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Business management programs travel to Africa

African cotton NY Times
Businessweek reports on French business school, HEC, which is leading the way by taking the management programs to Senegal. The program’s focus is on the African cotton industry. Could this be a new trend in African business development?

We need to adapt to local contexts and cultures. When we go to Africa, we need to respect the local specificities but at the same time we have to adapt our own approaches to the reality in those countries. We cannot import our own view. We have to have a different perspective and be open to different views. This is what corporate social responsibility is all about. We think we have a responsibility to contribute to these countries. – Bertrand Moingeon, Associate Dean for executive education and professor of strategic management.

Also the NYTimes reported on the African cotton industry back in January.

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This week in African Style 4/7 – 4/13/07

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The Age of African Conversations

Conversation Age graphicI don’t consider myself a writer or even a journalist, but I will admit that I am opinionated and prone to debate. If anyone ever spends any time with my family you’ll notice that we constantly get into debates, some outsiders say we like to debate for the sake of it. That may be so, but so far that attitude of challenging the things even I know are normal has kept me going for this long so why stop now. A large part of what I enjoy about a good debate is the conversations that are spawned from the different sides. As the old saying goes “Opinions are like A**holes, everybody’s got one”. And the fun of blogging or writing for that matter is sharing your opinion as part of the larger conversations that ultimately can change the world around you.

When I heard about Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton‘s efforts to create a collaborative e-book titled “The Conversation Age” I jumped at the opportunity to lend an African perspective to the project. As Gavin puts it “Far from seeing an implosion, we are living in a time of proliferation — ideas build upon ideas, discussion grows from seeds of thought and single headlines give rise to a thousand medusa-like simulations echoing words whispered somewhere on the other side of the planet. All this — in an instant.” And that is the idea behind the Conversation Age and the e-book which I will be contributing a chapter to. Having never written much beyond this blog, this will be my first entrance into a formal writing project and from the list of current contributors, I’m in great company. So in the next few weeks I’ll be racking my brains coming up with 400 words to express my opinion on what the conversation age means to our growing African community. If you would like to contribute to “The Conversation Age” project please email Drew before the end of day tomorrow (Wednesday, April 11th) with your topic. “The Conversation Age” will be dedicated to fellow blogger CK‘s mother who passed away last week while 100% of the proceeds from the book will go to Variety the Children’s Charity – which serves children across the entire globe. All submissions are due by April 30th.

Update: Here is the final list of contributors to the “Conversation Age” ebook. You might not recognize some of the names but these are definitely authors worth reading.
Gavin Heaton

Drew McLellan

CK

Valeria Maltoni

Emily Reed

Katie Chatfield

Greg Verdino

Mack Collier

Lewis Green

Sacrum

Ann Handley

Mike Sansone

Paul McEnany

Roger von Oech

Anna Farmery

David Armano

Bob Glaza

Mark Goren

Matt Dickman

Scott Monty

Richard Huntington

Cam Beck

David Reich

Mindblob (Luc)

Sean Howard

Tim Jackson

Patrick Schaber

Roberta Rosenberg

Uwe Hook

Tony D. Clark

Todd Andrlik

Toby Bloomberg

Steve Woodruff

Steve Bannister

Steve Roesler

Stanley Johnson

Spike Jones

Nathan Snell

Simon Payn

Ryan Rasmussen

Ron Shevlin

Roger Anderson

Bob Hruzek

Rishi Desai

”Phil Gerbyshak

Peter Corbett

Pete Deutschman

Nick Rice

Nick Wright

Mitch Joel

Michael Morton

Mark Earls

Mark Blair

Mario Vellandi

Lori Magno

Kristin Gorski

Krishna De

Kris Hoet

Kofi Annan

Kimberly Dawn Wells

Karl Long

Julie Fleischer

Jordan Behan

John La Grou

Joe Raasch

Jim Kukral

Jessica Hagy

Janet Green

Jamey Shiels

Dr. Graham Hill

Gia Facchini

Geert Desager

Gaurav Mishra

Gary Schoeniger

Gareth Kay

Faris Yakob

Emily Clasper

Ed Cotton

Dustin Jacobsen

Tom Clifford

David Pollinchock

David Koopmans

David Brazeal

David Berkowitz

Carolyn Manning

Craig Wilson

Cord Silverstein

Connie Reece

Colin McKay

Chris Newlan

Chris Corrigan

Cedric Giorgi

Brian Reich

Becky Carroll

Arun Rajagopal

Andy Nulman

Amy Jussel

AJ James

Kim Klaver

Sandy Renshaw

Susan Bird

Ryan Barrett

Troy Worman

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Puma adds Namibia to list of 2010 African World Cup teams

Puma Africa Plays On compilation CDPuma recently announced a sponsorship deal with the Namibian Football Association (NFA). Namibia’s national team, the Brave Warriors, will be supplied with Puma’s latest v-Series technical apparel and footwear beginning with the African Cup of Nations 2008 qualifier home game against the Democratic Republic of Congo on 16 June 2007 and for the next several years through the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. While I’m not really a sports fan, I’ve been following Puma’s push to “increase its African footprint” by sponsoring the most African football teams by 2010. Having already signed deals with Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Egypt, Tunisia, Senegal, Togo, Morocco, Mozambique, Angola and Botswana, Puma is already on it’s way to reaching that goal in the build-up to the 2008 African Cup of Nations in Ghana and 2010 World Cup in South Africa. As I reported previously, Puma began this journey last year by sponsoring the most African teams for the 2006 World Cup. Along with their sponsorship last year, Puma launched a targeted campaign in support of African football which included a huge press event with notable African personalities including Akon, a book “The African Game” by Nigerian photographer Andrew Dosunmu, a music CD, “Africa Plays On”, featuring music from various artists including Akon, John Legend, Amadou & Mariam, Cheikh Lô, and Daara J, and the related Puma Charity Collection. If last year’s campaign was an example, it looks like Puma be living up to its goal of pulling out all the big guns for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Now that’s what I call strategy.

“This association underlines PUMA’s commitment to African Football and specifically to the growth and development of Football in Namibia. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the NFA.” – Jochen Zeitz of PUMA AG

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Converse (RED) Fall 2007; Africa’s NOT a country

Converse RED Fall 2007
The sneaker fiends over at Freshness have a thorough view of the upcoming Converse (RED) Fall 2007 collection. Converse has really used the RED opportunity as a new platform for their design and collaborative efforts which now include photographer Ricky Powell, and the Ramones. But one thing which really bothers me is that in her post on this collection, retrogurl writes a caption saying, “Many of the patterns and designs are inspired by African art work, the country PRODUCT (RED) benefits.” I don’t know whether the fact that retrogurl refers to Africa as a country reflects her own ignorance or Converse’s failure to properly communicate the theme behind the collection beyond the exciting designs. You would think that with all the effort that Converse is putting into the charity-based collection, the issue of whether the recipients of the charity reside in a country or on a continent would be clearly defined. I hope the AIDS issue is being pushed as hard as the search for new designs. Head over to Freshness for more images.

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Bill Clinton talks Rwandan healthcare at TED 2007

The good folks at TED have released this video of former US President Bill Clinton’s acceptance speech as a winner of the 2007 TED prize. In his speech Clinton speaks about his Clinton Foundation‘s pilot health care system in Rwanda which is based on the work of Dr. Paul Farmer in Haiti. In 18 months the Clinton Foundation’s efforts, in partnership with the Rwandan Government, has shown potential as a model for the entire developing world. Clinton’s TED wish was to help him “build this system in Rwanda, to bring world-class health care to a people who have overcome deadly hatred to rebuild their nation”. In a previous interview by the BBC when asked about the one incident that he wishes he could have rewritten or handled differently during his time in office, Clinton responded, “I wish I had moved in Rwanda quickly. I wish I had gone in there quicker, not just waited ’til the camps were set up. We, we might have been able to save, probably not even half those who were lost but still a large number of people. I really regret that. I care a lot about Africa and I don’t think that these … wars are inevitable and these kinds of murders are inevitable. And I’ve spent a good deal of time in the last ten years trying to make it up to Africa in general and the Rwandans in particular – so I regret that deeply.” I guess his current efforts are part of his do over. Watch the video below.

