Protect business ideas and infant industries - Otabil

Recognising, patenting and protecting intellectual property or ideas and infant industries is one of the ways Ghana can grow immensely, Dr. Mensa Otabil, founder of the International Central Gospel Church, has said.

"If Mark Zuckerberg had started facebook in Ghana, would it have grown to become a global business? If Tata, Amazon were started in Ghana, would they have grown to become global enterprises?" Otabil asked. He said Ghana as a country has failed to put in the necessary regulatory and infrastructural framework to accommodate such great minds and ideas.

“Our kente, drums, music, art-works are displayed all over the world by other countries without the nation getting anything out of it because we failed to patent our own intellectual properties. We cannot grow as a country without protecting infant industries.

“We have to build a solid infrastructural support to care for these industries springing up: if not, competition will crowd them out. If electricity is not constantly supplied and I have to rely on generator to power my business, the cost will eventually become too much to bear,” he said.

Inspiring delegates on the final day of the 2013 edition of Festival of Ideas, organised by Legacy & Legacy, in Accra on the topic “Unleashing the New African Corporate Leader”, Dr. Otabil compared businesses to the parable of the seed-sower from the Bible.

“Seeds that fall by the wayside represent business ideas that were stolen; seeds that got choked in bushes represent businesses that got crowded out by competition; seeds that fell on hard ground represent businesses that couldn’t grow beyond the initial stages; and the good seeds that grew represent businesses that grew to multinational status.” Dr. Otabil said ideas are seeds which need a sower and good soil to germinate.

He said Ghana as a country abounds with many sowers -- people with ideas -- but they have been constrained by the poor soil or the environment within which they find themselves.

Dr. Otabil said many of the ideas in Ghana have fallen by the wayside -- i.e. stolen by companies; taken over by thorns -- i.e. stifled as a result of unfair competition. Only a few have fallen on good soil and germinated.

He said the country must begin to value its ideas and put in place the necessary laws to jealously guard and patent them. He therefore urged politicians to formulate policies that create the environment for ideas to be developed, and non-political public servants should implement these policies for the benefit of society in general.

Dr. Otabil said politics is not about winning elections but formulating policies that will affect the citizenry positively.

He said the public services as well as the citizenry themselves have done a rather poor job at demanding accountability from politicians on the policies they promise to implement if voted into power.

Dr. Otabil added that for citizens to get policies which will transform society there is a need to select the right politicians during elections. “If we can’t do that, then we are just selecting people who will be successful at our own expense.”

He advised the youth to encourage, drive and think big by themselves, because even after 56 years of independence “we don’t have enough entrepreneurs who can serve as role models to the youth.

“We have great managers but very few leaders who can be role models; and even the ones we have own first generational businesses so they haven’t stood the test of time yet to be considered as great role models. So you have to inspire yourself to think and play big, and be eager to attract top talent.

“If you are going to play in the big league, you can’t do it with mediocre people; and even though talent is very expensive, it pays well in the long-run. You have to courageous and bold. Sometimes you may be coming against a whole system or structure, but you have to keep pushing and pushing to effect the necessary change you desire.”