Profit-making should be the first act of social responsibility - Professor Adei

Former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, GIMPA, Professor Adei has strongly disagreed with businesses whose motives focus on giving back to society.

According to him, businesses should focus more on the things that make them more profitable and brings them good returns on investment.

He questioned the rationale behind being socially responsible when there is the opportunity to rake in more returns for your business.

“The first Corporate social responsibility is to make profit. This idea of when you go and help some people somewhere with one classroom then that’s it. If you don’t make profit can you do it? So we say the first Corporate Social Responsibility increasing share value, everything else follows from there”

Professor Adei made these comments during a presentation at the 2017 Ghana CEO Summit held at Kempinsky Hotel Gold Coast City in Accra on Tuesday.

Focusing on the theme, “Aligning the Board and Management during Corporate transformations”, Prof. Adei emphasized the importance of Integrity and Trust among CEO’s and Boards for the growth of businesses.

In line with this, he challenged Boards of Directors and Business owners to dismiss CEO’s and Managers who exhibit dishonesty and deceit in the dispensation of their duties.

Professor Adei urged industry players to be more focused on their targets and in their deliberations to increase efficiency and obtain better results taking account of the fact that taking calculated risks is one sure way to make great gains as a business.

The Ghana CEO Summit is an annual event and this year’s was the second edition organized on the theme “Digital Innovation Economy for Business Growth”