What It Takes To Successfully Do Business In Africa — with guest Dr. Deanne De Vries

Pam Harper (00:00): What does it take to successfully do business in Africa? Our guest today shares insights from her new book, Africa: Open for Business. Join us for episode 204 of Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper®.

Chris Curran (00:22): This episode is brought to you by Business Advancement Incorporated, enabling successful leaders and companies to accelerate to their next level of success. On the web at growthignitersradio.com. And now, here's Pam and Scott.

Pam Harper (00:39): Thanks, Chris. I'm Pam Harper, founding partner and CEO of Business Advancement Incorporated. And sitting right across from me, as always, is my business partner and husband, Scott Harper. Hi, Scott.

Scott Harper (00:52): Hey, Pam. It's great to join you for another episode of Growth Igniters® Radio. And as always, our purpose is to spark new insights, inspiration, and immediately useful ideas to help visionary leaders accelerate themselves and, of course, their companies to their next level of game-changing innovation, transformation, and growth. And Pam, these days, we're hearing from more CEOs, C-suite executives, and corporate directors who are looking for emerging opportunities for sustainable growth.

Pam Harper (01:21): Yes. And we're hearing about emerging opportunities in Africa. That's why we're speaking today with Dr. Deanne De Vries, speaker, author, and Africa advocate. Her new book, Africa: Open for Business, has just been published and we're so happy that we get her right at the beginning of her book tour. Deanne has spent much of the past 30 years living across Africa and working for startups, including her own global nonprofits and international organizations, venture capital firms, as well as one of the world's top 10 logistics firms.

Her articles and ideas have been featured in the World Economic Forum Africa, The Economist, The Financial Times, and CNBC Africa, as well as on university campuses and at local tech or entrepreneur gatherings. By the way, Deanne is fluent in multiple languages, which includes Dutch, German, English, French, Portuguese, and Swahili, along with a smattering of Spanish, Arabic, and some local Bantu languages.

Scott Harper (02:27): Let's speak in English.

Pam Harper (02:29): Today, we are. You can read much more about Deanne's background by going to growthignitersradio.com, episode 204, and scroll down to her bio. Deanne, welcome to Growth Igniters® Radio and congratulations on your book.

Deanne De Vries (02:44): Thank you. It's exciting being here, Scott and Pam.

Pam Harper (02:47): It is great to have you here, especially as we're looking ahead into 2022. And so many of us are thinking, "Well, what's next?" and you're right there going, "Well, Africa." But before we get into it, let's just step back for a moment and just share with us a little bit about what led you to become an expert in doing business in Africa.

Deanne De Vries (03:12): I fell in love with Africa as a young child when I heard that it was difficult for children to get books and oftentimes even to go to school. I grew up going to the library every Saturday. And so, after graduating from university and working on Wall Street, I resigned my job to go to Africa. And so, basically for the past 30 years, I've had a front row seat leading the growth of my own company and also those that I've worked for, as well as advising entrepreneurs and local international companies on their growth across Africa. It's 55 countries, and it's been great. I've met amazing people and no two days have ever been the same.

Scott Harper (03:49): Now, Deanne, you've been working in Africa for a long time. Why do you think that now is a time for more businesses in different parts of the world to also consider establishing business in Africa and growing there?

Deanne De Vries (04:03): I think the vibrancy, the diversity, and honestly, some of the cutting edge technologies that are coming out of Africa. I mean, Africa is literally leading the way with mobile money payments. Half of the globe's 1.2 billion mobile money accounts are in Africa. Countries across Africa, despite the challenging years we've had recently, they continue to grow. In 2020, only 16 countries grew at 1% or more, and 6 of those are in Africa. And I think another thing to think about is the fact that Africa's a very young continent. The median age is 19.7 years old.

Scott Harper (04:40): So Deanne, from what you're saying, it seems that some of the long held beliefs about Africa being rather backward and not very economically vibrant could be real misconceptions. There seem to be genuine opportunities there.

Deanne De Vries (04:56): Absolutely. I think that a lot of people today, especially leaders, we remember Africa from the 1980s and 1990s when we were all singing along with We Are The World and Do They Know It's Christmas? And unfortunately, a lot of us, our ideas of Africa haven't changed since those days. And yeah, I tell people just like, "Thankfully, we've all changed from our high school yearbook pictures. Africa also has moved in a positive way."

