BY Mesfin Zegey
Staff members of Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations deliberated on the implementation of the strategic plan in the last four and half years. Organized in groups of four, they approached Chamber human resource management style from various angles and identified important areas to on focus and directions for the way forward.
The four groups employed SWOT analysis tool in approaching the issue and dwelt on various aspects of Chamber operation and overall practice. All the four groups have presentations on their respective areas. They identified issues deemed critical and directions for possible course of action in the coming years.
Chamber advocacy task and its services were among core issues identified in the group discussions. It is reiterated that Chamber needs to pay more attention to ensure proper management of its advocacy undertaking. It is also deemed critical that Chamber put in more efforts in tailoring its services to real and urgent needs of the business community.
Exploiting the opportunities presented by IT technology is another issue deemed important to facilitate Chamber daily operations as well as enabling it to reap the maximum benefit offered by the technology. Lack of a smoothly functioning communication between top management and the staff as well as Chamber board of directors with the staff is yet another gap underlined in the discussion. The absence of such communication obstructs badly needed flow of information back and forth. Communication between management and staff is a natural part of management and gaps in this regard would have adverse impact on execution of tasks and realization of targets, it was indicated.