Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC), Dr. K.K Sarpong, has called on businesses to embrace digital transformation.

According to him, attaining digital transformation will position businesses in a place of resilience.

Speaking at the 5^th Ghana CEO summit, Dr. Sarpong explained that, it has become imperative for boards in organization to exercise technological literacy to survive the pandemic.

The pandemic, he revealed, has prompted business managers to “take a second look at the way they do things” to survive. To achieve this, he revealed that boards of businesses must employ the use of “digitization” particularly within managment.

“For reasons that are obvious to us all, we meet today in circumstances that are not entirely normal. At the core of the lessons learnt from the pandemic; is the need to transform our business models and processes using digital technology.

“It has also become increasingly clear that, to run productive and profitable businesses, digital transformation is critical. Under the current circumstances and beyond, there’s no doubt that the corporate governance agenda, should embrace digital transformation for businesses to achieve resilience.

“Technologically literate boards and management are a must have for all business in today’s world. A board that recognises and appreciates the essence of technology will be immense benefit to the administration of business. This is so because, the board will understand the need to digitize the business and retrain staff to meet the needs of a contemporary, technological marketplace”.

Building business resilience

Commenting on businesses building resilience, Dr. Sarpong noted that, managers of businesses must take a relook at the corporate governance structure. Good corporate governance, he insisted, must ensures economic growth even “as micro enterprises deliver results”.

Also, he revealed the governance structure of most businesses has been on autopilot; but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “we cannot do business as usual”.

“If businesses are to recover from the shocks of the pandemic, there will be the need to reset the corporate governance agenda to build business resilience and ultimately, sustained economic growth. The corporate governance structure of our businesses is key to building economic resilience to meet our contemporary challenges. Good corporate governance is needed to ensure the proper running of enterprises to engender investor confidence that attracts required equity and risk capital.

“The pandemic has revealed the importance of business to society and demonstrated the power of technology in striving to meet the need of all stakeholders”.

Corporate governance agenda

Touching on the significance of corporate governance agenda, the GNPC boss intimated that it will be crucial for post-pandemic recovery.

Similarly, Dr. Sarpong further advised boards to, as a matter of urgency, appreciate and imbibe technology in their activities to ensure the smooth trickling down of such knowledge to those at management levels.

“A corporate governance agenda that promotes post-pandemic business and economic resilience will require a more in-depth look at how seriously our boards and executives consider digitization. Suppose the board and management appreciate that technology, will lead to revenue growth and improved return on asset among others. They will reset the agenda from the top and ensure that it is replicated at all levels of the organization. A board committee may also be informed to deal with digital transformation and digital revolution.

“In as much as the need for digitization in businesses preceded the pandemic; it is indeed the pandemic which serves as the unsolicited needed catalyst for targeted action and implementation”.