{"id":16,"date":"2013-12-19T11:13:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T10:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2014-03-05T14:21:16","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T13:21:16","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/about-me\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Blog: a Learning Journey to Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The talk down the hall is about Africa as “the last emerging frontier.” Some buy into it; others are skeptical. These are the same reactions as I got when I started telling people about my\u00a0learning trip to Africa<\/strong>. Some: “What a great opportunity!” Others: “Are you sure about this…?” Yes, I am sure I want to spend my precious sabbatical time in Africa\u00a0learning about\u00a0Africa. And I want this to be\u00a0a joint learning journey<\/strong>: I will share my experiencess and views, and hope that you’ll be willing to share yours.<\/p>\n

Africa is very diverse. Out ot the three large regions that compose it,\u00a0my interest lies on Sub-Saharan Africa and on the South-African region<\/strong>, thus leaving aside Northern Africa. Why this interest?<\/p>\n

First, I was meant for this: being born in\u00a0Melilla<\/a>, one of two Spanish cities located in Northern Africa, I’ve always heard the call from Africa.<\/p>\n

Second, IESE provides the right context to develop this interest given our long time association with African Business Schools created in the Continent (Lagos Business School<\/a>\u00a0in Nigeria,\u00a0Strathmore Business School<\/a>\u00a0in Kenya, and\u00a0MDE Business School<\/a>\u00a0in Ivory Coast). We also support a number of projects which have crystallized in the Africa Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Third, \u00a0as my colleague\u00a0Mike Rosenberg<\/a>\u00a0put it in one of his recent posts,\u00a0“things are moving in Africa!<\/a><\/strong>.”\u00a0Things are cooking here, and I want to know what’s like before it’s all cooked!<\/p>\n

Thus, I decided to initiate this learning journey. Let me provide an overview of it. Right now, I’m visiting the Lagos Business School working on a project titled “Africa-to-Africa<\/strong>” that focuses on African companies that internationalize within the Continent, and in April I will visit Strathmore Business School until the end of the summer.<\/p>\n

But my journey is longer that this: it began in January 2013 when I attended the\u00a0Academy of Management Africa Conference<\/a>\u00a0held at the\u00a0Gordon Institute of Business Science<\/a>\u00a0in Johannesburg, and I hope it will last for a long time once I’m back to Barcelona. I hope you decide to join this learning journey and make it more estimulating!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The talk down the hall is about Africa as “the last emerging frontier.” Some buy into it; others are skeptical. These are the same reactions as I got when I started telling people about my\u00a0learning trip to Africa. Some: “What a great opportunity!” Others: “Are you sure about this…?” Yes, I am sure I want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t