<div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 730px;">
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;" src="//players.brightcove.net/1571595826001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5850397641001" allowfullscreen="" border=0 frameborder=0></iframe></div>
</div>
<p>Started in December 2015, AC Group a Rwandan Hi-tech and ICT Company is striving to jealously guard its position as a leading provider of smart and interactive IT solutions in Rwanda and the rest of Africa. Patrick Buchana, AC Group Ltd’s CEO joins CNBC Africa to talk about the evolution of his business.</p>


How AC Group positioned itself as a IT solutions provider leader

<div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 730px;">
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;" src="//players.brightcove.net/1571595826001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5835768785001" allowfullscreen="" border=0 frameborder=0></iframe></div>
</div>
<p>The Gartner Symposium and IT expo Africa is driving digital transformation and shaping the future of IT and business. The event hosts more than 25 African and global solution providers to uncover new ways to approach digital challenges. Joining CNBC Africa for more is Vice-President of Research and Chairman of the Gartner Symposium, Brian Burke.</p>


Quantum computing will be a game changer for industries in the next few years, here’s why

<div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 730px;">
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;" src="//players.brightcove.net/1571595826001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5835769431001" allowfullscreen="" border=0 frameborder=0></iframe></div>
</div>
<p>Artificial Intelligence has the potential to double South Africa&#8217;s economic growth according to Accenture analytics. According to research businesses that operate in sectors such as manufacturing through to agriculture will benefit the most from adopting Artificial Intelligence. Joining CNBC Africa for more is Hans Zachar, Managing Director, Accenture.</p>


Understanding the impact of artificial intelligence on SA businesses, jobs

<div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 730px;">
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;" src="//players.brightcove.net/1571595826001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5830196102001" allowfullscreen="" border=0 frameborder=0></iframe></div>
</div>
<p>Joining CNBC Africa to make the case for women being better for business is Refilwe Maluleke the Managing Director at Yellowwood.</p>


Here’s why hiring more women is good for your business

<p>By Rosalind Davey, partner, Employment and Benefits Practice at Bowmans</p>
<p>Gone are the days when office hours were from 9 to 5 and employees spent the working day under one roof. Technology has changed everything and employers who prepare properly for the changes stand to benefit the most. Rosalind Davey, partner in the Employment and Benefits Practice at Bowmans, outlines what employers need to do to manage the risks and capitalise on the advantages of the new world of work.</p>
<p>We frequently hear terms such as ‘the digital workplace’, ‘the Internet of Things’, ‘automation in the workplace’ and ‘the future world of work’ bandied about. But what does all of this mean for your business?</p>
<p>Information and communication technologies have led to significant developments in the way we work. The digital office is becoming the norm and has resulted in more people working from remote locations – the advent of the tele-commuter or tele-worker. This is an exciting new digital world for employees and employers alike. It is critical that employers embrace this brave new world but, in doing so, they must tread with care and make sure they understand the possible traps that may ensnare the unwary.</p>
<p>In order to make the digital world work for your business it is important to have a proper strategy in place. A good starting point is to analyse your business environment so as to identify your strategic focus and enhance your ability to meet customer demands and other business objectives. The process should also incorporate risk management – recognising the issues associated with operating in the digital world will enable you to identify what steps should be taken to address these risks. Implementing a crisis management plan to deal with virtual business crises is essential for safeguarding your business and your employees.</p>
<p><strong>Take steps to address risks</strong></p>
<p>The next step is to ensure that you put appropriate policies in place to guide the business’s strategy. For example, a communications policy is essential for governing online communications and providing clear guidelines within which employees conduct themselves online. Similarly, a tele-commuter policy should provide guidance on flexible work arrangements, hot-desking, job-sharing and working from remote locations. Further, an IT policy should highlight security protocols and data protection obligations. Policies dealing with automation in the workplace should identify the roll-out of artificial intelligence, robotics and virtual reality so as to provide an understanding of how these technologies will impact on existing career paths.</p>
<p>Once the necessary policies have been developed and implemented, the next step should be to educate your employees on the policies. The aim here is to ensure that employees understand the risks associated with conducting a virtual business, communicating online and implementing flexible work arrangements. Knowing what they can and cannot do in the digital world is essential to minimise business risks such as brand damage arising from inappropriate online communication, data leaks and cyber-bullying.<br />
This process should also be aimed at encouraging a focus on performance output and addressing potential employee dissatisfaction due to the fear that automation in the workplace will result in job losses. Upskilling and reskilling employees to work in the virtual workplace is also crucial.</p>
<p><strong>Policies need teeth</strong></p>
<p>Education and training is, sadly, not enough. In order to properly safeguard your business, you need to ensure that your rules and guidelines, as set out in your policies, are properly monitored and enforced. A failure to enforce the policies may render them redundant.</p>
<p>Operating in the digital world requires dedication, care and effective management. If used properly, the virtual world can eliminate boundaries and enhance business performance but, if the proper precautions are not taken, this could spell disaster for your business.</p>


