IIPM EDITORIAL: Out of Africa

Are global corporations failing to see the pot of gold lying deep within Africa?
Me

ryl Streep, the Oscar winning actress has delivered many performances that linger on for their sheer power and range of emotions. ‘Out of Africa’ was one of those Streep movies where the actress perhaps didn’t do justice to her talent. But all the stereotypes about the so called ‘dark continent’ that you have encountered in books, movies, magazines and the public arena are all there in full force. In brief, Africa is a lost continent, a market that simply doesn’t exist; or such a tiny market that it is not worth the while of corporations chasing consumers to even keep Africa as a part of their strategic plans. For people at large as well as multi-national consumer product and service companies, Africa is a land from where you hear tales of civil war, destitution, poverty, starvation and AIDS. You don’t hear of economic miracles, a growing middle class and emerging markets. Even ‘forever seeking new markets’ outfits like Goldman Sachs seem to have chosen to focus on the BRIC economies rather than ‘wasting’ time on Africa. All of them could turn out to be wrong. No doubt, most countries in Africa are going through an economic as well as existential crisis.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative