Prince Kofi Amoabeng
- Catherine Krobo-Edusei Benson
- Constance Swaniker
- Dr Esther Ocloo (deceased)
- Dzigbordi K. Dosoo
- Emmanuel Botchway
- Ernest Bediako Sampong
- Herman Chinery-Hesse
- Joel Edmund Nettey and Daniel Ampadu Twum
- John Maxwell Addo
- Ken Ofori-Atta and Keli Gadzekpo
- Kingsley Awuah-Darko
- Kobby Asmah
- Kwabena Adjei
- Kwaku Ofosu Bediako
- Kwasi Twum
- Mark Davies
- Mrs Elizabeth Villars
- RA Darko
- Sandy Osei-Agyeman
For example, you are told that Herman Chinery-Hesse began his entrepreneurial venture by writing computer programmes in a bedroom in his parent’s house upon returning to Ghana from the United Kingdom (UK). Today he is the founder of a leading software company, ‘theSOFTtribe,’ which he founded in 1991, with over 65 people employees and over 300 companies as clients. More recently, Herman has teamed up with some international investors to launch BSL (Black Star Line), a company that will let African entrepreneurs sell products online and accept payment by mobile phone. The BBC once described him as ‘Africa’s Bill Gates,’ which has subsequently stuck ever since.
Throughout the remaining chapters, in detail, Elikem pricelessly explores the following:
- Why many Ghanaian entrepreneurs fail, and how you can avoid failure.
- How entrepreneurs should determine whether or not an opportunity is worth pursuing
- Whether entrepreneurs should build a business from scratch or buy an existing organisation
- The financial, legal, regulatory and policy considerations that an entrepreneur may have to consider in relation to his or her enterprise in Ghana
- How to attract, manage and retain the best employees: human capital
- The process of building and developing a brand that connects with its customers and produces a maximum return for the business
- The process of developing and articulating a business strategy in a business plan
- The process of business expansion, restructuring, insolvency, bankruptcy, succession planning, and exit strategies that an entrepreneurs may have to adopt after running their business for a long time.
.
.
CONCLUSION
As a Ghanaian, who was born and raised in the UK, initially, I was shocked to discover that there were so many businesspeople quietly earning millions of dollars in Ghana.
The reason is that in Britain, a Ghanaian is simply classified as an ethnic minority, and apart from a very few celebrated Ghanaians such as Ozwald Boateng (fashion designer) or Michael Essien (Professional Football Player), the vast majority live in deprived areas of London. The only businesses that they own in these areas are small scale African food and hair shops, African hairdressers, or African restaurants.
Adding to this picture, as a lawyer, I would frequently defend young Ghanaian men, who form a significant part of the criminal underworld in London. These young men were becoming successful low-level criminals, partly, due to their capacity to combine violence with street intelligence.
Contrastingly, the number of successful businesspeople in Ghana is so vast and varied that it would be inconceivable to most individuals from the UK. In addition, because the Ghanaian capital, Accra, is relatively small, most successful people in Ghana can be easily identified as they frequently visit the same shops, hotels, bars, restaurants, shopping centres, etcetera. 
Prior to reading this book, I had an unorganised understanding of entrepreneurship, and like most individuals, I never truly appreciated the general distinctions between entrepreneurs and businesspeople.
However, an awareness of these general differences can be extremely important because it enables you to be able to determine from the outset what type of businessperson you are, or intend to be. This in turn will increase your chance of achieving business success, and save you from possibly wasting many years and thousands of dollars pursuing ventures that are highly likely to end in business failure.
Advantageously, this textbook allows experienced businesspeople to test and order their knowledge, whilst enabling those who are inexperienced to-get-up-to-speed without the need for months or years of hard work.
‘Elikem has gone through years of pain learning about business, it would be plain foolish to not read his book and profit from his knowledge!’
.
WARNING
Kuenyehia on Entrepreneurship is a textbook designed to be an accompaniment to a course on Entrepreneurship. As a result, its 670 pages contain a wealth of information that an entrepreneur may need to know in order to achieve business success in Ghana. However, unless you are a speed-reader, I would advise you to only read the sections of the text that you would find interesting or directly applicable. In Elikem own words, ‘…entrepreneurship is a subject about doing…. (p.13);’ therefore, in my view, you must have this book on your shelf so to speak; you do not need to enjoy or read it from cover to cover.
For a further discussion of the importance of using an unconventional approach to reading, please click on blog-post: tommyoffe.com: ‘Read 100’s of Books Easily!’
Lastly, I cannot overstress how important it is that you discover your natural strengths or innate talents before you decide which type of, or approach to, business will be best suited to you. According to the Gallup Organisation’s ‘Strengthfinder Test,’ successful entrepreneurs are usually individuals who possess the strength of being either ‘Futuristic’ or an ‘Activator.’ Therefore, for further information on how and why you must find your natural strengths, please click on blog post: tommyoffe.com: ‘Why You Must Discover Your True Talents A.S.A.P!‘
In my view, it is also very important to consider ‘Becoming a Spiritually Orientated Millionaire By Following a Proven System‘ before you decide what type of business will be the best for you to create.
Tom