Unfortunately, a lot of King’s push for economic justice for everyone is falling to the wayside because the generations that followed have lost the true purpose behind the struggle.  King’s struggle was not about “me and mine” but “we.” While he was an African American, he was reaching out to people of all color.

Today, the African American community even with its level of poverty, particularly among our youth, is still one of the major consumer markets in the United States. Africans living in the United States also represent a strong consumer market and have the highest achievement rates in tertiary degrees of any ethnic group. African American businesses generate more revenue per year than any other minority group in the United States.  There is enough know-how, spirit, and money in these groups alone to put a major dent in poverty in the U.S. and across the ocean in Africa, but it’s only a few who see the potential or venture out.

There are enumerable ways to change this tide through investment. First, many African already send money back to the continent to help family and friends.  In some countries, remittances, as they are called, make up a significant portion of a country’s GDP. The amazing thing is that the amounts sent per year are nominal compared to the average middle class income in the United States, which stands in the mid-$30,000 range. If families receive more than $5,000 per year, they automatically become a part of the growing African middle class. This demonstrates that there is power in small packages.

However, most of this money is distributed for living considerations, so only a small amount gets applied to investment in local businesses that would help develop not only the families involved but the communities in which they live. More recently, there has been a lot of research and discussion about diaspora bonds.  The idea is that Africans in the diaspora can invest money in bonds developed by African countries to help their development.  After a period of time, African investors would get back their principal with interest. So, people of African could diversify their remittance and investment strategy to incorporate diaspora bonds. 

I laud the concept, but as with any major governmental and institutional framework, it takes a long time for it to work. Today, with the advent of the Internet and successes in crowdfunding, I think the right mix in this space will far surpass the concept of diaspora bonds. I also think there is greater appeal in crowdfunding as people are more connected to the process and this is a major characteristic of the global youth profile.  They want to feel connected and to have their voices heard.

What I expect to see is the activation of the African American and other African diasporas take off in the next year or two, but in dynamic, organic waves. As governments will not be able to solve the economic crises alone, people and organizations will start to seek out ways to do it themselves. We are seeing increased social discord around the world with groups like “Occupy Wall Street” cropping up. While I think these groups are great for mobilizing, they will end up of little value if they cannot help solve the issues.  They are a great sounding board, but someone has to come behind them with the real solutions.

Just as communities have come together to rebuild around natural disasters, they will come together to rebuild local economies devastated by crises or the enduring problem of poverty. We can count on it because it is part of our human DNA.

Lovemoney.com would like you to look at savings options.

July 5, 2011, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

With the U.S. Federal Reserve and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) echoing the same news that the U.S. economy has weakened and that unemployment will remain high for a while, many are wondering where to turn. Lauri Elliott, CEO of Conceptualee, Inc. based in Charlotte, North Carolina and author of Redefining Business in the New Africa: Shifting Strategies to be Successful says, “Americans continue to overlook Africa as an option to boost wealth and jobs in America because of the persisting mindsets formed about the continent over decades and centuries as a place of poverty, disease, and conflict. While these challenges still exist, they are on the decline and Africa has turned the page and has entered a new era.”

Regional growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has surpassed that in Asia in the last several years, according to The Economist. The emerging markets in which the West is pushing to enter – Brazil, India, and China – are knocking down the doors into Africa.

“The U.S. still sees Africa as a continent of poverty instead of prosperity for the most part – to its own detriment,” says Elliott. What she says is illustrated in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Companies Race to Catch Up in African Markets. The CEO of U.S.-based Cummins International, Tim Solso, admitted that he came to the realization that his Chinese counterparts were beating him.

“Large U.S. companies have been in Africa for a long time for its natural resources, particularly oil with major producers like Nigeria and Angola. Others like Coca-Cola have also fared well, but by and large U.S. companies are not keeping pace with those from other countries in taking advantage of opportunities on the continent,” adds Elliott. “However, a good sign is Walmart’s recent acquisition of consumer goods company, Massmart, in South Africa that has operations in over ten African countries. If Walmart, The Gap, and other major U.S. retailers continue to enter Africa markets, hopefully other American firms in diverse sectors will realize there is money to be made.”

While natural resources continue to be a major draw for foreign investment, the large, growing population of 1 billion is another natural asset which draws investment and business. In fact, this population will surpass India and China by 2025 with current projections. And, non-oil revenues surpass those of oil revenues when you look at the continent as a whole.

“We are now seeing the start of Africa’s “Baby Boomer” generation – not only a large population, but a growing middle class. Remember the effect the Baby Boomer generation had on driving the U.S. economy. If Africa keeps its current trajectory, this new generation will do the same for it and maybe even more,” remarks Elliott.

To tap the growing local consumer markets, China is developing five key special economic zones on the continent. “Don’t think China’s only intention is to tap the local markets. The cost of labor and manufacturing in China is rising, so that it is no longer a low cost alternative. Expect China to export products from Africa into China and other markets including the U.S.,” indicates Elliott.

While the opportunities in Africa, a continent with 54 countries, can be mind blowing, so can the process to get a business going on the continent. “There are actually many pathways that make it easier, more cost effective, and efficient to enter African markets. Some of these include locating operations in and looking at consumer markets around large urban centers and development corridors, as well as placing your operations in a special economic zone which offers solid infrastructure, strong business support, tax incentives, etc.,” suggests Elliott.

“We recommend focusing on creating a small, but significant footprint in one location that will give you the experience of business in Africa, develop your reputation, and give you access to a sufficient client base while at the same time placing you in a good position to scale nationally, regionally, and across the continent,” offers Elliott. Elliott, Hartmut Sieper, and Nissi Ekpott, themselves doing business in Africa, present more insights in their book, Redefining Business in the New Africa: Shifting Strategies to be Successful.

Elliott sums up the picture by saying, “The opportunities and business environment in Africa currently reflect China as it was 20 or 30 years ago. Now look at China.  It is the second largest economy in the world, having recently passed Germany and Japan. It is expected to replace the U.S. as the number one economy by 2016. While Africa may or may not reach this pinnacle, those who enter now have a great opportunity to enter a market on the upside not on the downside.”

But Africa is not just an opportunity for businesses to make money overseas while eliminating jobs in the U.S. “As we are creating pathways for business and investment between the U.S. and Africa, we have found many opportunities that will create new business in Africa but also revitalize entrepreneurial, as well as small and medium, enterprises that have been hard hit with the global economic crisis. We don’t believe it has to be a win-lose for key stakeholders. Our approach is about creating opportunities so that both America and Africa benefit,” emphasizes Elliott.

For further information on Redefining Business in the New Africa, go to www.redefining-business-in-the-new-africa.com. For resources, information, and insights on doing business and investing in Africa, go to www.afribiz.info. Here you can also read featured articles by and listen to radio interviews with experts, offering both strategic and practical insights.

About Lauri Elliott

Lauri Elliott (www.lauri-elliott.com) is a strategist with over 25 years of business experience, specializing in global business, innovation, technology, and new ventures and start-ups. As a noted new media broadcaster, author, speaker, and consultant, she helps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs bring life and profit to business ideas in tough, turbulent business environments around the globe, with a particular focus on emerging markets, including Africa.

Ms. Elliott is the founder of Conceptualee, Inc., under which she created the brands Afribiz™ (Afribiz.net ) and GlobalBizconcierge™ (Globalbizconcierge.com – launching 2012). As the Director of Afribiz™ Media, which includes Afribiz.info and Africathegoodnews.com, Lauri has developed a solid reputation as a journalist, broadcaster, and media personality. She is the primary host of Afribiz.fm™, a regular radio show about doing business and investing in Africa.

Lauri has authored several books, including:

• Export to Explode Cash Flow and Profits: Creating New Streams of Business in Asia, Africa, and the Americas with Little Investment
• Going Global on a Dime: The Entrepreneur’s Handbook to Tapping the Global Marketplace. 
• Creating Wealth by Harnessing Opportunities in Africa: God’s Way to Multiply the Assets in Your Storehouses
• Redefining Business in the New Africa: Shifting Strategy to be Successful
• Grow Rich in the New Africa: A Guide to Navigating Opportunities on the Continent.

Media Contact:

Stephanie Shannon

Communications Officer

c...@conceptualee.com

+1.202.379.2922

The raw assets, which are underdeveloped wealth, on the continent lie mostly fallow. And unfortunately, those who should gain greatly from these assets – Africans on the continent and Africans in the diaspora (including African Americans) – do not on the whole. This is not because we are restricted in doing so for the most part, but because we are ignorant of Africa’s assets, how things have changed, how we can mutually gain from the assets, and how to accomplish it.

While Africa is not a panacea or single answer for the economic plight in African American communities, it is one major vehicle that can help individuals, communities, and companies create wealth. The continent can help us address current economic situations and build a legacy for future generations.

The dialogue you hear is informal between two peers who like to “connect the dots” about Africa. We hope that the conversation is encouraging and useful.

Download the podcast, “Africa and America: Transatlantic Investment Opportunities“.

You can also learn more from the book Redefining Business in the New Africa. Go to www.redefining-business-in-the-new-africa.com to check out the details and download the first half of the book.

I come from a family with roots in the deep South, as most African Americans. I, however, grew up in Michigan and missed the struggles of being black, having been born in the 1960s to educated, middle class parents.

Today, I still find it hard to identify with the struggles of our history and even what my parents shared with me about their own experiences. I was not disenfranchised with little education and means like so many of our youth and communities today.

However, having lived in South Africa working with youth entrepreneurs for over four years, I began experiencing some of the struggles of Africans anywhere, not necessarily because of color, but because of history and the disadvantage our race has experienced. So, I can identify with some of the struggles, not all.

However, no matter what the past has brought our way, God has blessed us abundantly with Africa for those Africans on the continent and abroad whether by choice, force, or history. We need to understand that Africa is one of the richest, if not the richest, resource continent in people and natural assets. We can lift our communities in the U.S., South America, Africa, and elsewhere out of poverty if we learn to leverage the assets we have.

I know it may be hard to imagine that Africa is anything but poverty, corruption, disease, and conflict, but while these are realities they are not the whole truth. Nations and businesspeople from all over the world are clamoring to Africa as the next emerging region to generate wealth. 

There are many African Americans who have been there and continue to do business there and know I speak the truth, but this has not reached the majority of us.  We need to understand that Africa is a gift given to us that will enrich our lives spiritually, socially, and wealth wise. If we build bridges between businesses and communities there and in North America, to South America, to Europe, and to Asia we can redeem the routes used for slavery to bless our people and others as well.

We don’t have to sit and wait for change to come. God empowered us with the tools and assets to make that change. Don’t be deceived by what you see and hear around you. Take whatever adversities you and your family have experienced in history, and even now, to go from misery to magnificence. Don’t let the gift of Africa be wasted.

Next week I will share a discussion I had with Eyembe Elango, which expands on this theme.

The landscape for business in Africa is changing. Are you ready for it?

2001-2010 proved to be a transitional decade for Africa, ushering in a new image and status for the continent. Africa began to show it was truly shaking the shackles of its colonial and chaotic past. Now that the New Africa has arrived, what does that mean? And, what does it mean for business?

On almost every issue that has been pegged a negative for Africa – population boom, poverty, disease, governance, economic instability, and conflicts – there is evidence of a growing shift in the other direction. Businesses need to wake up and proactively shift to this new reality, or paradigm. While business principles apply across any market, businesses need to adapt their strategies to the context of Africa to be successful and understand that Africa is one of the key regional markets in the next generation of business.

Redefining Business in the New Africa sets out to establish a new baseline and framework for engagement in Africa, which reflects the current and future trends of a region headed for emerging market status. While Africa still has to deal with legacy issues, the power of its “now” and future is greater.

In this book, you will learn about:

• A new context and framework for business in Africa
• A few major future trends and sectors in Africa
• Strategic approaches to doing business in the New Africa
• How to tackle, or respond, to some of the challenges in the New Africa

Get ready to rock and roll in this new era for business in Africa!