How to make the digital world work for your business

<div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 730px;">
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;" src="//players.brightcove.net/1571595826001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5785063505001" allowfullscreen="" border=0 frameborder=0></iframe></div>
</div>
<p>Kountable hopes to connect larger and smaller business to new market opportunity through a network of savvy local resellers with supercharged execution capability.</p>


Kountable platform plans to connect more businesses to new markets

<p><em>Sharon Piehl</em> | <em>FleishmanHillard</em></p>
<p>A shifting landscape, characterised by disruptive new ways of doing business, political movements and fast changing technology, has had an immense impact on organisational – and broader – reputation. In the last decade, reputation has become equally as valuable a commodity as human, intellectual, and investment capital.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-122876 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Business_Pexels.jpg" alt="" width="1546" height="1024" /></p>
<p>Recent seismic events in both South Africa politics and business have highlighted just how important Reputation Capital has become at both an industry and country level.</p>
<p>In a largely digitally driven world where stakeholders hold the power over the information they consume and are able to drive their own news agenda without relying solely on news media anymore, reputation and taking accountability have become the golden thread integral to success.</p>
<p>However in this world where individuals are continually bombarded with written, audio and video content the independent media remains the most important conduits of accurate information to help stakeholders and consumers make informed decisions.</p>
<p>As we see greater importance being placed on values, principles, ethics and trust by stakeholders and consumers, the standards by which they measure brands and companies are becoming more sophisticated.</p>
<p>Business with purpose or shared value – the intertwining of business success and investment into communities and talent – has become an important element of the decision-making process for consumers and other stakeholders. Modern business therefore has to take into account how they operate, who they hire, who their partners are and the role they play in society – without fail and authentically, otherwise they will lose the trust (and business) of their stakeholders.</p>
<p>Reputation Capital must become a consideration when making business decisions and organisations that want to enjoy success in the future must invest in talent or partners who can help them manage their reputation – not just at the point of crisis, but continually, as part of the day to day business operations.</p>


What is Reputation Capital and why is it important?

Expats in Mumbai are the world’s highest-paid, earning over twice the global average

<div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 730px;">
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;" src="//players.brightcove.net/1571595826001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5714927088001" allowfullscreen="" border=0 frameborder=0></iframe></div>
</div>
<p>After speaking to CEOs, analysts and policy makers about what their expectations for 2018 this week, CNBC Africa hit the streets of Lagos to find out what the people think.</p>


Nigerians speak out about their expectations of 2018

<p><em><span class="fn author-name">Jyoti Devi |</span> Eastern Institute of Technology and <span class="fn author-name">Teerooven Soobaroyen | </span>University of Essex</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Since the turn of the century, developing countries have been adopting corporate governance codes with the promise that they will enhance accountability and growth, while delivering equitable, ethical, and sustainable business practices.</p>
<p>A governance code is a set of guiding principles drawn up by industry to standardise good corporate behaviour. They sensitise company boards and executives to a wide range of interests such as, investors, labour and local communities.</p>
<p>A key governance code – the Cadbury Code – was established in the UK in the early 1990s to improve corporate accountability.</p>
<p>Since then, there have been a plethora of codes across the world. In Africa, governance codes have been designed to help address the legacies of colonialism, extractive post-colonial business behaviour and executive excesses. Several countries like South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Mauritius have already stepped up to the plate.</p>
<p>Mauritius is interesting case study. The country has sustained its position as the best country in Sub-Saharan Africa to conduct business leads the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance.</p>
<p>But it does have some considerable limitations and mainly inefficiencies in public governance.</p>
<p>We set out to study trends in the way companies adopt the corporate governance code in Mauritius. The aim was to provide useful insights to other developing countries, particularly in Africa.</p>
<p>Our study found significant levels of compliance with the code in the three years after implementation. But we also found that Mauritian companies picked and chose elements of the code. They implemented the easier ones perceived to be beneficial, or simply the ones that made them look good.</p>
<p>Our findings are important because developing countries have become important channels of foreign investment, but institutional investors remain concerned about firm- and country-level risks which are difficult to evaluate. The corporate governance arrangements in these are not fully understood.</p>
<h2>Part of a big reform</h2>
<p>Over the last three decades, the Mauritian government worked with international bodies to revamp the country’s regulatory framework for companies. This was part of a drive to encourage local and international investment.</p>
<p>The reforms were wide ranging and included setting up of a stock exchange and adoption of international standards for corporate accounting and reporting. The country also established a number of agencies to regulate financial and professional service sectors. It also embarked on full and partial privatisation of state owned assets as well as the liberalisation of key sectors.</p>
<p>The Mauritian economy emerged from its dual colonial past (it was colonised by both the French and the British) with a number of challenges. One of the main challenges was that it was dominated by a few large conglomerates and state institutions operating in a weak regulatory environment.</p>
<p>The adoption of the codes of good corporate governance in 2004 formed part of this reform movement. It followed a 2002 World Bank/International Monetary Fund report which highlighted governance deficiencies. A code of corporate governance was proposed as a solution.</p>
<p>Inspired by the South African King Code, Mauritius embraced a hybrid corporate governance model. This model mixes the ‘market-centric’ approach (typically practiced in the US and UK) and the ‘relationship-based’ ones (typically Japan, France, and Germany).</p>
<h2>A pick and choose game</h2>
<p>Our study found that companies were picking and choosing sections of the codes to implement as they wished. The more difficult or uncomfortable requirements were ignored.</p>
<p>For example, until now, information on ownership structures and CEO remuneration remain opaque. We concluded that the reason for this was the relatively small business elite, from which most directors and majority shareholders are drawn. They see some sections of the codes as being incompatible with a tradition of keeping things ‘discreet’.</p>
<p>Our investigation also revealed a significant relationship between the implementation of the code and the presence of independent non-executive directors. This confirmed the generally accepted potential of independent non-executive directors as agents of change.</p>
<p>But we also found a limiting factor for the role of independent non-executive directors within Mauritius corporations. Not many of these directors occupy critical posts like board chair and therefore have limited influence.</p>
