 Welcome to the get the podcast for enterprise leaders delivering timely insights for today's global economy and tomorrow's competitive advantage. I'm your host, Chris Kane, President Center for Global Enterprise. Today we sit down with two leading business leaders to discuss the myths and realities of doing business in Africa and what women CEOs should know. Miranda Naiman, founder and managing partner of Empower Limited, a growth consulting company headquartered in Tanzania. And Don Liness, managing director of the African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative, a 12 month applied management development program for women business owners across all 54 African countries. Miranda and Don, welcome and thank you for being with us today. As economic adjustments are taking place in the global economy, Africa has been getting more and more operational and financial attention from companies and investors around the world. And the governments of the United States and China are jockeying for advantage across the continent. And for good reason, Africa is rich in diversity and natural resources. It has one of the fastest growing populations with over 1.3 billion people. And that population is expected to reach 2.5 billion or 25% of the global population by 2050. This represents both a burgeoning workforce opportunity as well as an increasing customer base for businesses looking for new growth markets. For decades, the countries in Africa have been described as places companies need to invest in. However, like all geographies and countries doing business in Africa also comes with its fair share of challenges. One is the lack of infrastructure, which can make it challenging to transport goods and services across the continent. Another is workforce skills, which are often viewed as underdeveloped. There are also different political, regulatory and legal frameworks among the 54 countries, making it difficult for businesses to navigate. And like other regions in the world, the lack of transparency and corruption adds just another barrier to entry. In episode 15 of the GATT, we discussed doing business on the continent, and it was very well received by listeners. Today, we want to continue this conversation and do so using a filter of what women CEOs and business owners need to know about these myths and realities. So Miranda, perhaps we can start with you. What are some of the common misconceptions about doing business in Africa from your perspective? Thanks Chris. It's great to be here. I appreciate being able to share perspectives. Obviously, there are lots of common misconceptions that I can think of when it comes to doing business in Africa. So before you start, you obviously want to make sure that you've conducted thorough market research and understand the dynamics. That being said, I wanted to share some myths. Myth number one, that Africa is a single market. I think that's a big myth. We've got 54 countries, our own languages, cultures even within each country, different political structures and business customs. So I think that's a huge myth to dispel. Myth number two, that political instability is a significant barrier. I think it really depends on which market you're playing in. And while many African countries have struggled with this, there are many stable economies on the continent that are business friendly and have policies to support that. Myth number three, I think you touched on it a moment ago, the challenge around infrastructure being insufficient. Yet again, while it's true that some African countries struggle with infrastructural challenges, power outages and so on, there are also countries that have made significant headway here, but it depends where you are setting up your business. And I would say another big myth that I often hear is there's a lack of skilled labor. I would say trends moving in the right direction where our very young continent is now able to compete globally. And I think there are a lot of initiatives and programs that are focused on youth in particular, and skills development that are helping us to be more competitive as a continent. So those are the few that I would share. There are many more, of course. So Merida, thank you for that. Let me go deeper on two of the dimensions that you stated. One, political stability and two, infrastructure. Are there two or three countries that stand out for you at this moment in time where political stability and infrastructure efficiency are really in need of recognition from a global investor? I think if we're looking at infrastructure, you'd want to look at some of the bigger economies on the continent. So perhaps South Africa, Egypt, perhaps Morocco, in certain cities, where you might have more developed major cities that are able to cater to business needs, perhaps high-speed internet. This could be physical infrastructure as well in terms of roads and power supply. In terms of political stability, there are many countries I can think of without any bias. Tanzania being first, where there's never been political instability. There are many others that I can think of, Botswana, Uganda. I would also name Malawi as well, amongst others, where things are calm, peaceful, and present a good business environment to be able to grow. Great. So, Don, from your perspective and your experience over the last five, six, seven years with AWAC, what are the most common misconceptions about doing business in Africa that you've seen and you'd like to share? Thanks, Chris. Merida touched on a bunch of really important ones. I think the two that I'd like to add, one is around market size. I think there's this perception, particularly coming from the Western markets, that income disparities on the continent limit the market size that's available. And a lot of this stems from mainstream media. There's two general perceptions that mainstream media often provides of the African market. You see the large portion of the population that's struggling below the poverty line and then a very small elite portion that is living large thanks to corrupt business practices. And those are obviously two very specific and not very realistic archetypes of what is happening in the African market. There's actually a huge, huge market. And as Chris