Tuesday 30 January 2018

Questions & Answers With Toyin Umesiri, Convener and Host of The Trade with Africa Business Summit 2018

Toyin Umesiri

The Trade with Africa Business Summit 2018 is the inaugural event that convenes global business leaders, innovators and change agents driving sustainable agriculture, global trade, digital acceleration, and women empowerment on the continent of Africa. It aims to create trade linkages by bringing together business leaders and their supporting service providers from U.S. and African countries to engage in actionable dialog that will accelerate economic growth for both regions. THANDISIZWE MGUDLWA, spoke to Toyin Umesiri the convener and host of this event. Toyin is the Founder & CEO of Nazaru LLC, a U.S. based company that is focused on increasing U.S. and Africa trade.

1. What is the ‘Trade with Africa Business Summit 2018’ event all about?
We know that African countries are racing to strengthen economic ties with various regions around the world to drive increased economic growth, job creation and diversification of investment. For the past 20 years the primary vehicle for U.S. engagement in Africa has leaned heavily towards foreign aid and I believe now is the time for U.S. businesses to play a more significant role to secure mutually beneficial business partnerships.

Trade with Africa Business Summit is focused on bringing this much needed conversation on Africa to “corporate America”. With the population rise on the continent of Africa and the projected economic growth, U.S. businesses should lean in further to participate commercially in the economic growth that is occurring. Africa is home to over 1 billion people with a strong youth population and a rapidly growing productive workforce. Africa can no longer be ignored or seen as a region of only war, famine and disease and by 2050 it is projected that Africa would have doubled its population. For those that are actively involved already this is a not a secret however there is a significant portion of corporate America that is heavily misinformed about Africa. The Trade with Africa Business Summit is an active step to engage U.S. and African businesses in actionable dialog to accelerate economic growth for both regions.
The inaugural event taking place on May 10th and 11th of 2018 will be held in Bentonville, Arkansas. Bentonville is the home town of the largest retailer: Walmart, and is a thriving trade and economic hub and hence the perfect location to establish new trade opportunities.

2. Who should attend and what are the benefits?

The benefits of attending are multifold; For Bentonville and U.S. based businesses it serves to showcase the vast opportunities in Africa, create linkages where they could either export to or source goods from under favorable trade policies, and allow for an opportunity to address with high-level officials critical concerns or impediments to doing business. For African Exporters, business leaders and Governments leaders, it would offer an opportunity to promote their country, help expand the offerings under AGOA, create jobs, and increase investment. For African businesses, it will also get them within proximity to the largest importers, help prepare them to pitch their goods, and open a pipeline that can then be continued through sustainable business partnerships. This event also positions the state of Arkansas as a favorable destination for African business & political leaders looking to create partnerships with the U.S.

3. What is the exact relation between 'Trade with Africa Business Summit 2018 and Nazaru LLC?

The Trade with Africa Business Summit is a production of Nazaru LLC. The event is being executed in partnership and support of key organization like the World Trade Center and USAID East Africa Trade and Investment Hub. We know that creating productive dialogue starts by highlighting the strengths that Africa has to offer U.S. investors looking to partner on the continent. There is currently opportunities yet untapped particularly in the small-medium business communities in Africa as well as the U.S. We are creating an all-encompassing one-stop shop where SMEs Large Scale organizations across Africa and the United States can find answers and solutions to trade.

4. As the CEO of Nazaru, what are the most notable experiences you have encountered in relation to hosting Trade with Africa Business Summit?

When it comes to U.S. trade with Africa, creating awareness is key. Unfortunately many still do not realize that there is a functioning side to Africa and there is a growing segment that is on the rise to claim global significance in years to come. If U.S. media will dedicate resources to highlighting these stories it will significantly benefit both regions. Many do not know what success looks like.

In 2000, the United States established the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to support U.S. trade with Africa. Although some level of success has been accomplished, U.S. still engages at less than 2% of total global trade with Sub-Saharan Africa. On the U.S. side there are several constraints including lack of awareness, supporting business data, and misconception and information gap. On the African side there is lack of information related to available business partnerships and opportunities for African businesses as well as education on ways to secure investments needed to build the level of capacity required to meet U.S. standards.

