THE AFRICAN CEO FORUM
The African CEO Forum, which was held in Abidjan on March 21 and 22 of this year, brought together nearly a thousand participants, business leaders, politicians, consultants, mostly African.
We heard satisfaction, words of hope, but also some concerns. (Remember that the Forum was held exactly one week after the deadly attacks in Grand Bassam).
President Ouattara reaffirmed his strategy for Cote d’Ivoire. It is a question of curbing the export of unprocessed raw materials, and of establishing a processing industry. There is money for this, investments are possible to create an industrial infrastructure. The only one capable of creating many jobs and increasing the added value produced by the country. African leaders are ready, the capital is there.
But in the corridors of the Forum we could hear that this strategy is not new. She hasn’t done so well so far. We also heard that African CEOs and politicians tend too much to adopt the positions of leaders – authoritarianism, solitary power, weakness of middle management – and not of leaders – teamwork, humility, given meaning.
Thus the relative weakness of middle management and the authoritarianism of business leaders feed off each other in a form of vicious circle that would seem to be unstoppable.
Without claiming to perform miracles, Actiss aims to help reverse the course of things.
By understanding the challenges facing managers, foremost among which is the ability to benefit from middle management capable of deploying strategies.
By delegating business leaders who are able to irrigate middle management with methods and know-how.
And by instilling a culture of greater efficiency, of results, beyond political, economic and human constraints. Helping African companies that want to continue to succeed and transforming them into champions, that is our ambition.
(Change the subject and also find out : our articles on interim management)