noted, there's a really fast growing population, and that means that the middle class continues to grow. Now, the perception of middle class varies country to country, but thanks to urbanization, increased access to education, and obviously increased consumer purchasing power, that means that there's a huge market for any product. And we've seen that particularly given the 15,000 applications we've seen for women entrepreneurs to participate in our program over the past six years. There's a significant number of women starting businesses. They're finding tangible markets. So I think that's a huge misconception that people have, is that they're not enough customers. The other one has to do with technology. I think there's a big misconception that Africa is grossly behind when it comes to technological advancement. And then consequently, there's this expectation that they're dependent upon the West to bring them forward. And while there are definitely differences in technology and technological advancement, there's significant innovation happening on the continent from a tech standpoint, particularly because the entrepreneurs that are solving tech challenges on the continent are solving for the actual problems they have. And there's not a one size fits all solution. So something that works either from a tech standpoint or a business model standpoint in the West might not necessarily be the best solution on the African continent or even from country to country. And so given the diversity of the markets of Africa and the low barriers to entry, there are a lot of different companies that are working on solutions that we may not be aware of. And so I think particularly for business owners coming into the African market for the first time, it's really important to understand what's going on on the ground in the specific market that you're trying to enter because there's probably a lot of solutions that rival what you're interested in doing or working on that might be interesting to look into. So that's great. And you two are well positioned to give our listeners the real scoop of what's happening on the ground. And I'd like to turn now to the decision making process of a CEO. I know Miranda, you as a growth company, a growth consulting company, you're advising CEOs about how to either adapt their business model or move into new areas. And I want to draw a distinction between the general advice you each would give a CEO interested in entering the African market and maybe one of the two most important factors any business leader must consider. But more importantly, especially for this episode, I'd like to talk about from your perspective, are these recommendations different for women CEOs? And if so, how? And maybe they're not, but I'd like to get your point of view on this. And Miranda, maybe we could start with you. Sure. I think there are cross cutting things that both men and women would need to take into consideration if they're looking to set up a business on the continent. There are many things that you need to look at. I would pull out two key things. Number one is cultural understanding. Africa is diverse, as I said before, numerous cultures, languages, but most importantly, the societal norms. And I think that will really help to inform how you run your business on the continent. When you understand that local culture, it's paramount. That's going to be the key to your success in whatever country you choose to set up your business. The way people communicate, the way your meeting rhythm might be within the business, how you negotiate with suppliers, how you navigate your competitors as well and read different relationships is really, really important when setting up your business. And when it comes to now hiring people into your business, learning the ways that people work, particularly youth that come into the business, young people, it's really important for building that trustful relationship with both local partners, consumers and your staff as well. I think the second thing that I would touch on would be the regulatory environment, which are all unique yet again across the 54 territories and countries and different legal frameworks that are going to govern how you are able to run your business in those environments. So understanding the regulatory environment is crucial, especially when you are entering the market. In my experience, I've seen many organizations that haven't survived in new markets because they have been ignorant to some of the requirements when setting up their business. So making sure that you're conversant with tax regulations, labor law, any kind of import or export regulations, making sure you're fully compliant as a business is really critical, I would say. Well, with regards to women, these things obviously apply to both men and women, but I would say on the cultural understanding as a woman in business, understanding how women are viewed in society and how you can navigate different spaces is key. So I would put it under that first umbrella of cultural understanding. Great. Don, thoughts? I completely agree with Brenda. I think the first thing that I had noted for myself is this idea that Brenda touched on earlier and that I think also came up in the first conversation around doing business in Africa on the get about Africa being 54 unique countries and within those obviously the unique cultures. The piece that I'll dive a little deeper on is I think this idea of the ease of doing business for women differs country to country and what it might say on paper and what the laws might say might look different in reality. And so I think this goes back to the other point Brenda made around having partners on the ground, putting somebody that you can trust who can give you the inside scoop as to how things really work is incredibly important. And one of my first go-tos to understand each market from a gender lens is the World Bank. They have great data that they publish each year on the ease of doing business for women and that's a global resource. And that's this general understanding that we use to really get this first look at which laws are in favor of supporting women. What does it look like from a cultural, from a socioeconomic standpoint for women? And I think that