<p>The recent World Bank/International Monetary Fund report praised Mauritius as an ‘international leader’ on board practices (at par with leading Asian countries, such as India, Thailand, and Malaysia), but also highlighted problems. Directors deemed independent were not sufficiently so in relation to majority shareholders and there is opacity in the appointment of such directors.</p>
<p>The report also noted the pitfalls of a “persistent high concentration of the ownership” in large companies. Almost 60% of the counted companies had one controlling shareholder holding more than 20% of shares. This cannot be good for corporate accountability. It means a form of controller’s roadblock has been allowed to persist.</p>
<h2>Limitations</h2>
<p>Some scholars are critical of the usefulness of these “Western-inspired” codes for developing countries. Criticism ranges from a charge that codes aren’t radical enough, they clash with local social and political factors, to being implemented in a rather superficial way.</p>
<p>The “comply or explain” principle traditionally applied to these codes means that there is flexibility to pick and choose. There’s also little market pressure for a more comprehensive adoption; an issue affecting many countries.</p>
<p>The new version of the Mauritius code which was in 2016 provides for an “apply and explain” principle. In this version companies are expected to explain how they have applied the code and flag any areas where the code has not been applied. But even the new version continues to rely on “market discipline”. It is unclear whether this is feasible in markets characterised by high ownership concentration, low shareholder activism and a weak stakeholder base.</p>
<p>Our study of other developing markets also shows that the market discipline approach is not effective where the capacity of regulators is limited. This is particularly the case where local politics retain an ability to dilute enforcement or where the state itself is a significant shareholder and has little to gain from a change in the status-quo.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>This article was first published in The Conversation.</em></p>


Lessons from Mauritius on making companies more accountable

<p data-reactid="42">Zimbabwean business leaders told President Robert Mugabe on Thursday that his government’s expanding fiscal deficit was unsustainable and that financing it through local borrowing could destabilise the banking sector.</p>
<p data-reactid="43">At the first such meeting in 10 years, executives from the mining, manufacturing, banking and farming sectors and representatives of foreign airlines told Mugabe and his cabinet ministers they must exercise fiscal discipline.</p>
<p data-reactid="44">“The current levels of the fiscal deficit and the mode of financing, against diminished fiscal revenue sources, is measurably unsustainable,” said Charles Msipa, who represented the business leaders at the meeting in Harare.</p>
<p data-reactid="45">“This scenario invariably leads to an unsustainable domestic debt build up, with significant adverse implications on the banking sector stability,” Msipa said.</p>
<p data-reactid="46">Mugabe did not directly respond, but said there should be more meetings between his cabinet and business leaders.</p>
<p data-reactid="47">In July, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the budget deficit had risen to $1.4 billion in 2016, worse than previously estimated and equivalent to 10 percent of national output.</p>
<p data-reactid="48">Zimbabwe has not been able to borrow on international financial markets since 1999 after defaulting on repayments to the International Monetary Fund and other foreign lenders and must rely on domestic taxes to fund its $4 billion budget.</p>
<p data-reactid="49">The government is borrowing from banks by issuing Treasury Bills, which analysts say is a major cause of liquidity shortages in the economy.</p>
<p data-reactid="50">The central bank says the total stock of Treasury Bills in the market is $2.5 billion, but bankers and financial analysts say the figure is much higher.</p>
<p data-reactid="52">Msipa said foreign currency shortages meant businesses were struggling to pay for imports, echoing a warning by a retailers’ association this week that problems importing could lead to shortages of basic goods.</p>
<p>Last month, the central bank ordered platinum and chrome miners, the country’s main foreign currency earners, to surrender 80 percent of their export earnings to it &#8212; up from 50 percent &#8212; to contain a crippling dollar note shortage.</p>
<div class="Attribution_attribution_o4ojT" data-reactid="53">
<p class="Attribution_content_27_rw" data-reactid="54">Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ed Stoddard and Catherine Evans</p>
</div>