Purchase Now!!

Are you looking for alternative streams of revenue for your business, low-hanging-fruit opportunities, and better profit margins? According to McKinsey, a dozen or so emerging economies will collectively have an annual GDP of more than 20 trillion USD by 2020, exceeding that of the United States.  In 2015, developing economies will account for more than half of the world’s annual GDP.  And the largest consumer markets of the next generation can be found in emerging markets like China, India, and Africa.  With figures like these, “going global,” particularly to emerging markets can present the opportunities for which you are looking?

As markets in developed countries stagnate, slow, dwindle, or reach saturation, companies are looking for new horizons to sustain them in the next generation economy. This is no less true for entrepreneurs and SMEs. While going global has become a business imperative and entrepreneurs and SMEs look for new opportunities like larger firms, questions arise around how?  How do we go global? How do we tap into markets far away with limited resources? How will going global make a difference?  How long should we wait before going global?

Going Global on a Dime answers the “how” of going global from both a strategic and practical approach, focusing on new and existing firms considering or just starting the going global process. It re-wires the framework for going global so firms can navigate the course dynamically while minimizing costs, managing and maximizing cash flow and return on investment, streamlining processes, and keeping the “small” firm ready to take advantage of profitable opportunities.

This book will teach you that it is not your assets that you own alone that will make this possible, but the addition of resources into which you can tap.  Large multinational corporations no longer hold the monopoly on going global successful.

The author, Lauri Elliott, will share what she has experienced in leading a small, but global firm, as well as what she has learned through the process of helping other firms go global or expand globally.  And she brings the experience of others who advise and lead global firms to the table through interviews conducted to learn not only the obvious facets of going global, but the underlying nuances and dynamics at work.

Going global will address the following questions for you and place and position you in a going global path suited for your unique situation:

• What does going global mean?
• What are principles which should be applied when going global?
• What is the process and steps for going global and taking advantage of the global marketplace?
• What are characteristics of legal and regulatory issues I have to address when going global?
• How can I maximize local resources for international business and trade?
• How can I manage a global, but local presence in several locations around the globe?
• How can I sense and take advantage of opportunities in the global marketplace as a small business?
• How do I build a global value chain as a small firm?
• How do I choose and navigate the best opportunities for going global?
• How do I scope opportunities to maximize impact and revenue while working with the resources available to me?
• What global business configuration is best for my organization?
• What strategies will help sustain my business globally?
• What ecosystems should I tap into to increase my capacity and knowledge for going global?
• What are the budgetary considerations and options when the firm first goes global?
• How should I view and scan the global marketplace?
• What are tips for doing due diligence on opportunities?

Going Global on a Dime helps you develop a framework and path wrapped around an opportunity you discover. “It’s not a book you read and put to the side, but a bible of sorts that you keep with you to shape your opportunities,” says Elliott.  “Your best return on investment is putting it to use.”

Going Global on a Dime comes out in 2011, but why wait to enjoy and use the tips it offers!

In an unprecedented manner, you will get to hear the interviews with experts and entrepreneurs conducted by Lauri for the book, released on a weekly basis, starting now! When the print book is released in 2011, you get it shipped to you for free. And last, but not least, you get a copy of the audio book so that you can tap into the knowledge in Going Global on a Dime almost anywhere or any time. All this for only $19.95. After the print book is released, the price for the bundle will be $34.95.

Start going global today with Going Global on a Dime for the pre-release price of only $19.95!

Print Book, Audio Book, and Interview Bundle ($19.95)

Purchase Now

Print Book ISBN-13: 978-1456532475

Prnt Book ISBN-10: 1456532472

Africa can be the answer to create
your next successful business or weath.

Africa is expected to outperform Asia in growth over in the next five years (2011-15), according to the Economist. And, it also projects that seven of the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world come from Africa – Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Republic of Congo, Ghana, Zambia, and Nigeria. These numbers are impressive, but they do not reveal the myriad of opportunities and alternative strategies to do business in Africa.

Grow Rich in the New Africa presents a number of opportunities and strategies so that entrepreneurs, investors, and SMEs can piece together unique strategy configurations to be successful in Africa. It extends the coverage first presented in “Redefining Business in the New Africa”.

Some of what you will learn includes:

• Global trends and Africa
• Networks of players in Africa
• Business, trade, resource, and information flows in and out of Africa
• The future of major sectors, e.g., energy, real estate, transport, natural resources, retail markets
• Building strategy around both formal and informal markets
• Alternative strategy and leverage points to do business  and invest in Africa

The team at Afribiz has put together their collective expertise, and that of other experts and entrepreneurs, to help you make the most of the opportunities in Africa in a strategic and practical way.

Purchase Now!!

ISBN-13: 978-09833301509  Print Book

ISBN-13: 978-0983301530 E-Book

Did you know that Africa is a hidden treasure God has prepared to  help you restore and/or multiply your assets?

On overwhelming majority of the Church believes that Africa is a place that needs to be saved from poverty, disease, and conflict. While these are realities, God’s picture is very different. Africa will be a part of God’s blue print to save the world and to transfer wealth into His Kingdom.

This is the time for Africa to arise and shine (Isaiah 60:1)! It is time for Africa to fulfill its Kingdom destiny in all Seven Mountains – media, government, religion, education, family, celebration/arts, and economy. This book will help align you with God’s work in the business and economy sphere in Africa to usher wealth into God’s purposes, into your storehouses, into Africa, and to the rest of the world.

This book is based on prophecy and biblical premise for Africa’s position in the Kingdom brought from Heaven to Earth. But, it also introduces current signs, strategies, and practical pathways to tap into the wealth that God has placed in Africa, both spiritual and natural.

You will learn:

• God’s picture of Africa and its wealthy position
• Signs that the time has come for God’s vision to be fulfilled
• Where  and how Christians can tap into the wealth
• How Christians have a business advantage in Africa

Now is the time to get the book.  Check out the options below!!

E-Book (PDF)

Print Book

Available Soon

Download 50% of the book for free.  If you’d like to see what we are talking about, feel free to download the first half of "Creating Wealth..." (2654).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkTDH-bTdhc

Combining the power of authorship through blogs and books is a significant path to developing an entrepreneurial business.  Lauri Elliott – author, media host, publisher and serial entrepreneur – shows you just how to get this done while maximizing your time, talents, and resources.

- Endorsed by John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books and adviser to multimillion book selling authors like Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.

This Blog to Book Success webinar is part of the five-part Do-It-Yourself Publishing series.  It focuses on using blogs to build and develop successful books while growing a community interested in what you write.  These are what we call “true” fans who are likely inclined to also pay for what you offer.

Also, the process of blogging to book publishing is one of the best ways to develop innumerable ideas and concepts that your audience is demanding.  You no longer need to worry as much that you will miss the mark when you write a book.

Having done all this myself, I have learned what works and what doesn’t, so I want to share that with you so you don’t have to spend the time and money if you were starting from a clean slate.  In fact, you will learn how to do this with tools that are free, or virtually free!

This is a 4-Hour, power-packed, on-demand webinar in which you will learn about the following:

• Understanding Blogging
• Unique Competitive Space
• Blogging Strategy
• Blog-to-Book Process
• Promoting Your Book with Blogs
• Tools for Blog Publishing

With the downloadable version, you also receive a 50+ point checklist for applying what you learned in the webinar.

Get it now and get going!

Downloadable Version with Checklist - $150.00

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fielGV-LasI

Authorship is an amazing path of passion. Imagine being able to share your talent, experience and wisdom with others. Think of so many potential authors who never got a chance to share with the world in the past because they couldn’t find a publisher or afford the cost of self-publishing.  Thank goodness those days or over.  Today, you can publish on your own for less than $10.00 to start.

In “Releasing a Print Book,” we share how you can use available low cost tools and platforms to professional, quality book.  The webinar covers the following topics:

• Identifying options for print book distribution
• Preparing print book
• Distributing print book on your own

There is no reason to wait any more.  You have the power to get your book published. Get this webinar to learn how.

Only $60.00

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm0Lo0eEIpk

Are you an aspiring author looking for a way to get your book published?  Did you know that you can do it on your own and with very little cash out of pocket?

We have developed a proven process to get your book out the door professionally with no cash or no more than $10 to start. As a business that established a publishing division, which will produce new titles frequently, we challenged ourselves to find a way to develop quality, appealing books that we can launch anytime without having to worry about budget.

In doing so, we learned great channels to do it for free, which are also easy to use.  And, these channels were designed for authors like you who want to lead how and when their titles are published.

So, Releasing an Ebook will specifically show you our proven process, as well as the tools and platforms, you can use to do what we have done successfully.  You will be able to start publishing the same day!

In this webinar, we cover:

• Platforms and tools for Ebooks
• Writing and editing Ebooks
• Selling Ebooks on your own website
• Distributing Ebooks through major channels (i.e. Amazon)

As an on-demand webinar, you can view it anytime or anywhere on your computing device.  We also include sample files of Ebooks we produced that make the publishing process easier.

Releasing an Ebook is something you want to have to help you reach the next authorship level. 

Don’t delay.  Start now!  Pay only $80.00

Downloadable webinar (MP4 format) with sample Ebook files

Information technology spend in the travel and aviation sector is increasingly focused on delivering real-time services to travellers.

Travel technology group Amadeus has launched a mobile version of its CheckMyTrip platform that enables travellers to check the most up-to-date travel itineraries via the web. This is not only limited to pre-departure flight information, it includes hotel and local weather data at any stage of a journey.

As part of the extension of the Amadeus platform, it has also launched applications for smartphones: CheckMyTrip for BlackBerry and the iPhone.
It’s tip-toeing into the social web as well with the CheckMyTrip application for Facebook. The idea here is to offer customers the ability to share travel plans with friends and family.

Locally, airlines have innovated around the booking, check-in, as well as the payment process.

SAA’s low-cost airline Mango is the first airline to offer payment on its website and through its call centre via retail store cards. It’s also integrated with Shoprite Holdings’ Computicket and Money Market operations, which made it the first to trade air travel through retail outlets.

Rival 1time debuted online check-ins on its website in 2007, and the company says that: “Information technology has been one of the cornerstones of [the] airline since its inception.”

It has worked together with local developer Qualica on reservations and departure control systems.

Qualica’s Departure Control System (DCS) was implemented at 1time’s airport operations around the country.

Says 1time: “The DCS is supplemented by an integrated baggage management system (BMS) that allows the airline to track the movement of luggage through the airport and onto the aircraft.”

The system also works with the airline reservation system to provide an “integrated solution for servicing passengers”.

When 1time launched in 2004, 75 percent of its bookings were done through its website.

This figure is now over 90 percent.

Says Michael Kaminski, IT director of 1time Airline: “The internet booking engine is an important cog in our business.”

World Wide Worx says online ticketing of air travel will dominate consumer e-commerce for the next five to ten years and this has led the airline to do two major website refreshes (together with user experience tweaks) since 2008.

The airline believes that “website speed, functionality and ease of website use for our passengers” is critical.

It’s aiming to include making more travel products and “building customer relationship management functionality into the site”.

While the front-end website sits on top of the airline reservation system, it’s invested in self-service kiosks that also connect to that platform. These are currently online at OR Tambo International Airport and are being installed in Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.

The logical next step for all airlines will be for real-time flight tracking, which would layer on top of these platforms. Already SAA and the Airports Company of South Africa offer live “flight status” information on their websites.

A year ago, SAA launched a mobile website that allows passengers to track flight schedules, departure information and weather forecasts.

According to SAA, the initiative is in partnership with Star Alliance, the international airline network to which it belongs. Star Alliance developed the Common IT Mobile Platform, which SAA used to launch its own portal for customers.

Game changer

ICT is a game changer in the global travel industry. According to the “Travel Innovation and Technology Trends, 2010 and Beyond”, by PhoCus Wright, trends include discovering alternatives to global distribution systems (GDSs), expanding use of Twitter-like tools, incorporating travel information “anywhere, anytime” platforms, moving toward convergence of social media and location-based services, and increasing use of social media for monitoring.

