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Samir Jaluria: Book Review on Emerging Africa

7/27/2013

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This is Samir Jaluria's 4th book review to be published on the Language of Business Blog. His LinkedIn profile is here. 

When one thinks of Africa, images of corruption, sectarian violence, lawlessness and despots such as Robert Mugabe or Idi Amin often come to mind. Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries Are Leading The Way, a thoroughly researched, well-written book by Steven Radelet, a Professor at Georgetown University and a Former Senior Fellow at the Center For Global Development, serves to dispel that stereotype for a lot of Africa. While countries such as Zimbabwe (which averaged a -2.9% growth rate per capita between 1996 and 2008) certainly fit that stereotype, there are in fact 17 countries* with more than 300 million people residing in them that are in fact growing. These countries, most notably Ghana and Tanzania, have put behind them stagnation, dictatorships and conflict, and have achieved steady economic growth, deepening democracy, stronger leadership and falling poverty.

Radelet suggests that there are 5 trends that are responsible for the growth in these countries. The first is the rise of more democratic and accountable governments, including many peaceful transitions from one democratically elected government to another. Over one-half of Africa is democratic and the era of African strongmen like Mobutu Sese Seko and Charles Taylor is largely over. Radelet argues that this one trend has been the most responsible for the rise of the emerging African nations.  This ties into the second trend, which is the implementation of more sensible economic policies. While before many countries had restrictive regulatory policies and often doled out money to special interests, they have now removed many trade barriers, strengthened the rule of law and generally made it easier to conduct business. The third one is an end of a decades-long debt crisis. While previously many governments were only able to go to the IMF or World Bank for loans, they can now go to other organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. While the IMF was right to demand accountability of recipients, many of their requirements were too stringent or they asked for too many changes too quickly—which was often unrealistic for many countries—and played a role in many of them falling into high levels of debt. Since then, the IMF has supported debt reduction and/or debt relief, which has alleviated the burden on many of the countries. In addition, because many of these NGOs are more interested in partnering with these countries, they have collaborated with them to ensure more effective use of aid and have applied far less stringent austerity measures.

The fourth major trend is that the spread of new technologies—primarily increased phone and internet penetration—are creating new opportunities for business and political accountability. Many Africans have been empowered as they have leapfrogged from having no access to any technology whatsoever to using mobile phones in innovative ways. For example, mobile technology has allowed farmers to figure out market pricing, enabling them to sell their crops to the person offering the highest price. The fifth major trend is the emergence of a new generation of policymakers, activists and business leaders. Many Africans who have been educated and have worked abroad have returned back to help grow and improve their home countries. Combining what they have gleaned abroad with a sense of giving back to their home countries, they have put “best practices” to use in ways that have already helped their countries. These trends have enabled these countries to break free of the morass or host of other problems such as the “resource curse” that have afflicted many countries (and unfortunately continues to adversely impact Nigeria, although to a lesser extent than before) and focus on development and growth. In the past 15 to 20 years, many key development metrics are heading in the right direction: incomes have grown, fertility rates have dropped and primary school enrollment rates are higher.

Overall, Steven Radelet’s book is a very interesting, well-written and researched book. He does a great job of discussing the important development metrics and uses sourced data to show quantifiable improvements. He also points out that even though these 17 emerging countries have made substantial progress, there is still a significant need for improvement (i.e., most African health systems are in a really bad state and need significant investment) and major hiccups such as the 2007-2008 electoral violence in Kenya still occur. He also lists some of the ongoing challenges that Africa will continue to face, including managing the relationship with China as it becomes more entrenched in Africa and intertwined with its growth. Finally, I’m glad that he called out The West and their absurd protectionist policies by saying, “It does little good to preach to poor counties that private sector development and integration with global markets are the keys to development if rich countries continue to subsidize their own farms and restrict trade.” I wish more vote-grabbing, union-appeasing Western politicians paid heed to Radelet on that last point.

There are a few ways that he can improve his book and where I respectfully disagree with him. Like many other books focused on development economics, it can be enhanced with personalized examples or anecdotes. While his chapter on The Coming of The Cheetahs has several incredible stories, there is a paucity of anecdotes or personalized stories in the other ones. Also, Radelet is a strong believer in the government being at the forefront of long term sustainable growth. While I feel that the government has a role to play, as more of a free market economist, I feel that its role should be less than what Radelet advocates.