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Fast Company on Product RED’s business of charity

John N. Pasmore, one of FastCompany.com’s expert bloggers, has an interesting piece on the building controversy around Project RED. He makes a good point about RED’s approach to corporate giving saying,

“And yes, we as individuals should give to those less fortunate and not rely exclusively on corporate-sponsored giving to substitute for our personal efforts. Granted, that’s an important point. But, I would not expect retailers like GAP to simply give money away. I’m sure their shareholders believe that getting a financial return on their investment is most important. Corporations are entities that people create for the purpose of making money.”

Read the rest of the “Get RED” article and look out for a quote from yours truly.

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Annansi Chronicles is 1-year old

Kofi_It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since I started this blog. Initially Annansi Chronicles was an outlet for the ideas which I didn’t feel fit into the bi-monthly newsletters I send to my Annansi Clothing Co. customers, but as with any project it has taken on a personality of it’s own. I must admit it was hard to keep up with at first – adapting to a new platform, figuring out what to share and what to keep to myself, and juggling writing with all my other obligations – but I found that the less I tried to create a blog which fit in a pretty little package, the easier it became to develop Annansi Chronicles’ content. Though I’ve kept numerous personal journals over the years, it was hard putting my ideas out there for people who I haven’t met to critique and disagree with. But so far you guys have been very kind. I have to say thank you to all those reading this for choosing to listen to me rant and rave. I especially would like to thank all those who have taken the time to reach out to me either by leaving a comment or emailing me, for letting me know that my ideas are not so crazy after all. I hope we can all continue to share ideas and build a community that we are all proud of in one way of another.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming….

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The business of a modeling career, Noella’s African style

Noella Harlem World coverA few weeks ago I was delighted to finally meet Noella Coursaris, a model who I had heard so much about. Noella really impressed me with the combination of her background (she was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo to a Congolese mother and Cypriot father and went to business school in Switzerland), her young age, and her work in launching the Georges Malaika Foundation, a foundation through which she will assist African girls in attending primary and secondary school. I have interacted with many models – and model wannabes – in the past but talking to Noella was a breath of fresh air. One thing that struck me about Noella was her determination and focus. While many models say they want to do more with their career, very few are able to organize themselves and make things happen. Though she was recently signed to the popular ID Model Management in NY, from looking at her body of work (Agent Provocateur, Chris Rock’s “I love My Wife”, Vibe Vixen, Cosmopolitan, Essence, GQ, and most recently the cover of Jambo and Harlem World magazines), you can tell that Noella is not one to sit around and wait for opportunities to fall in her lap. Speaking to Noella and Frederic about life, fashion and Africa, I got the same feeling I get when I speak to former model turned business woman extraordinaire Audrey Smaltz, another trailblazer in the fashion industry. Like Audrey, Noella seems to possess the ability to evaluate a situation, come up with a plan, and use her business acumen to make things happen; and it doesn’t hurt that Noella has a warm personality also. The September 2006 Model Inc. issue of Black Enterprise magazine profiled models like Tyra Banks, Iman, and Audrey Smaltz, who have used their focus, determination, talent, and keen business sense to turn the opportunities of an otherwise short career in a superficial industry into a successful business. And speaking to Noella you get the sense that she is taking a page out of their playbook to success. Noella MiamiWhat makes it hard to succeed in the modeling industry is that ultimately you are being hired for your looks and unfortunately with that comes the assumption that all a model has to offer is her/his beauty. But if we look at the trait many of the most memorable models have, it’s being able to understand what each designer’s theme is and use your personality to sell that ideal to the world. And that takes a self-confidence and ability to empathize, that many models lack. I can see that Noella has what it takes to continue to have a long successful career. And by distinguishing herself as an African, though she does not have fashion’s stereotypical ultra dark skin, and extreme features, she, like Liya Kebede, introduces another image of an Africa to the fashion world. About her background Noella says “I am proud to be African, and proud to know where I come from. Africans have so much culture and values !!!”. Iman needs to get this girl on her “I Am African” campaign.
(photo courtesy: Luis Fernandez)