{"id":1914,"date":"2017-04-20T12:45:49","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T11:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=1914"},"modified":"2017-04-27T09:20:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T08:20:22","slug":"how-do-leaders-spend-their-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2017\/04\/20\/how-do-leaders-spend-their-time\/","title":{"rendered":"How do leaders spend their time?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time is a scarce resource for everybody<\/strong>. That’s the case for business leaders anywhere<\/strong>, including those from places stereotyped as time-mindedless (excuse the linguistic liberty!) such as sub-Saharan Africa\u00a0 (SSA) countries. There’s a reason why most leaders in these places have a driver: this way, they can work while in traffic jams. How do these leaders spend their time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2017 African business outlook survey<\/strong><\/a> deals with this issue. The Economist<\/strong><\/a> and Corporate Network<\/strong><\/a> online-surveyed 150 executives. 22% of them executives <\/strong>pointed operational optimization<\/strong> as one of the major challenges<\/strong> faced by their companies.<\/p>\n

\"Time:<\/a>
Time: a very scarce resource<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For instance, Robert Collymore<\/strong>, CEO of Kenya\u2019s leading mobile network operator Safaricom<\/strong><\/a>, said that he spends 50% of his time on operational issues<\/strong>, 30% on strategy, and the remaining 20% on managing external stakeholders. Optimizing operational parts of the process is crucial to devote more time to activities such as strategy- <\/strong>and innovation-<\/strong>related actions that may expand the company\u2019s potential growth<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In sub-Saharan Africa, a generally poor infrastructure<\/strong> development <\/strong>is a huge drag<\/strong> for operational logistics,<\/strong> and it clearly sets back an important part of the economic activity<\/strong>. For instance, long traffic jams <\/strong>(see the post Urban Transport<\/em><\/a>), the poor shape of roads,<\/strong> and other connectivity problems<\/strong> have operational consequences such as increased delivery times. <\/strong>Also, the frequency of black outs<\/strong> experienced in many SSA countries (see the post Energy Poverty<\/em><\/a>) and other basic supplies shortages increases operational costs.<\/p>\n

My IESE colleagues<\/a> Philip Moscoso<\/strong> and Alejandro Lago<\/strong> have published a practical guide<\/a> to optimize business operations<\/strong> that could be also useful for African leaders<\/strong>. The authors emphasize the need for companies to revise in depth their value chain,<\/strong> and to constantly innovate and experiment<\/strong> with totally different ways of doing things. If you take a look at this guide, you will find some recommendations that may help optimize operational processes, and in turn save leaders\u2019 precious time.<\/p>\n

Any experience on optimizing the operational process in SSA?<\/p>\n

Nadim Elayan, Research Assistant at IESE Business School, collaborated in this article.
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