helps that first understanding and then be able to talk to someone who's doing business in that space, but not just one person because the gender piece is layered with the socioeconomic aspect as well. And so, you know, where you are in society plays another role. I think, you know, in any new market that you're entering into having people that you trust is incredibly helpful and we've seen that when we host events on the continent. If we're doing this based out of the US, having team members who are on the ground can help us really understand the different relationships, the different ways that people negotiate the different styles of doing business. I think a lot of times women have different levels of the ability to be direct and have that be well received. And so, if you are a woman who benefits from being able to speak directly and then you go into an environment where that's not well received, you're not necessarily knowing, you don't understand that everyone else is in that same situation and so you might think that you're getting clear information from someone. You might think that someone is answering the question that they're giving you the rates they can, but ultimately you find out that they are trying to appease you because they need to put a certain, you know, perception forward in terms of what being a female business owner looks like. And so, I think that's something that's really important to know and that nuance doesn't come through unless you speak to somebody who's actually has that experience of doing business. I think the other one that is really important is understanding around hiring and understanding around the workforce. Rhonda noted that the workforce is growing and there's a huge, huge opportunity there. I think that the thing that we've noticed in particular is that there's an importance that's placed on credentials on the continent, more so maybe than other places around the world. And so, a lot of times somebody will apply to a job and this happens for women globally, but particularly on the continent people believe they need to have direct experience for a job and they will not apply if their specific credentials and their specific experience doesn't match the job at hand, whereas I think in the U.S. in particular we've seen a lot more people applying because they feel like they have the ability to learn the job. And so, what that means for a business owner is that thinking outside of the box when hiring means that you have the opportunity to really open yourself up to a much wider potential of candidates, group of candidates, and then more than that, thinking about how you train and support those candidates. And the idea that just telling somebody this is your job and expecting them to excel does not work. You know, we're in an age where really having to think about not just telling people what to do but training them on how to do it will help for the long-term growth of your company. One of the biggest things that the entrepreneurs we work with site as challenges is hiring, but ultimately I don't think hiring is the challenge so much as training staff in a way that helps them to grow and want to stay within the company that they're working at. That's great. And Dawn, you have led an applied management development program that has touched the lives of over a thousand women over the last couple of years. And those 1200 women come from every country on the continent. So you have a unique perspective and experience about what you see among women business owners as strengths and where there might be gaps that need attention. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the skills, strengths, and weaknesses that you've seen with women entrepreneurs. And then Miranda, I'd love your thoughts on this as well because you're dealing so frequently with companies and trying to help them move from small to big. Sure. So I think the number one which probably will not come as a surprise to any woman entrepreneur or business leader is resilience. I think women in particular really have to be resilient to run their businesses given the many competing priorities they have. When I layer in the African perspective, I think that today post-pandemic business leaders are used to having to deal with a significantly increased set of macro and microeconomic challenges. However, many of these challenges were prevalent for African business owners pre-pandemic. And so having to deal with inflation, currency and stability, supply chain disruptions, energy access, even global health issues, these are not new issues in Africa. And so women business owners have been starting and succeeding in their businesses in the face of these challenges far longer than most of us in the West have had to deal with them. I think additionally, we see that women are still even more likely to start businesses in Africa than men. And so, you know, all of that boils down to this fact that women have this passion that they're committed to seeing through despite any challenge that they're up against, which I think is incredibly inspiring and something that we've really enjoyed about the work that we've done with women entrepreneurs. The second one I would say is appetite for learning personal growth and innovation. And I say that because, you know, a lot of times as a woman business owner, you end up being really focused on managing the day to day operations of your business. And so you're really focused on working in the business, not on the business. We've seen with the women entrepreneurs that we've both had the privilege of working with and the many that have applied for our program and the many other wonderful programs that exist on the continent. There's a deep appreciation and desire to continue education for African women business owners. And we see that just not only in the way that they apply, not the way that they apply to the program, but the way they apply themselves in the program. And women come into the program really, really eager to grow certain aspects of their business and they take advantage of those opportunities in a way that I think particularly if I look at my friends and colleagues in the U.S. who are deeply focused on running their businesses, it's much harder for them to make time