The plight of the debt-ridden Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) illustrates perfectly how so many of the individuals appointed to run state-owned companies don't deserve the positions they are appointed to.
The question is: How did a company producing some of the world's best-tasting dark chocolates come to be in such a sorry state? Amazing.
What did those whose job it was to supervise the work of the boards and managements of state-owned enterprises do to prevent the CPC from ending up in such a precarious situation?
A little lateral thinking: Why do Hon Hackman Owusu-Agyemang and the rest of the board of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) not seek some of the government's bailout funds for industry for the CPC - since it has such huge potential as an export earner for the COCOBOD and Mother Ghana?
Furtheremore, why does the CPC's management not seek new markets overseas for their world-beating Golden Tree brand of dark chocolates in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) area?
It is a lucrative market the CPC's products could do very well in if the company gets the initial approach to that large high-end confectionary market right.
The CPC could develop a niche by specialising in making own-brand dark chocolates for the largest supermarket chains in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait for example, if they went on a marketing trip to the GCC area.
This blog's humble advice to Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, who is a very shrewd operator when it comes to business, is to consider asking either McKinsey & Company or PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to find such supermarket chain own-brand production contracts for the CPC.
Perhaps those two consultancy firms could even get the confectionery buyers from such supermarket chains to visit the CPC's factories to see how hygienic their production facilities are, could they not, come to think of it?
The two consultancy firms could also seek own-brand production contracts from large supermarket chains in Angola, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville, Namibia and Botswana.
A company making some of the best dark chocolates in the world should not be staring bankruptcy in the face. Not one bit. And it says a lot about the calibre of the previous managers of the CPC that that is happening today. Pity.
The question is: Has the time not now come to minimise the huge sums paid out to the management and board of the CPC as compensation packages?
If they succeed in reviving the company and make consistent annual profits that are stellar for about 5 years - and pay dividends to the shareholders regularly - then no one in Ghana will begrudge their fat salaries and endless perks.
For the moment those high salaries and sundry perks are an obvious financial impediment to the revival of the CPC. Definitely.
Finally, one hopes that Hon Hackman Owusu-Agyemang will mull over this blog's widow's mite nation-building contribution (by way of outlining possible marketing options) to the revival of the CPC, which produces some of the best dark chocolate in the whole wide world. The CPC deserves to succeed - for all our sake as a people.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment