A retired Supreme Court Judge has advised Ghanaian businesses to strive to put in place good succession plans to sustain their activities.

Justice Stephen Alan Brobbey said departing from the scene is unavoidable and inevitable quizzing "Why should a business collapse just because the originator is no more?".

The development, longevity and survival of business entities, he noted, thrived on good succession plans.

Justice Brobbey was delivering a paper at a memorial lecture in Kumasi in honour of the late Opanin John Kwame Bawuah Bonsafo Edusei (1890-1959).

"We should rethink the way businesses are run and plan for the future with purpose.”

He explained that world acclaimed multinationals such as Honda, Mercedez, and Ford had survived in a competitive global market for many decades because they put in place well-laid-out effective and comprehensive succession plans.

Comparing these with happenings on the local scene, he bemoaned how some successful businesses in Kumasi, Ghana's oldest commercial city, which employed thousands of people, had folded up as they failed to plan ahead of time.

"Where are the businesses? Why are they all now extinct?" Justice Brobbey asked.

He indicated that some of those business ventures had been embroiled in what he described as needless litigation over the right to those properties, following the passing on of the originators.

Mr Justice Brobbey drew attention to the need for the passage by holders of firms, a clear understanding of what they stood for and the policy direction of their businesses even after they exited the scene.

This, he noted, could not be downplayed if local businesses were to survive the test of time devoid of unnecessary tension, sabotage and litigation - the cause for the collapse of most Ghanaian business ventures.

The memorial lecture held on the theme: "Advancing Education and Business," was to mark the 60th Anniversary of the passing on of Opanin Bawuah Bonsafo Edusei, the foremost Asante indigene to be formally educated outside the Oyoko Royals of the Asante Kingdom.

Described as a dynamic and visionary leader, he became a private businessman, merchant, cocoa buyer/broker, and later added mining to his vast business empire.

"As one of the wisest men of his era, Opanin John was widely and frequently consulted on various matters and areas by traditional authorities for many years," a tribute read in his honour stated.