General News of Tuesday, 17 February 2015
Source: Graphic Online
Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Ken Ashigbey, has challenged businesses to treat their staff well to motivate them to deliver good services to customers or clients.
The mistake many companies made, according to him, was that they focused more on satisfying their clients rather than their staff, who are key to the success or failure of the organisations.
Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Branding Summit in Accra, Mr Ashigbey said “conventional wisdom tells us that if the staff are kings and queens and are satisfied, they will deliver kingly and queenly services to customers”. He was speaking on the theme, “Enduring brand values for the future.”
‘Staff are important brands’
Mr Ashigbey, who shared the experiences of some local and international companies, said employees were key representatives of any brand, for which reason they needed to be pulled along with the mission, vision and values of the brand.
“For a business to succeed, the staff should be committed to the vision, mission and values of the company. If the staff are not connected to the brand, it will fail to live on for generations,” he stressed.
Elaborating on the theme, Mr Ashigbey stated that branding went beyond the price value of a commodity, noting that it was about meeting consumers’ demands and needs.
“In these trying moments, companies or industries that fail to innovate would not be able to survive,” he observed.
Over the years, Mr Ashigbey said, the GCGL had been able to innovate to make the various brands of the company survive the market in spite of stiff competition from the other media platforms.
Every individual a brand
The Chief Executive Officer of Generic 7 Consult, a brand advisory and management company, Mr Sylvester Phish, stated that branding transcended fame. According to him, every individual was a brand so failure to brand oneself properly,negatively impacted on the individual.
Mr Phish, who is a brand expert, said if Ghana would develop, then its citizens ought to be pulled along by the leaders.
The Minister of State in charge of Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Mr Rashid Pelpuo, reiterated the call on Ghanaians to brand themselves well for their branding to translate into the progress of the nation.
He observed that in recent times Ghanaians were beginning to reorient themselves to change the nation, adding that “all is not lost so we must think of branding the nation, starting from our homes, which will eventually translate into the progress of the nation”.