Prof Douglas Boateng (left) receives an honour supported by Rockson Bukari
Chairman of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) Prof Douglas Boateng has launched the second edition of the world’s first compendium on Supply Chain Management (SCM) in Accra.
The second edition titled, “Executive Insights Series: Compendium of Supply Chain Management Terms” contains thousands of detailed information and definitions to help the public and private sector officials understand and apply aspects of the supply chain management thinking to their respective values chains, support industrialisation and competitiveness and improve service delivery.
Speaking at the launch of the over 900-page book, Prof Boateng said he put together the compendium to educate and enlighten people because of the general lack of understanding in supply chain management.
According to him, “Having already witnessed the spectacular transformations of economies like South Korea, China, Singapore, South Africa and Rwanda, Ghana as a country can improve if we understand the interconnectivity between the various aspects of value chain.
“In Africa what we’ve been doing is just buying not procuring and not strategically sourcing, hence our dear old continent has become a dumping ground for fake, counterfeit products. If we do not change our mindset through supply chain thinking how are we going to be able to create the much-needed jobs for the youth of today and tomorrow? Now it’s not just a Ghana problem or African problem; there is a general lack of understanding of supply chain management,” he added.
Having used two years to come up with the second edition, Prof. Boateng said, “I travelled around the world and realised that something has to be done about it, and so I took it upon myself to obviously come up with a dictionary. We’re all aware that doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers have their bible; supply chain managers we don’t have one. So, I decided to develop one at my own cost. It took me 1,885 days or 5 years to develop the first compendium. The second one took me 912 days or 2 and half years at my own cost. But for me I did it for a reason, if the world understands supply chain management it will a better place for the African child.”
Prof. Boateng plans to give 275 copies of the book freely to Members of Parliament (MPs) to understand supply chain management in the interest of the country.
It can be found in schools like Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Stanford, Manchester, as well as business schools in Africa.
Prof Douglas Boateng is an international professionally certified Chartered Director and an adjunct academic.