Zimbabwe businesses warn Mugabe growing deficit could destabilise banks

<p><strong><em><span class="fn author-name">Steven Friedman |</span> University of Johannesburg</em></strong></p>
<p>What business is willing to say to itself is as important, as what it says to government. Which is why the document, a contract with society, released by an organisation representing big business, Business Leadership SA’s Contract with South Africa may be setting a new tone not only on how business deals with government but also how major economic actors deal with the economy’s problems.</p>
<p>When most commentators are asked how South African business should respond to government, the common response is that it should complain, loudly and in public. This view has no doubt firmed since the March cabinet reshuffle damaged the economy and denouncing “white monopoly capital” became a refrain of the ANC’s patronage faction. Business, as the argument goes, should stand up for itself even if that means offending government.</p>
<p>But, while this approach makes great headlines and makes many people feel better, it does little or nothing to advance business interests or fix the economy.</p>
<p>Those who want business to shout at government seem to assume that this country has no history. But it does, and it is a history in which business is associated – and not only in the minds of patronage politicians &#8211; with the minority privilege which apartheid ensured. No one would use the phrase “white monopoly capital” if it did not seem to describe the world in which many black business and professional people feel that they live.</p>
<p>This makes the relationship between business and government more difficult than in most other countries. It also means that politicians cannot afford to be seen to be ordered about, by business. After all, what better way to confirm that “white monopoly capital” rules us all than to insist that business people tell politicians off in public?</p>
<h2>Yelling is not the solution</h2>
<p>Yelling at government is not helpful to the economy because it keeps alive the myth that its difficulties are caused by government alone. But, as very mainstream figures such as International Monetary Fund deputy MD David Lipton have pointed out, the fault is not government’s alone. Other economic actors, including business, have also contributed to the problem.</p>
<p>If businesses want a healthier economy, they need to look at what they can change as well as what the government can fix. This will undermine the “white monopoly capital” claim by showing that businesses are willing to change what they do as well as asking the government and other interests to change.</p>
<p>This is precisely what Business Leadership SA’s contract seeks to do. It feels as strongly about the “white monopoly capital” slur as others. It’s chief executive officer, Bonang Mohale, said at the contract’s launch that it hoped to undo the legacy “of the ugly and deceitful white monopoly capital campaign (which) sought to blame business for all the problems that beset this country”. He said the campaign was “dishonest”; it “tried to deflect from the real issues of state capture”. It had severely damaged business’s reputation.</p>
<p>All of this is music to the ears of the “give government a proper scolding” school. The key difference is that the organisation seeks to counter the campaign not simply by denouncing it but by taking responsibility for fixing the problems which made the campaign possible in the first place.</p>
<h2>Problem is not just government</h2>
<p>The contract recognises that corruption is a two-way process. It vows to root out corruption in the private sector too and wants companies to sign an integrity pledge, to fight corruption.</p>
<p>It also commits to fighting economic exclusion by creating jobs, encouraging and empowering senior black leadership, building skills, investing in communities and supporting small businesses.</p>
<p>Only after making these commitments does the organisation’s document say something about government. It says it cannot achieve these goals on its own. The government “must also step up” and create the conditions necessary for the country and economy to succeed.</p>
<p>This approach is more likely to dispel the “white monopoly capital” campaign than one which yells at the government. While those who coined the slogan will not be impressed, it’s not them to whom businesses are talking. Their audience is the tens of thousands of South Africans who have no axe to grind but want the economy to offer opportunities to more people.</p>
<p>The contract recognises the problem that undermines the image of large businesses as arrogant vehicles of power. By showing that they are sensitive to economic exclusion and those who suffer it offers to do something to solve the problem.</p>
<h2>Conversation is the key</h2>
<p>The document also creates opportunities for mending the economy by opening the way to a bargain between government, business and other economic interests. This is the essential route to change because none of the economic interests are strong enough to impose their favoured solution on the others.</p>
<p>By spelling out in broad terms a willingness to change, the contract enables politicians and government officials who do want to negotiate change to begin a discussion on the specifics. This promises to restart the conversation between government and business which was beginning to blossom during the later days of Pravin Gordhan (former finance minister) and Mcebisi Jonas (former deputy finance minister) at National Treasury.</p>
<p>It also makes negotiation possible by taking the three steps all the parties need to take to create a negotiation climate:</p>
<ul>
<li>it acknowledges that the economy needs to change,</li>
<li>spells out what business is willing to do to change it, and</li>
<li>what it expects in return.</li>
</ul>
<p>This opens the way for the other parties to do the same – if they do, the negotiations will have effectively begun and a way out of the economy’s dead end will be possible.</p>
<p>Business Leadership SA’s contract is hardly guaranteed to succeed. In the past, initiatives which depended on business and other economic interests making changes ran aground because business leaders, like the other negotiators, lacked the muscle to take those they represent with them.</p>
<p>It is not at all clear how many businesses are willing to follow Business Leadership SA’s approach. Nor is it clear if government and labour, whose participation is crucial, are willing and able to respond with their own bargaining positions.</p>
<p>What is clear is that the economy’s revival depends on the business strategy for change.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>This article was published in The Conversation.</em></p>