Overall, this is an attention-grabbing book that gives me hope for a lot of Africa. I recommend it to anyone interested in development economics, learning more about how Africa has changed significantly in the past couple decades or how Africa is on its way to success.

* The 17 countries that Steven Radelet labels as emerging are: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. 

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Operational Plan Filming: Language of Business TV Show

7/22/2013

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Craig Sanders, Paul Laskow and Jody Mendoza were on the TV Show this morning as we filmed Episode #6 (Operational Plan) on the Language of Business. Their respective backgrounds are below. They were all terrific and this episode should air in about 6 weeks, or so.  The Show is now broadcast on over 20 stations in Massachusetts and across the US. It's been extremely helpful, to date, achieving our primary objective to generate project leads for our Boston College Consulting and Business Plan courses. 


Craig Sanders


Craig is a business leader with a consistent track record of successfully aiding organizations in transition-- building businesses and fixing troubled divisions by finding channels for growth and profitability.  He has over two decades of experience in the telecom industry alone, identifying and implementing strategic solutions that benefit shareholders, regularly mentors executives, and also served four years as a U.S. Army officer including service as a company commander and as a pilot. His LinkedIn profile is here. 


Paul Laskow


Paul Laskow has extensive experience in manufacturing and distribution, and, in particular, in the areas of assembly, quality, inventory management, customer support, and shipping.  He is currently the founder of Save Energy Systems, a company dedicated to delivering simple, innovative solutions that reduce energy costs for businesses by using a Demand Limiting Controller. This is his LinkedIn Profile. 


Jody Mendoza

Jody Mendoza wears many hats, in that she's the Founder / CEO at PMG Inc., a Latin Entertainment firm, the CEO of the Boston Music Conference (a two-day event that consists of workshops and a series of panels with music industry executives and celebrities discussing the most relevant issues facing the music industry today) and Owner of the Mojitos Lounge Boston, a multi level venue located in the heart of downtown Boston which features high ceilings, Brazilian oak floors, exposed brick and state of the art sound.  Click here for Jody's LinkedIn profile.

Picture
Jody Mendoza being interviewed during her Language of Business segment.
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Boston Globe article on Boston's First Ice Bar

7/19/2013

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Check out this article from today's Boston Globe on Boston's first Ice Bar, Frost. This idea was written about in my Boston College Business Plan course a few years prior & is now coming to fruition. Coincidentally, my latest segment on Radio Entrepreneurs focused on an update for the fall / 2013 course, whose link is here.

I'm so genuinely happy for this team!

Enjoy,

Greg

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Tales From Shining and Sinking India (Samir Jaluria)

7/9/2013

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Tales From Shining and Sinking India, written by Akash Banerjee, a well-renown Indian journalist, is an amazing compilation of his on-the-ground reportage of major Indian news events. Broken out into a series of a dozen vignettes, Banerjee’s book is a first-hand account of how India is a land of contrasts—almost painfully so. While India has some of the world’s most resilient and courageous people, it also has some of its weakest and most self-centered people. Affluence and cheek-by-jowl poverty also exist side-by-side (from the overpriced rooftop bar at the top of the Four Seasons Mumbai, one can see directly into a large slum colony of nearly half a million people).

The stories range from reportage right in front of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai when it was attacked by Islamist terrorists in 2008 to accompanying commandos into rebel communist-held territory in India’s heartland (with the author even posing with an AK-47!) to showcasing India’s colorful religious festivals. These vibrant pieces portray India as both rising (e.g., the growing affluence of the elite, the continued ability of Mumbai as a city to bounce back from calamities such as the 2008 attacks, the ability of the Mumbai police force to vanquish the Islamist terrorists, etc.) as well as sinking (e.g., the ineptitude of the politicians in the backwater state of Bihar in eastern India to rescue stranded citizens during the devastating 2008 floods, the 2G Spectrum License Scam, the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games scandal, etc.). I personally loved Banerjee’s riveting, first-hand account of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, as well as his story charting the slow decline of the West Bengal-based Communist Party of India (the story is aptly entitled Poribortion, or Bengali for transformation).

