Business owners must invest in employees – Dr Siaw Agyepong

Executive Chairman of Jospong and Zoomlion Group of Companies has advised business owners to invest heavily in building the capacity of their employees to enhance productivity levels.

Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong believes a lack of human capital development and leadership training skills has been a key impediment of business progress in the country.

“Leadership views among most Ghanaians are outmoded. That is why in most Ghanaian companies when a leader dies, the company fails to exist”, he observed.

Dr Agyepong was speaking at the launch of a leadership training conference for hundreds of Jospong and Zoomlion Group employees.

The Jospong Leadership Conference is an annual gathering of leaders and emerging leaders in the Jospong and Zoomlion Groups.

Since its inception in 2013, the conference has evolved to be one of the most important events on the Jospong calendar, attracting sought-after speakers both in Ghana and abroad.

The 2016 edition is under the theme "Creating an Excellent Service Delivery Culture: The Service Leader's Role".

Speakers at this year’s event include Dr. Mario Denton. CEO of Strong Message Business Consultancy; Sam Adeyemi, Pastor of Daystar Christian Centre, Nigeria; Bishop James Kwaku Saah, an Author; Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, CEO of Stratcomm Africa; Mr. Ebenezer Asante, CEO of MTN Ghana.

“We have brought all our leaders together to develop them and then instill a customer-based character into them so that we will focus on helping this country”, Mr Agyepong said.

He said the theme for this year’s conference was chosen because the company has identified declining customer-service drive among its staff.

“When we started in 2006 everywhere we go people were applauding us; that we are doing great but it got to a time we realized that we are not providing better services.

“There are certain places we are not providing the services well, for instance bins at houses are not lifted on time. We have realized that that is the problem and prevent that it has to start with our employees – work on them to have that good culture and then service the people of this country for giving us the opportunity to serve them.

“The customers are doing us a favour. We are not doing them a favour. So that is what this leadership conference is about,” Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong explained.

Also making presentations on the theme of the leadership conference include Kweku Bedu-Addo, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank; Daniel Asiedu, CEO of Zenith Bank; Dr. Joseph Osafo, Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof. Adukwei I.F. Hesse, a Senior Consultant Physician.

Jospong Group currently operates in over twelve industries namely; Building & Construction, Printing & Publishing, ICT, Waste Management, Mining and Quarrying, Oil & Gas, Automobile, Plant & Equipment, Skill Development, Financial Services, Public Health & Safety, Logistics & Supply Chain and Transport & Haulage.