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Our Lives Are
Dominated by Projects

  • How to Ensure Your Projects Succeed
  • How to Ensure You Achieve Your Life Goals

Learn from 35+ years of project management expertise through practical books and proven methodologies. Author, consultant, and Partner at O&A Consult.

Explore My Books

35+ Years Project Management Experience

Executive MBA in Project Management

5 Published Books

Partner at O&A Consult

Explore My Books

Published Books

Comprehensive guides covering project management, personal development, and practical life skills based on decades of real-world experience.

Own A House
A Practical Guide

A comprehensive guide for prospective house owners covering site selection, land acquisition, financing, and construction management.

Target Audience:

Prospective homeowners in Ghana

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Transforming Organizations & Nations
The Project Approach

Strategic text for leaders, managers, and project professionals focusing on organizational transformation through project management.

Target Audience:

Leaders, managers, MBA students

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Achieve Your Life's Purpose

A motivational and self-development guide targeted at students, young graduates, and young adults.

Target Audience:

Students and young professionals
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Monitoring & Evaluation of Projects, Programs, Strategies, Policies

Advanced techniques and tools for effective project monitoring and evaluation.

Target Audience:

Project management professionals
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About GMK Opoku

G.M.K. Opoku is a Project Management Expert with over thirty-five years of experience in Project Management and Contract Administration. He holds a BSc Civil Engineering and an Executive MBA in Project Management, with strong interest in people, organizations and their development.

He has worked on major housing and civil engineering projects in Ghana and internationally, including projects funded by the World Bank and African Development Bank. As a Partner at O&A Consult, he specializes in Business Performance Improvement and Project Management

Education

BSc Civil Engineering
Executive MBA (Project Management)

Experience

35+ Years in Project Management
International Projects

Continental Hotel to Golden Tulip Hotel

Major redevelopment project in Accra

Ashongman Estate near Kwabenya

A major residential development covering over 100 acres

World Bank Projects (2003-2007)

Civil Engineering and Contract Management

Pokuase Interchange Project

Resident Project Management Consultant (2018-2020)

O&A Consult Services

Partner at O&A Consult, a management consulting firm with expertise in Business Performance Improvement and Project Management.

Business Performance Improvement

Helping organizations optimize their operations and achieve strategic objectives through proven methodologies.

Project Management Consulting

Expert guidance on project planning, execution, monitoring, and evaluation for successful project delivery.

Get In Touch

Ready to transform your projects or interested in my books? Let’s connect and discuss how we can work together.

0244-715809

opokugmk123@gmail.com

Ghana

Send a Message

GMK Opoku

Project Management Expert • Author • Consultant

© 2025 GMK Opoku. All rights reserved.

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This Book is based on the author’s practical experience of nearly four decades in the housing and build industry in Ghana and beyond.
Over that period, he has gained deep insight of the industry which he shares in this Book with the hope that it will help prospective house owners minimize
their risks and frustrations. The areas that have often been of great challenge to many prospective house owners are site selection, land acquisition and title registration, choice of house type or design, and financing construction or house acquisition.

The fraud associated with land acquisition in Ghana, largely facilitated by the land tenure system which is characterized by splinter ownership by families, clans, stools, communities, tribes, individuals etc; greed whereby each group tries to usurp and outsmart the other make things even worse. What compounds the problem is that in most cases, ownership is not documented or properly documented and boundaries not well defined and demarcated. The cumbersome process of land title registration plus the bureaucracy, spiced with corruption and fraud make things difficult for prospective house owners, developers, and also businesses.

A major discovery I have made over the years is that majority of Ghanaians
including a significant proportion of technical experts in the sector, fail to
appreciate or identify the different categories and the peculiar needs of
prospective clients of the industry for the purpose of tailoring housing solutions appropriately. In Ghana, one of the key challenges is that acquisition of a house is seen more as a social and technical matter when in actual fact it is more of an investment matter and therefore is largely a financial matter. A house is not simply a shelter or residence but it is also an investment and a store of value.

Another common situation you will find in Ghana is that, prospective house
owners make choices of the house they want, even start building before finding out how much it will cost to build and where the funding will come from. Overall, the vital issue of the client’s ability to finance a proposed house (a particular house design) to completion within a reasonable period of time is often ignored. Additionally, prospective house owners’ desires which are often based on their egos and in some cases competition with friends and foes usually far exceed their financial resourcefulness. Thus, the vital link between taste and ego on the one side and cost cum affordability on the other, both of which are crucial right from the start is usually lost on all parties, leading to many challenges along the way.

This Book is not about Building Plans or Designs. It is about the Knowledge,
the Thinking, and the Consultations needed for making important and wise
decisions about owning a House, and also offering a useful guide to the actual Construction of a House.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
1.0 INTRODUCTION
2.0 PEOPLE AND HOUSING NEEDS
3.0 SELECTING A SUITABLE HOUSE
4.0 COMMON BUILDING MATERIALS IN GHANA
5.0 SITE SELECTION
6.0 PROCUREMENT OF LAND AND TITLE REGISTRATION
7.0 PREPARATION OF A BUILDING PROJECT
8.0 HOUSING FINANCE IN GHANA
9.0 IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT OF A
BUILDING PROJECT
10.0 HOUSING THE MASSES
– THE URBAN POOR
– THE RURAL POOR
APPENDIX: Proposed Floor Plans

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The purpose of this book is to share my thoughts and experiences regarding projects and project management with not only project professionals but also with the general public. A key point that I have tried to highlight throughout the book is that, technical knowledge and skills are not enough to ensure the successful design and execution of present-day projects.

