http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6KEYE1_TjYI<\/p>\n
NSAWAM, Ghana – Twenty miles north of the bustling city center of Accra, Ghana\u2019s capital, a crowd congregates. Young women in colorful skirts circle together, chatting. A group of tall young men peer over at the neighboring sports center. Older women sit along the side of the road fanning themselves. They\u2019ve all gathered along the tree-lined road leading to the Blue Skies factory and they all have the same hope: that they\u2019re hiring. <\/p>\n
Since 1998, Blue Skies has been cutting and packaging freshly harvested tropical fruits and in the same day flying them to 13 European supermarket chains in six different countries. It all began with one man\u2019s innovation. \u201cI came to Ghana with a simple idea: cutting pineapple where it grows and sending it directly to you,\u201d said Anthony Pile, chairman and founder of Blue Skies. \u201cPeople don\u2019t think about freshly squeezed old fruit or freshly cut old fruit. Why don\u2019t we have freshly harvested freshly cut fruit? That\u2019s what we set out to do.\u201d <\/p>\n
In 2012, Blue Skies accounted for one percent of the country\u2019s total exports and 25 percent of Ghana\u2019s exported pineapple according to the Ghana Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Employing merely 35 people at the factory in Ghana in 1998, it has grown to employ over 2,000 and works with 150 farmers, making it one of Ghana\u2019s largest companies. <\/p>\n
Unlike other large factories, at Blue Skies there are no timecards and no whistles at the beginning of the day. Pile hopes to create a \u201cbusiness which is more than just coming to work. When people come to work, they don\u2019t have to clock in every morning. They\u2019re just trusted to get it right.\u201d <\/p>\n
There\u2019s sound logic behind Pile\u2019s business model. \u201cThe fact is if you have a group of people who have a common aim, which we feel we have here, then there\u2019s a good chance that those who are not too keen on the main objective can be persuaded simply by the peer group imperative.\u201d Without the whistles work starts promptly every morning at 7. If someone is late, Pile says, \u201ctheir mate asks, \u2018where were you for the last half an hour? I had to do all your work!\u2019 It\u2019s far more powerful than anyone saying \u2018you must do.\u2019 That won\u2019t work in industry and certainly not in 2013.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blue Skies offers access to a sports facility, free health clinic and preventative medicines, as well as an Internet caf\u00e9, library, and park for use anytime during breaks and to off-duty employees. Blue Skies also offers a free warm healthy meal to its employees each day. These amenities ensure the wellbeing of employees, but also aim to boost the productivity and morale of the Blue Skies workforce. \u201cPeople want it to work. If you are happy at your work, you start to think a little more about making a better quality product so we can be bigger and bigger\u201d said Pile. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a self governing community,\u201d said Seth Dei, Blue Skies co-owner and an initial investor. Dei explained from unions and bargaining for wages, to eating together at the company restaurant, the factory feels more like a community than a workplace. Dei, a renowned Ghanaian public figure, is a prominent member in many of Ghana\u2019s most influential civic, business, and cultural institutions. <\/p>\n
Eunice Yeboah Afeti, an assistant manager at the factory, explained, \u201cOur organization is a learning organization because we have a lot of young people in the company. There is the need for us to encourage them to study, to learn, and to be able to further themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n
Afeti began working at Blue Skies in 2000, right after graduating from university. Eight years into her employment, she left to continue her education. After earning a master\u2019s degree, she immediately returned to Blue Skies. Ninety percent of all employees are hired from local communities, and employment statistics show promotions overwhelmingly come from within. \u201cI\u2019ve been able to grow with the company,\u201d said Afeti. \u201cI started as a Team Leader and moved through the rungs. Now I\u2019m the assistant technical manager.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s success has allowed Blue Skies to offer some of the highest wages in the area. \u201cWe pay three times the minimum wage. We are giving people a living wage. In Ghana there are normally about 10 people depending on one person, so maybe something like 20,000 people indirectly or directly benefit from it,\u201d said Pile. <\/p>\n
Blue Skies does not claim to be a social institution, but it does make its employees a priority. Their mission is to run a business that leaves a positive impact on people and communities. Principles in tact, they\u2019re growing more each year. Pile explained, \u201cWe are now at about 80 percent capacity. I\u2019m a bit worried about what happens when we get to 99 and hope that I have a plan. I hope that we will be able to find space for another factory and that we will have enough reason to make one.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6KEYE1_TjYI NSAWAM, Ghana – Twenty miles north of the bustling city center of Accra, Ghana\u2019s capital, a crowd congregates. Young women in colorful skirts circle together, chatting. A group of tall young men peer over at the neighboring sports center. Older women sit along the side of the road fanning themselves. They\u2019ve all gathered along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,1,39],"tags":[57,52,58,59,43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/africadispatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/africadispatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/africadispatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/africadispatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/africadispatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/africadispatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":980,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/africadispatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions\/980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/africadispatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/africadispatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/africadispatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}