How South African business can help government fix the economy

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Apps like True Caller have the potential to disrupt the way we do business in Africa and we’re not preparing ourselves enough for that disruption, writes Nnamdi Oranye.</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>True Caller is one of those disrupting apps that always seem to just slip under the radar, quietly building huge traction without big PR and fanfare through providing a valuable service to the consumer, while gaining tremendous potential to disrupt industries and the way many companies do business – including businesses in Africa. For this reason, we ought to take notice, because if we don’t, it has the potential to disrupt our businesses in ways we aren’t prepared for right now.</p>
<p>How does it work? True Caller, which is a relatively small company, develops an app that lets you know the identity behind a number calling or SMSing you. It boasts of having a database of over three billion numbers, collected since 2009 through its users. It allows you to put numbers into spam lists and basically block calls and SMS’s from certain numbers coming through. It’s a great tool for keeping you from receiving unwanted calls from call centres and telemarketers and that friend who keeps asking for money.</p>
<h4>Can legitimate communication end up as spam?</h4>
<p>But what if the call you receive is actually legit? By having your Bank’s number in the spam list, for instance, you also miss out on relevant communication – SMS’s giving your latest balance, or asking you to confirm a purchase on your credit card, or a payment reminder, and so on. I noticed this happened to me when I was using the app – most of my legitimate communication ended up in my spam and I didn’t know, and I would only see it sometime later when I went looking because I was wondering why I never got that SMS from the bank confirming my balance. This also happens to users when they receive communication from their telecommunications provider – for example, an SMS telling them how their airtime balance is looking. So what we see is many large corporates are being blocked and listed as spam. That’s great for the consumer in many ways, but not very good for business.</p>
<p>This also happens to users when they receive communication from their telecommunications provider – for example, an SMS telling them how their airtime balance is looking. So what we see is many large corporates are being blocked and listed as spam. That’s great for the consumer in many ways, but not very good for business.</p>
<p>Perhaps you might think they deserve to be labelled as spam, and perhaps in many cases you would be right. Many people do agree. I was recently at a conference and decided to do an informal survey to find out how many people use the app. The audience at the conference was predominantly made up of professionals (in their 30’s and 40’s) and I found that about 50 percent of those I surveyed used the app.</p>
<h4>Wide reach among Millennials and Gen Xers</h4>
<p>So it arguably has a wide reach, and especially among Millennials and Generation Xers. The use of such an app shows that these generations communicate with their phone in a very different way to older generations (even though the older generation has cottoned on). Telemarketing and cold calls are rejected right from the outset. You simply will not get through. You’re either blocked outright or your call is ignored.</p>
<p>Today’s large corporates, such as banks and telecommunications providers and services companies, have a huge investment in customer research and make a major focus on understanding and knowing the customer. All this investment, however, is worthless if you actually can’t even get through to your customer. If you are considered a spammer, it doesn’t matter how slick your image is or how much your product will add value or how well trained your sales staff are, you are automatically tarnished with a certain brush and all that investment and effort isn’t worth much.</p>
<h4>Could True Caller become the gatekeeper to your customer and cut you out?</h4>
<p>This means that inadvertently, True Caller owns access to your customer. The more it grows, the more it has this sort of ownership. I think this may be exactly what True Caller is actually looking to do long-term. Have a look at its privacy policy for a clue into how it makes money in the background:</p>
<p><em>“Truecaller may also share personal information with third party advertisers, agencies and networks. Such third parties may use this information for analytical and marketing purposes e.g. to provide measurement services and targeted ads and for improvement of products and services.”</em></p>
<p>[<a href="http://phandroid.com/2017/08/10/how-does-truecaller-work/">http://phandroid.com/2017/08/10/how-does-truecaller-work/</a>]</p>
<p>Most users probably never bothered to read that. When you sign up for True Caller, you actually give personal info to the company. This is so that it can track who is calling you and figure out how you manage these sorts of things, in the name of making its service better. But like most of today’s tech disruptors, you have to sacrifice personal info and privacy to use the service and help it improve. Ironically, it gathers personal info that it probably intends to sell to the very companies you are blocking off as spam.</p>
<h4>Reaching your customer through social media</h4>
<p>But there is more to it than that, and here is where African businesses need to take notice. Much of that information would probably go to the likes of social media companies such as Facebook. And most of that information will go to companies looking to advertise via social media like Facebook. This makes a lot of sense because if you can’t reach your customer through the phone, you probably can reach them via social media. When it comes to today’s generation, you’re practically guaranteed as such.</p>
<p>Owning the customer is paramount and today’s younger generations are certainly more reachable through social media than any other. That changes the landscape of business considerably. If you cannot own your customer or access them because there is a new gatekeeper in town, then you need to go through that gatekeeper. Essentially, these sorts of disruptors don’t just want to have eyes on their news feeds but want to own access to your customer bases. So what concerns</p>
<p>Essentially, these sorts of disruptors don’t just want to have eyes on their news feeds but want to own access to your customer bases. So what concerns me, even more, is if the likes of Facebook scoops up True Caller entirely, because then it can pretty much own the customer base in Africa.</p>
<p>I keep writing that, as Africans, we need to take on this sort of Silicon Valley disruption and work with it or work in competition with it. We have to consider these sorts of things quite seriously. In my upcoming book, <em>Taking on Silicon Valley: How Africa’s Innovators Will Shape Its Future</em>, I go into some detail with this argument.</p>
<p>I think True Caller is the perfect example of an app that has the potential to pull the rug under us in many ways but we’re just not talking about it. We’re not preparing ourselves for the possibilities. We need to look at such apps and think beyond just the consumer experience and consider what it means for business as a whole. We need to take a more macro view.</p>


