Last week I attended the annual conference of the Association of African Business Schools (AABS). It was hosted by Strathmore Business School here in Nairobi. I had the opportunity to talk about IESE's Africa Initiative. Some of the participants already knew about it, but others were not familiar with how IESE contributes educating African managers. The context…

The most heavily indebted governments have always resorted to the same strategy: inflation. Suppose you owe 100 euros that you need to repay in one year at an interest rate of 3%. When the time comes, if inflation is 5%, you will repay 103 euros with a purchasing power of only 98 euros. The lender…

I had avoided commenting about terrorism on purpose. I thought it better not to add to the alarm that the media tend to create. However, the other day a friend told me that it was very strange that I hadn't said anything about the kidnapped Nigerian girls. I try to pay close attention to what my…

Growth rates in emerging countries tend to be volatile and are affected by what happens beyond their borders. A recent recent study by economists at the IMF (International Monetary Fund) decomposes deviations from trend growth of emerging economies into internal and external factors. The latter include things such as global financing conditions, growth in advanced…