The Pitch, an opportunity that affords firms to showcase their new products and services and discuss new, emerging innovations developed to transform the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers in Ghana, has come to a successful end at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Accra.
The four-day event, which forms part of the second UGBS Conference on business and development was under the theme, “Sustaining Ghana Through Product Innovation.”
Vice Dean of the UGBS Professor Joshua Abor said the institute’s social responsibility is to make a positive impact on the business community and strive to remain very relevant to corporate Ghana by establishing strong collaboration with industry.
“Considering the complexities of businesses and economic challenges, it is imperative to find innovative ways of dealing with these challenges and at the UGBS, we are focused on achieving this through our teaching, research and extension works.
“We plan on seeking ways of linking our research findings with development through policy advocacy, business development, corporate relation, consultancy and executive training.”
Professor Abor believes that the platform will help strengthen the position of the company’s innovations in the minds of their target market and also go a long way to open new markets to them.
The first day saw six companies – Millward Brown, Citi FM, Horseman Shoes, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Japan Motors and Farmline – pitch their innovative ways of competing in very competitive markets and ways in which they have maintained their relevance over the period.
Tonyi Senayah, Chief Executive Officer of local shoes manufacturer Horseman Shoes said one of the ways the company has been able to get to its targeted audience is through social media.
“Horseman is very active on the very popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Because we do not have a huge budget to support an extensive media campaign we leverage on the once that are relatively cheap to get to our audience.
“We also ask our celebrity clients to promote the brand for us through their social media platforms,” he said.
Samuel Atta Mensah, Managing Director of Accra-based radio station Citi FM added that before the station began operations there were 20 others in the market.
“Through innovative business and entertainment events including Music of Ghanaian Origin (MOGO), Citi FM Roundtable, Business Olympics, Decemba2Rememba, Salsa Nights, Expressions of Accra, the station got more audience and is now one of the biggest radio stations in the country.”
The second day saw six others including Stanbic Bank Ghana, Sliver Star Towers, Bureau of Market & Social Research Limited, Mechanical Lloyd, UGBS Mobile Library, and Sellgh.com pitch their innovative ideas to the audience.
Other pitchers included CIMA, UG Researchers and Research Report, RxPharma, eScripts Solutions and First Capital Plus Bank. The event will come to an on Thursday, July 31.
