#AskAfrica: The Changing Face Of Business In Africa

#AskAfrica: The Changing Face Of Business In Africa

I read a very interesting article a few days ago entitled ‘PR in Africa: The Next Frontier?’ written by Kate Douglas for HOW WE MADE IT IN AFRICA and I would recommend you read it if you have an interest in the direction the African continent is going. And I say it was interesting because it relates quite well to what we – Centre for African Business Education – are providing to organisations engaging with the African continent - practical business education, and on the ground experiences which will assist your company with effective engagement with Africa’s numerous markets.  I have selected three quotes from the article to further highlight this need:

 “More courses are now focused on communications and so this is changing, but it needs to move faster,” says Sconaid McGeachin, president and CEO of Africa, Middle East, and Turkey at Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

 “We also need people who’ve worked across sub-Saharan Africa and who are culturally sensitive to other markets. What works in South Africa for example may not work in Nigeria, so the ability to localise and tailor to the market needs is important.  Mobility of talent will also be key going forward and those willing to spend time across different African markets will be highly sought after.”

“Some firms are developing in-house training programmes to upskill local talent for their African operations. For example, Dubai-headquartered Djembe Communications plans to build its African Centre of Excellence in Maputo to train local employees in best practices as well as educate the international team on African markets.”

To engage in business effectively across the continent of Africa, you must be able to:

1. Understand (and I mean truly understand) the market you are dealing with both from a cultural as well as a business perspective, and how those two elements are interlinked.
2. Communicate effectively in the way the locals want to be communicated with (and I don’t mean just knowing or understanding the lingua franca even though that would be a bonus)
3. Having a win-win mentality because mutual respect will get you very far.

Africa is changing rapidly, not just from an infrastructural or (arguably) political point of view, but also from a perception point of view. The new generation of African perceives themselves (ourselves) much more positively. They are much more aware, more informed, well-travelled and view themselves as at par with their counterparts from any other part of the world. They are the ones taking their places as business leaders of today and tomorrow so it would be a grave error in judgement to approach doing business in Africa as “business as usual” going forward. There is still a long way to go however, but perceptions are changing and this will (and should) affect your strategic decision making - who to hire, type of training to provide for yourself and your staff, what strategies to adopt?

In addition to your own reasons for doing (or wanting to do) business in Africa, it is time to start thinking more about what Africa wants and how she wants to be engaged, bearing in mind that there are probably as many similarities as there are differences between the individual markets (as one of the quotes above has alluded to).

It is never as easy as it sounds but a good place to start would be to listen, learn and #AskAfrica!

https://www.cabeglobal.com/cabe-articles.html