Bob Offutt, senior technology analyst at PhoCus Wright, indicates the first major technology shift will be an open platform, Open Axis, for airline flight reservation systems, or global distribution systems (GDSs), as opposed to proprietary systems like SABRE.

To enhance the user experience, augmented reality platforms like LAYAR will continue to emerge. Augmented reality is a direct view of a physical environment augmented by computer-generated imagery. Travellers will be able to get a more realistic view of hotels, conference centres and restaurants online.

Says Offutt: “This is an area the industry is looking for ways to monetise.”

Social media will also shape the industry. Its use will go beyond reputation management to modelling products and services based on user-generated feedback and content. For example, users share information on locations and services on TripAdvisor, which can inform and shape the travel plans of others.

Travel information services, like identifying services available at airports and baggage requirements and fees, will continue to grow. On the cellphone, this becomes “anywhere, anytime” and an opportunity for continuous merchandising.

“The industry recognises the growth opportunity is greater in sales beyond tickets,” Offutt says.

Location-based services will enhance both social media and travel information. Imagine being able to visually “walk alongside” someone as he or she takes a tour. EveryTrail and Google Places are examples of location-based services.

But one of the greatest opportunities for the industry is the cellphone. Offutt says this opportunity is particularly suited to Africa.

Simon Bergman, executive director of the Africa Travel Association, agrees. But is the Africa opportunity significant? Yes, it is. While Africa is the least travelled to region in the world, it has sustained growth unlike other regions, according to Bergman.

In fact, “Africa was the leading growth region last year during the economic crisis and many African governments consider it a way to stimulate economic growth,” he says.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), growth is estimated at 2.8 percent in 2011 and 6.5 percent in 2012 in Sub-Saharan Africa. During this period, the personal and government sub-sectors are estimated to grow above five percent per year, while growth in business travel will hover around four percent. North Africa will perform better in 2011 at 4.75 percent but is estimated to be at 6.5 percent with Sub-Saharan Africa in 2012.

One challenge of the African travel market is a lack of accessible local information. But, it presents a particularly open market for application developers, content providers, and others.

With sustained growth patterns, a conducive environment, and open opportunities for ICT, tourism presents a solid opportunity for the next three to five years.

This piece was commissioned by ITWeb/Brainstorm Magazine for September 2010.  Permission was granted to appear on Afribiz.

Instead of a shift to mainframes and big high-end systems and platforms, the media industry has largely benefited from the availability of cheap, entry-level consumer technology.

Publishing is benefiting from the shift to online, where content can be created on inexpensive personal computers, laptops and even mobile phones.

BMI-T public-sector consulting business unit manager Tertia Smit says that with the convergence, liberalisation and consolidation of the ICT sector, this market is becoming highly competitive and companies need to adapt to remain in the game.

Smit says that communications and media companies have a high percentage of knowledge workers.

BMI-T says the communication and media sectors’ ICT spend is driven by some large projects that are the result of convergence in these sectors, as well as the emergence of next-generation Internet Protocol networks.

Because of this convergence, it is difficult to look at the media industry in isolation. It is heavily impacted by trends in the communications sector.

In a talk at the University of Stellenbosch Business School earlier this year, Martin Butler, Information Systems Management lecturer, also pointed to convergence as a key.

“Increasingly we are seeing companies that once occupied very different spaces such as telecoms, entertainment and search engines beginning to encroach on each other’s markets.”

Technology companies are moving into the media space, media companies are moving into communication and vice versa.

South Africans are more reliant on mobile than fixed-line as a means to connect to the internet. This means that from a consumer point of view, there is a shift to mobility.

The media industry, therefore, has moved to ensure that content is available on mobile devices. Specific mobile websites are common, with content being tailored exclusively for the small screen.

In its Media Predictions 2010, Deloitte says that the impact of ICT on the media industry is being shaped by two factors.

First, the global economy. Deloitte says that making predictions for 2009 was easy – most economies would fall into recession. “In 2010, the picture is far more mixed.”

BMI-T says that the 2010 Fifa World Cup has helped ease the effects of the global economic downturn in media sectors. The SABC and Supersport have invested hundreds of millions of rands in readying themselves for high-definition TV. Both broadcasters have acquired outside HD units. The broadcasters have also invested billions in HD equipment and full HD studios.

Digitisation also continues to be a force, argues Deloitte. “It is contributing to a reinvention of the … media sector.

“This fundamentally simple transition – the conversion of analogue data into digital form and its distribution via digital networks – not only changes the balance of power within the industry, but can also reset the scope in other sectors.”

BMI-T’s Smit says that capital projects are also driven by the need for more bandwidth and platforms for integrated billing, content management and provision and more customer-driven applications.

Democratising media

Thanks to technology, media has evolved from just traditional media to include alternative media and citizen media. Alternative media can use the same technical platforms, but consider themselves an alternative to traditional media. And citizen media is content produced by private citizens who are not considered professional writers or journalists.

Citizen media is an interesting space. It allows people to have a voice, as well as gain fame, popularity, and credibility. CNN has iReporters, who report on local news they observe. If CNN is able to verify the story and likes the content, the story is featured.

While the concept of citizen media may not be hard to grasp, appropriate business models are. Citizen media has a similar dilemma as social entrepreneurship. Should business models be for profit, non-profit, or a mix? OhmyNews in South Korea has found a for-profit business model that works around citizen journalists.

OhmyNews has over 60 000 citizen journalists. Its motto is “Every Citizen is a Reporter”. Oh Yeon-ho, OhmyNews CEO, said at the LIFT Conference in Geneva in May 2010 that citizen journalists who make it are not those that do it for fame but are looking to make society better, interestingly enough.

OhmyNews’ business model combines citizen journalists with a team of staff writers, who edit content of, team up with, and support the citizen journalists. OhmyNews sends teams of staff writers and citizen journalists to report. Yeon-ho indicated that there are places to which citizen journalists cannot go, like press rooms, so there is a need for staff writers.

OhmyNews’ revenue model, however, relies heavily on advertising, accounting for 70 percent of revenue. OhmyNews has introduced new revenue streams like the 100 000 Club in which users pay about R70 per month for learning opportunities offered by OhmyNews. The goal is to reduce the advertising mix to 50 percent of revenue.

In the report Business Models and Road Maps of Citizen Media Type Applications by Information Society Technologies in 2009, it was noted that business models for citizen media platforms have not matured. This was based on research of the Dutch citizen media industry.

Typically, social entrepreneurs start “with a small group of trusted peers or organisations, who act as the (initial) prosumer part of the community,” according to the report. The audience is bound by a common interest, and “quality” content and conversation are essential.

The revenue models tend to differ from the global Web 2.0 platforms like Facebook and YouTube. Citizen media platforms use cross media business models, which include offline activities like training and on-demand media production.

In Africa, the concept of citizen media as a viable for-profit business model still lags behind for a different reason. In general, “socially” oriented endeavors are still seen as the space of non-profit organisations. This blind spot actually leaves a good opening for innovative entrepreneurs in Africa.

This article was commissioned by ITWeb/Brainstorm of South Africa.  It was co-authored with Hilton Tarrant.  Permission was granted to reprint.

Location-based services and personal tracking is also a trend.

Tracking vehicles in a fleet via GPS has become ubiquitous. Logistics companies are able to pinpoint exact locations of vehicles in real time, not only for security purposes, but also for roadside services, efficiency, as well as offence management. The full audit trail offers huge benefits for corporates.

Technology is being used by fleet companies to track the odometer reading reported by on-board computers to bill their customers on a pay-as-you-go or per-kilometre basis, ensuring fairness and objectivity.

There are specialist applications where customers in the cold chain, for example, are able to measure temperatures in real time. In the broader logistics industry, the application of ICT systems allows companies to safeguard vehicles and drivers, improve customer communication and fuel economy, lower maintenance costs, tighten regulatory compliance, increase asset utilisation and reduce their carbon footprint.

Local company MiX Telematics has pioneered the leveraging of the technology platform onto mobile devices. MiX Mobile is available for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices.

It’s the first telematics company globally to enter the mobile app market, and “with its existing installed base of over 500 000 fleet management and vehicle tracking units worldwide”, this was the next logical step.

The applications allow users to find vehicles and “determine whether they are moving, at what speed and their exact location”. Users also have the ability to track a vehicle directly via text messages.

Using built-in GPS, users are able to determine the phone’s position relative to a specific vehicle.

“Historical information is available in trip reports that display the total mileage a vehicle has driven within the past 48 hours. Trips are plotted on a map in order to view an entire route, or just start and end points,” the company says.

Mobile operator SK Telecom launched its mobile telematics service, Mobile in Vehicle (MIV), last year. This service enables remote control of vehicles via mobile phones.

SK Telecom sees services in four areas: vehicle diagnosis and control, safety and security, route guidance, and entertainment services.

While mobile applications are a strong trend, Charles Tasker, MD of MiX Telematics, sees a number of other themes becoming prominent in 2010.

The reduction of carbon emissions is critical, he says. Fleet owners will use technology in order to have a clear understanding of the carbon footprint of their vehicles, in order to reduce it.

Location-based services (LBS) and personal tracking is another important trend, he adds, and is being driven by the adoption of the technology in the consumer space.

Tasker also sees a trend towards the substitution of “traditional” on-board computers by “fancy mobile devices that can communicate with vehicles as effectively”.

And, he sees more sophisticated, faster applications which put more control in the hands of users. Tasker believes this will be a key differentiator between telematics services.

The experience during the downturn in 2008 and 2009 meant that fleet owners were forced to increase their focus on the efficient management of their vehicles.

Tasker expects this trend to continue: “The efficient usage of existing fleets is driven by cost savings that can be achieved through the implementation of intelligent telematics, vehicle tracking and fleet management solutions.”

Across the continent

Transport Management Systems (TMS) is a growing software segment in the US and Western Europe. But with fragmented infrastructure in Africa, if and when will it become viable in Africa is the question.

Transport management systems are software-based solutions for managing transport. TMS can increase fleet utilisation and transport availability while reducing costs and the size of a fleet. Because TMS reduces costs, this segment grew more than other software segments in 2009.

Adrian Gonzalez, director of Logistics Viewpoints for ARC Advisory Group, says the market will grow 5.6 percent globally over the next five years, but this is down from a seven percent projection prior to the economic crisis.

TMS has been around for several decades, but it has been fragmented. More recently, TMS applications have become more process-oriented in line with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The primary global markets for TMS are first the US, then Western Europe. Key vendors include Manhattan Associates, RedPrairie, Mercurygate, and Descartes. SAP and Oracle have also entered the market, hoping to leverage their ERP customer base, according to Gonzalez.

The TMS market in Africa, except for South Africa, almost doesn’t exist. Gonzalez says there are several reasons why this could be the case. First, the US and European markets are rife with opportunities. Second, Africa’s lack of infrastructure means that transport is very fragmented. Third, vendors have to dedicate resources to adapt their offerings to a new region. One vendor said that they receive inquiries from Africa, but do not have live clients.

How can the TMS market develop in Africa?

First, understanding of transport management has to grow. Vendors can educate and develop processes through the implementation of the software while increasing revenues by offering consulting services.

Second, TMS started as land-based transport management systems, but evolved to include air, sea, and rail. So vendors have a larger variety of transport sectors to work within. Logistics firms like the Bollore Group are prime targets. However, there are many other logistics firms and networks, as well as private and public fleets, of smaller size in Africa.

Third, vendors can innovate. A key trend in TMS globally is providing a software as a service platform, which, according to Gonzalez, has allowed a broader market to take advantage of TMS at a much lower entry price point.

In countries like Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa with better ICT infrastructure, vendors can create their own markets. However, it will take some creativity.

Imagine modernising the South African taxi industry, perhaps helping it to maintain or increase its viability? Another advantage to working with ecosystems like this is that transport can become a profit centre for the provider other than just providing the service to clients. The amalgamation of clients becomes a transport system on its own.

