COVID-19; an opportunity for businesses to evolve – Esther Cobbah
Madam Esther Cobbah, CEO of Strategic Communication (STRATCOMM) has advised businesses to embrace the opportunities presented by COVID-19 and welcome the change that comes with it.
She made this statement during the Stanford SEED Business Conference 2020 themed: “Embracing Forced change Within Diverse Cultures”
“Don’t waste any crises. Every crises presents an opportunity for you to find a solution to a problem and that’s entrepreneurship right there”, she emphasized.
According to her, crises heighten the appreciation of the value of communication citing that the extended crisis period of the COVID-19 pandemic offered the communication function in government agencies, corporate organizations, as well as international organizations, the opportunity to gain the needed attention of leadership to the imperative of strategic communication.
She noted that the virtual space has also offered opportunities for corporate-wide interaction and inter-departmental collaboration than might typically occur in the physical office space context.
“The whole organization may be assembled in a virtual meeting, which would not be feasible physically. Reassuring visibility and communication from the CEO to the whole organization in this crisis period is made possible” she said.
Madam Cobbah shared that Communication is also vital to harnessing the new opportunities from, what she termed as “the now crucial and ever-growing reality of virtual space for the benefit of individual livelihoods, communities, nations and humanity at large.”
She said the virtual space may offer greater scaling -up opportunities across cultures because today, the availability of Zoom and similar technologies connect people across the globe and enables even small businesses to reach out beyond “what was possible physically and thus extend their market tremendously.”
Touching further on the opportunities that the virtual space has provided for organisatons, Madam Esther Cobbah noted that the virtual space also presents opportunities for development communication globally because perspectives from communities and nations can be shared on common virtual platforms as part of developing strategies for post –COVID-19 resurgence.
On her part, President for Seed Transformation Network (STN) Ghana chapter, Madam Linda Yaa Ampah noted that businesses who do not reposition themselves in wait of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) may not be able to stand the test of time.
Speaking to the media, she stated that, businesses that do not work on the mindset of leaders and staff, adapting new ways of running a business, being creative, among others are going to sink.
“This is because our markets are going to be opened to the whole of Africa, literally. At least for now about 30 countries have already rectify so we need to prepare ourselves as business leaders to scale up and take advantages.
There are several advantages here but if you don’t position yourselves well then it is going to be a disadvantage to you because the market is going to be flooded with other goods coming in,” she said.
Also present was Dr. Michael Agyekum Addo, CEO of KAMA Group of Companies, who noted that there is an on-going revolution that businesses need to take advantage of and scale-up.
“Businesses need to be aware of this on-going revolution and change their mindset on how to approach their business. This will make you identify opportunities. Don’t be lazy, seize the opportunity immediately and make good use of it. Don’t wait for COVID to change or revolutionirise. Change with times and most importantly, make use of Information Technology”
