What role does disruption play in entrepreneurship? How do you build a trans-generational business? Debt or Equity in choosing a financing option for your business? Is external financing really needed for a business to succeed? What is a transformational business and how do you build one?
These were some of the topics tackled at the just ended Cohort 3 Residential Wellbeing Retreat at the Peduase Valley Resort.
The 2-day retreat that happened on the 18th & 19th October 2018, started off with a team building session led by Dominic Opoku-Manu, GCIC’s Entrepreneurship Officer. The entrepreneurs were tasked with the objective of working together in teams of five to build the tallest free-standing structure from 20 sticks of spaghetti, one-yard masking tape, one-yard string and one marshmallow in 18 minutes. This exercise aside from enhancing the entrepreneurs’ team work skills, taught them about resource utilization and the importance of constant prototyping in their entrepreneurial journey.
M.anifest has been shifting the status quo of the African music scene and is known for his signature sound that marries traditional African sound with Hip Hop. The first day of the Wellbeing Retreat ended with a chat with M.anifest where he shared his own experience on disrupting the status quo in Ghana. Through an exercise where he turned entrepreneurs and GCIC staff into rappers, M.anifest emphasized on the importance of fully embracing gifts or talents and allowing the different sides of you to flourish even as an entrepreneur.
“You cannot make an argument for eloquence shabbily”- Nana Kofi Acquah
How do you build and run a trans-generational business? It’s quite simple! By being intentional from the very beginning! Nana Kofi Acquah, an award-winning photojournalist, highlighted the importance of shaping perceptions through story telling in building a brand for your business.
Nana Kofi Acquah, award winning photojournalist
What better way to learn about fundraising for your business other than from the investment practitioners? Ebenezer Arthur & Wole Oyeleye of Wangara Capital and Serengeti Capital respectively, shared tips on maneuvering the investment climate in Ghana and the different types of investments suitable at various stages of the business’ growth.
Rita Ifeyiniwa of Intellidigest Ltd spoke on how to build a business from a global perspective especially when it came to fundraising. Intellidigest Ltd is an organic waste management company that uses biodigester to convert unavoidable food waste to clean energy. One key lesson she had learnt in her entrepreneurial journey was on the importance of continuous innovation through constant prototyping to ensure she was meeting her customers’ needs. Selorm Brantie of Mpedigree Ltd. brought the retreat to an end at a high note by sharing lessons on how to build a transformational business.
“For a transformational business, the impact is not in the product or service it delivers, but in the transformation it instigates” – Selorm Brantie, Mpedigree Ltd.
Since 2017, the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), has organized a Wellbeing programme for each cohort of entrepreneurs. The Wellbeing aims at inspiring and instructing the entrepreneurs who have just come out of three months of entrepreneurship training and are getting ready to embark on an exciting 9 months of incubation/ acceleration at GCIC. The Wellbeing is structured to encourage bonding among the entrepreneurs and through interactions with transformational business leaders from Ghana and across the world, learn and be inspired to reach for excellence.
Inspired by James C. Collin’s book, Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck-Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, this year’s Wellbeing Retreat was themed Great by Choice: Social Enterprise, Transformational Leadership and The Intentional Business. Being Great by Choice is exactly what GCIC hopes to inspire its entrepreneurs to be- to rise to the challenge of being at the cusp of something great in the green economy they operate in.
The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator whose objective is to support entrepreneurs and ventures involved in developing profitable and locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. The Centre’s key focus is on building businesses operating within the areas of energy efficiency, domestic waste management, solar energy, water supply management and purification and climate-smart agriculture. GCIC is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev Climate Technology Program. Supported by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the Centre is managed by a consortium led by the Ashesi University and including Ernst & Young, SNV Ghana, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.
