Head of Consulting at Deloitte Ghana, Roland Teye, has advised business owners to use available and reliable data when taking decisions to keep their firms operational amid COVID-19 disruption.
According to him, this is the surest way to make informed decision that will not hurt the survival of companies. He wants managers and CEOs to demand data and analyse them before consenting to any decision put before them.
“On the HR side, data also needs to lead the decisions. HR has the largest volume of data, because if you are using that data and analysing what the productivity per head is, what is the revenue per head, who is bringing the highest revenue per head, in determining what to do when the situation gets worse, it is easy for you as HR to steer the leadership on who needs to go and who needs to stay – because there is data, and that is what will back your recommendation.
“At this crucial time, the amount of data and the ability to make sense of that data will determine how long you are able to survive during this period. So, I think CEOs should insist on data, analyse and take decisions,” Mr. Teye said at the 2020 Ghana’s Most Respected CEOs Breakfast Series, organised by the Business and Financial Times (B&FT) in partnership with Vodafone Ghana.
He added that when data is taken seriously, the burden on leaders will reduce and decisions will make sense to employees. This, he believes, will motivate employees who are able to keep their jobs to understand the need for putting in more effort to ensure survival of the organisation. He intimated that good data will also provide the real status of an organisation and push managers to put in some structural reforms – where need be – to correct gaps.
“With data, you are able to make good and informed decisions; and I would like to bring it down to the SME level, where most of them do not see the relevance of data. For instance, if you were keeping proper data of your sales and all that was happening pre-COVID-19, when COVID-19 came in you could have gone back and done an historical analysis of the data; and you would be able to say ‘this is how I performed in the past and this is where I am most likely to be in the foreseeable future with COVID-19 around’,” Mr. Teye said.
The 2020 Ghana’s Most Respected CEO’s Breakfast Series was on the theme ‘Managing an anxious workforce during and post COVID-19 for business continuity. The virtual event had a cross-section of panellists including HR and Leadership Consultant, Dr. Hazel Amuah; President of the Governing Council-Institute of Human Resource Management Practitioners and CEO of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Dr. Edward Kwarpong; CEO of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mark Badu Aboagye; and Vice President of the Association of Ghana Industries, Humphrey Kwesi Ayim–Darke, among others.
