The General Manager of 3 Group at Media General Ghana Limited, Francis Doku has stepped down and will officially leave the media conglomerate on Friday July 7, 2023.
Until his resignation, Doku has been working as General Manager for the 3 Group Division since May this year. He has been a part of the Media General Group for six years having joined as General Manager for the digital division, MG Digital in August 2017.
In a post on his Facebook page he wrote
Let me tell you a short beautiful story.
Sometime in 2016 (must be in May), I had a call from an HR consultancy firm that I have been considered to interview for a position within one of the leading media groups in the country. I said I wasn’t interested because I had started a small media and events consultancy a few months earlier and wanted to focus on it.
The call came again and the caller was persistent. But I was going to travel in a few days and won’t be available for an interview, I noted. “Well we can interview via Skype,” he said. So it was that one Skype interview from Tucson, Arizona, another from Afrikiko, Accra, and yet another from the World Trade Centre, Accra later, I made a decision to join the Media General Group as General Manager, MG Digital Limited.
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Before I would accept the offer and finally negotiated, I spoke to a few of my friends (actually only three of them) who worked with or have worked with Media General before and got assurance (and some good advice on survival) that I was headed to a good place. So 15th August 2016 happened. That was the day I reported to my new job. That makes it six years, 84 months, 359 weeks, and 2,517 of commitment to work.
As noted above, I started as GM for Digital but would have a role to play in other areas of the business including acting as GM for Radio (overseeing 3FM, Onua FM, Connect FM, and Akoma FM) and getting confirmed as substantive GM for MG Radio (simultaneously with Digital) before being asked to take up the role of television as GM for MG TV (overseeing TV3 and Onua TV). Since May this year, my final role has been GM for 3 Group with oversight responsibility for TV3 and 3FM.
Firstly, we came in at the time when the digital business was in its infant period. Followers of the social accounts were low compared to some of the competition at the time, engagement was low and the online news presence was very low and not big on the apps space. As the person responsible for the digital assets, I set up a team to ensure that we up the ante by developing platforms, creating strategies, and breaking our backs to bring the digital offering to an appreciable level.
Secondly, it was a time that TV3 had taken a dip, having been the market leader for well nigh 20 years. We had one job: make the station number one again. We rolled our sleeves, tapped the right talent, created good content, pulled everyone along and the industry data has spoken truth to media power month on month and year on year since 2019.
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The station regained its number position and has taken an unassailable lead by a country mile.
Thirdly, we had a task to launch new stations to augment what was in the portfolio of the group. That led to the birth of Onua TV and the launch of Akoma FM. Then there was the rebirth of other stations in the group, like Connect FM and 3FM. It’s fair to say that the brands within the Media General Group have seen a lot of improvement and have some goodwill over the past weeks like never before.
Today is officially my last day at Media General and this is where I should say that my decision to join Media General turned out to be a good one…. One that would never be regretted. I have been in media most of my adult life, but I can say that this experience at Media General has led me to many places I never would have gone to in my career if I hadn’t joined.
I have learned a lot in these six years. Working at Media General is like going through media school and earning more degrees by the time you are done. You also learn a lot about managing people and managing processes.
You come out with either a Master’s Degree or a Ph.D. depending on how diligent you were and how hungry you are to learn. Above all things, I learned how to run a radio station and television station from the group that does it best.
I worked with some of the best people in media (swashbuckling top-class on-air personalities and technically good production professionals) and management and I am grateful that all of the people in management, in ExCo, and those that I worked with as colleagues contributed to ensuring that my stay would be good and we would all work to achieve great results.
While I am grateful to all the people I worked with over the period that I was at Media General, I should single out the third Group CEO (and the longest-serving one I worked with), Beatrice Agyemang for commendation.
An outstanding professional, a great believer in results, and a leader you want to have in your corner. She is the reason leaving Media General has been so difficult to the extent that my planned two-year tour lasted six years. She is an amazing personality whom I will miss working with the most, besides Peffie Nfojoh (my Konkonsa partner).
I am grateful to God for the grace to be able to do what I (together with the different teams over the years across digital, radio, television, news, events, admin, production, technical, commercial, HR, finance, marketing, programmes, MI, corporate affairs, MCR, etc, etc, etc) did while I served at Media General.
I am also, very importantly so, grateful to my wife and children for allowing me to spend very long hours on the job during these 84 months.
Their understanding is very appreciated as it helped me focus on work.
Some have asked what I will be doing now and I haven’t found the right answer for those who ask. Except to add that the bills won’t stop coming and when they come they won’t pay themselves. So, I will keep walking and hoping… May God bless us all!
This ends my short beautiful story.
