{"id":1928,"date":"2017-05-04T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=1928"},"modified":"2017-05-03T15:54:35","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T14:54:35","slug":"advice-to-invest-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2017\/05\/04\/advice-to-invest-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice to invest in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The other day, I attended a panel discussion on \u201c<strong>The global strategic landscape.<\/strong>\u201d Panelists were members of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iese.edu\/en\/about-iese\/school-leadership\/international-advisory-board\/\" target=\"_blank\">IESE\u2019s International Advisory Board<\/a><\/strong>. Among them, Ibukun Awosika, founder and CEO<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/thechaircentrenigeria.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Chair Center Group<\/a><\/strong>, and Chairperson of the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstbanknigeria.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">First Bank of Nigeria<\/a><\/strong>. I thought of sharing with you some of her advice for foreign <strong>companies willing to invest in Africa<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do not come with solutions but <strong>ready to engage with others to find solutions<\/strong>: reengage the minds of the African population to solve their problems.<\/li>\n<li>You need <strong>local partnerships<\/strong>: coming from the outside, you\u2019ll find a few things that will challenge your business model.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t have a short-term goal: <strong>you need patience<\/strong> for the investment to mature or for the industry to settle \u2013 in fact, you may need to help shape the industry.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Know the values of where you are<\/strong>: if you want to build for the long term, you can\u2019t just focus on the economic factor \u2013 you also need to facilitate <strong>social engagement<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Her last words were a great synthesis of her message: To create economic value, create value for the people, and then they will support you.<\/p>\n<p>I love it when I hear African business people send messages that resonate with those in this blog:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1932\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1932\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2017\/05\/elevator.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1932\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2017\/05\/elevator-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Elevator at Nairobi Securities Exchange\" width=\"370\" height=\"494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2017\/05\/elevator-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2017\/05\/elevator-375x500.jpg 375w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2017\/05\/elevator.jpg 744w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 370px) 100vw, 370px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1932\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elevator at Nairobi Securities Exchange<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Some MNCs have\u00a0an<strong> ethnocentric perspective<\/strong> that doesn\u2019t recognize <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=1114\" target=\"_blank\">country differences<\/a><\/strong>: that brings them into the <strong>route to failure<\/strong>. Post to check: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/07\/09\/going-to-africa-routes-to-failure-and-to-success\/\"><em>Into Africa: routes to failure and success!<\/em><\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Foreign companies need to <strong>partner with local companies<\/strong> that contribute market knowledge: if you don\u2019t include locals, you are already at disadvantage. Post to check: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/11\/25\/alliances-the-key-to-new-markets\/\"><em>Alliances: the key to new markets.<\/em><\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Thinking long-term<\/strong> pays off in Africa: this is\u00a0in <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/07\/09\/cooperating-with-suppliers\/\" target=\"_blank\">sharp contrast<\/a>\u00a0to the <strong>short-termism<\/strong> so prevalent among\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/07\/09\/cooperating-with-suppliers\/\" target=\"_blank\">Western companies<\/a>. Post to check: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?s=long+term\"><em>Thinking long-term in Africa.<\/em><\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Patient capital<\/strong> is focused on returns in the <strong>long-run<\/strong>, and it\u2019s also concerned with the <strong>social aspects of development<\/strong>. Post to check: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/09\/23\/patient-capital\/\"><em>Patient capital.<\/em><\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Any additional advice for foreign companies willing to enter the continent?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Related articles<\/span>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/07\/09\/going-to-africa-routes-to-failure-and-to-success\/\">Into Africa: routes to failure and success!<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/11\/25\/alliances-the-key-to-new-markets\/\">Alliances: the key to new markets.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?s=long+term\">Thinking long-term in Africa.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/09\/23\/patient-capital\/\">Patient capital.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other day, I attended a panel discussion on \u201cThe global strategic landscape.\u201d Panelists were members of IESE\u2019s International Advisory Board. Among them, Ibukun Awosika, founder and CEO The Chair Center Group, and Chairperson of the\u00a0First Bank of Nigeria. I thought of sharing with you some of her advice for foreign companies willing to invest [&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":[247,85385,99106],"tags":[100559,100269,19,100289,100561,1080,100562],"class_list":["post-1928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-strategy","category-doing-business-in-africa","category-future-and-perspectives-for-africa","tag-advisory-board","tag-engage","tag-iese","tag-local-partner","tag-long-term","tag-nigeria","tag-patient-capital","megacategoria-mc-africa"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928","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=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1937,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions\/1937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}