SPRINTING ONWARDS AS THE WORLD RECOVERS: A CHANCE TO LEAP - PART ONE

This is Our Chance to LEAP!

Ghana is on the cusp of achieving an unprecedented level of development and an increase in the general standard of living, and this process has already begun. All around us we see skyscrapers reaching up, we hear the hustle and bustle of growing cities and we can almost feel it in the air; in our very bones, that our country is finally beginning to wake up and leave behind a past of poverty in favor of a bright and prosperous future. Therefore if as a nation we can play our cards right, we can accrue benefits that will accelerate our level of development even more. There is palpable change afoot, the world is recovering from the depths of a deep recession that left Ghana relatively unscathed; this is our chance to leap and achieve prosperity.

In the perpetual economic race between nations, the West stumbled, fell and caused a pile up that affected everybody, but fortunately Ghana escaped with only a few scrapes. We were so far behind, and still so crippled that we were not financially sophisticated enough to be seriously affected by the global credit crunch; after all access to credit in Ghana is next to impossible for most people. How much more could credit have tightened if it was practically non-existent? Our banking industry even saw some healthy growth whiles the world’s biggest banks were suffering great woes. All this illustrates is that developed countries have slowed down, whereas Ghana is perhaps one of the few developing nations in the world that can sprint onwards, and if not catch up with the frontrunners, at least leave the seat filled with the backbenchers.

The country is marching slowly but inexorably from a mostly illiterate agrarian society towards an industrialized economy. However, the developed world has the lead on us, they are in the deep throes of a post-industrial age where access to information is almost as crucial as access to natural resources. After all Ghana is not an island in a vast sea, we are competing with many other nations, developed and developing nations all for dwindling resources to sate their hungry masses. We can only remain competitive by leveraging our nation’s assets and resources; appropriately branding the country as a safe haven for business for both the local and foreign investor, reducing the cancer of institutionalized corruption, and hopefully the government will also provide that “enabling environment” where rapid but sustainable development can occur instead of spitting the same rhetoric over and over again.

However let us be frank and pragmatic here, the established inefficiency of government bureaucracy and a deeply stagnated socio-cultural and political system is no longer the key to achieving our development goals. Various political regimes have come and gone, many more will come and go but the preserve of Ghanaian politics has always been a particular affinity for the verbose eloquence of a conman. Our leaders certainly have some commendable plans, but I have lost my faith in their turgid prose; I believe that Ghana needs to look elsewhere for the impetus we need to increase and manage our momentum as we hurtle up the economic ladder.

Personally, I believe that the private sector holds the key, and that the entrepreneur is this key. I am not lambasting the government as completely useless and inefficient, but I believe that their role is simply to create the conceptual and policy framework that will provide incentives to existing and would be entrepreneurs to do what they do best, bear risk and create wealth. The brunt of the work should be borne by the private sector with the public sector providing the needed support. I believe that we need to move away from a system dominated by public bureaucracies to one dominated by private adhocracies. Adhocracies are fluid and dynamic organizations that can rapidly adapt to constantly changing environments and can better handle one of the biggest problems of the 21^st century as coined by Alvin Toffler, information overload. The entrepreneur sets up an ad hoc business to achieve his particular aim by identifying a niche within which to profitably operate across a vast, confused and inefficient system that is fraught with so much information, most of which is useless, therefore the adhocracy quickly discards with it. A bureaucracy is a big lumbering beast that must swallow all the information presented even though it cannot make sensible or profitable utility of most of it. Instead of concentrating on pampering bureaucracies, we should be encouraging our adhocracies to prosper.

To be continued - Come back for more NEXT WEEK!

I SPY 00233: What Is Worth Spying On In Ghana - PART TWO

Ghana needs more places like this.....TOURIST TRAPS!