Op-Ed: Could True Caller eventually own your customer?

<div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 640px;">
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;" src="//players.brightcove.net/1571595826001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5540361238001" allowfullscreen="" border=0 frameborder=0></iframe></div>
</div>
<p>Business is always looking for ways to increase productivity and efficiencies to make more profit. Most of the time, that comes with added stress.</p>


How to increase productivity without stress

<p>By Samuel Getachew</p>
<p>At the CEOs Forum inside Hilton Addis where business executives, heads of government institutions, and investors gathered to hear from Finance and Economic Cooperation Minister Abraham Tekeste (PhD), it was Henok Assefa, the architect of the gathering who attracted the most attention.</p>
<p>After all, he is the man Tedros Adhanom (PhD), one time noted Ethiopian health minister and now director general of the World Health Organization calls “the most undervalued brilliant entrepreneur” in the country. He has been making headway since he returned to Ethiopia a decade-and-a-half ago with little resources and big dreams. He was quickly being noticed for his entrepreneurship passion. “(He is) a highly polished and business astute person that has the ability to understand the local business dynamics,” Fasil Yilma the country director of Dow Chemical said. “That is coupled with his attempts to make it work for everyone.”</p>
<h4>Passion for entrepreneurship</h4>
<p>He has been making headway since he returned to Ethiopia a decade-and-a-half ago with little resources and big dreams. He was quickly noticed for his passion for entrepreneurship. “(He is) a highly polished and business astute person that has the ability to understand the local business dynamics,” Fasil Yilma the country director of Dow Chemical said. “That is coupled with his attempts to make it work for everyone.”</p>
<p>Articulate, collected and informed, at the CEO forum, he was engaging and inspired the minister to reflect on a slew of topics. He often spoke in sound bites like an aspiring politician.   “Please network,” he said throughout the programme. It was his talent for networking that helped him win friends and favours when he first moved back to Ethiopia.</p>
<p>“I left in 1991, when the nation was preoccupied with a slew of difficulties, including conflicts and war,” he said.  “I did not want to leave the country; I was the last among my eight siblings to depart.”</p>
<p>The CEO gathering was no ordinary day for him and his colleagues as they marked a milestone, the 10th anniversary of PRECISE Consult, a firm he started a decade ago from scratch. It is currently rumoured that he is in negotiations to sell it to a well-known American company.</p>
<h4>Ambitious and determined</h4>
<p>From his initial years, when he returned to Ethiopia, after living in the United States for &#8220;an eon&#8221;, many remember him as a passionate and engaged young leader, who was a volunteer board member of the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce, as well as the American Chamber of Commerce in Ethiopia. He was ambitious and determined, according to many of his colleagues.</p>
<p>He was said to want to break from conventional wisdom, unlike those who wanted to find refuge in established international companies instead of starting an institution of their own. PRECISE Consult became his vehicle – a hub for business and economic development in the country. Equipped with the realisation of the American dream, a graduate degree from Fordham University, he wanted to work towards his own dreams, not somebody else&#8217;s.</p>
<p>He would venture abroad to the United States and help attract foreign investment to Ethiopia.</p>
<p>Many responded while a small segment of the Ethiopian diaspora protested, as they saw such an investment as a political endorsement. He appeared in blogs and articles and he was denounced and insulted. Nevertheless, he was determined; believing investment, not aid, was the absolute best solution to the nation&#8217;s pressing problems.</p>
<h4>Bridging the information gap for investors</h4>
<p>“Henok has done a fabulous job of bridging the information gap for investors, Levi Girma, a partner with Transsion, said. “Especially in the diaspora.” He wanted to engage the diaspora more than any other and help move the nation forward as an economic powerhouse, not a destination for charitable gestures. The late Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, became his early supporter and appeared at one of his investment forums gathering in the capital during the World Economic Forum on Africa.</p>
<p>Inside his spacious office at the top of a landmark building in Bole with the PRECISE signature designed by Asseged Gessesse, a noted creative director and a longtime friend, placed perfectly behind him, he opened up on reasons why he remains optimistic about the future of Ethiopia.</p>
<p>With an Apple laptop, answering emails, tweeting and talking at all the same time and a collection of coffee mugs from Jupiter Hotel and Guinness on his table, he seemed like a man on the move.</p>
<p>Beyond his PRECISE business, he has plenty of business interests, shopping centers in Bulbula and a nearly completed second hub at CMC, a supermarket, interest in the agriculture and food processing business, he seemed more content when talking about the mentorship he has offered, the opportunities he gave others find their footing in the hot Ethiopian market rather than answer the rumors that are…..well rumors.</p>
<h4>Strategic engagements benefited Ethiopian economy</h4>
<p>Henok has been involved in hundreds of strategic engagements with investors, helping move the Ethiopian economy closer to an industrialised nation. He was one of the architects of the Ethiopian Climate Innovation Center, a clean tech incubator that was funded by the World Bank and the agribusiness Incubator funded by USAID. “That helped many and connected thousands of local farmers to be engaged to the international market,” he said.</p>
<p>The proud father of two is also proud of the team he built at PRECISE. The team seems to value and appreciate his efforts to be a hands-on manager. “Henok is an excellent manager and leader. He has a unique approach to leadership, which is very humanistic and addressing of problems. He always encourages and empowers his colleagues to become leaders especially the young people,” Hailemelekot Asfaw, senior program director at PRECISE said.</p>
<p>“Henok without question is positive about Ethiopia and loves his country,” Addis Alemayehou of 251 Communications reflected. “He was and has always been focused on private sector development in Ethiopia and has played a valuable role in linking government with the private sector and finding middle ground on key issues facing the (local) economy.”</p>
<p>Henok once told the New York-based online Ethiopian-American magazine TADIAS, how being an athlete gave him a good stable foundation to be successful. “It taught me so much about discipline and teamwork,” he said. “Athletic scholarship actually got me through college and graduate schools.”</p>
<p>Lucky for him, it also helped him transition to a powerful voice in Ethiopia’s progression as a middle-income nation in the years to come.</p>


