Introduction

Recent developments in the global economy have further raised the stakes for business organizations and called to question established orthodoxies in Business Management. Increasingly, long held beliefs in the efficiency of markets to regulate the conduct of players and allocate resources are coming under attack in the face of unprecedented failure of regulation and its consequences for wealth creation and social well-being. Today, businesses have to cope with challenges that threaten their very existence and require them to re-invent themselves from time to time to stay afloat and grow in the midst of all odds.


Given this background, every business needs to develop its capacity to stand back from the routines of day-to day management, scan its environment and take some strategic decisions on the future it wants to chart for itself. More importantly, every business must develop the discipline and the capacity to mobilize the resources and generate the commitments required to implement the action steps it identifies as necessary to take it to the future state it has envisioned.


One important lesson that has emerged most clearly in the last two decades is that leadership makes all the difference in the life of any organization. It takes visionary leadership to develop a compelling vision and create the environment conducive for the kind of strategic introspection, planning and management critical to business success today. Unfortunately, while we have an over-supply of managers, we have a critical shortage of leaders in business organizations today. There is, therefore, a need for those businesses wishing to succeed on a sustainable basis to take deliberate steps to develop their capacities to produce the leaders they need to take them to their desired destinations.


Again, more than ever before, businesses are called upon today to take a stakeholders’ perspective in the interpretation of their missions and mandate. Issues of corporate responsibility, respect for the environment, and the interest of the other stakeholders (that hitherto were considered subsidiary to the needs of the business to create wealth for its owners) have come to assume a central position. Thus, business leaders are now compelled to pay serious attention to issues of corporate governance, particularly the need to create structures, rules, and procedures and to manage their businesses in a manner that balances the interest of all stakeholders, while creating value for their shareholders. Successful business leaders constantly seek opportunities to review their governance structures and explore different ways of raising their governance practices to meet their objectives.


Excel Professional Services (EPS) was established to provide world-class management consulting support to business enterprises, as they seek to develop their capacities in the three critical areas of strategy, leadership and governance. EPS is built around the concept that no business can excel in its chosen field, except it gets its strategy, leadership and governance right. The central objective of all our engagements at EPS is to assist clients improve their competitiveness and excel in their lines of business, while remaining compliant and socially responsible.