Pam Harper (05:25): Well, that's fantastic and very promising. So let's think about the fact that we do have these misconceptions. What is the most important leadership aspect that is often overlooked for successfully doing business in Africa?

Deanne De Vries (05:40): I think the need to get on the ground. And by that, I mean, seeing more than just the road from the airport to the hotel to your meetings. So for example, if you're selling anything like consumer goods or in retail, you need to go to the malls and the open air markets and the corner kiosks where things are being sold. If you're building a road or a power plant in a rural area, you need to go out there and see it with your own eyes. One thing I love to tell people is reading local newspapers and watching the local news, even if it's in a language you don't understand. And my favorite thing is just sitting in a cafe and watching life go by and just observing people and things and cars and everything that goes by.

Pam Harper (06:22): Well, but here's the thing, we're talking about a big trip and people say, "Hey, I know somebody else can tell me about Africa," or, "I could read about it. I can do internet research and I would be able to find out everything I need to know." Why is internet research not enough?

Deanne De Vries (06:42): Well, I love to use Proverbs when I share lessons that I've learned. One of my favorites is from the Amharic in Ethiopia that says, “There's really no better witnesses than your own eyes.” Yes, you can definitely read things on the internet, but it's no different than you'll be sitting, talking with somebody in Africa, and they'll be like, "Why don't you look like George Clooney or Angelina Jolie?" Because their picture of America is often what they see in Hollywood movies. And so, just like their misconceptions about us can be incorrect, our ideas that we gather from the internet or things that we read might not be 100% correct either.

Pam Harper (07:21): So you really need to see it for yourself to make sure that there's a strong fit, and I know you have a particular way of doing this. So let's take a quick break for right now. When we come back, we'll talk more with Deanne De Vries, author of Africa: Open for Business, about the ABCs of doing business in Africa. Stay with us.

Scott Harper (07:50): This is Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. We're brought to you by Business Advancement Incorporated. And as always at BAI, we focus on enabling visionary CEOs and C-suite leaders to accelerate the momentum it takes to achieve game-changing innovation, transformation, and growth.

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Pam Harper (08:57): Welcome back to Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper, that's me, and Scott Harper. Today, Scott and I are speaking with Dr. Deanne De Vries, the author of Africa: Open for Business, about the promise and avoiding the pitfalls of doing business in Africa. Deanne, tell us how people can find out more about you and your new book.

Deanne De Vries (09:22): Thanks, Pam. They can follow me on Dr. Deanne De Vries at LinkedIn, on Instagram, as well as my website, drdeannedevries.com. And my book's available in print, audio, and ebook version on Amazon.

Pam Harper (09:38): Okay. You can find out more information and links for this episode by going to growthignitersradio.com, episode 204, and scroll down to Resources. So in the first segment, we were talking about why now is the time to be thinking about doing business in Africa. Let's talk about also the fact that you've said there's no substitute for going there and seeing for yourself. And you have something you call the ABCs. Can you briefly tell us what that means, and we can take it apart in this segment.

Deanne De Vries (10:16): Sure, I'd love to. ABCs is simply appetite, bandwidth and capital. Oftentimes, people think, "I've got a product, I've got some money, so I'm ready to enter a market." In Africa, it's best if we first identify do you have an appetite for Africa? Do you have the mindset, for example? Secondly, if you do, then well, are you willing to put in the bandwidth, the work that you need to put into? And then, when you've got the appetite and the bandwidth, you'll know how to best invest your capital because it's not just for business expenses.

Pam Harper (10:51): And I think that's a really important point. We'll get to that. But how many times do we see say, "Hey, we'll go over there. We'll do business," and go, "Oh my gosh, never knew that it was going to be like that"? So let's start out with, you said the first thing to look at was appetite, A. And as I was reading through this book, which I highly recommend incidentally, you write about issuing the junk food of outdated notions and feeding on facts that build a well-rounded understanding. What would you say is the most important fact that can help build a well-rounded understanding and an appetite to grow in Africa?

Deanne De Vries (11:33): The simple fact that not everything you read or see on TV or think you might know about Africa is actually true. For me, curiosity is one of the most important mindsets that we need to have and just really asking questions. I love showing people a picture of an apartment building I lived in and most people are like, "Oh, is that where you lived in New York City?" And I'm like, "No, that's Maputo, Mozambique." And so, people aren't always aware of how much Africa has advanced since those days of singing Do They Know It's Christmas Time.

Pam Harper (12:07): It's a very different place. We have to look at it with eyes wide open.

