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A study in African
ingenuity
By Della
Bradshaw
Published:
January 13 2008, The Financial Times
Limited
Five years ago,
every business school worth its salt was setting up
programmes in China. Three years ago, it was India
that was in fashion. Today, many of the top
business schools in Europe and the US are looking
to Africa as the next big market for management
education.
Columbia
Business School in New York is no exception. This
week up to 30 second-year MBA students will be
travelling to Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and South
Africa to work with entrepreneurs there. The trip
is intended to be much more than a piece of
academic learning: Murray Low, director of the
entrepreneurship programme at Columbia, is hoping
for a win-win situation â¤" the
students, it is hoped, will learn about business in
Africa from the entrepreneurs and they, in turn,
will help the entrepreneurs develop their
businesses.
There are two
big hurdles for entrepreneurs starting a business
in Africa, says Prof Low, who co-teaches the
Entrepreneurship in Africa programme with Paul
Tierney, chairman of the board of directors of
TechnoServe, a not-for-profit corporation engaged
in economic development in Africa and Latin
America. First is the lack of professional
governance.
Second is the
inability of fledgling companies to gain access to
external finance. In particular, Prof Low says,
there is a disconnect between the main sources of
capital and African entrepreneurs although some
venture capital organisations are beginning to
consider investing in Africa. His hope is that the
programme ⤜can play even a very
minor role in encouraging capital flows to
Africa�.
At the end of
their stay in Africa, Columbia⤙s
MBA participants will write a confidential
consultancy report for the entrepreneurs they have
studied. In addition, they will write a case study
about the company. Developing these teaching cases
â¤" the third aim of the programme
â¤" will be valuable to both the faculty
in Columbia and to professors at the growing number
of reputable African business schools with which
the US school works.
Columbia is
trying to help African business schools develop
more western-style, student-centred learning.
⤜They need to teach and write
cases,� Prof Low says, emphasising the
importance for African professors to write their
own cases. ⤜Local cases are just
more compelling in the African
context.�
One group of
Columbia students will be travelling to Lagos in
Nigeria to work with Computer Warehouse, one of the
largest information technology systems integrators
in west Africa. The team of three includes two
students from Nigeria, one of whom is now a US
citizen, and American student Ryan Petersen, who is
also a teaching assistant at Columbia. His group
will visit many of the company⤙s
employees, including founder Austin Okere, says Mr
Petersen, who will be writing a regular blog from
Nigeria.
⤜With
no substantial sources of external financing, the
company has reached $100m in revenues from a client
base including some of the
world⤙s biggest
brands.�
Successful
The
entrepreneurial ventures the students will visit
vary widely in their aims and the services and
products they offer. One group will visit a company
called Info Tech in Dar es Salaam, where founder
Ali Mufuruki, a mechanical engineer, started his
company as a computer consulting firm but now has
the franchises for Woolworths and Levis in Tanzania
and Uganda â¤" and $10m in
revenues.
Another family
of entrepreneurs involved in the programme are
Joseph and Damasi Mfugale, also in Dar es Salaam,
who set up Peacock Hotels. It took them eight years
to find the money to build the first 27-room hotel:
now they are expanding and, in five years, plan to
open three more hotels.
In spite of the
apparent differences, the seven entrepreneurs have
much in common, Prof Low says. They have all
established successful businesses without access to
outside capital.
⤜The
reason we have picked this scale of entrepreneur is
that they have demonstrated the ability to build a
business. To go to the next level, they need
outside investment,� he
says.
The
Entrepreneurship in Africa master class took a year
to develop and grew out of a broader initiative led
by Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia, to link the
school more closely to the business world in
Africa. As part of the initiative, professors from
Africa⤙s top business schools
have been invited to Columbia to work alongside
professors in the US and learn more about teaching
cases.
To read Ryan
Petersen⤙s blog, go to
www.gsb.columbia.edu/publicoffering
Best Regards,
David Fick
Author of books
concerning African entrepreneurs creating jobs and
improving the quality of life in their
communities.
http://www.amazon.com/Africa-Continent-Opportunity-David-Fick/dp/1919855599/sr=1-1/qid=1166832388/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7646433-6471119?ie=UTF8&s=books
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