TMS can even be applied to more basic forms of transport. Transaid, a UK-based NGO, helps organisations develop non-software transport management systems. For example, they helped develop a bicycle-based patient ambulance system in Zambia. Imagine adding TMS tools that can be run across the mobile and mobile internet platforms.

TMS as we know it today has a long-term horizon before it becomes prevalent in Africa, but software as a service platforms and innovative business models may change that.

Constant change in business is seen as a problem. But what if it wasn’t a problem, but an opportunity?

The turbulent, fast-paced business environment is causing many organisations to re-think both operation and strategy. Many struggle to keep up with the pace, but the answer may not be in keeping up with it, but flowing with it.

Firms today are urged to flatten their organisations in order to more readily handle the consistent change. A better frame is seeing organisations as living organisms, which evolve and adapt.

The crux for business is adapting successfully. There is an entire field of science called complexity, dedicated to the study of complex adaptive systems (CAS) like businesses. Complexity is often confused with complication. Complication means difficulty, but complexity means many elements are woven together.

One principle of CAS is emergence. Emergence is the process by which CAS and patterns emerge from a multiplicity of simple interactions. Something reaching a tipping point or going viral on the internet is representative of emergence.

John Holland, father of the study of CAS and author of Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity, shares that particular attention should be focussed on boundaries, shocks, and signals. Living organisms, including businesses and markets, have boundaries. As systems adapt, they push boundaries. Businesses need to adapt, so they need to push boundaries, or innovate.

Boundaries are also the points at which information, resources, etc., flow in and out of an organisation. Boundaries can be both formal and informal. The choice of with whom we share specific information is an example of an informal boundary.

While open boundaries are characteristic of systems, there are instances where boundaries are used to control flows in and out, if they are detrimental to the system. For example, negative external shocks like the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States that contributed to the global economic crisis.

Signals, or patterns, are building blocks of organisms. New signals, or emerging patterns, are really re-combinations of old signals, according to Holland. Signals can help organisations anticipate both positive and negative shocks. As businesses act on emerging patterns, they are adapting.

The concepts of complexity and emergence have led to new business practices, strategies, and technology tools. Yvonne Genovese, senior VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner, explains a framework for businesses to deal with complexity. Gartner’s “Pattern-Based Strategy” framework says the process that businesses need to follow is to identify patterns, model a strategy, then adapt instead of sensing and responding. Genovese says that it involves “culture, technical capabilities, and technology”.

Ronald Schultz, an expert on complexity in business and co-author of Open Boundaries: Creating Business Innovation through Complexity, says firms need to be able to view the entire landscape. To do so, firms orchestrate an environment that allows information and resources to flow freely. In essence, it’s finding the right mix of infrastructure and innovation. Too much infrastructure is characteristic of many firms today and why they struggle to adapt successfully. This is also a factor in the health of the culture, according to Schultz.

Schultz adds firms need “cue spotters”, a term coined by Michael Lissack, to orchestrate this environment. He says these individuals have the capacity to scan the entire landscape and identify cues, or signals, of emerging patterns. Cue spotters are “mindful and aware of things in front of and around them,” indicates Shultz.

War Room

From an organisational perspective, Genovese says that there are four core competencies that firms need to develop. First, firms need the competency to seek and exploit signals that may lead to a pattern, which will have a positive or negative impact on strategy and operations. Second, firms need a performance-driven culture that incorporates these leading indicators instead of just traditional performance frameworks. Third, firms need to develop agile operations that can work rhythmically with new models developed from leading indicators. And finally, there needs to be a greater degree of transparency across the landscape to allow better information and collaboration flows.

Both Schultz’ and Genovese’s input brings to mind a war-room, or ready-room, approach. In the military, there is a platform to take in information from every angle, determine what is significant, and develop courses of action.

That first step of taking in information from every angle involves looking at both current and emerging patterns. It is also important to be able to see patterns inside and outside the organisation. Because of technology like social media, the masses now have a voice. This arena outside an organisation is called collective intelligence or the “collective”.

Genovese indicates that the next two years are a critical period for firms to learn how to seek patterns. Baynote, a firm that specialises in the field of analysing emerging consumer behaviour patterns, has a technology platform to help firms do just that.

Jack Jia, founder of Baynote, shares that his own experience with an emerging pattern started the company. Jia was looking for the next business venture and did an informal survey with about 50 CIOs and CTOs, asking them to indicate what they would pay for, if provided. Out of a scale of one to ten, all rated information discovery as ten, except for one person, who rated it 11. Jia says: “That was my emerging pattern. It was right under my nose.”

He says that Baynote’s technology simulates how people seeking information behave. Instead of wading through infinite web pages, people will ask others until someone is able to help them identify the right resource
on the web. He says that the current model of relevance engines miss the mark. “It’s not semantic relevance,
but human-defined relevance that works.”

Built on this principle, Baynote’s Collective Intelligence Platform (CIP) helps clients get better rankings on search engines and provide better recommendations to their customers.

One Baynote client noticed that red appliances were appearing as a top choice of its website users, but the company didn’t sell them at the time. The client thought it might be a mistake, but decided to offer the products. In a short time, the red appliances became best sellers.

The CIP platform simulates the eyes, mind, and touch of humans. The core engines are the observer and affinity. The observer collects the information on consumer behaviour and affinity identifies the patterns within the information.

Jia says it takes as few as seven consumers demonstrating the same behaviour for Baynote’s technology to identify an emerging pattern. “The patterns are identified based on 24 heuristics of consumer behaviour, which allows us to tap into the invisible or ‘silent’ crowd.” Jia calls these emerging consumer behaviour pattern groups “micro” niche markets.

After an emerging pattern is identified, the CIP has different modules, called touchpoints, to act on the pattern. Some touchpoints are search engine optimisation and search engine marketing. Another touchpoint can automatically create websites targeted at “micro” niche markets. This allows firms to quickly adapt to potential emerging patterns efficiently and without human intervention.

Today’s evolving business environment and its complexity can seem daunting at times. However, the opportunities in emerging patterns can serve as a catalyst for innovation in any organisation prepared to take a chance.

Consumers are becoming increasingly identity-focused. Corporations will have to keep up to remain relevant – both as suppliers and employers. 

Diane Hessan, CEO of Communispace, a US company that does consumer market research, recently shared insights about consumers at the Milken Institute’s Annual Global Conference for global thought leaders. One of her comments was that consumers have found mental strength through the economic crisis.

Says Hessan: “Consumers are empowered and clear about what they are doing. People know where they spend money and how they define value for themselves. These consumers are very clear and very intentional. They do research and feel they have learned a lot.”

This is a new consumer paradigm. We are seeing the beginning of the age of identity. Consumers better understand their unique identity and what they value these days. They prioritise based on what allows them to live out their unique identities.

The principle drivers of identity-focused consumers can still be understood in the context of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow says that needs drive individual motivation. Needs start with survival issues around food, water, and shelter. As people develop and move up the socioeconomic scale, their needs change from needs to connect with family and friends to self-esteem found through education and career. The final levels of actualisation and transcendence speak to people achieving mental and spiritual acuity. In other words, people become attuned to their unique identities and personalities.

The difference in the consumer markets moving forward is that an increasingly larger number of consumers will not prioritise based on needs indicating lack, e.g., self-esteem, safety, relationships.

They will focus on needs that allow them to fully live out their identities. As the old saying goes: “To thine own self be true.”

Tipping Point

This mindset used to be limited to individuals like artists and elites who had education and perhaps money, allowing them more freedom to explore who they were, according to Shoshona Zuboff in her book, The Support Economy.

The developed nations have been moving along this continuum for the last 50 or so years, but it’s possible that the economic crisis was a tipping point. This shift is not limited to Western cultures though, thanks to things like the internet, globalisation and democratisation. People have much more freedom and access to explore their unique identities even with limited means.

There is also an age dimension to this consumer market. The majority of them will be under the age of 40. By and large, they are young people who were born as the internet, globalisation and democratisation took hold.

These young consumers expect mutual, not hierarchical, relationships. That means they do not want to be pushed into something, they want to make their own decisions and co-create solutions. They will remove themselves from situations that do not create value for them, much more so than their parents did. This is a significant issue for employers.Employers need to see how to create value for themselves as well as this identity generation. Some call this talent management, but it’s more than that.

Successful employers will treat even entry-level employees as leaders in their own space and help them develop accordingly.

Employers will also have to shift thinking about turnover. This identity generation will come and go as they please. Money and perks will not hold them if employers have not connected with their needs. And even if they have connected, people will still leave much more readily for other opportunities.

So employers need to ask themselves: “How do we deal with continual change among our workforce?”

A New Age?

This identity generation can also parallel an age of entrepreneurs. A basic definition of an entrepreneur is someone who creates. Our societies will be filled with creative, ‘out-of-the-box’ people who develop disruptive solutions on a continual basis. They will be willing to take informed risks when aligned with a purpose.

While this identity generation sounds like selfish individuals, in actuality, because they understand themselves better, they become more aware and conscious of the world around them. Part of identity is having a purpose beyond yourself. According to McKinsey Consulting, this young generation, the youngest sub-group being the Millenials born after 1982, is actually more socially conscious.

Relationships are key for this generation. While it starts with a social dimension, these relationships become quite powerful as people come together more often for a common purpose or interest. However, they will flow in and out of groups or communities more readily.

Many view this as an online phenomenon, but it will also hit the real world. The grassroots strength in the Obama presidential campaign in 2008 and the Ushahidi story of citizens reporting instances of election violence in Kenya are just the tip of the iceberg.

And, it is not just a social or political shift. It is also a market and business shift. The control discipline of management science no longer works in a world with continual chaos, change, speed, and identity-focused individuals. Businesses need to be able to flow with the dynamics, not control them. IBM’s orchestration of its ecosystem has become a technology sector example.

While some may consider this not new, the significance is that, in the next decade, the identity generation will finally get a leading voice in the main markets across the globe just from sheer numbers. This will shift society, business and politics.

New Models

So what business models will work in this age of identity? The key is models that allow people freedom and growth in their identities. In practical terms, The Copenhagen Institute of Future Studies says that strategies should allow consumers to be a part of the creative process from beginning to end. The gaming market is an example. Players co-create by developing their own content in new ways of playing, skins, activities, etc.

Another strategy approach is to focus on what gives meaning to consumers. One way that Facebook enhances the meaning people derive from their relationships is through real-time engagement. Businesses should also look at business models that incorporate pull-versus-push and self-generating strategies.

African consumer markets have traditionally been disenfranchised from paradigm shifts because of the continent’s lack of development. As consumers rapidly adopt technology innovations like mobile phones, however, development, including human, tends to accelerate. Businesses focusing on Africa need to prepare for this shift, too.

The horizon for this shift in Africa may be longer, but a good gauge will be ICT patterns of usage three to five years after major ICT projects are completed. In the meantime, businesses can monitor patterns in markets where ICT access, penetration, and usage is more robust.

South Africa is the first market, but East Africa should also be followed as ICT infrastructure is rapidly developing there.

The age of identity is not just for consumers but businesses that can navigate it well. Businesses will have innumerable configurations for potential products and services with an ecosystem to bring them to market, allowing them to more readily sustain competitiveness.

I agree that western media has painted a particular view of Africa as needy, poor, corrupt, and in conflict historically.  But there are also those who do Africa a good service.

But to me this argument is no longer the primary relevant issue.  Now with the technology tools and the connected society, everyone is media.  That is called citizen media.  Individuals, groups, and organizations need to use this shift to make media that is appropriate for Africa.

The new configurations of media will be infinite, but open.  This is what we have to focus on.  There are still people who need to work with in traditional media who can help change what is being reported and how.  But most of us, whether professional media or public media don’t have to what for things to change, we can make the change.

