This evening we’ll welcome a New Year. There are many local traditions related to New Year’s Eve. The custom in Hillbrow, South Africa used to be throwing furniture out of the window. This became really dangerous – you might even see a fridge flying out – and many people got hurt, so this custom has […]
A great Christmas gift in Ghana
Last year, the only two expatriates of the Ghanaian affiliate of a service company were wondering what to offer their employees as a Christmas gift. With very good sense, they thought the best would be for the employees to decide themselves. The only condition was that it would be the same for everybody, so they […]
Smart citizens for smart cities and countries
In my post of last week on urbanization and smart cities, I quoted my colleague at IESE Business School Prof. Ricart: “in order to have smarter cities, we need smarter citizens.” I read in the newspaper about a Nigerian immigrant who found an envelope containing more than €16,000 in cash and cash-equivalents, and handed it […]
Global connectedness index of African countries
The DHL Global Connectedness Index 2014 report, prepared by a research team led by Pankaj Ghemawat – a colleague of mine at IESE Business School – has been published. Global connectedness refers to “the depth and breadth (geographic distribution) of a country’s integration with the rest of the world as manifested by its participation in […]
Talent development and African values
Last week I attended a conference of business school administrators hosted by IESE Business School. The theme was “Quality in context: Management education for the developing world,” and the focus was on Africa. In one of the panels, a leader from one of the most prominent MNCs, which has operations in 13 African countries, highlighted […]