We are creating a platforms that allows business executives to hear from other leaders that are actively investing on what is working and to also become aware of what the investment opportunities are. With focus on positively impacting Agriculture, Technology, Education and Health sectors we also help address questions like “What does Africa need?” “What are the technical expertise required to FastTrack economic growth? “And where are the high growth areas?” We want people to know how to engage strategically and also how to view the region within reward-risk framework.

5. Are there any obstacles standing in the way of both Nazaru and the Trade with Africa Business Summit achieving their aims and objectives?

We have the support of major stakeholders and we are now focused on getting the word out as we want more people to get involved

6 Do you have any additional information you would like to share with the public?

In partnership with the tourism board of the city of Bentonville we are looking forward to hosting U.S. and African business leaders, Government agencies & service providers, exporters, commodity Buyers, non for profit organizations with interests in the region, “Africans in diaspora” and friends of Africa looking to reconnect with the region.

Thursday 18 January 2018

US-Africa creating a brighter future

KHULUMA AFRIKA

By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

January 15, 2018

‘Trade with Africa Business Summit 2018’

US and Africa business sectors want to use 2018 as the year they turned their fortunes around and set a platform for continuous growth for all its peoples.

That much can be attested to as the two partners now embark with a new initiative that is geared at improving and promoting trade between Africa and the US; and hopes for a brighter future are splashed all over it.

This comes after revelations on in early December 2017, that the ‘Trade with Africa Business Summit 2018’, which is an inaugural event, will convene global business leaders, change agents and innovators driving digital acceleration, sustainable agriculture, global trade and women empowerment on the continent of Africa.

The aim of the event is to ignite a fresh dialog that educates and showcases effective strategies for increasing trade between the U.S. and African countries.

This event also positions the state of Arkansas as a favorable destination for African business & political leaders looking to create partnerships with the U.S.

In 2000, the United States established the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to support U.S trade with Africa.

Although some level of success has been accomplished, U.S. still engages at less than
2% of total global trade with Sub-Saharan Africa.

On the U.S side there are several constraints including lack of awareness, supporting business data, and misconception and information gap.

On the African side there is lack of information related to available business partnerships and opportunities for African businesses as well as education on ways to secure investments needed to build the level of capacity required to meet U.S standards.

The Trade with Africa Business Summit 2018 provides an effective platform to strengthen linkages by bringing together African and U.S business and political leaders and their supporting service providers.

Bentonville, Arkansas is the home of Walmart, the world’s leading retailer, and is a thriving trade and economic hub and hence the perfect location to establish new trade opportunities.

According to the convener of this event, Toyin Umesiri, CEO Nazaru LLC “The timing is right for U.S businesses to develop an effective strategy towards Africa. By 2050 Africa is projected to have a quarter of the world’s population and currently has some of the fastest growing economies with GDP growth rateof 5% or more.”

Confirmed speakers include Donnie Smith, Former CEO, Tyson Foods; Denise Thomas, Director of Africa Trade Relations, World Trade Center; Scott Ford, CEO Westrock Coffee; Dale Dawson, Founder Bridge to Rwanda; Salim Amin, Chairman Camerapix Kenya; Finn Holm-Olsen, Trade Promotion & AGOA, USAID East Africa Trade Hub; Chris Folayan, CEO Mall for Africa.

Cost to attend the 2 day event is $499 for U.S. based attendees and $750 for international delegates. For more details about this event visit bit.ly/TWA2018 or www.tradewithafricabusinesssummit.com.

South African Football Association (SAFA): VISION 2022

Vision 2022

The goals of the new SAFA leadership have been defined and mapped out in a plan called Vision 2022
Vision 2022 is a fundamental rebuilding of the structures of SAFA at all levels to create the conditions that will bring about the sustained international success of our national teams.
We have set our sights on a long-term development plan to achieve the goal of always being in the top 3 of the African rankings, and in the top 20 of the World rankings.
10% of the South African population must play football. Therefore, we need to redouble our efforts to:

Launch a vibrant schools football programme;
Strengthen women’s football significantly.