PART TWO

For the sake of plausible deniability, Mr. Spy is simply called Kweku, his obroni name is classified. Anyway, in the shortest possible time he begun to deduce pretty solid and truthful observations and conclusions about Ghana and its people, its culture and its potential and I think I should share some of his thoughts and suggestions. I guess his trained mind and my inquisitive mind naturally delved into an interesting conversation where he educated me on ways not just to improve my burgeoning business interests and my personal self, but ways to improve my immediate environment and perhaps effect some gradual system-wide changes as well. (Eii Masa, YOBBING SOOO!) Our conversation was mostly deliberating one issue – Tourism and its potential in developing Ghana. The question he posed to me was this, “How do you get many rich, white people to vacation in a place like Ghana, and spend thousands of dollars daily, feel safe and secure and still feel like they have been exposed to the vibrant local culture and beautiful scenery.” How indeed, but why should Ghana's economy even depend on funds accrued from tourism in the first place, we don't even need these rich white people, right? Wrong! There are some very funny facts I have come across: it appears the US is the third top tourist destination in the world (how France den Spain chop 1st & 2nd be Awam sef) and the number one tourism revenue earner, as well as having the number one tourist attraction – you guessed right, Times Square. All these tourists go the US and do one thing, SPEND! They spend huge amounts of money that in concert boost the local economy by creating jobs and providing foreign exchange.

Mr. Kweku raised a very salient point; the Carribean is just like Ghana, same food, same people, same lovely weather, same language and just one difference – massive investments in Attractive, Safe and Secure tourist destinations where tourists can loose themselves in the beckoning beaches and sites, the local foods and flavors, and do what they do best Spend and Spend. Look at Dubai, why would an Oil rich emirate decide to invest massively in tourist infrastructure and not a huge financial and banking setup rather? The answer is that tourism will eventually bring along all these other industries or develop in situ sectors further. Every developed nation is primarily a massive tourist trap for both Local and Foreign tourists. Does Ghana even promote Local Tourism, how many Ghanaians, born and bred, have been to Mole National Park or the Paga Crocodile pond, certainly not me, but Kweku Spy will go there and take lots and lots of pictures and end up knowing more about Ghana than Ghanaians do. Imagine Ghana with a vacation resort paradise about the size of Monaco somewhere on an accessible beach; how much for construction costs, how much for wages, how much for tax – I mean, AHIAAAA. This is a plausible idea that can be successfully implemented by indigenous people, however we will most likely wait and let some rich Saudi Prince come and build it for us and then complain when he takes all the money back to his country. I mean look at Ghana's newest hotel and tourist landmark, Holiday Inn, do you think it is owned by some through and through bibini black man, Nope! Its some smart Lebanese dude with the opportunity, funding and necessary effort who put it up and will consequently be chopping money from Kotoka’s daily arrivals. Every plane wey e go drop, minimun 20% go de inside man in hotel for accomodation. E no be me I tok oh, but Kweku Spy. You see, if you know me you probably know I love to talk, but this was one of those situations where you shut up and listen well, take notes, pay attention and think well before speak.

Changing Ghana from this mediocre and practically unknown tourism gem waiting to happen and polish it into Africa's premier Vacation Mecca is not nearly as difficult as it seems. Mr. Kweku Spy gave me the two most important things any tourist anywhere in the world is looking for - Safety & Security. If you can guarantee that the tourist will be safe and secure in terms of their comfort, health, enjoyment, and that they will leave Ghana far better and relaxed than when they arrived then why would they not troop here and SPEND, Spend, and spend some more. Mr. Kweku gave me a very common and crippling problem we face in Ghana – the lack of security in spending money; everything is cash based instead of credit based and these Abrofo realy don't like handling cash. Even as a Ghanaian my ATM card is my best friend, Ezwich will join the family when Mr. Ampofo and his concerted business efforts bear some fruit. This process of moving from a cash-based society to a credit-based society, at least at crucial interchange and 'exposure' points should be sped up efficiently so as to encourage the unleashing of the big bucks – enough with the petty cash. I mean, should we wait and let Foreigners always exploit all the good investment opportunities before we the local investors and talent either lag behind or end up working for them, is that the way to sustainably develop our own country and our continent? As for me, God willing, I will find ingenious ways to make people - both Ghanaian and Foreign alike – to invest in the local EKOMINI and keep doing so on a sustainable basis. This is the integral part of my confidential business strategy. As they pay La Palm and Holiday Inn now, so shall they pay me and you 10 times more in 10 years time, that is with a little bit of luck and a whole bunch of sweat, blood and tears. Then maybe Ghana will finally have something worth spying on, Right?

