Partner Spotlight: StratAfrique Brings Denison Solutions to Africa
The best laid plans are only as good as an organization’s
ability to implement them -so says Ghana-based consulting firm,
StratAfrique. According to its principle consultants Martyn Mensah,
Franklin Ansah-Antwi and Sefakor Lassey, there has been a lot
of confusion about what organizational strategy should achieve
in the African market. “Often, strategy interventions do not get
beyond a document that paints a positive picture of the future,”
explains Martyn. “What we really try to do is help our clients
focus on their raison d’être, using a process of strategy development
to get at the heart of their operations, and supporting them to
bring it all together for organization-wide effectiveness.”
In the unique business culture of Africa, StratAfrique engages
their clients to identify their underlying problems and develop
pragmatic solutions for themselves. They encourage the organizations
they work with to learn from their own internal and external experiences
and to develop their own culture and identity. “We try to simplify
and demystify the resulting process of change with our clients,
and build it into their
day-to-day work.” explains Sefakor.
Organizational culture is proving to be a very important component
in their quest to keep strategy simple. “One of the biggest constraints
to effective execution is not that organizations don’t know what
to do or don’t want to do it, but rather, it is a question of
what their culture supports. I think everyone knows what culture
is but in many of the organizations we work with, there’s no common
language to define it. We wanted something that would help us
break that barrier, and we’ve searched feverishly for something
that was simple yet comprehensive and consistent with our core
ethos. The Denison model touched on everything that we wanted,”
comments Martyn. “It’s deepened the conversations that we would
normally have with an organization, and provides rich data for
feedback which really represents the perceptions and realities
of the people in that organization,” adds Franklin.
StratAfrique serves a wide range of clients from small businesses
to large multinationals in a range of industries in Africa. Key
organizations that have benefitted from their interventions include
Total Ghana, Golden Tulip Hotels, Coca-Cola, Ecobank Ghana, UT
Financial Services, the Judiciary of the Republic of Liberia,
The University of Ghana and the Independent Communication Authority
of South Africa. Their goal is to help African organizations develop
the right orientation for growth and develop their human resources
to match the recognized potential.
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