I had a brief opportunity to share these thoughts and others at the Rwanda Convention 2010 (www.rwandaconvention.org) in Boston, Massachusetts on May 29, 2010.  And living  up to the potential in technology, I participated via videoconferencing from my home!

You can download my slide presentation – Evolving Media Presentation 2010 (201). 

Feel free to start up a conversation on this.

The Department of Defence admits its information communications infrastructure requires serious upgrades and replacements.  

IT in the public defence arena in South Africa can be summed up as a state of under-investment. While the US Military, arguably one of the most advanced defence outfits in the world, grapples with whether or not to allow the use of Twitter and Facebook across the army (it has allowed it), South Africa’s Department of Defence is dealing with what it euphemistically terms the need for “considerable investment” in information technology architecture.

In its annual report for 2009, it specifies the need for investment: “The information communications infrastructure requires serious upgrades and replacements while priority is given to information technology support to the flying environment.”

It has been working with the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) over the past decade to get the department into shape.

The Department of Defence operates over 500 separate information systems, with over a fifth of those defined as “major”. The department’s IT acquisition plan makes for sombre reading. Its budget for the 2009-2010 financial year was R200 million, out of a baseline allocation for the department from Treasury of R28.6 billion.

The money was allocated roughly equally to management applications, functional applications, common applications and an integrated information and communication infrastructure.

It had requested an additional R500 million from Treasury for information and communication system renewal over the past three years, but did not receive any allocation for that purpose.

In line with the rest of government, it’s rolling out the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS). National Treasury says the IFMS project will “review and upgrade government’s transverse information technology systems”.

The objective is to enhance transverse – or general administrative – systems including financial management, human resource management, supply chain management (procurement) and related business intelligence.

Business process management outfit Ovations has been awarded a tender to implement service-oriented architecture at the department.

Private

Aside from the travails in the public sector, the country has a vibrant defence industry in the private sector.

Denel remains a sizeable outfit, and numerous weapon components are manufactured in the country. These companies are under the same pressures, from an ICT perspective, as any other industrial outfit.

The trend towards outsourcing certain functions is not as pronounced in the sector, because of the highly specialised processes.

Many argue that consistent research and development into new and highly specialised technologies is critical. Otto Schür, Denel’s Group executive: Technical, maintains that “with the Defence Force typically sourcing these technologies from suppliers in the industry, companies in this sector need to effectively remain ‘one step ahead’ of the enemy.

“This ‘new’ approach to national security has seen the defence industry sector focusing even more on accuracy, as well as advancing and enabling high-end technology.”

There is also a trend towards the commercialisation of military technologies, enabling certain product offerings to add significant value to the local security industry, among others.

A Natural Mix

Defence and security are critical issues for African nations, but Africa still accounts for less than five percent of the market globally. Key drivers for the defence market in Africa for the last several years have been the need to modernise, as well as the need to secure oil and gas assets.

A few years back, the market in Africa was projected to grow six percent to seven percent yearly. The economic crisis caused the forecast to slow to 2.6 percent through 2013, according to Forecast International.

The major country markets, excluding South Africa, are “Algeria, Angola, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria,” says Shaun McDougall, International Military Markets analyst for Forecast International. The African market can be delineated between more and less advanced economies. This delineation also defines the focus in ICT opportunities.

More advanced economies are looking at intelligence gathering, ICT and data networks, and securing the networks, while the less advanced economies are focusing on basic voice and data capabilities to support command and control structures, indicates McDougall.

In either case, ICT plays an important element that weaves itself through the defence subsectors, including aircraft, warships, ordinance, missiles, vehicles and C4I. C4I stands for command, control, communications, computer, and intelligence. It’s obvious that ICT plays a signifi cant role in the C4I space, but electronics are found in devices and equipment in all subsectors. As such, the development of ICT infrastructure is a strong contributor to the growth and potential of the defence market going forward.

According to McDougall, regional integration is another driver for ICT in defence. Even small countries are looking at how to improve command and control within the field, using communications. “Being able to participate fully in joint operations and interservice/ international training exercises is important,” says McDougall. For example, Nigeria opened its first advanced operations centre in Abuja in 2009. The centre allows officers to stay connected with soldiers deployed on domestic and international missions. Its capacity includes real-time video and data communications.

Another set of drivers, particularly in North Africa, is insurgency and border control. Due to this, some of Algeria’s focus is on intelligence, aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). “Aircraft and UAVs can include technology like smart weapons and advanced radar capabilities, defi nitely enabled by ICT,” says McDougall.

Nigeria is focused on managing the Niger Delta conflict.

Maritime defence systems are the key to protect the waterways and coast in the region. McDougall notes major vendors in the African defence market do not come from the African continent. Russia has a long history in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Today, many SSA countries are modernising ageing Russian defence systems. The United States defence industry is another major player. Europe is in the mix, with France’s defence industry working mostly the French-speaking countries.

China appears on the radar, but in niche markets, not major defence systems.

The need for defence, including ICT infrastructure, is there. But, African economies need to grow signifi – cantly overall to take on the funding requirements.

While the economic crisis at the end of the first decade of the 21st century has made the most headlines, there are more significant shifts afoot that will inform the future of business.

The years 2000 through 2009 represented not only a decade, but the end of a generation in technology.

In 1957, the Russians put the first satellite in orbit. In 1969, the first man walked on the moon, and the internet officially went online. Now, these technologies have converged in innovative ways and opened doors to average people around the world. People can use services like Google Earth to see and pull up information on physical locations around the world, combining satellite and internet technology.

In many ways, the first decade of the 21st century was also a transition decade. The transition, which is still underfoot, will fundamentally change both our economic and business environments.

Politically, the last decade started with the stalwart, unipolar power of the United States. It ended with an emerging configuration of multipolar power, inclusive of emerging nations. It has spilled over into the co-ordination of global economic policy changing from the G8 nations to the G20 nations, including South Africa.

Aligned with these political shifts are the dynamics of global demographics, which are setting the stage for the major consumer markets of the next 40 years. These markets are shifting to emerging regions like Asia and Africa due to fast population growth. While consumer demand should continue to rise globally, it will increase the fastest in Asia and Africa. In fact, the International Monetary Fund says that emerging consumer markets will serve as the new growth engine for the global economy.

This equation holds true in technology as well. The International Data Corporation’s “Economic Impact of IT” study says that emerging markets represented 21 percent of IT spending in 2009, but through 2013 will represent 50 percent of net new growth in IT spending.

Technology also serves as a catalyst for economies and an enabler of business. Each ten percent increase in broadband connections results in 1.3 percent economic growth, according to the World Bank.

A New Impetus

While these notes serve as a backdrop to the transition in the last decade, they do not reveal the real story of how technology is fundamentally influencing our economic and business environment.

John Hagel and John Seely Brown, authors of The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction and Dynamic Specialization, theorise that the business environment is transforming from push to pull models for mobilising resources. Essentially, instead of organising resources in anticipation of needs, resources are positioned when needed. For example, cloud computing allows digital infrastructure to be used and scaled when needed. Pull models are more conducive to the chaotic and turbulent environments in which we live today, allowing for greater agility. The shift from a push to pull paradigm has been occurring for decades. It seems more apparent now, however.

According to the Shift Index 2009, by Deloitte, there are three key waves (The Big Shift) impacting our business environment. The first wave is the impact of an expanding digital infrastructure and public policy focusing on economic liberalisation. The second wave is the shift in knowledge, capital, and talent flows due to an expanding digital infrastructure. And the third wave is the impact created by the first two.

There is a ray of light for emerging nations and markets in The Big Shift. Thomas Friedman, in the book The Lexus and The Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, says that there will no longer be a First, Second, and Third World, but only the Fast World and Slow World. The Fast World is a wide-open society.

In The Big Shift, African economies do not need to catch up to industrialised nations, per se, because the open playing field creates space for them to innovate.

The growth of the mobile market in Africa in the past decade is a perfect example. If Africa had waited for fixed line deployment, it would still have been catching up, but instead it is leading global markets.

D for Democracy

The Fast World/Slow World paradigm is evolving due to the democratisation of technology, finance, and information, which started in the 1980s. Democratisation of technology encompasses the innovations that have allowed hundreds of millions of people to communicate, connect, and exchange information, money, etc. Democratisation of finance means people have the power and information to invest.

Democratisation of information means that people around the world have access to information. In essence, the power to shape economies and markets no longer rests in the hands of the few, but is open to the masses, or crowds, around the globe.

From a practical business perspective, these forces mean the way we do business now and in the future will change. There are several evolving models that took root in the past decade.

Crowdsourcing is any sort of outsourcing that involves a large group of people, usually the public, to actively contribute to a task or project. Wikipedia is a prime example of crowdsourcing. In a business context, Goldcorp, a Canadian mining company, outsourced the task of identifying gold deposits in a concession to the public in 2000. Through this process, Goldcorp was able to find deposits worth $3 billion.

In Africa, crowdsourcing is a model well suited to mobilising people around development, political, or business projects. First National Bank (FNB) used crowdsourcing to solicit a business idea that would draw its wealthy customers to online banking in 2008. The selected idea garnered $2 500 for winner, Guillaume Martin.

Another operational model is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is crowdsourcing applied to raising funds. Osterwalder Alexander and Pigneur Yves, authors of Business Model Generation, used a combination of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding to write and fund the book. The public was invited to serve as co-writers and investors at the same time. As people joined the project, they paid a fee that got them a copy of the book when released, allowed them to provide input as the book was developed, and get a royalty as the book was sold.

Locally, Eve Dmochowska has started a crowdfunding project for South African start-ups, which generated nearly R1 million in investments within its first few weeks of opening.

In another instance, digital democratisation and the cost of technology, e.g., internet bandwidth, reaching almost a “virtually” free state in the West, catalysed the “freemium” business model.

Chris Anderson, Editor-in- Chief of Wired Magazine, coined the phrase in his book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Freemium is where basic services are offered for free, while a premium is charged for special features. A typical application is magazines or newspapers that offer some online content free but the majority for paid subscribers only. Anderson expects, “freemium to cross over into other industries as part of a new industrial revolution”.

New Horizons

Will Africa win or lose in this new business context? It has the same opportunity as any other region to move in the new business dynamics, and it has several things going for it. Mobile and internet infrastructure development has gained momentum in the past decade, but there is still a lot to do. The continent has one of the world’s largest consumer markets and ample human capital, both of which are underdeveloped. And, of course, Africa has an abundance of resources.

The question is, will Africa leapfrog, as a whole, like it did with the mobile market? The next two to three years will see whether it rises to the challenge or falls behind the occasion presented in this decade.

The poster provides a stratospheric view of the evolving dynamic themes on economic development of the South African Development Community based on a historical and political streams.  This is just a starting point for an ongoing dialogue about how to increase economic opportunity even within the constraints of current systems.

You can download the poster Social Politics in Business in Africa (176).  And please, comment and provide insight below.

Pharmaceutical players need to be able to track everything.

Regulatory and legislative requirements are top of mind in the pharmaceutical sector.

“Our customers are coming under a demanding set of regulations,” says Keith Fenner, sales director at Softline Accpac. “This is a highly regulated industry.”

Ironically, Accpac hasn’t traditionally targeted the sector, largely because of the “complexities around the process or batch manufacturing, formulation management, weight calculation, potencies…”

Jane Thomson, MD of Softworx, says that “validation is very important”. Companies operating in “markets covered by the [US] FDA approval and the MCC regulations in Europe” have a lot of complexity added to their business, she adds. “When they do implementations, they have to have everything validated, right from the software to the processes in their business.”

There are also challenges around traceability, believes Fenner. “Everything from full-lot traceability and control to quality assurance” needs to be managed.

“At any point in time, you have to manage inspections and these things have to be process-driven.”

“It can’t be about ‘we decided to inspect this batch and not that one’,” he adds. “And it can’t be done on an Excel spreadsheet somewhere! Even the distributors have to be stamped and approved,” says Fenner.

A number of pharmaceutical players have made the decision to outsource their distribution function. Fenner says the split is about 50/50 among his clients.

