Lagos is full of street vendors (see an earlier post about their frenzy activity!). It can get overwhelming! One of my Nigerian friends explained to me “Yeah! We’re traders! There’s hardly any manufacturing, and there are historical reasons for this: the Brits were interested in selling overseas what they manufactured at home…” This seems to […]
Rethinking Growth in Emerging Markets
Last week I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on “How companies need to rethink growth in emerging markets.” Panel members were stellar, all members of IESE’s International Advisory Board (IAB). While four of them work for and/or seat on Boards of Western companies, Ibukun Awosika is founder and CEO of a Nigerian company: The […]
Ease of Doing Business Rankings in sub-Saharan Africa
The Managing Director of a Kenyan company with operations across East Africa explained to me that “Rwanda is embracing investors. They have an organized, one-stop process. We were done with registration within a week.” Her experience doing business in Burundi was completely different. “The laws are not publicized and they change overnight”, she said. “Half […]
Launching Consumer Brands in sub-Saharan Africa
“GDP is not the best way to determine whether or not to go into an African country“, the founder of a successful Nigerian company with operations across the continent told me. This wisdom also applies to launching a consumer brand in Africa. Nielsen’s recent report “Africa: How to navigate the retail distribution labyrinth” confirms this. […]
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 […]
