Raise your children to carry the business torch — Salem Kalmoni advises Ghanaian entrepreneurs

Ghanaian entrepreneurs have been urged to introduce their children to their businesses from an early age to prepare them for leadership and improve the chances of enterprises surviving beyond their founders. The Chief Executive Officer of Japan Motors Ghana, Salem Kalmoni, says exposing children to the daily operations of a family business while they are young helps them understand its values, culture and responsibilities long before they are expected to take over.

He said the approach had been central to his own upbringing, recalling how his father involved him in business activities when he was a child because he was the firstborn. Speaking on Joy FM’s Personality Profile with Lexis Bill on Thursday, November 5, Mr Kalmoni said his father regularly took him to social events he attended and introduced him to different aspects of the family’s business during school holidays.

“One thing about family businesses is that you involve your children, especially the firstborn. I was the firstborn,” he said. “And perhaps this is one lesson for aspiring multi-generational Ghanaian family businesses: involve your children in the business from youth. From a very early age. Get them in.” He also recalled accompanying his father to the family’s farm on the outskirts of Accra, which later became the Lakeside Estate development.

The farm, he said, was known as Agricattle in the early 1970s, and those visits formed part of his early exposure to the family’s business interests. Mr Kalmoni said the experience offered an important lesson for Ghanaian entrepreneurs seeking to build enterprises that could be sustained by successive generations. A challenge for family businesses His advice comes against the background of concerns about the ability of family-owned enterprises in Ghana to survive changes in ownership and leadership.

Although such businesses contribute to employment, investment and economic activity, succession remains a major challenge. A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report published in 2014 indicated that about 43 per cent of family businesses did not have succession plans, while only approximately 12 per cent survived to the third generation. The figures underline the importance of preparing potential successors before the founder or current leadership exits the business.

Research into family-owned enterprises in Ghana has also identified succession as a gradual process requiring preparation, training and the support of other family members and stakeholders. A family business legacy Mr Kalmoni’s experience reflects the generational transition he is encouraging other business owners to pursue. Japan Motors Trading Company Limited traces its roots to Kalmoni & Sons, a family trading and transport business established by his grandfather, the late Salem Kalmoni, in 1920.

The family business expanded into motor vehicle distribution after importing a Datsun, now Nissan, vehicle into Ghana in 1958. Japan Motors Trading Company emerged from the enterprise in 1962 and was incorporated as a limited liability company in 1965. The company has since developed into a major player in Ghana’s automotive industry, representing international vehicle and equipment brands and expanding its operations beyond Ghana.

Mr Kalmoni, a third-generation member of the family, joined the company in 1991 after completing his studies in Canada and has led its operations, overseeing its expansion in Ghana and other West African markets.