Reasonable knowledge of the social sciences or an understanding of people issues and leadership are equally important because they do have significant relevance as far as project management and project success are concerned. Furthermore, it is my hope that this book will open the frontier for a more expansive approach to project design, project management, and leadership for transformation.

The book is largely a strategic text that could be useful to people in leadership positions, top and middle level managers, MBA students, and students of development related studies. Project management practitioners, students of project management, and even non-professionals will find it a good companion.

The book is in three parts. Part 1 is on project conception and preparation within the framework of the marketing philosophy of customer orientation. Emphasis is placed on adopting a customer focused approach during project design.
The customer in this case includes the recipient, beneficiary, user, resident community, and project affected persons.

Table of Contents
Introduction
PART ONE: Focusing on the Customer
Chapter 1: Basic Marking Concepts
Chapter 2: The Project Philosophy
Chapter 3: Project Stakeholders are Customers
Chapter 4: Environmental Costs of Projects
Chapter 5: Project Impact Equity
Chapter 6: Why Projects Fail
Chapter 7: Project Sustainability

PART TWO: Project Management & Human Engineering
Chapter 8: Project Management
Chapter 9: Micro Projects for Empowerment
Chapter 10: Measurement of Project Performance
Chapter 11: Leadership
Chapter 12: Strategic Leadership
Chapter 13: Change and Change Management
Chapter 14: Communication
Chapter 15: Motivation
Chapter 16: The Team is Critical
Chapter 17: Decision Making and Ethics
Chapter 18: Transforming Yourself
Chapter 19: Dream and Dream Big
Chapter 20: Attitude and Behaviour Impact Performance

PART THREE: Total Quality Management and Org. Excellence
Chapter 21: The Philosophy and Concepts of TQM
Chapter 22: The Five Pillars of effective TQM
Chapter 23: Quality in Service Delivery
Chapter 24: Adopting TQM
Chapter 25: Motivating Organizations towards Excellence
Chapter 26: Improving Quality through Risk Reduction

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This book is intended to be a motivational and self-development guide and it is my hope that this purpose will be achieved. The book is particularly targeted at students in the Senior High Schools, students in tertiary institutions, young graduates, and young adults in general. It could also be good reference material for parents, guardians, and career counsellors.

I believe the book will prove useful to middle level executives, entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and also to anyone aspiring to distinguish himself/herself and be a renowned achiever or be a successful leader in any sphere of life.

The book is in two parts. Part 1 focuses on the individual getting an understanding of who he is and knowing what he wants to become, what he wants to achieve, how it can be achieved efficiently and effectively, and what it will take to achieve.
Part 2 focuses on working with people, getting the best out of people, and emphasizing the fact that you need other people to succeed.

Table of Contents
Introduction
PART ONE: Shaping your Purpose and Direction
Chapter 1: Dream and Dream Big
Chapter 2: Do you know Yourself?
Chapter 3: You need a Plan
Chapter 4: Focus on your Strength and Passion
Chapter 5: Have you considered Entrepreneurship?
Chapter 6: Starting a new Business
Chapter 7: The Future is always Uncertain
Chapter 8: Make the right Decisions
Chapter 9: Your Attitude affects your Performance
Chapter 10: Adopt Excellence as a Core Value

PART TWO: You Need Other People
Chapter 11: Be a Leader
Chapter 12: Strategic Leadership
Chapter 13: Your Team is Critical
Chapter 14: Change is necessary to Transform
Chapter 15: Communication Focuses and Inspires people
Chapter 16: Motivate Yourself and Your Team
Chapter 17: Be a good Negotiator
Chapter 18: Fairness Retains People
Chapter 19: Keep Assessing your Performance

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This book is based on my experience in Monitoring and Evaluation of projects funded by the World Bank, African Development Bank, and the European Union.
Very often, the success or failure of a project is seen in terms of Budget, Time, and Quality of outputs. Measuring project success using these three parameters is only a small aspect of project assessment. It is indeed a limited and narrow view of project success.
There are four other dimensions of a project that need to be assessed before one can make a comprehensive determination about the success or otherwise of a project.

The five domains of project success could be summarized as:
1.Completion trinity of Time, Cost, and Quality.
2.Achieved Scope verses Planned Scope.
3.Stakeholder Satisfaction and Mitigation of adverse impacts arising from the project.
4.Achieved Impact/Transformation verses Intended Impact/Transformation.
5.Sustainability

The first and second of the aforementioned combined reflect Implementation success while the third, fourth, and fifth combined reflect Transformational/Impact success. Part 1 of this book provides the definitions for Project, Program, Plan, Strategy, Policy, the relevance of each of them, and the similarities.
Also, the fundamental concepts that underpin each of them is discussed in this section of the book.
Part 2 of the book focuses on Tracking and Review also commonly known as Monitoring.
A number of Templates have been proposed for easy capture of data/information and reporting during Monitoring.

Table of Contents
Introduction
PART ONE: Understanding Projects, Programs, Strategy, Policy
Chapter 1: The Project Philosophy
Chapter 2: Project Stakeholders are Customers
Chapter 3: Project Sustainability
Chapter 4: Project Management
Chapter 5: Measurement of Project Performance

PART TWO: Tracking and Review System
Chapter 6: Tracking and Review
Chapter 7: Templates for Tracking and Review

PART THREE: Evaluation System
Chapter 8: Evaluation
Chapter 9: Templates for Evaluation

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