The Giant capacity builder in the Ghanaian and international corporate circles revolutionizing consumer and retail trends through digitisation – TARA SQUIRE

<p><strong>Can you please tell us about your<&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>self &quest;<&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;We are a family of three&semi; my wife<br &sol;>&NewLine;daughter and I&period; Our daughter is 13<br &sol;>&NewLine;years old&period; She thinks she is the boss&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Sometimes&comma; I think she is right&period; I<br &sol;>&NewLine;have been married for a little over 13<br &sol;>&NewLine;years now&period; I attended Bishop Bowers&comma;<br &sol;>&NewLine;PRESEC&comma; St&period; Peter’s and University of<br &sol;>&NewLine;Ghana&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;I have been working for the past 18<br &sol;>&NewLine;years after school excluding national<br &sol;>&NewLine;service&period; It has been 18 years of gaining experiences&period; I wouldn’t say I have arrived yet&period; I am still striving to get better and do more&period; I am very happy and grateful for where I am now&period; It has neither been easy nor terribly difficult&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;I am thankful to God for the opportunities that come my way&period; I believe it is not because I am special but by the grace of God&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I come from a humble background&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;My mum was a nurse at Korlebu who<br &sol;>&NewLine;comes from Cape Coast&period; My dad was<br &sol;>&NewLine;doing quite well till he lost his job<br &sol;>&NewLine;during Rawlings’ regime and he never<br &sol;>&NewLine;really worked afterwards and my mother had to work to sustain the family&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;They are still together&period; I got the best<br &sol;>&NewLine;education as I attended some of the<br &sol;>&NewLine;best schools in Ghana and had very<br &sol;>&NewLine;good family support&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Growing up&comma; I surrounded myself with friends who helped shaped my life positively&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Our personalities&comma; choices&comma; decisions&comma; risks we take or not&comma; all influence who we become&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>After school&comma; my national service was<br &sol;>&NewLine;at the district Assembly of the Asuogyaman District&period; The District Assembly was my first glimpse into public service&period; When I was finishing my national service&comma; I felt maybe that was not what I wanted to do&period; During that time&comma; we were willing to take any opportunities given&period; The case is still the same now and higher with<br &sol;>&NewLine;more graduates looking for jobs in a rather limited job market&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I constantly searched for job opportunities&period; My friends informed me when they heard of job offers anywhere&period; There was a management trainee advert by Standard Charted<br &sol;>&NewLine;Bank but I didn’t make it in time because of proximity &lpar;since I was at the Asuogyaman District&rpar; and couldn’t put my things together on time&comma; so I missed it&period; There was another opportunity which was apparently from Unilever Ghana&period; We went through a series of training and selection processes but unfortunately&comma; I lost it to two of my colleagues from University of Ghana&period; I was discouraged&period; Due to this&comma; I explored other avenues&period; I started a marketing course &period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Things took a different turn when I went to an eatery with my friends which was opposite St&period; Thomas<br &sol;>&NewLine;Aquinas School&period; It was at that eatery where I met the Head of HR for Unilever who told me they had been searching for me&period; The following week&comma; I went for a series of interviews<br &sol;>&NewLine;and I finally got the offer&period; That was how my career started&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I have worked with companies such as Unilever Ghana&comma; British Tobacco&comma; Standard Chartered Bank&comma; Celtel &lpar; Zain&sol;Kasapa&rpar;&comma; Vodafone&comma; RLG and Ecobank&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My critical success factors have been based on people and great<br &sol;>&NewLine;teams&period; My wife and parents have<br &sol;>&NewLine;been very supportive&period; A lot of<br &sol;>&NewLine;people have been very influential in my life&semi; David Afodale&comma; Kojo Otuu&comma; Charles Eshun&comma; Jonas Baah&comma; Eto Dei Tutu&comma; Mr&period; George Owusu Ansa&comma; Mr&period; Richard Ofodule&comma; Kofi Fumey&comma; Albert<br &sol;>&NewLine;Forson among others&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;I would say there are very competent Ghanaian corporate leaders in the country who are doing a great job in their respective fields&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I think one thing that inspires me is when I see Ghanaians driving successful businesses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My Story Magazine is doing a<br &sol;>&NewLine;great job at highlighting the stories of entrepreneurs across the country and beyond&period; However&comma; I believe there is more to be done&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;More entrepreneurs and business leaders need to share their<br &sol;>&NewLine;stories to foster growth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ghana has been through some major<br &sol;>&NewLine;setbacks such as the political<br &sol;>&NewLine;instabilities we were faced with<br &sol;>&NewLine;through the 60s to the early 90s&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Those