Vision 2022 in a Nutshell

Technical Performance

National Football Philosophy
Coach Education and Deployment System
Talent ID and Development
Competitions Framework
Infrastructure and Administration (Club Licensing)
Technology
Sport Science and Medicine
Establish grassroots football programmes to increase the fun element in the sport
Establish a strong school sport program
Establishment of provincial, regional, local high performance centers
Aspirational National Academy (SoE)
Become the center of Elite Football Development for the African continent
Become No. 1 in Africa at all age group levels
Qualify for FIFA and continental competitions at all levels

Financial Stability

Commercial Viability

Sound Governance

World-Class Administration

Major Player in World Football

Develop and Maintain a Positive Image

Gender Equality

For more information you can visit: https://www.safa.net/vision-2022/

Monday 15 January 2018

Africa's development can do with the family business model

NEWS24

07 July 2017, 08:57

By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

It goes without saying that the social ills facing many families, communities and nations need more creative solutions if there's any hope of bettering Africa and the world.

The family business model has the great potential of being the most viable business venture that the ordinary folk on the street is likely to succeed in.

With high rates of unemployment facing many nations across the globe. The prospects of many people finding job security today including academic graduates; and the masses in particular, are zero to none.
Even the option of investing in a career in the corporate world and in other sectors has been proven many a times, to be an opportunity that will be enjoyed by a privileged few.

Coke, the global beverage giant, for an example started out as a family business. And look at where it is to day.

It is in the most famous and best brands of all time.

And other popular brands currently doing business include the likes of Phillips 66, Richemont, Foxconn, Nike, Volkswagen, Samsung Electronics, Facebook, Walmart, Novartis and Roche.

The world of work has enormously changed to what is was say 30 years ago.

However, not all is lost. With the advent of the Internet the world has become smaller. It has become easier today to run businesses online and offline.

Other people first run a business online. The they start it offline as well. And other they do the opposite and start it offline, then go online.

And on top of that, the E-commerce space, the digital economy and then you have one hell of an era. The knowledge economy has revolutionized our world.

Many can be made 24/7.

But for some reasons. Many people have let this opportunities to change their current financial struggles continue. Their goals and dreams go to waste without giving themselves a chance a better life.

Competitions for jobs which involves recruitment agencies, overseas cheap labour, automation to name but a few factors hindering many people's changes of finding decent employment.
It is based on those hindering factors that the Family Business model come into play.

The Family Business venture is clearly a game changer for many in Africa and elsewhere.

The business is modeled on various fronts. It is mostly a business that involves people possibly love, care and who want the best for each other. That is what family should be and must be. They are family after all.

Of course this is not always the case. But again, the same can be said about the corporate world and other sectors.

The family unit, this is what everyone should and must strive for. To rebuild the family unit for the development of out communities, city, countries, regions, continents and the world at large.

Business statistics around the the world confirm that out of every 10 companies that exist, only one will succeed in a period of less that 10 years. Some companies close down within three years and others follow suit soon after that.

Many reasons are given for the failures of these companies, ranging from poor branding & marketing; low quality of the products and services; poor cash flow management, no and lack of proper bookkeeping, lack of quality well trained and so on and so forth.

Be that as it may, the problem of joblessness remains a biting one for many governments and countries.
And jobs can not be created on scale demanded by the unemployment rates.
Social grants become some government's weapon in dealing with unemployment. Bu this too, is proving to be not the solution as the masses wreck havoc in many poorly managed countries in Africa and many developing countries, due to poverty.

It is on that note the the Family Business model must be used as an alternative. The model involves people who are emotionally attached to each other. Many times they biologically connected. It involves people who live with one another and share spaces, resources and experiences.

The family business model, provides dysfunctional and even broken families an opportunity at fixing their families. It allows people to come together and help each other out to achieve their yet unreached goals and dreams.

This is a model that gives family members another chance at prosperity. It is a business that gives family members a new sense of purpose and meaning in their lives.

Everyday becomes an opportunity to build the Family Business and to create a stable family fabric based on sound values, principles and ideals.

With different set of skills, resources and networks, family members have an opportunity to create corporations that can severely uplift the family and can also create opportunities for other people outside the family, including job creation.

The model offers families the opportunity to create a Corporate Social Investment (CSI) in their communities and other areas. Part of the model involves servicing the community in various ways.

It could be cleaning the streets and that's promoting environmental awareness. It could be by adopting a school and assisting that school in finding whatever it needs to be a world class learning institution.
The great thing about the Family Business model is that it can easily and manageable be based on various ventures including selling different products and providing a wide variety of services.

