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 […]
Localizing international quality standards
Standards are meant to ensure that products and services are safe, reliable and of good quality. More often than not, there are multiple ways in which standards can be met, depending on the context and external conditions. That’s why it’s important to localize international quality standards, ensuring the standard is achieved but taking into account local […]
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 […]
Locating a business in Africa: how much of a hassle?
Different countries offer different travel and living conditions. This has an effect – identified as the “hassle factor” by professors Andreas Schotter and Paul Beamish from the Ivey Business School in Canada – on companies’ decisions to locate their operations in a particular country. Not all countries are the same in Africa, and the hassle […]
