Alhassan Andani
Businesses, State Institutions, Private and International Organisations have been advised to focus and operate as though they were in the future.
According to Alhassan Andani, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Stanbic Bank (Ghana), a subsidiary of Standard Bank Africa, the complexity of future fitness” and what it means to every profession, business or organization; is “threatening.”
“The past is good, but it disappears faster hence, always one must relearn and focus on being useful for tomorrow,” he added.
The advent of Covid-19 and the speed with which technology, information and data based systems are changing the way the world operates is one that can easily make the biggest venture today, become a pale shadow of itself tomorrow.
To this end, Every profession has to redefine itself in this future fitness regime or else they will not exist.”
Mr. Andani made the remark at the 27th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Institute of Public Relations (IPR). The event which was held over the weekend in Ho, the Volta Regional capital, was on the theme; The Future-Fit PR Practitioner.
He also observed that the dynamics of the future-fit organizations will rely largely on information, which is a key ingredient in Public Relations Practice.
How these information is managed will make or unmake the organisation no matter how big or small. He therefore charged organisations to take public relations and practitioners seriously by investing heavily in the area.
More so, PR practitioners must learn and relearn to be ready to take up the daunting task the future holds for them, so they will not be found wanting.
Mr. Andani who revealed that PR contributed to the success of Stanbic Bank Ghana, stressed that PR must be in the middle of everything because Longevity of organisations is based on image and that is what IPR does.
The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah who addressed the AGM virtually appealed to the IPR and practitioners to leverage their resources, network and audience to fight fake news which also threatens their work as much as it does the media, government and other organisations.
He announced that to operationalize the Right to Information (RTI) law, about 100 information officers have been recruited and trained to provide timely information to the population; aside improvements at the Ministry to ensure government communication was regular, accessible, transparent and useful for the public.
He was hopeful that the proposed IPR Bill which is still being fine-tuned will soon be ready for parliament to work and pass it into law.
The President of the Institute of Public Relations (IPR) Ghana, Mawuko Afadzinu was hopeful that the meeting will afford practitioners the opportunity to critically interrogate emerging threats from the future against PR practice, so we are prepared and not carried away.
He added that just as there are threats, opportunities also abound from the future that practitioners must be able and ready to grab.
Deserving professionals were conferred with accredited and associate membership while others were inducted into the fraternity.
From Fred Duodu, Ho (k.duodu@yahoo.com)