Some family members may be involved in the venture on a part-time basis, while others can be involved on full-time basis. People must be given the freedom to choose.

Some members may have jobs and/or be involved in other activities that keep them away from the Family Business a lot of the time. But they may have a genuine desire for the venture to prosper.
At times they may even be the most sincere, committed, and even the biggest contribution to the venture even though they are involved elsewhere. A Family Business Strategic Plan with clear set out vision, mission, goals and objectives of the venture with time-frames will arrest any complications that negatively affect the Family Business.

Their involvement elsewhere needs to be seen as an asset as they could be marketing the venture and acquiring skills, knowledge and resources to plough back into the Family Business.
Of out-most importance, is the nature of the Family venture. Who should do what? When? How/ Why? Or the guidelines of the venture.

This is one area that needs many compromises from all family members. As people have different goals, dreams, ideas, wants and don't wants, for the Family Business venture to succeed, family members must be considerate on what other members of the family aspire for.

In other words, the venture can not be based on forcing things on people. It can not be oppressive on anyone. If people want to pull out of the business they must be allowed to do so with out any ill feelings towards them.

People must have an opportunity to express their views and call for help and if and when the need arises.

A system of rules and regulation is highly is a must to allow order and direction.

It is highly non-negotiable that all family members must understand and accept the rules and regulations of the venture, as without the rules and regulations, unnecessary crises and fights are likely to occur and threaten the survival and success of the family enterprise.

The family members need to do a thorough market research on what is the best business or businesses which get match the skills, education and resources they possess.

Closer to home in the example of Kaizer Chiefs, which is another successful family business.

Founded in Soweto, South West of Johannesburg, on the 7th January 1970 by Kaizer Motaung and a group of fellow soccer lovers, the club is now a family business owned by the Motaungs.

With a revenue of $25 mil. – $50 milllion, Kaizer Chiefs employs 100-250 people. The Club falls under the Industry of Sports Teams & Leagues, Hospitality.

As a special part of the Kaizer Chiefs family, being a card carrying member of the Amakhosi Supporters Club means you get to enjoy a whole host of incredible benefits from insurance, retail among others.

With Hollard Insurance, the Clubs Insurance products include the Kaizer Chiefs Funeral Plan and Kaizer Chiefs Hospital Cash Back Plan which offer the opportunity to rest assured that a family is adequately covered in time of need.

In February 2005 it was announced that Motaung would join the board of Primedia Limited as a non-executive director. Primedia is South Africa’s largest private media holding company and owns 40% of Kaizer Chiefs. Through good business acumen Kaizer Chiefs bought back the 40% stake from Primedia in 2012.

Matuang has also served as a director on the boards of many other companies such as Royal Beechnut, Simba, New Age Beverages and Get Ahead.

Other most successful ideas on what kind of a Family Business people can do would include buying and selling, livestock farming, agribusiness farming, real estate property, vehicles or big equipment, events & party equipment, multi-level marketing.

The family businesses can be passed to the new generation of the family after much training and experience.

Education and training in business course and seminars is a must do for success. It must be ongoing with reading of business books and other material.With on-going communication, support for each other, mentoring and coaching the sky is the limit in the Family Business world.

NEWS24

What You Can Learn from Family Business

FROM THE NOVEMBER 2012 ISSUE
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

Conventional wisdom holds that the unique ownership structure of family businesses gives them a long-term orientation that traditional public firms often lack. But beyond that, little is known about exactly what makes family businesses different. Some studies suggest that, on average, they outperform other businesses over the long term—but other studies prove the opposite.

To settle that question, we and Sophie Mignon, an associate researcher at the Center for Management and Economic Research at École Polytechnique, compiled a list of 149 publicly traded, family-controlled businesses with revenues of more than $1 billion. They were based in the United States, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Mexico. In each business a family owned a significant percentage, though not necessarily a majority, of the stock, and family members were actively involved both on the board and in management. We then created a comparison group of companies from the same countries and sectors, which were similar in size but not family controlled. (We didn’t look at Asian companies because so many of them are family controlled that it’s difficult to find a suitable comparison group.) Then we did a rigorous analysis of the ways in which those two sets of companies were managed differently and how that affected performance.

