Aligning C-Suites – Part 2
January 30, 2023 – I returned from a trip to some countries in southern Africa where I had met two kings, a prime minister, numerous ambassadors, dignitaries, politicians, and CEOs. I had emailed a few pictures to my colleagues throughout my travels. Upon my return to the office, one colleague asked, “How was Switzerland?”
“Switzerland? I went to Africa,” I said.
“I thought you said you went to Switzerland,” they replied. “You sent a picture of a ski resort.”
I started laughing. “I went to Swaziland*, not Switzerland. And that ski resort was in the country of Lesotho.”
This reminded me again that we cannot expect our colleagues to know a lot about Africa, or any new part of the globe we are considering expanding to. The world is a big place after all, and many companies are operating in 50-60 or more countries.
As mentioned in the previous post, it is crucial for our C-suite and leadership teams to be aligned and on board in order to be able to successfully start and grow operations in Africa.
Not only does each senior executive have different assumptions and stereotypes running through their head about Africa (usually all incorrect or outdated), they also have different concerns about Africa.
How you can help your colleagues understand the ins and outs of doing business in Africa differs per department. Here are three brief examples from my book, Africa: Open for Business:
1. Legal. While international law firms will have the trust of your legal department, few have any experience in Africa. Therefore, I always advise clients to work with local law firms who have affiliations with the international law firms their colleagues know and trusted. This offered the best of both worlds: local knowledge coupled with global network and reputation.
2. Finance. It is crucial that you know how your CFO thinks so you can address their concerns. For example, the CFO of one company was most concerned about repatriation of funds. He had to know that he could repatriate every single dollar that we invested immediately. For another, it was the auditors. Global auditors were the CFO’s comfort zone, but they often lack knowledge of the on-the-ground practices, so I found a local auditor that also worked for the embassies, airlines, and many of the global companies. I would arrange meetings and calls between our Finance team at HQ and our banks so our bankers could explain certain legislation or allay concerns.
When I worked in Uganda, it was customary to pay salaries in cash, since many employees did not have bank accounts. Understandably, the CFO was not comfortable with this, so we partnered with a local bank. They came to the office, they set up bank accounts for our employees, and they came in three months in a row to train staff in financial literacy and how to use their bank account and the bank’s services, including ATMs.
3. HR. Not every country in Africa speaks English, so bilingual contracts are often needed. In one country, headquarters (in a different part of the world) only allowed English-language contracts despite local regulations requiring bilingual employment contracts. Sure enough, the Department of Labor of that country came to visit our offices, as they do annually, and reviewed our HR documentation. They issued a warning notice because our contracts were not bilingual. I happily forwarded this to HQ, along with the quote from our lawyers to translate the contracts, which was now quickly approved.
It’s important to take the time to identify and then address the specific concerns our executives and colleagues have. They often haven’t had the benefit of visiting Africa and don’t know any business people from Africa.
Let’s be patient as we waylay the fears and outdated stereotypes our colleagues and executive teams may have of Africa.
And just maybe sharing this link to the AfriSki resort in Lesotho, will make them go “wow!!!”: https://www.facebook.com/resort.afriski/
* Swaziland is now known as eSwatini
Photo: taken from AfriSki’s 2020 rebranding video