and prioritize that continued learning. So I think that's a huge asset that I see. Great. Miranda, thoughts? I think that's a very robust list. I would add to that that African women, particularly entrepreneurs are very well-networked and this is part of our culture really. You know, you have savings groups where you all put in money where we try to grow together and I think that is a huge part of our fiber and our being. And I definitely see that in AWEC as well in the African women's entrepreneurship cooperative and the various cohorts. You can very much see strong personal brands, strong relationships amongst the women, very well-networked and this helps them to perhaps leverage business ties in other markets as well and be able to support one another to grow. So I would add that as well. And of course, energy, the resilience is built on by the energy. You have to have the right kind of energy that you're bringing into your business, infuse it into the work, the product or the service that you're providing but also into every employee that you have on your payroll to make sure that they are also performing and delivering to a high standard. So I think these are all things that are prevalent on the continent, particularly amongst women entrepreneurs on the continent at the moment. So I'd like to pull back a little bit now and talk about talent at the macro level and Miranda, you've been in the talent business for quite some time and as you consult with companies about how to grow clearly, they won't be successful if they don't have the available talent or have the wrong talent. What can you tell us about the talent pool across the continent and are there certain regions better known for certain skills? Absolutely. I mean, it's already been said Africa obviously has a young, very fast growing and increasingly educated population and that represents a significant talent pool. So if we really put that into context by 2030, Africa is going to have the world's largest workforce and that's going to surpass China and India. So it's really huge. We've also got the rising middle class that Dawn spoke to earlier and increased urbanization. But if I'm looking at different regions and countries, some that I would pick out if we look at for instance, technology and innovation, I would cite perhaps Kenya and Nigeria, even at our General Assembly earlier this year we heard about Silicon Savannah in Nairobi, you know, being a hub. It's renowned for technology startups. I would say a similar picture in Lagos, Nigeria as well. There's a very thriving tech ecosystem. I would add to that that in South Africa, particularly in Johannesburg and Cape Town there are also significant players in the tech industry. If we look at more finance and business services, of course Johannesburg has the largest stock exchange, one of the largest in the world but the largest on the continent and they are very much known for their banking and financial services, investment skills. Looking at East Africa and some parts of West Africa, more agricultural skills or agribusiness. Maybe I could cite Ethiopia, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire as well as areas where there are professionals that are skilled in agriculture and agribusiness as this is prominent in these areas. I would say for manufacturing, perhaps markets like Egypt, Morocco yet again very strong manufacturing sectors with very skilled labor particularly in automotive manufacturing, textiles and some electronics as well. We're seeing this rise around mining and also natural resources. So some of the old school players there, Botswana, Zambia, the DRC but we're also seeing some markets for instance Tanzania where natural gas has been found and so there are new skills that are being fostered in these kinds of markets. I think tourism, hospitality, these are also skills that you can find in a lot of African countries. The list goes on. I think despite these strengths though there are still skills gaps and it's about how we can make sure that the future generation is ready to embrace all the opportunities that we have but I think with the rise of online education and of course growing investment in educational infrastructure our talent pool will be poised to grow and to diversify. So maybe I could ask each of you a follow-on question in this regard which is, so a company choosing to expand or to enter the African marketplace and knows that they will have an available workforce that will need some training and some skill development. Should they expect to do that training and skill development themselves or should they expect to have partners in doing that from the public education or educational infrastructure? Or is it a combination of both? And Todd from your experience maybe you could talk to that. If I'm going to invest, do I know that I have to build into my business model the training and this upskilling of my new workforce myself or are partners readily available and how would I identify partners if I chose to go in that direction? Yeah, that's a great question. So I would say it's definitely a combination of both and I think it depends on both the company's capabilities and what they're interested in achieving. There are a lot of companies on the ground that have skilled expertise in running trainings whether it be in person and online. Many of them benefit from partnerships already and so we see a lot of partnerships where governments are partnering with either for-profit or non-profit institutions to run trainings. We serve corporations that are partnering with governments with nonprofits and so I think it really depends on what you're looking for as far as training goes. There's a lot of really strong leadership business management trainings and I think when you're looking for a partner there the question comes down to what are the core mission of the organization you're partnering with and is it really related to that skill growth and development or is it really focused on just getting a credential and moving on and I think given the appetite for credentials there are a lot of organizations that exist that are very good at providing that credential but then people don't necessarily walk away with the actual skill. For my very biased people