Our results show that during good economic times, family-run companies don’t earn as much money as companies with a more dispersed ownership structure. But when the economy slumps, family firms far outshine their peers. And when we looked across business cycles from 1997 to 2009, we found that the average long-term financial performance was higher for family businesses than for nonfamily businesses in every country we examined.

The simple conclusion we reached is that family businesses focus on resilience more than performance. They forgo the excess returns available during good times in order to increase their odds of survival during bad times. A CEO of a family-controlled firm may have financial incentives similar to those of chief executives of nonfamily firms, but the familial obligation he or she feels will lead to very different strategic choices. Executives of family businesses often invest with a 10- or 20-year horizon, concentrating on what they can do now to benefit the next generation. They also tend to manage their downside more than their upside, in contrast with most CEOs, who try to make their mark through outperformance.

At a time when executives of every company are encouraged to manage for the long term, we believe that well-run family businesses can serve as role models. In fact, in our research we were able to identify several companies with dispersed ownership whose strategies mimicked those of family firms. Those companies also exhibited a similar performance pattern: below their peers during upturns but leading the pack in times of crisis. (See the sidebar “It Operates Like a Family Business—but It’s Not.”)

So how do family-run firms manage for resiliency? We’ve identified seven differences in their approach:

1: They’re frugal in good times and bad.

After years of studying family businesses, we believe it’s possible to identify one just by walking into the lobby of its headquarters. Unlike many multinationals, most of these firms don’t have luxurious offices. As the CEO at one global family-controlled commodity group told us, “The easiest money to earn is the money we haven’t spent.” While countless corporations use stock grants and options to turn managers into shareholders and minimize the classic principal-agent conflict, family firms seem imbued with the sense that the company’s money is the family’s money, and as a result they simply do a better job of keeping their expenses under control. If you examine company finances over the last economic cycle, you’ll see that family-run enterprises entered the recession with leaner cost structures, and consequently they were less likely to have to do major layoffs.

2: They keep the bar high for capital expenditures.

Family-controlled firms are especially judicious when it comes to capex. “We have a simple rule,” one owner-CEO at a family firm told us. “We do not spend more than we earn.” This sounds like simple good sense, but the reality is, you never hear those words uttered by corporate executives who are not owners. The owner-CEO added: “We make roughly €450 million of free cash flow every year, so we try to spend no more than €400 million per year, and we keep the balance for rainy days.”

At most family firms, capex investments have a double hurdle to clear: First a project must provide a good return on its own merits; then it’s judged against other potential projects, to keep spending under the company’s self-imposed limit. Because they’re more stringent, family businesses tend to invest only in very strong projects. So they miss some opportunities (hence their underperformance) during periods of expansion, but in times of crisis their exposure will be limited because they’ve avoided borderline projects that may turn into cash black holes.

3: They carry little debt.

In modern corporate finance a judicious amount of debt is considered a good thing because financial leverage maximizes value creation. Family-controlled firms, however, associate debt with fragility and risk. Debt means having less room to maneuver if a setback occurs—and it means being beholden to a nonfamily investor. The firms we studied were much less leveraged than the comparison group; from 2001 to 2009, debt accounted for 37% of their capital, on average, but for 47% of the nonfamily firms’ capital. As a result, the family-run companies didn’t need to make big sacrifices to meet financing demands during the recession. “People think we are rich and courageous,” one executive from a family firm told us, “but in fact we are cowardly—we leave most of the cash in the company to avoid giving away too much power to our banks.”

4: They acquire fewer (and smaller) companies.

Of all the plays a manager can make, a sparkly transformational acquisition may be the hardest to resist. It carries high risks but can pay large rewards. Many family businesses we studied eschewed these deals. They favored smaller acquisitions close to the core of their existing business or deals that involved simple geographic expansion. There were significant exceptions to this rule—when the family was convinced that its traditional sector faced structural change or disruption or when managers felt that not participating in industry consolidation might endanger the firm’s long-term survival. But generally, family companies aren’t energetic deal makers. On average, we found, they made acquisitions worth just 2% of revenues each year, while nonfamily businesses made acquisitions worth 3.7%—nearly twice as much. Family businesses prefer organic growth and will often pursue partnerships or joint ventures instead of acquisitions. As the HR director of a leading family-owned luxury goods company described it: “We don’t like big acquisitions—they represent too much integration risk, you may get the timing wrong and invest just before a downturn, and more importantly, you may alter the culture and fabric of the corporation.”

