Doing Business in Ghana: ARG 1 Africa Partners with Harvard Business School and Ashesi University

According to curriculum writer and author Paul Solarz: “collaboration allows us to know more than we are capable of knowing by ourselves.” Applying this concept to the business world, 2023 started off with a collaboration between Harvard Business School and ARG 1 Africa. The latter was the project partner to support an eager group of second-year MBA students in the Immersive Field Course: “Ghana; Doing Business Across Africa”. The project set to highlight the many opportunities and potential challenges for students interested in business on the African continent, which is part of a broader umbrella of IFCs at Harvard. As part of the course, Harvard also collaborated with Ashesi University, extending this exposure to their students as well.

From January 3rd to 13th 2023, groups of 5 students each were to work with host companies in Ghana. The group had to understand what it takes to do business in the country and how the recent global trends (COVID-19, climate change, deglobalization, increased protectionism, recession, etc.), have impacted the business and affected many African countries and their exchange rates.

To answer the questions: “How has your project partner company been affected by this on a micro level?” and “If you are the CEO of the company, what should your strategy be?” The group – composed of Tom Troxel, Mathieu Davis and Paola Lopez from Harvard Business School, and Ayeyi Ohene-Adu and Clement Ngosong from Ashesi University – spent some quality hours with various Heads of Departments of Sales, Maintenance and Accounts. They also met with ARG 1 Africa’s CEO Roni Mattouk. Lights were shed in order to understand how the elevator business functions in Ghana, the role of the different stakeholders involved, the recent challenges the company has faced locally and globally, and how it has impacted the business in many ways.

Later, armed with valuable insights, the team did their own research. The group contacted different governing bodies in the elevator business (Ghana Standards Authority, various lawyers, banking and insurance companies) to get a holistic understanding of the challenges involved. In their final presentation, they proposed strategies and solutions that ARG 1 could investigate to sail through these challenges and grow exponentially in the long run. An important thing they shed light on was the importance of data, tracking and analytics, which the elevator engineering company could work better on.

The insights shared by the team were useful and extremely thoughtful. However, the students acknowledged that Ghana is yet to have proper compliant systems and strict regulations embedded in the national law in terms of safety for moving machines carrying human beings, such as elevators, escalators and moving walkways.

This collaboration was a great learning experience for the students as well as ARG 1 Africa’s team, and the company looks forward to many such similar partnerships in the future. In recognition of the warm welcome and assistance, ARG 1 Africa was awarded a certificate, and is looking for future cooperation with the great institute HRB.

ABOUT ARG 1: ARG 1 Africa Limited is a Ghanaian multidisciplined engineering contracting company with a combined HR related expertise of over 60 years. Headquartered in Accra, ARG 1 has evolved into a strong and trusted company, supplying and servicing hundreds of vertical and horizontal moving installations across the West Africa sub-region, including elevators, escalators, moving walkways, dumbwaiters, platforms, car lifts and airport passenger bridges.

FAIR USE POLICY
This material (including media content) may not be published, broadcasted, rewritten, or redistributed. However, linking directly to the page (including the source, i.e. Marcopolis.net) is permitted and encouraged.