|
|
Africa: Continent Fast Integrating With Global World of Trade
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Business Daily (Nairobi)
6 May 2008
Posted to the web 6 May 2008
David Mataen
The losing team will come back to the board-room where someone will be fired!" A very familiar phrase now among lovers of reality TV, a reality finally in Africa Boardrooms. In downtown Lagos, Africa's capital of dynamic chaos and cut-throat competition, The Apprentice Africa has been happening for some time now.
Matrix Corporation, initially a women's outfit founded on the premise of a woman's multiple capabilities has been facing off with Zulu Corporation, a men's only concern founded on the military and imperial exploits of organised African societies as exemplified by the Zulu under Shaka.
What can we observe about Africa and Africa's modern business from this single programme?
That, Africa is open for business. That the Apprentice could be successfully mobilised and played out here with all the twists and turns, the intrigues and cliffhangers of the developed world is to me another confirmation of Africa's speedy integration with the global world of business. That Africa speaks, breathes and conducts business by the very same organs as everyone.
It also presented an opportunity to showcase Africa's business flair and dexterity, either under pressure or whatever other demands, challenges and complexities of the real world; to pitch Africa's homegrown business enterprises splendidly in their complete commercial glory.
That, Africa is not (yet) a single market place. Despite what I strongly feel in the point above, this show has also brought to the fore the stark truth that Africa is not one place as such. You just need to watch East Africans struggle with the deeply entrenched nuances of the Nigerian market place.
That there is not a single Kenyan standing today is a cruel testament to the fact that the show is really being all played out in Nigeria which only happens to be in Africa.
It accentuates the regional disparities within Africa that take certain regions culturally closer to foreign societies than they are to the next door neighbour. Ask yourself, where is Cote d'ivoirè, Senegal, Algeria?
Are they not as African as Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana or Zambia? English maybe the language of international business, certainly not African, it excludes vast swathes of Africa where business is just as pulsating, make no mistake.
That, the African businesswoman is arriving on the global business scene. I just love the aggressiveness, confidence and hearty appetite for success that oozes, or used to, from Matrix Corp. Even though a little bickering could not help manifesting when nerves were frayed, the women stepped up to the challenge in true African fighting spirit. That Matrix Corp has not yet won a single task indicates that our sisters still have some ground to cover.
But, nothing untoward. As long as they take it in their stride and preserve that positive, resplendent disposition, theirs is the earth and everything that is in it, to invoke Rudyard Kipling.
|
But, I got to say we still have some homework at the boardroom. Where is the belly-fire, the electric impulse for winning that scalds, even skewers to smithereens anyone who stands in the way? I have severally watched project managers take all the blame for loss even when clearly someone was identifiably responsible, and curtailed their pursuit just because they had this irrepressible need to be nice.
In closing, I'd like to give special mention to the quality and creativity of the adverts I have seen on the show, particularly by Bank PHB. Take the one where someone drives up to a filling station, refuels his car and turns the pump to his mouth and drinks the liquid to the utter bewilderment of awoman seated on a bench nearby.
The jingle and voice-over in the background declares, "in the future cars will drive on water. At Bank PHB we are already thinking like that". Barat Thakrar, I hope you have taken note.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Business Daily. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
