How a young CEO intentionally built his staff into a choir to compete where he was rejected

A GhanaWeb feature by Etsey Atisu

In my quest to understand why a financial institution in Ghana would have over half of its employees being musicians, I quickly realized how in the face of significant business challenges, one man’s courage to do things differently and sticking to his beliefs, no matter the resistance, has finally yielded enormous dividends.

 

In 2010, when a 34-year-old man was appointed as Managing Director of Quality Insurance Plc, it was an unprecedented move by the then board of QIC.

It was unprecedented because the industry was used to appointing tried and tested individuals with a couple of years to retirement to such high offices. Kobena Addison was unquestionably not seasoned, and the insurance industry would undoubtedly not appreciate such an appointment.

 

At the time of his appointment, the company’s position was precarious and the outlook was not promising, however, with a negligible marketing budget in the insurance industry, and the lack of support from many senior colleagues in the Company - who eventually resigned, Kobena Addison has transformed QIC into a powerhouse of insurance innovation with unique personal lines insurance, notably the Go-Girl Insurance Policy.

This achievement is not only a testament to Kobena’s ability to do things unconventionally by setting up a choir to be the main marketing tool for QIC, but also a beacon of hope for many business leaders who are prepared to do unconventional things to bring change.

It is important to note that since 2010, QIC only attracts people who have flare for music and can sing for employment. Although a financial service company, the dependence on a choir has led to a recognizable business turnaround in recent times in Ghana.

By setting up a choir, Kobena turned around the culture of the company; employees looked forward to rehearsals after work, and this improved employee morale, as well created a high level of togetherness.

 

From a company that was making a loss of more than one million in 2010, QIC, through its roadshows with its main marketing tool - the QIC Choir, has visited over 400 Christian churches, hosted over 100 musical shows, and engaged in other song ministration events and through that, generated a database of over five hundred thousand potential clients.

This database has translated into a profit of over fifteen million Ghana Cedis in the 2022 financial year.

That spirit of innovation and the preparedness to stick to an unconventional strategy has worked for QIC.

Who would have thought the secret to success for a financial institution would be through song ministration.

Like all organizations, the make-or-break issue is not just what separates them from the competition in the marketplace. It is what holds their employees together in the workplace.

Clearly, organizations built around unique strategies are at their best when rank-and-file colleagues share and express genuine emotions around a certain philosophy and undoubtedly, the QIC choir, and by extension the employees share a lot of emotions when singing.

Even as the Managing Director provides his colleagues with a sound playbook for QIC to compete, he has also given them strong enough reasons to care about customers, about colleagues, and about doing what most stakeholders enjoy - music, with which so little can go wrong.  

Below is one of the most popular videos of the group:

@qic_choir We can't explain it. We just love ❤️ doing it! ☺️????Simply Passion with a Divine drive! ???????? #choralmusic #qic #choir ♬ original sound - QIC_CHOIR