and I would look for something that has a really strong focus on applied learning. So how are people not just seeing, hearing what to do but actually testing it out so when they come away from that program they come away with a portfolio of work that demonstrates their ability to do the different skills that you're working on. I think that if you're looking for something really specific and tangible it would make sense to see what exists on the market already see if there's a company that's doing a really good job and see if a partnership makes sense. I think there's a lot of partnership happening on the continent for this purpose not because a company can't provide it themselves but as Miranda mentioned it's a very networked country. People see the benefit of having those really strong relationships and so there's a deep, deep benefit for both the company that's looking for that training and for the fellows that are trying to get trained. So let's look forward. I'm going to ask you each to look over the next five years and are there a few particular business sectors that you see really taking off across the continent over the next five years that women will lead it and Miranda maybe we could start with you. Sure. I'm going to start with education and training. I think that is an area where women are certainly leading on the continent. It's a key sector and there are a lot of women in leadership roles in this area so I'm hoping that's going to be something that we continue to push forward. I would say renewable energy is also an area where women are heavily involved. Obviously as Africa moves towards sustainable development, this sector, the renewable energy sector is growing. Women are playing a role in this sector particularly in businesses that are focused on distributing solar panels so we see a lot of these businesses that help perhaps smaller players or smallholder farmers perhaps in rural areas to be able to access small amounts of energy. Fashion and beauty I think has always been a leading sector and when we look at some of our cohorts at AWECS as well, the African fashion and beauty industry is just booming right now and we see women at the forefront of this growth so that's certainly an area to keep our eye on but I would also mention health care. So private health care, looking at that sector and what opportunities there may be for women in leadership there, health tech or insurance around health insurance tech as well and health care services and being able to distribute pharmaceuticals to rural areas. I've seen quite a few exciting businesses there on the horizon and I feel that women are well poised to be able to lead in this area. Dawn, sectors where you see women leading over the next five years. Yeah, so I'll echo two of Miranda's and dive a little bit deeper. I think in terms of the health care side, I was thinking health tech and then particularly the STEM tech as they're calling it, which is the female focused health care piece for many years, women's health issues have been overlooked globally and considered taboo to discuss in a lot of situations. We see that this is changing in the US and there's definitely been an emergence of women founded health tech companies that are addressing problems that women specifically face, whether it be mental health, menstrual health, fertility, menopause, etc. and what I really enjoyed seeing is over the past six years we've seen an increase in the number of companies that are African women founders are starting as well related to those specific areas and so there's been more women in both in our applicant pool and that have gone through our cohorts and that are publicly talking about these challenges and trying to find solutions. So I think this will continue across the continent. The other one that I want to dive a little deeper into is the climate piece. I think Miranda you spoke specifically about renewable energy. I'd like to take that maybe a little broader and talk about climate resilience and the green economy in general. We've seen a lot of businesses that are focused on providing innovative solutions to pollution, recycling, deforestation, drought, and food security within our AWA community. Now what's interesting is some of these come in as agriculture companies or as food production companies but then when you see the innovative ways that they're approaching these things you realize that it's not singularly focused on that industry but rather it's more solutions based and so I think given the size of the population and the growing challenge that climate change presents I think that women entrepreneurs are uniquely positioned to solve that from a number of different industry perspectives. Very interesting. So before we close we like to use the last minute or so to give our listeners one strategic insight to consider. We call it our emerging critical issues moment and I'm asking each of you to give me one word or one phrase of what issue, emerging issue you see on the horizon that business leaders need to put on their radar. Miranda why don't we start with you. I was a tough one, one word or one phrase but mine would be demographic shift. So embracing the youth bulge on the continent and really thinking about how we need to adjust our businesses to cater to this younger generation their needs, their aspirations and how the way they work differs significantly from previous generations. I think we need to have our eye on the ball here. Don. I would say integrated social responsibility and sustainability. Building off of the idea of education there's this responsibility of the businesses and the business leaders to train the workforce to think about the long-term sustainability from a climate standpoint, from a talent standpoint and so instead of a business just focused on how can my business succeed rather how can we help the continent move forward as a whole. Well that's great and we will come back to some of these issues in future shows and Miranda and Dawn thank you very much for your time and insights today it's been great having you. You've been listening to The Get sponsored by the Center for Global Enterprise celebrating 10 years of convening global enterprise leaders around the most important business transformation issues.