Scott Harper (12:11): So Deanne, you mentioned bandwidth. You say that people have to have the bandwidth and the readiness and willingness and long-term commitment to be successful. Can you give us a story of a company that demonstrates what you mean by bandwidth and how did that help them do what they needed to do and get the results they wanted?

Deanne De Vries (12:38): Yes, absolutely. I mean, take the mobile phone. We just think a phone as a phone is a phone. And so, if you're a retailer of phones, you can just take your mobile phone and sell it across Africa, which you could do. But if you really want to gain market share and profit, you need bandwidth. What do I mean by that? Bandwidth to do a research and understand your customers. So you and your teams are going to have to actually speak with people and observe what's important to them when they're buying a phone, how they use their phones, what frustrates them, what their favorite apps are. And then, you're going to need the bandwidth to actually adapt the phone to those local needs.

Deanne De Vries (13:15): So for example, there's a company in Africa that did this. They made sure that their phones had longer battery life, multiple SIM card holders, multilingual keyboards. And most importantly, they actually adapted the camera to provide more light so that it takes better pictures of darker skin tones. And so, by having this bandwidth, they were able to redesign their phones with African consumers in mind. And today, this company has over 68% of Africa's mobile phone markets, and basically 8 of every 10 phones sold in Africa is by this company.

Scott Harper (13:51): So you're really speaking my language as an innovator here, because the first key to innovation is identifying the unmet or underserved need. And that takes more than just "I guess that is it" or "I read about that." So you're absolutely right. And then, you have to match that need with what you have and what you have to develop to deliver on that. That requires more than just plugging in something you've already got. So, absolutely 100%.

Pam Harper (14:27): It also builds on something else that we also like to talk about, which is how many different types of stakeholders we have. It's easy to say, "Well, the country;" but, what you're describing is there isn't the country, it isn’t just the continent. Africa is a big place. From what you're saying, it's so important to be well in touch with the diversity of Africa and its people.

Deanne De Vries (14:58): Exactly. And that also allows you to be in touch with the diversity within your own company. So for example, one company I worked for, the CEO was like, "Go forth and conquer." The CFO was like, "No, no, no, no, no." His number one thing is, "Can I repatriate every single penny at the drop of a hat?" The chief legal officer, his concern was, "Okay, can we be compliant to, for example, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or UK Anti-Bribery Act?" And so, the more that you are on the ground and have the bandwidth to get to know, meet people, build relationships, the better you are also at selling it to the diverse stakeholders within your own company and you know what their pain points are and can reassure them.

Pam Harper (15:45): Yes. Deanne! You are singing our song.

Scott Harper (15:47): Yeah. Top leadership alignment is something that we know well.

Pam Harper (15:53): It’s critical to appreciate and integrate all the different points of view, even in the C-suite and between the C-suite and the board these days. It only will help you if there is that kind of congruence at all levels.

Pam Harper (16:14): But there is more. There's more than an A and there's more than a B, there is a C — and that's capital. And I love the way you write that capital, without the foresight of appetite and bandwidth, is often misdirected. I so believe that, but why don't you tell us more? You don't have to tell us who it is, but can you give a story, a little story, of a company that invested capital more effectively based upon A and B?

Deanne De Vries (16:45): There's an amazing company that started in Nigeria. They're a cement manufacturer. And they definitely had an appetite to grow across Africa. What else they did is they gave their teams the bandwidth to research each country that they expanded to. So the team would visit the new country multiple times and put together its business and financial plans. They then engaged with the local government to share their needs and understand what the government could and could not provide. They met with the local businesses to understand who they could partner with, who could be their suppliers. Based on this, they adapted their business plans and identified additional capital required. So in certain situations, they had to build a road or a bridge. In another country, they had to provide onsite power generation. They had to set up an in-house training academy. And in one place, even vertically integrate their supply chain.

Deanne De Vries (17:41): These are things that, in many countries, are just taken for granted that they're going to be available. And they never would've known about these specific things or budgeted for them if they first had the appetite and the bandwidth to actually go and invest the time and resources to understand the local market. Today, this company is Africa's leading cement producer with annual revenues of U.S. $2.5 billion. That's the kind of growth that companies can ignite when they follow the appetite, bandwidth, and capital model.

Pam Harper (18:14): So about now, some people listening may be going, "That's a lot of work. What you're talking about is a lot of investment." So it goes back again to our first segment which is, why are you doing this? What is the reason for doing this and keeping that solidly in mind as you're looking at, "Well, what would we have to do differently that we wouldn't ordinarily consider, but in this case makes it very worthwhile?"

Scott Harper (18:47): And how does our vision justify investing in somebody else's infrastructure, not just ours? And it's the promise of the return on the investment in a lot of ways, not just inmoney.

Pam Harper (19:03): What I also really appreciate about the way that you've put this book together is you have some ideas about how you can overcome obstacles. And we're going to take another quick break. When we come back, Scott and I will speak more with Dr. Deanne De Vries, author of Africa: Open for Business, about some immediately useful ideas for implementing the ABCs of growing a business in Africa and overcoming some of those obstacles. Stay with us.

Scott Harper (19:38): You are listening to Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. We're brought to you by Business Advancement Incorporated. On the web at growthignitersradio.com. We focus on enabling visionary leaders to dramatically increase momentum for game-changing results.

Scott Harper (19:54): Now, Pam, our regular listeners know that many leaders are used to moving in new directions to adapt and successfully respond to a world that's changing in so many ways faster than ever before just as we're talking about today. But as one CEO recently shared with us, it's one thing to be on top, it's something else to stay there.

Pam Harper (20:15): Exactly. That's why I developed my new keynote, How Growth Igniters Lead for Tomorrow Starting Today. Find out the secret of the successful visionary leaders who are able to keep igniting game-changing growth over and over again. Go to pamharperspeaks today to find out more about my keynote and availability to speak at your next leadership conference.

Pam Harper (20:51): Welcome back to Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. Over the last two segments, Scott and I have been speaking with Dr. Deanne De Vries, the author of Africa: Open for Business, about what it takes to successfully do business in Africa. Deanne, remind us how people can find out more about you, your speaking, and your book.

Deanne De Vries (21:14): So they can go to my website, drdeannedevries.com or they can check me out on Instagram and LinkedIn under Dr. Deanne De Vries. And of course, you can buy my book on amazon.com.

Pam Harper (21:25): Is there any way that we could possibly get a chapter of your book for people who are listening?

Deanne De Vries (21:32): Absolutely. I'll send it to you.

Pam Harper (21:34): Fantastic. So find out more information and get a link to a chapter of the book by going to growthignitersradio.com, episode 204, and scroll down to Resources. So we are now in the section of our podcast where we talk about how do we put all this together? What are some immediately useful practical ideas? And in this case, it would be about implementing the ABCs for growing business in Africa. Of course, I have to put a disclaimer on here. There is so much more to doing this process than we're going to talk about, but here are a few ways that we might get a start. So let's start out with an immediately useful idea related to building appetite.

Deanne De Vries (22:24): Besides getting on a plane?

Scott Harper (22:26): Yeah.

Deanne De Vries (22:28): I would say, challenge your current assumption about Africa. So there's sources that we go to for information, and I would encourage you to go outside of those and look at, for example, a podcast or some local business magazines from Africa and read what they're writing about Africa and what's going on in the continent, in your field, or in your area of expertise.

Pam Harper (22:53): And of course, we need to say it and I will say it is reading this book, and for me, I will say that it actually opened my eyes to what it really takes. It's a long term mindset, and that you mentioned it again, that curiosity. So, reading, of course, your book and talking about what you were just saying, but it's the more ways that we can whet the appetite, and keep an open mind, the better, right?

Deanne De Vries (23:26): Yes. And in the back of my book, there is a large number of resources, podcasts, magazines, reports, et cetera.

Scott Harper (23:34): So let's go to an immediately useful idea for checking on the bandwidth that it would take, and confirming that and making it available.

Deanne De Vries (23:47): So there's an Ndebele proverb that I love; it teaches us that, first, you should use your head and learn then speak. And that's really the key to bandwidth, is that you've got to use your head, you've got to learn, and then you're ready to speak. You're ready to put together your plans. And again, this isn't about a right or a wrong way to do business or how to lead. It's just, it's vital to understand what leadership is going to mean in a multicultural context, you taking your company to a particular place in Africa, you're merging two different cultures.

Scott Harper (24:24): So it’s understanding the full challenge, more than just making assumptions or taking somebody's word for it and getting in there. It's not that different from doing business in your own country or some other U.S. to Europe or vice versa. So, excellent advice.

Pam Harper (24:46): Right. Let's talk about a third immediately useful idea here, and this one having to do with making decisions about capital for growing your business in Africa.