5: Many show a surprising level of diversification.

Plenty of family-controlled companies—such as Michelin and Walmart—remain focused on a core business. But despite a generation’s worth of financial wisdom that diversification is better done by individual investors than at a corporate level, we found a large number of family businesses—such as Cargill, Koch Industries, Tata, and LG—that were far more diversified than the average corporation. In our study 46% of family businesses were highly diversified, but only 20% of the comparison group were. Some family firms had expanded into new lines of business organically; others had acquired small entities in new fields and built on them. The CEOs we spoke with say that as recessions have become deeper and more frequent, diversification has become a key way to protect the family wealth. If one sector suffers a downturn, businesses in other sectors can generate funds that allow a company to invest for the future while its competitors are pulling back.

6: They are more international.

Family-controlled companies have been ambitious about their overseas expansion. They generate more sales abroad than other businesses do; on average 49% of their revenues come from outside their home region, versus 45% of revenues at nonfamily businesses. But family businesses usually achieve foreign growth organically or through small local acquisitions—without big cash outlays. And they are very patient once they enter a new market. “We accepted that we’d lose money in the U.S. for 20 years, but without this persistence we would not be the global leader today,” says one executive from a family-run global consumer products company.

7: They retain talent better than their competitors do.

Retention at the family-run businesses we studied was better, on average, than at the comparison companies; only 9% of the workforce (versus 11% at nonfamily firms) turned over annually.

The leaders of family companies extol the benefits of longer employee tenures: higher trust, familiarity with coworkers’ behaviors and decision making, a stronger culture. These businesses have a lot in common with what the academics Karlene Roberts and Karl Weick call “high-reliability organizations,” in which long-serving teams of specialists develop efficient team dynamics and a collective mind-set that helps them achieve goals. Says the CEO of one $10 billion diversified group: “We don’t have the smartest guys out there, but they know their job like nobody else, and when a problem hits they can act immediately as a team—one that has been there before.”

Interestingly, family businesses generally don’t rely on financial incentives to increase retention. Instead, they focus on creating a culture of commitment and purpose, avoiding layoffs during downturns, promoting from within, and investing in people. In our study we found that they spent far more on training: €885 a year per employee on average, versus an average of €336 at nonfamily firms.Examine these seven principles, and it becomes clear how coherent and synergistic they are: Adhering to one of them often makes it easier to follow the next. Frugality and low debt help reduce the need for layoffs, thus improving retention. International expansion provides a natural diversification of risks. Fewer acquisitions mean less debt. Money saved through frugality is invested wisely if the company keeps a high bar on capital expenditures. Instead of working in isolation, these principles reinforce one another nicely.

When we talk with executives at family-controlled firms, they speak derisively about competitors who “bet the farm” or “swing for the fences.” They talk about what keeps them up at night. Though they realize they are missing opportunities by being overly prudent, they hope to generate superior returns over time as business cycles turn from good to bad.

It’s evident that those cycles are speeding up. If that trend continues, the resilience-focused strategy of family-owned companies may become more attractive to all companies. In a global economy that seems to shift from crisis to crisis with alarming frequency, accepting a lower return in good times to ensure survival in bad times may be a trade-off that managers are thrilled to make.

A version of this article appeared in the November 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Nicolas Kachaner is a senior partner and managing director in the Paris office of the Boston Consulting Group.

George Stalk, Jr., is senior adviser and fellow at Boston Consulting Group and a senior partner at BanyanGlobal Family Business Advisors. Mr. Stalk has made several contributions to HBR, including his first article, “Time—The Next Source of Competitive Advantage” (July–August 1988).

Alain Bloch is a professor at CNAM and HEC Paris, the academic director of HEC Entrepreneurs, and a cofounder of HEC Paris Family Business.

The African Recorder

Tuesday 30 January 2018

Questions & Answers With Toyin Umesiri, Convener and Host of The Trade with Africa Business Summit 2018

Thursday 18 January 2018

US-Africa creating a brighter future

South African Football Association (SAFA): VISION 2022