May God richly bless you all and may your dreams come true....!!!

I SPY 00233: What Is Worth Spying On In Ghana - PART ONE

PART ONE

In the course of my constantly intriguing life, I somehow came across a genuine spy; I mean the real McCoy, a full-blown, 20/20 vision, soft-spoken intelligence operative with a mind like a sponge. Guess what, this guy is learning how to speak Twi at such an exponential rate that I'm convinced he will be graduating to Ga, then Hausa before he leaves Ghana, his temporary stay here will not be for long. Amazingly, he is quite self-depreciating when discussing his “profession”. I guess the romanticized images of Hollywood do not quite portray the practical realities on the ground, I mean look at what the new 007 is doing now, AABA! It does however serve as perhaps a hyperbolic clue to the underlying truth - certain people (governments) will expend much effort and resources to gather information (intelligence) no matter how seemingly mundane or apparently useless it seems to everybody else, save their own clandestine self interest. Upon broaching this issue as a joke, the spy replied, "What is there to spy on in Ghana though?" I raised my hands defiantly and gestured towards the bushy shrubs and forests our bus was speeding past and exclaimed with a silly smile, “This is all we have, nothing?” Of course at the time, I did not think to jump to the most obvious reason for the increased interest being showed in Ghana of late; Ghana has high quality, light sweet crude OIL, and in abundant quantities in a global setting that is faced with the intractable problem of dwindling petroleum supplies and concurrently rising demand.

So if we have nothing worth spying on, then why waste so much resources building a state of the art infrastructure and allocating funds to beef up a security and intelligence gathering system here then? This suggests then that I may have been slightly misdirected, in the sense that this spy's employer may see not see Ghana as critical to its national interests, but certainly as a country of some strategic importance; perhaps not just for its own selfish interests alone but for the betterment of Ghana itself, and the whole West African sub-continent as a whole; or simply, as just another country to keep tabs on. To be honest though, I really am fishing here, who knows what exists in the minds of those big-shot political bureaucrats in the former marsh (cough, cough:  A certain capital of a certain world power used to be a mosquito ridden marsh). Who knows their end game or even cares in this small country, certainly not me. Truth is, I was once told that our expectations of things are very different from how we actually perceive them, so I am trying to do away with my expectations and rather deal with my perception of things; the spy, what he said, how he said it and the clues he gave me – clues that can certainly benefit this ‘poor’ country his employer is intensifying its monitoring of and thereby its relationship with.

Ruminating on this conversation brings back memories of my heady high school days. One of my favorite teachers in high school was some acerbic white man called Mr. Paulson. He was my favorite teacher not because I liked him, or because he liked me, or even because I got good grades in his class, which I did of course. He was my favorite teacher because I could sense that he genuinely respected me, though I was so young, and this respect was mutual. But he made my life hell for some odd reason, I felt that I never got the grades I deserved, he tormented my friends and me in class and he went as far as to leave me stranded on an international school trip, but through this all, our mutual respect increased, because I saw all these obstacles as tests and I never failed a Paulson Test. I bested him constantly and in the end he acquiesced and gave me a good Final parting grade before he zoomed of to train (or torment depending on how you look at it) some more 'native' kids in Peru or was it Puerto Rico. Please note, he as much as admitted that he was a spy himself. Sometimes I feel he was probably bitter because he probably hit the rock ceiling in some high-risk job and had to retire or perhaps felt his considerable skills were being underutilized in a backwater country like Ghana. I don't know because I'm fishing again here. Paulson's story is important here only because if he taught me nothing at all he taught me two things; that International Relations is a complicated chess game of sticks and carrots, and that the world is becoming a fast paced integrated global society where Information, the right kind of information, is key to winning and staying ahead. (This should ring a TOK bell).