Deanne De Vries (24:59): For me, it's important to remember that capital is more than your day-to-day business expenses. And to help with this, I like to think of capital in three buckets, social capital, cultural, and economic. So your social capital is when you invest in networks and relationships. Your cultural capital is investing in people, values, experiences, that training and development. And economic capital, in the case of Africa, often does require investing in infrastructure that might be taken for granted in other countries, such as access to consistent utilities or the internet.

Pam Harper (25:35): So if we were to put all this together, just to give somebody a realistic sense of what it takes to do well if you're going to make this kind of investment, how long a process do you think it should be? I mean, how much time do you think would be involved in doing this due diligence?

Deanne De Vries (25:57): It's going to depend on how familiar the company, particularly C-suite is with Africa. I always start with appetite because I say, "You know what, some companies don't have an appetite for Africa, and that's okay. There's plenty of countries in the world that would benefit from your product or your service, and it just might not be Africa." But if it is Africa and that's something that honestly you can understand within a week or two, is if you've really got that appetite for it, if the C-suite really is going to support it.

Deanne De Vries (26:25): Going onto bandwidth, if you've already been to Africa or if you have an idea of where you might want to go, that'll help you. Otherwise, we walk through that process and understand the people that you'll need, the products that you're taking, and the place, and also the pattern that you're going to use to enter the markets.

Deanne De Vries (26:44): And then, capital is actually the easiest part because now you know you've got an appetite and bandwidth, you've collected all of your details, so it's simply a question of putting together the budget. And so, that's something that can be done relatively quickly in a matter of weeks.

Pam Harper (26:59): So if you come to a place where you have a sudden realization from doing all this due diligence, that you're going to have to do some building of infrastructure in the country in order to be able to just do basic business and reap the long-term benefits, that has to be factored in. That's an important thing for de-risking, I would think.

Deanne De Vries (27:24): Exactly. And honestly, the number one way to de-risk investments in Africa is through the relationships that you build on the ground. So in one situation, I was building a logistics complex and it was on the outskirts of town and we needed to pull out electricity. We needed to pull out the water lines to this area. We hired from the local community our guards, our cleaners, and they honestly were the eyes and ears on the ground. We never had an issue with security because it was in their best interest that our investment was protected. The local governor was in his best interest that our investment succeeded to encourage other investment in his province.

Scott Harper (28:04): Clearly, what you're saying is that people who want to really be successful in Africa have to, from the top down, including investors, have an appetite for long term gain because this is not a flip the switch and make a buck, but it could be vastly profitable and valuable in the long term.

Deanne De Vries (28:25): Absolutely, and very sustainable.

Pam Harper (28:27): The other thing I just want to get in here, it's a giant elephant in the room, is not everybody is a huge company that can go and build an infrastructure in Africa. But you do talk about ways that companies of all sizes can increase their success level. Is there something that you can share with us as a final thought about what it takes to successfully grow a business in Africa in a rapidly changing world, no matter the size of your business?

Deanne De Vries (29:00): Yes. And if you'll allow me, I'm going to quote from one of Africa's most well-known businessmen and philanthropists, Tony Elumelu. He likes to say, "People see risks; we see opportunities. We go for the opportunities and see how to mitigate the risks. Your ideas can transform Africa. So let's stop talking and let's start doing."

Pam Harper (29:22): Thanks, Deanne. That was great. Thanks for being our guest today on Growth Igniters® Radio.

Deanne De Vries (29:29): Thank you both. This has been awesome.

Scott Harper (29:31): It has been great. Deanne, again, thank you so much. And thanks to you out there for listening to Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. To contact us, get show notes, and resource links for this week's episode, go to growthignitersradio.com, select episode 204.

Pam Harper (29:48): Until next time, this is Pam Harper…

Scott Harper (29:51): ... and Scott Harper…

Pam Harper (29:52): ... wishing you continued success and leaving you with this question to discuss with your team:

Scott Harper (29:58): What questions do we need to ask and with whom do we need to engage so we can decide whether and how we can successfully do business in Africa?

Chris Curran (30:14): Growth Igniters® and Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper® are registered service marks of Business Advancement Incorporated. All Growth Igniters® Radio episodes are copyrighted productions of Business Advancement Incorporated, intended for the private use of our audience. Except as otherwise provided by copyright law, all other uses, including copying, editing, redistribution, and publication without prior written consent of Business Advancement Incorporated are prohibited. All rights reserved.