{"id":1533,"date":"2016-04-20T11:35:48","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T10:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=1533"},"modified":"2016-10-26T15:56:25","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T14:56:25","slug":"rethinking-growth-in-emerging-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2016\/04\/20\/rethinking-growth-in-emerging-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking Growth in Emerging Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on \u201c<strong>How companies need to rethink growth in emerging markets<\/strong>.\u201d Panel members were stellar, all members of IESE\u2019s International Advisory Board (IAB). While four of them work for and\/or seat on Boards of Western companies,\u00a0<strong>Ibukun Awosika<\/strong> is founder and CEO of a Nigerian company: <a href=\"http:\/\/thechaircentrenigeria.com\" target=\"_blank\">The Chair Center Group<\/a>, and Chairperson of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstbanknigeria.com\">First Bank of Nigeria<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1534\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1534\" style=\"width: 744px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2016\/04\/IESE-IAB-Ibukun-Awosika-Africa.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1534\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2016\/04\/IESE-IAB-Ibukun-Awosika-Africa.jpg\" alt=\"IESE IAB members session: Andrea Crhistenson, Ibukun Awosika, Ermenegildo Zegna, \u00c1frica Ari\u00f1o, Francesco Vanni and Hans Ulricht Maerki\" width=\"744\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2016\/04\/IESE-IAB-Ibukun-Awosika-Africa.jpg 1176w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2016\/04\/IESE-IAB-Ibukun-Awosika-Africa-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2016\/04\/IESE-IAB-Ibukun-Awosika-Africa-768x519.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2016\/04\/IESE-IAB-Ibukun-Awosika-Africa-1024x692.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2016\/04\/IESE-IAB-Ibukun-Awosika-Africa-500x338.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 744px) 100vw, 744px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1534\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">IESE IAB members of the session: Andrea Crhistenson, Ibukun Awosika, Ermenegildo Zegna, Prof. Africa Ari\u00f1o (myself), Francesco Vanni d&#8217;Archirafi, and Hans Ulricht Maerki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I asked Ibukun to share her views on <strong>how companies can tap best the opportunities that emerging markets presents<\/strong>. Her insights resonated with ideas that underlie some of my posts in this blog (the points below are hers; their elaboration is my own):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Partnerships<\/strong>: looking for a <strong>local partner<\/strong> to create some type of alliance is a natural way to enter these markets. A local partner <strong>provides the local knowledge and connections that you lack<\/strong>. Else, you start at a disadvantage.<\/li>\n<li>You need to have <strong>local management<\/strong>: this isn\u2019t just about how expensive expats are. It\u2019s about <strong>understanding the local context<\/strong>, and being perceived as such by customers and other stakeholders involved. We have to <strong>keep in mind the diversity across African countries<\/strong> \u2013 same as in other continents. <strong>It\u2019s not enough to have \u201cAfricans\u201d<\/strong> on board: you need people from the country you are operating in.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Be careful with official statistics!<\/strong> They don\u2019t capture a truthful picture of reality because they miss an important part of it: <strong>the informal economy<\/strong>. To bridge the gap, you need to go to the country you\u2019re thinking of and see it by yourself. Applying \u201cthe toothpick test\u201d will help you calibrate the size of the opportunities \u2013 if you wonder what \u201cthe toothpick test\u201d is, have a look at an earlier post on the informal economy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other ideas shared by the panelists included the need <strong>to have a long term perspective, and to be flexible<\/strong> \u2013 again, ideas that underlie this blog.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, <strong>the tone of the panel was one of optimism<\/strong> \u2013 not only in relation to Africa but to emerging markets in general. For a synthesis of the discussion, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iese.edu\/en\/about-iese\/news-media\/news\/2016\/april\/how-do-we-stimulate-global-growth\/\" target=\"_blank\">read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Do you agree to these points?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Related posts<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/11\/25\/alliances-the-key-to-new-markets\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alliances: The key to new markets<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/07\/30\/it-takes-local-management-to-succeed-in-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\">It takes local management to succeed in Africa<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/06\/03\/dos-and-donts-of-internationalizing-in-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\">Do\u2019s and don\u2019t\u2019s of internationalizing in Africa<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/04\/23\/the-informal-economy\/\" target=\"_blank\">The informal economy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/09\/03\/thinking-long-term-in-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\">Thinking long-term in Africa<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/09\/23\/patient-capital\/\" target=\"_blank\">Patient capital<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/02\/17\/in-spite-of-attitude-necessary-for-doing-business-in-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cIn-spite-of\u201d attitude: A necessary attitude for doing business in Africa<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on \u201cHow companies need to rethink growth in emerging markets.\u201d Panel members were stellar, all members of IESE\u2019s International Advisory Board (IAB). While four of them work for and\/or seat on Boards of Western companies,\u00a0Ibukun Awosika is founder and CEO of a Nigerian company: The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85385,99106],"tags":[67307,121,577,79906,100289,1007,1080],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doing-business-in-africa","category-future-and-perspectives-for-africa","tag-business-opportunities","tag-economic-growth","tag-emerging-markets","tag-informal-economy","tag-local-partner","tag-management","tag-nigeria","megacategoria-mc-africa"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1541,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/1541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}