Most of the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals takes place offshore, and Fenner explains that Accpac has mostly been “asked to help with complying in a warehouse world”.

“I’ve been reading in the market about guys starting to rationalise and focussing on what they are good at,” says Fenner.

His clients are saying things like: “My job is to get product into the country at the lowest cost possible to make the highest margin. How we push that out into distribution, we’ll leave other guys to figure out. Everyone is trying to streamline that process … but you cannot get around the complexities of the legislation and the regulations,” says Fenner.

“Our clients need to still have visibility into that supply chain … whether their stock is on consignment or sitting in a warehouse. They still have to manage the expiry dates.”

And for this, you need a collaborative supply chain.

Thomson says Softworx’s biggest client in the space, Aspen Pharmacare, has – like its peers – expanded rapidly over the past few years. The manufacturing and distributing of products in other territories adds “huge complexity into their supply chain”.

“Their business needs to be extremely responsive and flexible,” because of this growth, she says.

“They’re doing rollouts of their ERP systems in four to six weeks in some of their territories. So in terms of their ICT requirements, there needs to be a rapid response.”

Fenner agrees, saying: “The questions that are coming at us are around being responsive.”

Thomson also says that clients in the sector are looking to move some of their systems into the SOA space.

“We’re seeing on-use, on-demand type of software emerging now.”

And she says this is being driven by “local business in their desire to remain competitive and to grow market share.” Like other sectors, there is a lot of consolidation taking place in the industry. This is being driven by market forces.

It’s all about the customer right now.

The insurance sector is grappling with the same sorts of cost pressures evident in other industries, and “outsourcing is a trend” among most players, says Haydn Pinnell, MD of Gallium.

It’s not ‘simple’ outsourcing, however. There is a lot of demand for Gallium’s software and application testing services in the insurance market now “because of some of the pressures the sector is facing”.

Fierce competition means client-retention for insurers is critical, and companies require a “faster time to market with new, innovative services”.

This is “no different to anywhere else in the financial services industry,” Pinnell says. Adriaan Rossouw, account manager at business application provider Softworx agrees, and goes so far as to say that insurance has “almost become a commodity”.

The competition from banks and other financial services companies only serves to increase the pressure. “There is a big reliance on intermediaries,” explains Rossouw. “And historically they’ve been left to their own devices.” Now, insurance companies have realised that whoever controls the intermediaries controls the “share of wallet”, and insurers have begun opening up their systems.

“They need to give intermediaries access to their information, and better decision-making tools,” Rossouw notes. “This is a big drive going forward … by opening up systems to external parties”, insurance companies are going to be able to grow their books significantly.

“Insurers want to get a lot closer to intermediaries, whether they’re independent or captive.”

This obviously means a substantial number of external people accessing the company’s systems, a decision that has significant impact. Gallium’s Pinnell says that together with the mindset change around intermediaries, “traditional insurance players are having to re-engineer and relook at the way they are doing business with their customers”.

The rise of the direct (online) insurance players has almost forced this reaction. Insurers are becoming laser-focused on how they retain their customers, explains Pinnell. They want to do “better business, quicker”.

This re-engineering impacts on whether or not “they refresh or continue using their legacy applications and systems”. It also impacts on what technology they’re using.

“It’s all about the customer right now,” states Pinnell. Rossouw agrees: “It’s been very product-focused, not customer-driven”.

Within insurance companies, the allocation of people to product versus to customers is changing.

“There is a much bigger focus on the customer,” he says. “This brings with it challenges around systems.”

Traditionally, a customer’s spending on insurance is very much split into sectors. The challenge is to “bring that information together into one view of a customer,” says Rossouw.

“Insurers want to break down those silo walls” and this will help grow cross-selling of products and services. The Holy Grail is to “try to get a customer to spend all of their money with one insurance company, instead of splitting it up.” There is a delicate balance, however, between the drive to change the model, while at the same time containing costs.

Rossouw says Softworx hasn’t “seen too much in terms of deferring costs, but some of the roles within IT have been outsourced. “For instance, the BI role might be provided by external service providers.”

Pinnell says that even though South African financial services companies often do pioneer in terms of products and services, insurance, specifically, is subject to global influences. “We’re seeing stricter, tighter regulatory and governance-type requirements,” he adds. While global regulations are driving decisions locally, technology choices are largely driven per market, says Pinnell.

Some insurers are driving strategy from South Africa, others are being dictated to from their global owners/partners overseas.

Growing opportunities

The insurance sector in Africa only represented about 1.3 percent of the global insurance business in 2007, according to Swiss Re Economic Research. In the ‘South African Insurance Industry Forecast to 2013’ by RNCOS Industry Research Solutions, 85 percent of the current African insurance market is in South Africa. Both figures demonstrate the undertapped potential of the insurance market on the continent.

The industry faces major challenges, however, according to the African Insurance Organisation, including underdeveloped insurance organisations, a weak insurance regulatory environment, need for expertise in the sector, and lack of ICT infrastructure.

Even with the challenges, there is one insurance sub-sector – micro-insurance – drawing significant interest. Micro-insurance is insurance for low-income people. In ‘Insurance in Developing Countries: Exploring Opportunities in Microinsurance’, Lloyd’s estimates there is potential for 1.5 to three billion new policies globally. The Micro-insurance Centre estimates only four percent of Africans and less than one percent of poor Africans are covered by micro-insurance.

Major insurance companies like AIG, Zurich, and Swiss Re have entered the market. AIG was the first major player to enter micro-insurance in Africa, partnering a local microfinance institution in Uganda in the 1990s.

This interest will naturally lead to opportunities for the ICT industry. For example, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has developed satellite technology to assess weather conditions, such as drought patterns, which could lead to livestock deaths. This technology will help insurance agencies determine whether or not to honor such claims. Eric Gerelle, director of IBEX Projects in Switzerland, says there is a gap in the market for ICT providers. To deliver insurance products and services effectively on the ground, agencies of any size need a strong back office and ICT infrastructure.

Gerelle points out that small agencies generally take the wrong approach in developing their businesses. They start selling policies before developing the infrastructure to support the business process. In fact, they often do not have the requisite skills and knowledge to develop such an infrastructure.

According to Gerelle: “Software as a service (SaaS) providers will be the real winners in this space.” A SaaS platform can provide applications for many agencies simultaneously. Also, application developers might find opportunities to plug their solutions into a SaaS provider’s platform.

Gerelle says SaaS supports a federated model for the micro-insurance industry. Small agencies would get the ICT strength of major insurance agencies while maintaining the advantage of having knowledge of the local markets.

Asked how the mobile market would influence technology in micro-insurance, Gerelle is firm: “Mobile data and handsets are definite drivers for the market, but the key is creating the back office capability first.”

It’s no secret that the financial services sector is the biggest spender on ICT in the country. According to BMI-T’s SA ICT Vertical Market Sizing and Forecasting Report, the financial, business and other services sector accounted for over 30 percent of total expenditure on information and communications technology in South Africa. But what trends are dominating the sector?

Because of security, financial institutions, especially banks, cannot feasibly outsource their IT departments, a trend seen in most other sectors. Most functions are retained in-house. However, desktop support is one area where outsourced solutions make economic sense. Gijima AST, one local company focused on the financial services sector, offers customer interface as well as electronic payment solutions. Electronic payment (largely back office) solutions are seeing tougher security as well as further automation of processes. The trend is for cheques and other documents to be scanned and archived for simple access from anywhere on the bank’s network.

Making this kind of data available on other platforms is also seeing serious adoption in the industry. Clients can, for example, access scanned cheques/ deposit slips/documents via the traditional online banking platform. The broader push sees transaction systems leveraged onto different platforms and interfaces. In the same way that an archived image of a cheque can be accessed in-branch and over the internet banking interface, banks are taking their core transaction functionality and leveraging that over a number of platforms.

No longer are ATMs simply cash withdrawal points. Transactions can now be done inbranch, online through internet banking, via ATMs, through point-of-sale systems and, increasingly, on mobile phones. Gijima says the “focus is shifting towards solution concepts for new delivery channels such as electronic banking and new branch structures”.

Mobile Banking

This leveraging requires significant integration of new systems with the banks’ core legacy offerings. The biggest push in the South African market is undoubtedly into mobile banking. FNB, one of the pioneers, set up a division internally that innovated mobile banking. This now falls under the ambit of FNB Mobile and Transact Solutions, and the group has set up a similar team responsible for innovation, with some of the original mobile banking staff involved.

It’s not only FNB that has realised that smaller, more autonomous units are the key to innovation. This new team is largely responsible for the ancillary FNB Connect service, where FNB is leveraging its excess bandwidth and providing connectivity and VOIP calling to its customers. The use of two-way SMS messaging in the customer relationship management realm has caught on in the South African market, and banks have here again married newer platforms with their legacy systems.

Internet banking systems have been further integrated with SMS gateways as a fraud prevention mechanism. Account transaction notifications are sent in real-time, allowing customers to be aware of payments immediately.

Aside from sector-specific adoption, the financial services industry is adopting broader ICT trends, such as virtualisation, standardisation and – as mentioned – the outsourcing of desktop support. Standard Bank, for example, in 2008 standardised its IT environment to create a centrally managed one.

The benefits were obvious: costs were reduced, while the bank saw increases in security, productivity, agility, and stability. It’s also used the built-in virtualisation technology in Windows Server 2008 to reduce the number of physical servers required to run bank operations. This also translates into quicker development of new services.

Cross-Continent

Less than ten percent of Africans use banking services, however. In addition, cash is still the primary financial instrument, and market capitalisation as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is well below 100 percent. These statistics illustrate that financial markets in Africa only contribute in a minor way to economic growth on the continent. However, initiatives like the M-PESA mobile payment system in Kenya show the potential opportunity for ICT in fi nancial services. It is also ICT providers across the globe that are increasingly providing these services, either instead of or in partnership with banks.

There is another success story in Ethiopia – Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). Solomon Edossa, CIO of ECX, says it is designed after world-class commodities exchanges like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Generally, a commodities exchange would partner with financial institutions to handle settlement of trades, but there was no clearinghouse and no electronic payment system in Ethiopia. ECX established its own clearinghouse and electronic payment system, in partnership with Ethiopian banks, to handle its transactions.

In fact, ECX has become a financial services “orchestrator” in its ecosystem, which can extend to several hundreds of thousands of subsistence farmers in cooperatives participating as ECX members.

Its commodity warehouses can be considered “bank branches”. Producers deposit commodities at the warehouses. ECX assures the quality, quantity and delivery of each commodity to buyers. At the same time, ECX assures sellers their commodities are secure and payments are received within 24 hours. In 2010, producers will be able to get warehouse receipting financing on commodities they deposited. ICT abounds in ECX’s “financial market”.

Edossa says once commodities are deposited into a warehouse, they are electronically registered and tracked. This information is electronically communicated to the ECX headquarters in Addis Ababa. In addition, prices are displayed across the country at remote stations and on mobiles. Soon, ECX will begin online trading.

But the ECX story is really about the potential of its ecosystem. Edossa states: “All my staff members are local. We are creating jobs and increasing local capacity.”

In working with banks to deliver on their service delivery agreements with members, ECX is helping banks design new financial products for members. This brings more business to the banks. In addition, the process is also encouraging Ethiopian partner banks to implement core banking processes, which is creating new opportunities for ICT providers. Eventually, ECX will implement ICT-dependent services in sectors other than financial services like logistics, systems support and internet cafes.

But ECX still faces the typical challenges in Africa. In fact, Edossa admits: “I doubted it could be done.” ECX had to address the regular power outages in Ethiopia, particularly in the rainy season, and the unreliable communications network. It met the challenges with a variety of solutions like mixing generators and uninterrupted power supplies to keep systems running, and mixing broadband and dial-up for telecommunications consistency. ECX worked the ICT challenge so well that there is not a single failed transaction in two years of operation and close to $2 billion in transactions.