times in our history were<br &sol;>&NewLine;marked by seizure of businesses among others&period; Sometimes&comma; we<br &sol;>&NewLine;tend to appreciate others rather<br &sol;>&NewLine;than our own and it is important<br &sol;>&NewLine;we take a critical look at these<br &sol;>&NewLine;things&period; Companies like Huawei<br &sol;>&NewLine;and Samsung&comma; and Airtel were<br &sol;>&NewLine;all started by young people who<br &sol;>&NewLine;were supported by their countries to become big&period; We should<br &sol;>&NewLine;encourage people with their<br &sol;>&NewLine;dreams and encourage them to<br &sol;>&NewLine;the international stage&period; I get excited about working with multinationals&period; I have worked with Ghanaians and learnt a lot from that&period; I think the benefit of working in a multinational company is the culture which you can pass down years later especially for some of those Ghanaians<br &sol;>&NewLine;running their own businesses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>People usually dwell on the negatives but I like to dwell on the positive experiences and opportunities&period; I believe there are both positives and negatives in everybody’s story but it is<br &sol;>&NewLine;usually the positive that drives their success&period; For me&comma; the role of the negatives is to help you learn and do<br &sol;>&NewLine;better&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Most people focus on weaknesses but I believe it is better to focus on your strengths because leveraging on that can help us to deliver best results&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>This is something we should embrace as Ghanaians&period; It is important that we develop our strengths so that we become exceptional at what we do&period; We tend to dwell on the negatives&period; I am grateful for where I am now<br &sol;>&NewLine;and I am humbled&period; I hope other individuals who are building businesses and pursuing a career should be determined and focused and remember that things don’t happen overnight but perseverance is key&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Can you share your experience at Tigo with us<&sol;strong>&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Most of the jobs I have done have mostly been about driving revenue&comma; acquiring new customers&comma; growing<br &sol;>&NewLine;profitability&period; During my time at Tigo&comma; I focused on people and performance&period; I worked with a lot of young people and helped them leverage on good opportunities and they have gone on to become key personalities in their various fields&period; This has been a legacy for me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What has been your source of motivation&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The will to succeed&period; I do not want to fail at what I have been given to do&period; Again&comma; the need to provide a<br &sol;>&NewLine;decent living for myself&period; I want to leave a good legacy for my family&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What do you do for leisure&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I love soccer&period; I love to play PS4&period; I read books from quality writers&period; I visit my mum at Cape Coast sometimes&period; I love music too and love to listen to artistes<br &sol;>&NewLine;such a Adina&comma; Kidi and Kwame Eugene Bob Marley&comma;Culture&comma; Joe Mettle&comma; 2Pac&comma; Daughters of Glorious Jesus and Ebony&period; I plan to tour Ghana on a road trip with my daughter<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Do you think entrepreneurship is playing a key role in Africa<&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>and do you think it will be able to solve most of our problems&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As Africans&comma; we are entrepreneurial by nature and it is the way to go&period; The internet is making this possible these days&period; We should encourage people to go into entrepreneurship&period; We should venture into manufacturing&comma; service delivery and export to gain foreign<br &sol;>&NewLine;currency&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;I love the fact that today&comma; there are many young people doing<br &sol;>&NewLine;exceptionally well&period; There are young people who can design and<br &sol;>&NewLine;sew suite and other clothing which can match up to other designers across the world&period; There is a young man who has a shoe making business&period; His brand is Alvanush&comma; he makes great shoes&period; I have a pair of his shoes and whenever I wear them&comma; people<br &sol;>&NewLine;think I got it overseas&period; Chocolate Factory Clothing&comma; a Ghanaian fashion brand is doing well on the international stage and has been featured on CNN&period; We should support these Ghanaian brands by promoting and patronizing them and also help others to patronize our brands&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What will be your final advice to young entrepreneurs&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first advice is that they shouldn’t lose their nerve or shouldn’t give up&period; Secondly&comma; let us believe in ourselves and have confidence in our capabilities&period; We should also make it<br &sol;>&NewLine;a point to people’s ventures&period; Corruption is prevalent but it is<br &sol;>&NewLine;important that we make an effort to curb it&period; Let’s strive to build Ghana on the values of integrity and faith&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;mystorymagazine&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;07&sol;screenshot&lowbar;2019-07-17-08-36-06-1-1807843037&period;png" class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-2803" width&equals;"512" height&equals;"484"><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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