Improve internal processes -- AGI tells businesses

By Basiru ADAM

Even as businesses grapple with external difficulties like high interest rates and lack of power, which they have little control over, they need to pay a lot more attention to improving their internal processes, the Executive Secretary of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) Seth Twum-Akwaboah, has said.

By improving their internal processes, businesses will develop the “shock-absorbers” that enable them to withstand the myriad challenges in the business environment, Mr. Akwaboah told the B&FT on the sidelines of a training workshop for AGI members on the Kaizen Concept of business improvement.

“If you look at the business environment today, there are a lot of challenges: challenges of power, challenges of interest rates, challenges regarding imports and so on. But these are external problems which you individually cannot solve. As a company, you do not have control over these factors.

“So our position has always been that, while advocating for improvement of the business environment with regard to these external factors, the internal structures must also improve; companies must prepare themselves to surmount some of these challenges, and basically that is why we have partnered the Kaizen Institute to introduce this concept,” he said.

The Kaizen Concept is said to have originated from Japan after World War Two, and is a concept for continuous improvement of internal processes in companies.

Kaizen, Japanese for "improvement" or "change for the better", refers to philosophies or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, and business management.

It is said to have been applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life-coaching, government, banking, and other industries. When used in the business-sense and applied to the workplace, Kaizen refers to activities that continually improve all functions, and involve all employees from the CEO to assembly-line workers. It also applies to processes such as purchasing and logistics that cross organisational boundaries into the supply-chain.

By improving standardised activities and processes, Kaizen aims to eliminate waste.
In an interview with B&FT, Lead Consultant from the Kaizen Institute of India, Vinod Grover, said a successful roll-out of the concept in any organisation begins with commitment from top-management toward continuous improvement of staff and processes.

“The first sign of success in an organisation is when the leadership embraces this methodology and starts changing the way they treat employees. Respect for employees is an extremely powerful part of the Kaizen philosophy; and when the leaders provide them with the resources, the stability and training, they will be able to do their jobs successfully,” he said.

“So it starts from commitment from top-level management, and our founder [Masaaki Imai] says that there are three secrets to success. The first is top-management commitment, the second is top-management commitment and the third is top-management commitment,” he added.

Mr. Twum-Akwaboah of the AGI said after introducing the concept, the consultants will be available to provide direct support to companies to implement it.

Local consultants, he added, have been identified to imbibe the concept and pass it on so that consultants do not always have to come from outside to coach.

“So it is a continuous process; it is not a one-off event. It is going to continue and we will continue to engage our members on it.”

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