Last week I heard a talk by a consultant from Roland Berger who specialized in Sub-Saharan and Southern Africa. He offered some practical advice for doing business in Africa. This is what he said, and some of my experiences of how it holds true: 1. Take market intelligence and customer understanding seriously: product-oriented companies won't make…

Major financial crises have always left huge amounts of debt in their wake, followed by incidents of nonpayment. Occasionally the reduction of debt has been concealed, as in the case of Germany, which, thanks to an annual inflation that averaged 17% from 1913 to 1950, reduced the value of its domestic debt to almost zero.…

Nigeria is fashionable. It's the "N" in the MINT countries – the next high-growth markets. As you may remember, earlier this year Nigeria was declared the largest African economy. It surpassed South Africa for the first time. A recent survey by KPMG on High Growth Markets Outlook reveals that Nigeria – along with Kenya –…

Many friends and colleagues have told me they're relieved that I'm back from Africa. The Ebola outbreak kept them worried about me – even though I was in safe areas. While in Nigeria, my friends there were alarmed when one night I got several mosquito bites – even though I was taking malaria pills. I do…