The penetration of mobile phones and mobile data will serve as catalysts for a growing mobile gaming market in South Africa. The question is how well the industry will navigate these opportunities.

Globally, gaming is a hot market – from console, to PC, to online, to mobile. Pyramid Research’s recent report, Mobile Gaming in Emerging Markets, says that mobile gaming will grow at least 20 percent per year from 2009 to 2014 in the Africa and Middle East regions.

Jan Ten Sythoff, research manager for Pyramid Research, says that mobile phone and mobile data penetration serve as catalysts for this market. While Africa has good mobile phone penetration, there are differences between consumers in mature markets like the United States and those in emerging markets like Africa.

Says Matt Benic, a developer with I-Imagine: “While we have high mobile phone penetration, our potential consumers in South Africa typically have low levels of disposable income (also typical of the rest of Africa).”

This means handsets used by consumers are lower-end devices, and the cost of games needs to be lower than in developed markets. In addition, consumers would not necessarily have previous experience with other gaming platforms like consoles and PCs. Says Danny Day, owner of QCF Design: “The first provider that offers a truly engaging, massively multi-player, micro-transaction-enabled game on phones is going to win big.”

Benic says there is also huge opportunity with sports, like soccer, and SMS-based games in South Africa. A “taxi”-driving game might be an appealing concept in South Africa too. This is tapping into what consumers know and feel comfortable with.

Sythoff says the challenges facing emerging markets include game cost, affordable handsets and piracy.

Benic mentions that the misperception that game development is inexpensive is a challenge in the local industry. Companies that would pay to have games developed for advertising and promotional purposes are often shocked when quoted a price.

Furthermore, according to Benic, the lack of sufficient numbers of skilled developers is slowing down the mobile game development industry. And then there is the ongoing issue of the cost of internet access. There are many free and inexpensive tools online to support mobile game development but the data usage expense can be prohibitive for small firms.

Challenges impact the consumer too, says Day. “Poor visibility, commodity-focused instead of product-focused marketing, shoddy after-sales support and lack of penetration by local mobile developers means…potential players have to wade through sheets and sheets of poorly advertised games.” In addition, the games are not localised to suit consumers.

Challenges notwithstanding, Sythoff shares several business models with the potential to succeed in African markets. First, there is gaming for advertising, or adver-gaming: players are allowed to download games for free, but the games contain advertisements. The vendor and developer generate revenue by selling advertising space.

A second potential business model allows consumers to play games for free until they reach a certain level, after which they must pay. This is a good way of getting consumers hooked on a game, providing motivation for them to pay to continue.

In some instances, a game developer will work with a data provider to provide games. Both share the revenues while keeping the price of games lower. Day says QCF Design is looking into another business model – subscriptions.

No matter which business model is employed though, says Benic, a game has to make it the first month it is released.

Sythoff says there are potential spinoffs in digital content and educational games, while Day says his firm “has had some success with mobile-based learning games”.

Sythoff points out that new mobile game developers need to address several issues. First, they have to find channels to reach potential consumers. This will normally result in partnerships with mobile phone operators or aggregators. Second, developers need to consider how they will bill the end-user.

Third, games should be localised to match language and culture.

Unlike the iPhone Appstore, which shook the US mobile game industry by allowing new and more agile mobile developers to enter the market, local developers find it difficult to enter the market. Day says “commissioned game development is currently more lucrative”.

Up, up and away

As for the future, Day provides several insights. “New studios are applying lessons learned from digital distribution games on consoles and PCs to the mobile space. These are studios and products that will change the mobile gaming sector in South Africa.”

Also, says Day: “Watch content creators that produce content for local consumers, as well as the Indian mobile game development industry… (it) will inform developers here.”

Finally, Day says to track MXIT.

“MXIT is a heavyweight in the industry. It’s one to watch for future growth in the mobile game sector, especially if it acts as an aggregator for quality local content.”

The sector will also be tamed. “New gambling control laws and changes to premium cost services should help reign in the `Wild West’ nature of many mobile businesses,” according to Day. This will reduce exploitation of consumers.

Overall, two possible scenarios will develop in South Africa’s mobile game sector. Mobile games will be overtaken by flash- or browser-based games as phones evolve, if the mobile game industry does not respond on time. Or, the industry will shift from its current business models to more customer-focused models, which focus on alternative revenue streams.

Sythoff says the mobile game sector is complex. Navigating this complexity successfully is a key enabler for firms wanting to enter this space. Success will come to firms like Apple, which are able to deconstruct the complexity and tap into the potential of the sector. With the potential revenue stream and under-tapped market, it’s definitely a sector to consider.

Shashank Bengali of McClatchey Newspapers wrote “Africa is gripped by one of the greatest population explosions ever recorded” in a recent article entitled, “Africa’s Perilous Baby Boom.” In fact, while it is widely reported that India’s population (1.6 billion projected) will surpass China’s population (1.4 billion projected) by 2050, Africa will beat both with a population close to two billion according to the United Nations Population Division.

Bengali paints a picture of the horrible conditions under which and into which many children are born in Africa.  However, the problem is the conditions not the population growth.  Africa is a continent that has vast resources, which if managed effectively, can sustain a booming population.  In addition, Africa as a region has one of the lowest consumption rates globally when compared to developed countries. 

In fact, this population boom is a tremendous global business and economic growth opportunity.  Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, shares the world can no longer expect U.S. and Western households to drive global economic growth.  Developing markets like China, India and Africa are the future economic growth engines.

This shift sounds frightening to many in the West, but no one has to lose.  Businesses and entrepreneurs globally need to shift their strategy to account for this phenomenon.  Remember, the United States served as a major channel for China and other countries to grow their economies.  The pattern does not have to change, but the roles the actors play.  Africa, China and India can be used to drive economic growth in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, in the future.

Part of this shift requires a change in the way the African population is viewed.  C.K. Prahalad, in “The Bottom of the Pyramid,” points out that businesses have traditionally treated the poor and disenfranchised as victims instead of consumers.  Businesses tend to devalue these populations without taking into account the current and future value of these markets, if developed.  Businesses have the opportunity to create their own consumer markets while solving endemic problems like poverty.

Once businesses see Africans as consumers, they need to consider the challenges faced by their consumers and those challenges in serving them, including those painted by Bengali.  The key is to design a business model accounting for and overcoming these challenges. 

For example, Africa lags far behind in broadband coverage, yet the World Bank noted that broadband coverage contributes to economic growth.  Also, if it is available, it tends to be expensive.  Two companies, SEACOM and O3B Networks, have taken on the challenge to cover Africa with affordable broadband within five years.   SEACOM has already landed in over ten countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.

In addition to the potential, businesses need to consider the importance of timing and position.  Now, is a perfect time for many businesses to position themselves in the African consumer markets.  Nations recognize this.  While China looks to Africa resources, it is not the only reason.  John Lee, in “China Woos Africa” points out that China is positioning itself to take advantage of the growing (in size and income) African consumer market. 

In another example, could the potential in the African consumer markets be one reason the U.S. government is shifting from supporting food aid in Africa to investment in agricultural systems?  Remember, part of the role of  diplomatic missions in foreign countries is to further the interests, including economic, of a nation.

On a final note, the issues and problems of Africa continue to provide fodder for the media more than the potential of Africa.  But there is a hidden message in all of it for entrepreneurs.  Entrepreneurs will recognize the challenge of Africa not as perilous or problematic, but as potential and powerful markets.

There is no question that the healthcare sector in Africa represents a huge challenge and opportunity. The question is how, and how well, ICT will meet the challenge.

Most African countries have a critical shortage of healthcare workers, and the majority of African healthcare systems are low-ranked internationally, according to the World Health Organisation.

Dr Dirk Koekies, Chief Executive Officer of GeoAxon, states plainly that the challenge is “creating a healthcare system out of nothing, which can deliver quality basic primary healthcare services to those without it”.

While this situation is a critical challenge, it presents a tremendous opportunity for ICT in the health sector. The opportunity is particularly good in the mobile sector (mHealth) due to the penetration of mobile phones on the continent.

The United Nations 2009 report mHealth for Development says: “Mobile phones reach further into developing countries than other technology and health infrastructures.”

One mantra for mHealth is “make available the right information at the right place at the right time and in the correct form,” according to a 2008 Rockefeller Foundation report.

This mantra, when actualised, translates to several benefits, according to Tyson Greer, CEO of Ambient Insights.

First, clinicians and patients can make more informed and intelligent decisions. Second, real-time data is provided for communication, consultation and notification. Third, mHealth increases efficiency and speed of care, and increases productivity of healthcare workers. And finally, it provides on-demand access to information and continual learning for healthcare professionals.

There is a unique opportunity to provide ICT-based products and services to the private healthcare sector.

Firstly, because private sector healthcare already represents a good portion of services provided to Africans compared to public healthcare. And secondly, African governments are using private healthcare providers to augment and enhance public healthcare systems, which are overtaxed.

This creates a sizable opportunity for ICT firms. Specific business opportunities in mHealth, according to the mHealth in Development report, include education and awareness, remote data collection, remote monitoring, communication and training for health care workers, disease and epidemic outbreak tracking, and diagnostic and treatment support. Koekies also says that developing centralised, electronic medical information records is a low-hanging fruit opportunity.

GeoAxon is delving into business opportunities presented in diagnostic and treatment support. Its “Tele-medicine Doctor in a Box” allows a doctor to examine a patient over the internet, using devices the patient interacts with locally. These devices transmit data, which would normally be assessed in a face-to-face consultation with a doctor, remotely to the physician.

While mHealth seems to be gaining momentum, it still has several challenges. mHealth is still in the pioneer stage with many projects in pilot, but little empirical evidence to prove its impact. Koekies indicates that funding for innovative solutions is still difficult to come by. And while the technology may be there, the ecosystem for the mHealth sector is still immature.

Recognising that eHealth*, and mHealth, are still emerging markets in Africa with high potential, ICT firms might want to first look for low-hanging fruit opportunities and those that leverage its strengths.

Big opportunity

The healthcare market is huge. A recent report by research and consulting outfit Markets and Markets says the healthcare IT systems market will be worth $53.8 billion in five years’ time.

One of the major areas of growth in the space is tele-medicine. This is by no means new technology, with policies put in place and applications created over a decade ago.

A new push, by networking giant Cisco, is through a pilot programme demonstrating that tele-medicine is real and it works. The so-called HealthPresence programme saw remote clinics linked up in Aberdeen, Scotland and San Jose, California.

This service provides what Cisco terms “care at-a-distance over the network”. It uses Cisco’s TelePresence teleconferencing technology, with patients and physicians able to see life-sized images of one another. The system also collects physiological data from a variety of linked devices such as a stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, pulse oximeter and other diagnostic equipment.

The Aberdeen trial started in January last year and found that 90 percent of the patients who used the technology were satisfied with the experience, 95 percent said the visit felt confidential and 93 percent said they would recommend it.

“In almost every case, we could accurately identify the degree of urgency and make a diagnosis,” said Dr James Ferguson, national clinical lead for the Scottish Centre for Telehealth.

He added: “Cisco Health- Presence can enable us to deal safely and effectively with 90 percent of the cases we see.”

The Medical Research Council is currently running five separate tele-medicine projects around the country.

Obviously bandwidth constraints mean that the implementation of tele-medicine is difficult in both South Africa and Africa. In addition to bandwidth, the MRC identifies other obstacles such as the lack of easy-to-use, robust diagnostic instruments and no dedicated tele-medicine centre to act as a hub for tele-medicine.

The deployment of terrestrial fibre networks in South and East Africa, as well as the commissioning of Seacom, has helped solve the bandwidth problem, however.

At a recent exhibition, Seacom showcased healthcare teleconferencing applications, and earlier this year at GovTech 2009, Moses

Mtimunye, then acting CEO of Sita, said that in the near future, similar technologies to Cisco’s TelePresence “will make for commercially available tele-medicine projects providing people in rural areas with world-class healthcare services”.

The national Department of Health says its long-term goal is to “make tele-medicine live up to its potential as a valuable tool to improve access to high-quality and cost-effective health care services in South Africa”.

Beyond structured implementation of tele-medicine systems, Cisco believes that HealthPresence could mean a revolution: “Instead of making a dash to an urgent care facility or emergency room, what if you could use your television or other networked device to connect with a medical centre?”

Cisco believes this is not fantasy, it reckons it could become reality within the next three to five years.

*eHealth is the use of ICT for health services and information.

In this segment, we discussed a critical contributor to building a business – capital.  But, we didn’t take the normal road in discussing capital.  We spoke of social capital.  Author of “Achieving Success through Social Capital”, Wayne Baker, defines social capital as “the resources available in and through personal and business networks.  These resources include information, ideas, leads, business opportunities, financial capital, power and influence, emotional support, even goodwill, trust , and cooperation.”

However, the question concerning social capital in business is “how to translate social capital to the bottom line.”  This is where our guest expert, Verna Allee of Value Networks, really opened our eyes.

First, social capital is held within social networks.  Verna indicated that we participate in them on a personal level.  The network does not have a shared purpose working toward common objectives.  However, to maximize social capital we need to evolve the relevant social networks to what Verna calls value networks.  Value networks are people who come  together in a loose association to achieve some business, economic or social good.

Verna adds that value networks actually marry both the tangible assets, e.g., cash, buildings, and the intangible assets, e.g., social capital and human capital, to provide a complete picture of your business strength.   For example, if intangible assets represent 50% or more of the value of your business as research says, a business valued at $500,000 based on its financial would really be valued $1,000,000 at minimum.

To translate intangible assets to the bottom line, Verna says businesses need to first measure performance both in financials and non-financials.  Second, businesses need to identify the people and their roles in the value network.  Third, businesses need to identify the transaction flows, which are both formal/tangible and informal/intangible, between the roles. An example of a formal/tangible flow, or deliverable, is a product.  An example of informal/intangible deliverable is information.  Once businesses are able to identify and map these elements, they can see both the strengths and gaps in the value networks.

Value networks have tremendous power to help businesses cut costs, grow and manage risks.  For example, once the value network is mapped, an entrepreneur can identify costly and inefficient areas.  In another case, you can use the value network to identify new growth opportunities in product and service offerings.

In actuality, using social networks and value networks goes hand in hand.  However, each serves a different role.  For example, social networks are great for company, brand and product awareness activities.  Value networks helps you identify and manage ways to increase the value of your company, brand and/or product to your customers.

Take time to listen to the entire radio segment. (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/art-of-biz/2009/11/12/Power-Push-Using-Social-Capital-for-Success)

To learn more about translating social capital to the bottom line, visit http://www.valuenetworks.com.  In particular, check out Verna’s paper, “Value Network Analysis and Value Conversion of Tangible and Intangible Assets.” (http://www.openvaluenetworks.com/Articles/Value_Conversion_JIC_online_version.pdf)

To follow other topics on The Art of Making Business Happen, visit http://www.blogtalkradio.com/art-of-biz and http://artofbiz.ning.com.  To follow us in real-time, check out http://www.twitter.com/theartofbiz.

The mining sector has been slow in its uptake of technology, but the global economic crisis and long-term issues are serving as catalysts for adoption.

The outlook for the mining sector has radically changed due to the global economic crisis. This boom and bust cycle has left many mining companies considering ways to manage operating costs in order to remain economically viable. But this is not the only challenge the sector faces, according to Deloitte’s report, Tackling Trends 2009: The Top 10 Global Mining Issues. In the long run, the sector must find ways to remain sustainable amid the sea of legal, social, economic and environmental issues.

These challenges actually present opportunities for the ICT sector because technology can manage complex systems, streamline processes, reduce costs, and improve efficiency and productivity. Consider enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which coordinates the entire mining value chain, from locating to divesting minerals. Think of radio-frequency identification (RFID) and global positioning system (GPS) technologies, which track the movement of minerals and equipment.

There are also examples of technology specific to the mining sector. The oil sector is demonstrating the potential of ultra-deep water drilling technology, which drills and extracts oil from greater water depths.

The technology is creating and extending market opportunities to the industry by accessing previously unreachable deposits. For example, new oil operations were recently announced off the coasts of Ghana and Sierre Leone.

Dr Greg Baiden, director of Penguin ASI and a global expert on automation, says: “Automation in the mining industry will follow similar trends to those in the manufacturing industry.”

It starts with a person using an automated machine to handle multiple tasks and eventually evolves to artificially intelligent, autonomous machines. Baiden says the future includes intelligent machines that can heal themselves.

For now though, automation has not reached critical mass in the sector. Large mining companies like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are considered early adopters. Teleoperations, or telerobotics, is the operation of a machine at a distance.

Penguin ASI’s wireless technology, which communicates with robotic equipment under water, gives a glimpse of the potential of telerobotics in solving some of the mining sector’s sustainability issues. This wireless technology will enable mining companies to extend the life of their mining operations on land. Imagine flooding mines with water to double their mining depth, and using telerobotics equipment to run the operations.

One natural result of using better technology and innovation is cost reduction in the mining value chain. This will eventually serve the economic development of Africa well. As the cost of mining decreases, it allows smaller mining firms to establish themselves.

The business opportunities for ICT providers in the mining sector can be found in the corporate, technical and value chain systems. Historically, ICT providers focus on mining as a niche. However, as enabling technologies provide broader benefit to the sector and new mining entities arise, there are increased opportunities for the ICT sector.

Mining of Data

Also, the mining sector faces serious challenges to its long-term sustainability. ICT firms, which identify gaps in the value chain and create solutions that close the gaps, leverage the value chain and contribute to sustainability, will carve their own space.

While there is undeniably a lot of technology used in the underground oreextraction part of mining, more focus is currently being put on the processing side of productions.

MD of Softline Accpac, Jeremy Waterman, says that “inherently it’s a reasonably simple business”. With mining, “you’re putting a whole lot of resources in and you’re taking production out”.

But there has traditionally been a disconnect between production and what Waterman terms the “financial side of things”, particularly among smaller miners. This has been a cause of frustration within the industry, and a number of solutions now seek to marry the two elements.

This is a classic implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, but up until recently, “marrying the elements” was simply absent.

“In the past it was tended to be done more on a kind of matchbox,” says Waterman. “You had a whole lot of costs and you had a lot of production and you subtracted one from the other and you made a profit.”

Nowadays it’s a lot more complicated. Waterman describes how workflow management systems can be used for control, and to “capture production data that’s coming back” into the system. The real difference is made by the layering business intelligence on top of these systems.

Ugan Maistry, business unit head of Mining & Manufacturing at EOH, agrees: “Over the years, there’s been this maturity in terms of process-control and automation systems to be able to execute. There is now maturity in business systems like ERP.”

But over the past few years, Maistry says there is a newfound maturity around the systems in between the parts. He calls it ‘mining execution systems’, and describes it as very similar to manufacturing execution systems.

He likens many of the processes in mining to inventory management. “Previously, people only knew what they had and what they produced if they actually stopped their operations and took stock.”

“Questions like, ‘Where is the actual material in their value chain?’” adds Maistry.

He says some customers have been spending considerable amounts of money in the last two or three years on exactly this: business intelligence systems, which he likens to “enterprise manufacturing intelligence”.

“But,” says Maistry, “what they haven’t explored is how to extract value out of that information.”

This is the next frontier. Now, “our customers need to mine the data, and I’m talking end-to-end,” says Maistry. “It’s about looking at information in context, not just in terms of volumes and quantities, but in costs as well.” Waterman takes it one step further: “We [South Africa] are trend-setters in mining as a whole.

“There’s been an explosion of midcap miners, and that is where we’re seeing the real growth.”

Aside from ERP and workflow management systems, the back office sees similar ICT trends to those in pretty much every industry. Working costs are being rationalised, with single vendor outsourcing one way of saving money.

Licensing rationalisation is being looked at, says Maistry, and providers like Microsoft and SAP are “coming to the party.”

I, myself, am a task-oriented person.  This means I travelled the hard road to learn the significance of people in getting results and business success.  My training ground was Africa for the past five years.  While expertise played a part in my success, relationships also played a significant role.

When I started to research the notion of social networks, I learned that social networking was even important for Bill Gates.  When Gates started his firm, his mother used her social connections in Seattle to provide Gates access to key business people.

One of my biggest observations is that social networks are very important when one is initiating a new idea, whether in business or covering social issues.  So, just as we spend time developing the next greatest idea, we need to focus on developing the ecosystem that will support the idea through its lifecycle. 

Cultivating your network is an intentional activity.  It’s easy enough to understand because we know that relationships take work. 

The workshop highlighted practical means for cultivating your network.  For example, sharing useful information with people is a simple, but effective way to provide value to others.

To learn more, you can download Tapping into the Power of Your Network (443) presentation.  You can also listen to a recent radio show, “Power Push:  Using Social Capital for Success.”

We focused on the role of leadership in business on November 5, 2009.  In research done by Dr. Bruce Winston and Kathleen Patterson, more than 90 variables of leadership were identified.  That can make the task of understanding, much less acting upon, leadership complex.  However, the correct working definition of leadership upon which an entrepreneur or organization acts makes all the difference, particularly during challenging times.

Our conversation started with a definition of leadership by Dr. Myles Munroe, “Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration motivated by passion, generated by vision, produced by a conviction, ignited by a purpose.”  Brett Johnson, developer of the LEMON Leadership model, says this is a picture of the visionary leader.  But, he adds, leaders also allocate resources and build structures in which people can be successful.

Brett agrees that everyone is a leader in space unique to them.  This fits well with the leadership paradigm proposed by Charles Manz.  First, a person learns to lead him or herself (self-leadership). Second, a person becomes a leader of others.  Third, a person helps others become leaders (super leadership).

In this paradigm, our organizations and society is filled with leaders.  Some ask the question, but there have to be followers right?  True.  A person leads other in his or her unique space while following others in their unique spaces.  As Brett points out, this is a characteristic of the shift from hierarchical (control-centered) organizations to networked (authority-centered) organizations.

Brett brings a new perspective with the concept of leadership identity.  Leadership identity is a blueprint, or DNA, of who you are as a leader.  As with your psychological identity, it is not something that can be changed.  However, they both can be discovered as you learn more about who you were designed to be.

In the LEMON Leadership model, a person’s leadership identity can be characterized in five leadership types – Luminary, Entrepreneur, Manager, Organizer and Networker. Brett says that people have a primary and secondary LEMON leadership type.  He also found a leader resorts to the strengths of his or her primary LEMON leadership type during the best times, but resorts to the weaknesses of his or her secondary LEMON leadership type during the worst times.

With all the insights we discussed, it still comes back to the question how does leadership make a difference in my business?  Simply, leaders are people who make things happen.  Brian Klemmer describes these type of people as “creators, go-getters and aggressive producers in society.”  Sounds like the entrepreneur, right? Because you are one of these people, you can transform a failing business into a successful one.

But…And a BIG but.  Klemmer points out that these individuals often lack ethics.  On the show, Brett and I looked at the current economic crisis in the leadership context – greed overrode ethics.  Leadership in business and society is not about how much you can get for yourself, but how much you can get for others and yourself in a positive, sustainable manner.  It’s about creating win-win situations.

So, when we speak of the “rise of the entrepreneur,” we are not only speaking about the potential of the entrepreneur to create monetary prosperity but also to address society’s issues – poverty, illness, crime.

There was so much more that we discussed on the show.  Take the time to listen. (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/art-of-biz/2009/11/05/Power-Push-Utilize-Your-Strengths).

If you would like to learn more about the LEMON Leadership model, you can purchase the book at Amazon.  To contact Brett Johnson, visit The Institute’s website (http://www.inst.net).

And don’t forget to stay connected with The Art of Making Business Happen community at http://artofbiz.ning.com and http://www.blogtalkradio.com/art-of-biz.  You can even join the community.