For those interested in learning more about how India functions and what the country is like as a whole, this book offers some valuable lessons. First, India is not a monolithic country and businesses seeking to do business in India should not see it that way. While Hindi and English are the two official languages, there are also nearly two dozen other regional languages, and the cultures and tastes vary significantly across the states. For example, while most people in the western state of Gujarat are vegetarian, most people in the northern state of Kashmir have no such dietary restrictions. Second, one needs to be careful who they partner with. As Banerjee points out in his Poribortion vignette, Tata Motors (current owner of Land Rover and Jaguar and manufacturer of the Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car) collaborated with the Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) when choosing to build the manufacturing site of their Tata Nano near Calcutta in the state of West Bengal. However, the CPI-M had intimidated indigent, local land-owners—many of whom relied upon subsistence farming—into “selling” their land to the government so that Tata Motors could build their facility. A firebrand politician named Mamata Banerjee (now Chief Minister of West Bengal) took advantage of this situation and eventually caused Tata Motors to shut down the plant in West Bengal and shift production to the state of Gujarat, causing the car rollout to be delayed. 

This ties into the third lesson, which is that all major companies, both foreign and domestic, need to conduct serious risk analysis to see if any politicians might try and take advantage of a fragile situation to further their own political careers (even if it leads to unemployment). Mamata Banerjee used the incident to first become the Minister of Railways (a national position) and then the Chief Minister of West Bengal. As soon as the protests at the Tata Nano factory subsided (which she helped instigate) and the factory shut down, she conveniently disappeared. The fourth lesson is that in India today, corruption is a major problem and companies need to navigate very carefully when conducting business there. Companies that are not careful or grease palms to win government contracts will regret doing so (the ex-CEO of AgustaWestland, the Anglo-Italian aviation firm, was jailed earlier this year for bribing Indian government officials to win a $600MM contract).

While Tales From Shining and Sinking India is a timely, well-written book, I feel that Banerjee can enhance it – especially if he wants to expand the readership beyond educated Indians in India. Every vignette should have a map detailing exactly where the story is taking place. I found myself continuously using Google Maps to find the stories’ locations, which was frustrating. Also, while he is right in that in India many individuals’ rights are trampled upon by politicians and some companies, I sense a slight populist fervor in him and think that some of his ire is slightly misdirected. Again, this book is a definite must-read for those interested in learning about India’s diversity or what it’s like for a journalist to report on the frontlines for a breaking news story, including some of the dangers that journalists face.

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International business and entrepreneurship editorial: Boston Business Journal

7/5/2013

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Many thanks to the Boston Business Journal for publishing an editorial to support our Business Planning and Entrepreneurship course, as well as the International Management Experience and ICP Asia courses.

The editorial is here. Please have interested entrepreneurs contact me via email at gregory.stoller.1@bc.edu

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Language of Business TV Show: Organizational Plan (Episode #4)

7/3/2013

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John Murphy from Point Judith Capital, Alessandra De Vaca of Hebrew Senior Life and Matthew Bellows from YesWare are my 3 guests for Episode #4 of the Language of Business, as we discuss the Business Plan's Organizational Section.

John's segment is here, click on this link for Alessandra's and Matthew Bellow's segment is here. The full, 30-minute episode is below.

Thank you for supporting the Show.

Sincerely,

Greg
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    Useful links:

    CCAFM is our international consulting partner in Beijing, China.  They're smart, creative, honest, successful business people.

    Ms. Beth Goldstein is a good friend and doing some great work in the entrepreneurship space. Check out her blog.

    Mr. Yuya Kiuchi is a periodic guest blogger on this site, originally from Tokyo, Japan. Check out his personal page or Wikipedia profile.

    Mr. Samir Jaluria was one of our standout students in the full-time MBA Program at Boston College, and is a periodic guest blogger on this site. He is currently a management consultant and freelance writer. Check out his LinkedIn Profile.

    Mr. Jeffrey Ross, managing partner of Glenoe Associates LLC has owned or
    operated 6 businesses: Retail, hotels, distribution, fast food and assisted
    living.  Jeff's a Mentor for my Business Planning course. 


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