Henok Assefa: Ethiopian entrepreneur on the rise

<p>The #DataMustFall campaign has been relatively quiet in recent months, after the flurry of calls for companies such as MTN and Vodacom to do away with a basic, moral tenet of business: making a profit. While we wait as the bureaucratic process takes its usual meandering course, there have been sporadic calls in the media for the campaign to be resurrected. Most notable among these: Saki Missiakos, the CEO of Internet Solutions, who has told MyBroadband that “You and I should not be paying for data”.</p>
<p>While I do not have an intimate knowledge of Internet Solutions, their services, and profit-margin, on their website they offer a wide range of services and pricing options. For the financial department of the corporation to manage running the business without making a profit with a CEO who truly believes that doing so is moral, I would love to see such ingenuity.</p>
<p>However, the comments were not directed at only his own company, but broadly at other players in the industry. To view profit-making as immoral is already problematic – to impose this on other people and to expect them to follow your flawed moral dictate, is even more difficult to swallow.</p>
<h3>Connectivity as basic human right</h3>
<p>Missiakos elaborated on his statement and said that connectivity is a basic human right and that “our goal is to make sure that everyone has access” to it. If the connectivity at hand is being provided by a company, then, unfortunately, it is not a basic human right. The connectivity is being provided through someone else’s work. If you are denied the absolute right to the product of your mind and your own effort, and someone else or the state decides how to dispose of it, you are a slave.</p>
<p>Somehow the notion of rights has been expanded to include a right to what others produce. It is easy to call on the government to provide basic rights, but it can only provide them if they collect enough taxes. So, at the end of the day, someone is paying for the data service which some are demanding should be free.</p>
<p>If you believe that data should be free, if you support the Data Must Fall campaign, I encourage you to start a business providing such a service – just remember that you will have to do so for zero profit. You are quite at liberty to do so. But also remember that, despite what you may think are noble intentions, you have no moral claim on what anyone else has produced and you cannot demand that they do <em>x </em>because you deem it appropriate.</p>
<h3>Spectrum allocation</h3>
<p>Spectrum allocation is yet another mess to sort out. Government stands at the centre of this mess and here I agree with Missaikos that ICASA needs to do more to engage with industry and free up more spectrum. Greater access to the spectrum will make it easier for smaller competitors to enter the market and the increased competition will result in cheaper data products for consumers. If providers want to offer ‘free’ options as part of their services, that is their prerogative.</p>
<p>Before you retweet the meme that data in South Africa is the most expensive in the world, make sure that the statistics quoted are comparing apples with apples and that our context is taken into account. Before you demand that data, or any other product or service, be ‘free’, remember that you are making a moral claim on someone else’s time, resources and effort. Making broad moral demands on whole industries will not result in concrete change.</p>
<p><em>Chris Hattingh is a researcher at the Free Market Foundation</em></p>


Op-Ed: #DataMustFall – providers to decide for themselves

<p><span class="articleLocation">JOHANNESBURG</span> (Reuters) &#8211; The steep decline in South Africa&#8217;s business confidence is a setback to economic growth recovery and will dampen investment, ratings agency Moody&#8217;s said on Monday.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>&#8220;Reduced business confidence implies reduced investment, which would negatively affect growth in South Africa’s already-weak economy, and will ultimately make fiscal consolidation more challenging,&#8221; Moody&#8217;s senior analyst Zuzana Brixiova said in a research note.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by James Macharia)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


business

How AC Group positioned itself as a IT solutions provider leader

Quantum computing will be a game changer for industries in the next few years, here’s why

Understanding the impact of artificial intelligence on SA businesses, jobs

Here’s why hiring more women is good for your business

How to make the digital world work for your business

Kountable platform plans to connect more businesses to new markets

What is Reputation Capital and why is it important?

Expats in Mumbai are the world’s highest-paid, earning over twice the global average

Nigerians speak out about their expectations of 2018

Lessons from Mauritius on making companies more accountable

Zimbabwe businesses warn Mugabe growing deficit could destabilise banks

How South African business can help government fix the economy

Op-Ed: Could True Caller eventually own your customer?

How to increase productivity without stress

Henok Assefa: Ethiopian entrepreneur on the rise

Op-Ed: #DataMustFall – providers to decide for themselves

South Africa’s low business confidence setback to growth recovery: Moody’s

News Tips

Advertise With Us

business

How AC Group positioned itself as a IT solutions provider leader

Quantum computing will be a game changer for industries in the next few years, here’s why

Understanding the impact of artificial intelligence on SA businesses, jobs

Here’s why hiring more women is good for your business

How to make the digital world work for your business

Kountable platform plans to connect more businesses to new markets

What is Reputation Capital and why is it important?

Expats in Mumbai are the world’s highest-paid, earning over twice the global average

Nigerians speak out about their expectations of 2018

Lessons from Mauritius on making companies more accountable

Zimbabwe businesses warn Mugabe growing deficit could destabilise banks

How South African business can help government fix the economy

Op-Ed: Could True Caller eventually own your customer?

How to increase productivity without stress

Henok Assefa: Ethiopian entrepreneur on the rise

Op-Ed: #DataMustFall – providers to decide for themselves

South Africa’s low business confidence setback to growth recovery: Moody’s

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletters