Disclaimer: if you are the kind of person who gets irritated easily, do not read this blog. It contains an opinion that may inadvertently annoy you. Thanks. Ring. Ring. I accept the call. “Mustapha, how is your day tomorrow? Can you join us for our corporate social responsibility event? We shall be cleaning the street early morning.” Since the caller is a close friend, I thank him for thinking about me. “This is a great initiative. Unfortunately, cleaning the street is not my current expertise. However, I could contribute Ugx. 100,000 towards the cause.” “No. You don’t get it. We…
Tool 55 of 104 is to act with integrity
‘No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money’, Luke 16:13 What is your profession? Why did you choose it? Growing up with grandpa helped me experience first hand the elusiveness of money. Money was so scarce that earning it came after so much hard work. With hindsight, such experience helped us to become competitive as I am able to focus on the issues at hand without quitting.…
The five barriers to strategy execution
Strategic planning is easy. It is a commodity. Anyone can write a document and label it ‘strategic plan.’ The real art lies in execution. Many people have great ideas that if they put any one of the ideas into action, they would be rich. The fact that we have a few successful people, it means the art of strategy execution is missing. One time, while reviewing a strategic plan for an organization, it had very ambitious plans and ‘pillars’ of their strategy, with clear budgets. But when it came to financing, they indicated a funding gap of over 40%! They…
What makes a good meeting agenda
The general culture of most meetings is backward. When it comes to board meetings, it is absurd. Lots of board meeting time, limited outcomes. For effective governance, this must change. Many organization’s board meetings agenda are distributed wrongly: (i) status updates – 80%; (ii) strategy discussions – 10% and (iii) administration issues – 10%! In the above agenda, boards or meetings spend a lot of time discussing history. If the results are bad, a lot of time is wasted in pointing figures and firefighting. No company grows by focusing on negative things. History is good as far as learning from…
Do you prepare for board meetings?
All board members should come to the meeting well briefed. You have probably witnessed a board meeting where members are not adequately prepared to make a meaningful contribution. As members enter the boardroom, they find board paper files on the desk. As the chairman calls the meeting to order, the board member is busy reading through the board papers! One wonders what kind of contribution can such a board member make. At one of the boards, the board chair required members to book contribution space on any item on the agenda. This forced members to read the board packs. During…
Why you must get a copy of the “How to get on the board book”…
Are you too good to be great? “You will be the same person 5 years from now except for two things: the books you read and the people you meet.” Who said that powerful statement? When it comes to leadership, which books are you reading? Get a copy of Mustapha B Mugisa’s new book on corporate governance and transform. The book provides practical insights for your career and leadership growth. In the next paragraph, find a review of the book by Paul Busharizi, as published on Amazon, How-Board-Become-Fantastic-Director-ebook, to appreciate the what value you could be missing. “Starting a business is…
