Nduom inspires GIMPA students

President and Chief Executive Officer of Groupe Nduom (GN), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, has explained that the secret behind the success of his businesses was due to the development approach and the determination to succeed in areas where other companies would not like to go.

Dr. Nduom, who was the guest speaker at a business forum organised by the Ghana Institute for Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) on Wednesday, March 31, 2015 spoke on the topic: “Entrepreneurship-one Ghanaian Experience and Lessons for Students.”

The business mogul who owns a chain of businesses across the country and beyond the shores of Ghana dispelled the notion that everything was rosy when he started building his business empire.

However, the GN president pointed out that it was through a dint of hard work, his Christian faith, family values and discipline that have had positive impact on his businesses.

Sounding more religious, the celebrated entrepreneur noted that spiritual guidance had been the basis for his successes.

To buttress his point, he quoted some scriptures, for instance, 2nd Timothy 1:17 and Jeremiah 29:11 from the Holy Bible which he said had been his source of motivation and strength for his businesses.

According to him, it is when times are hard and everybody is complaining that one must have the courage to step out and invest.

“We (GN) believe when times are hard we must go out and invest and also work hard and if there is difficulty we must also prepare to work,” he stressed.

He indicated that faith is one important thing in life, saying every business man ought to have faith as life comes with challenges.

And not only faith that Dr. Nduom mentioned had helped his multi-national conglomerate of companies in the past 25 years, but self-discipline as well.

Self-discipline in business, he claimed, has played a key role in his life as a business man.

For instance, he said, it was necessary to reinvest what business brings instead of spending it all.

What kept GN going in the face of all the economic challenges in the country and in the sub-region, the president of Groupe Nduom said, was their commitment to the company’s values.

Though, he said those values were not initially enforced; the companies had over the years grown to embrace them as the hallmark of their success.

These values, he mentioned, included high sense of integrity, not to be using any form of short cut to acquire wealth, not to be looking for profit when no work is done and to have a long time view for success which he described as “patience investor.”

He continued that sharing success with employees and supporting communities that GN operates were among the values that aided his companies to thrive.

That, Dr. Nduom stated, earned GN as the best employer.

Explaining why GN was called the best employer, he said he instituted pension for all his workers aside from what the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) gave.

Though he admitted initially it was difficult for the workers to accept, he said he insisted that a certain percentage of every worker’s salary be deducted for keep until the person was sixty years before he or she could touch it.

And aside from these values, the astute business man revealed that other factors that helped GN were its belief to start small, re-invest, grow stronger, go where others do not want to go, not to be doing what everybody is doing, paying all taxes and above all not to be touching other people’s money.

Against this background Dr. Nduom contended every business should be able to survive.

According to him, with commitment, sacrifice and right thinking no business would fail.

“I’m internal optimist when it comes to doing business in Ghana. What I hate is for somebody to tell me this cannot work in Ghana,” he stated.

His worry however, was that there were too many negative things in Ghana.

In his opinion, one must not be a politician before he or she can speak on national issues and urged the young ones coming to be part of the solution of the country.

Dr. Nduom observed that it was rare to see Ghanaian business men in public talking about their businesses.

That, he explained, was due to the fear of being chased by the tax authority or considering the nature of politics in Ghana they would be witch-hunted.

He bemoaned the situation where Ghanaians loved to work for foreigners or to represent foreign interest.

Whilst he was not against the idea, he contended that that mentality had made it difficult for Ghana to have solid and secured entrepreneur who could withstand a strong economic wind.

“We are yet to produce really strong, really secured businessmen who can live past generation to generation,” he indicated.

And until that hurdle was cleared, he insisted it would be difficult to produce strong and enterprising business men and women.

He dispelled the notion that working for somebody was a bad thing and called on the students to work for people so as to acquire enough experience to do their own in future.

“There is dignity in working for somebody and even doing it well,” he said.

GN conglomerate of companies which have grown to become international brands are into hotel management, real estate, media, entertainment, sports, investment banking, pension, insurance, banking and manufacturing.

And they are about fifteen companies in Ghana with some in Togo Liberia, Nigeria and the United States of America (USA).