Africa: Open for Business: Discover the ABCs…. by Deanne De Vries
Welcome to “AfriCAN” – the can-do continent, the vast, vibrant and diverse continent offering a wealth of human and natural resources that translate into opportunities for business, your business.
Complicated? Not necessarily. Africa, with all its diversity and largesse, can be difficult to understand, to grasp. Just like most new business ventures. However, successful business in Africa is as straightforward as ABC: Appetite, Bandwidth, and Capital.
It starts with growing an Appetite to actually go and build a well-rounded understanding of the reality on the ground today, of who your customers are and what they need, distinguishing between real and perceived risks, and identifying accurate market intelligence.
Then you’ll understand the Bandwidth successful companies give their Africa-focused teams to build relationships and to learn how culture and history influence business, the first place to start your business, and to identify the best type of market entry and business setup.
With the right appetite and bandwidth, you’ll make better decisions regarding Capital which is about more than just the money to run the business. Successful companies invest in social capital, cultural capital, and economic capital.
Throughout the book, you’ll find stories of entrepreneurs, local and global companies – some that have gotten it right and others that did not.
Based on the author’s 30 years of wisdom, successes, experiences, mistakes, stories, and friends she acquired working and living across the continent of Africa, this book challenges perceived ideas of Africa. It is a call to go beyond the imagery of the past and to explore, embrace and invest in “AfriCAN” – the can-do continent.
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Author Bio:
Dr. Deanne De Vries—who has spent thirty years working and living across Africa for startups (including her own), venture capital firms as well as global non-profits and international organizations—looks at life, and Africa, differently.
With an intimate understanding of the vibrancy, largesse and diversity of Africa’s 55 countries, how this impacts business and where the opportunities lie, her advice and vision changes the way people and companies start, operate and grow their operations across the Continent.
Through the wisdom of African proverbs and many first-hand stories, Deanne, introduces her readers and her audiences to the reality on the ground so they can leave behind the misleading conventional wisdom and outdated images of Africa.
As comfortable climbing to Everest Base Camp to fund raise to build a maternity hospital as she is addressing an audience at Madison Square Gardens, interviewing Heads of State across Africa for her recently completed PhD, or crossing on foot the South Sudan border with Uganda to understand the situation her truck drivers face daily, Deanne looks to understand the “why” of the on-the-ground reality so she can raise others up as well as introduce everyone to AfriCAN: the can-do Continent.