To be continued!

On FACEBOOK - The Road Less Travelled Made All The Difference!

Early Days of Facebook, Inc

In the autumn of 2005, a 21 year-old Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, sat across from Michael Wolf, President of Viacom's MTV Networks in a plush Gulfstream V private jet and refused a $1.5 billion buyout offer saying, "You just saw my apartment, I don't really need any money. And anyway, I don't think I'm ever going to have an idea this good again". He did manage however to learn as much as he could from Wolf on how Viacom makes money from MTV over the course of the 5 hour flight from San Francisco to New York. This and an insightful history of the ubiquitous phenomenon that is ruling cyberspace is provided by David Kirkpatrick in his upcoming novel, "The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World”. In those heady days, there were quite a few people who advised the young chap to sell his creation and finish school, rich beyond his wildest dreams but this stubborn creature went against all conventional wisdom and still lacking adequate funds bootstrapped this venture all the way to the Dot.com Hall of Fame. He and his team managed to have fun running the company in its formative years; a bunch of tweens working through booze fueled parties and friendly camaraderie. However much the company and its founder have both matured, it still maintains a relatively easygoing working atmosphere in Palo Alto, California.

Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room with a bunch of his friends and associates in 2004 under, as some would claim 'controversial circumstances', but the viability and overwhelming success of his invention soon brought all manner of suitors clipping at his heels. Facebook was exponential in its growth, even from the early onset. Within 4 months of the sites launch, he was perched on the brighter side of a potential $10 million dollar handshake and he refused without even taking the offer seriously. He and his team of friends and associates have turned Facebook into such a global web juggernaut over the past 6 years that Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft was willing to pay $15 billion for Facebook outright, but after serious haggling succeeded in only purchasing 1.6% at $240 million, essentially giving Facebook an implied book value of $15 billion. From $10 million through an astronomical figure of $15 billion, Zuckerberg has been steadfastly stubborn in his refusal to completely sellout and Facebook now has almost 500 million users and is worth an estimated $24 billion and counting; its heavily anticipated IPO is bound to instigate the greatest investor frenzy since Google. As Fortune would put it, Zuckerberg has succeeded in creating "the worlds most-coveted web giant." His personal net worth is estimated at about  $5 billion (representing 24% of Facebook, Inc) and he still wears frazzled hoodies, baggy pants and open-toed adidas flip-flops. That lucky f^&%*$!!!!!!

Personally I have been on Facebook since September 2004 and was probably among the first 200,000 to sign up. It was then thefacebook.com, a static page with no chat, apps, games and even no privacy; everything was open so long as you were in the network. At the time Facebook was essentially the privilege of American college kids until it was opened up to high schools then the rest of the world to such an unprecedented and overwhelming response. I have observed with rapt attention as this toddler technology that was very much experimental has grown into a full fledged and mature product that has become indispensable to many millions, inspiring a cornucopia of applications and an easy way to connect, reconnect and stay in touch. There was even a period of about 2 years when I practically ignored Facebook as its exclusivity paved way for universal access above the age of 13 but even amidst such changes the social network still wound its way back onto my fingertips because it has given rise to several brilliant new ways to communicate and a platform for rabble rousers such as myself to State Our Plays. Now FB is omnipresent on WEB 2.0; thumbs up Recommend signs are everywhere and all manner of websites are vying for recognition on the social network and its colossal and constantly growing user base. Facebook will generate $500 million in advertising revenue this year and this figure is projected to be in the billions a few years hence.

WOW! From chugging mountain dew coding other people’s websites deep into the night, Mr. Zuckerberg has come a long way. The question I have is what would this story have sounded like if he took the first $10 million dollars and didn't take the risk of holding out to the very end? He would certainly be wearing his hoodies, and baggy pants today but I doubt he would have had the ability to change the world as he did. He took the road less travelled, and it has made all the difference.

For an excerpt from David Kirkpatrick's, "The Facebook Effect" please visit this link http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/technology/facebook_excerpt.fortune/index.htm

In Search of Sunrise (SUCCESS)....The Quest for Daylight in the Deep Dark Night!!

I have had a long time to think up what I want to tell you guys but I felt I would be cheating and lying if I continued spewing inspirational pieces when I myself am lacking in the required self-motivation. I was dealing with so much that I had to prioritize, and this side-project (BMIC) was not as important as finishing up school or looking for serious investors to bankroll my ideas. At least that was what I was trying to convince myself was the case but in actual fact I was not achieving much in terms of my so-called priorities either, school has and never will be a priority of mine no matter what I pretend; I mean I want to become a graduate but I honestly don't think a degree is a guarantee to success - its more of a safety net to fall back on. On the "serious" investor front, I really thought that I had found what I was looking for when the summer ended with the arrival of a new opportunity in the form of an investor I have codenamed the Business Consultant; but I have come to realize that he is not the "liberator" that I made him out to be initially. In the end, I will have to be the harbinger of my own success - and that realization spawned this particular blog. It is common for people to say something like, "I had an epiphany" but this is different in that I suspected before that nobody can help me succeed apart from myself so I must stop being lazy and making up excuses and just get down and dirty with the bloody war I declared against THE SYSTEM....remember. But this time I can't expect the help of any other ally but God; but then I am inconsistent in my relationship with Him so I can't expect favoritism (miraculous help) on His part.

It may sound trite to say this, but this year, 2010, is going to be my year; but then why not, so was last year and the year before that. So long as I have made it here alive and kicking at least I have achieved something. When the big material things you want are not available then the only way to make yourself happy is to appreciate the little things that are actually the most important; life, love, family, health and friends - the very things that we tend to take for granted. And this holiday season has seen me being much more sentimental and thoughtful than would normally be the case. Perhaps it is because of the striking difference between my life when I am home in Accra and when I am in school in Kumasi. Perhaps I owe this sentimentality to seeing so many old faces and reliving old memories of being a carefree, spoilt brat where now I am a hustling young Business Mind. And I don't need anybody to believe in my extremely lofty, and seemingly unachievable goals - I know how almost impossible it may seem but I firmly and fully believe in myself, my ideas and I WILL SUCCEED; I don't need to reaffirm this belief with anybody else. I recently had a conversation with the Business Consultant and it boiled down to a discussion of risk, money and motivation; in the end I guess I have realized one thing it will be foolish of me to expect anybody to look out for me but myself. Americans have this saying, "Always look out for Number One" and I have to ensure that I am no fool a second time around, trusting blindly and putting all my cards on the table when  the other party is not being as forthcoming, hiding behind a veil of insinuations while keeping their trump cards well hidden. But overall I have to say that I enjoyed dealing with the consultant, it gave me several insights into a certain type of mentality I will have to learn to deal with, as well as my own capabilities and limits. I certainly wish him well and I have to say that his business acumen is admirable, but I would hope that he does not forget that when the lion leaves the comfort of his pride to quench his thirst, even he has to be wary of the crocodiles lurking in the muddy reaches of the watering hole.

I am in search of sunrise, I am on a quest for daylight but all around me there is deep dark night. I am only plodding on in the belief that the night is always darkest just before the break of dawn. It will take time, even more tears, pain, sweat, disappointment, failure and the learning curve will be steep indeed. I am bound to trip and scrape myself hundreds of times, I am bound to bleed from several wounds, I am bound to slip down the hill and have only a branch for support. As I am nearing the top I am bound to be cold and be assaulted by freezing winds, I cannot look to anybody to guide me unselfishly, I will have to pay a price for advice. The experience will be nerve wracking, it will be involve a lot of nail biting but THERE IS NO OTHER WAY! There exists no shortcut, I MUST take this long and arduous road alone, but through the tears of blood and pain, and fears that will scar and stain, I WILL GET TO THE TOP. And when I do I will take a deep breath and cry for joy and pray with thanksgiving. Even If I don't make it, I will die knowing that I lived chasing my dreams with all my heart, and that in itself is victory! Have a great year folks, but fasten your seatbelts because its going to be a bumpy ride.