Open Letter to President Barak Obama- a Partnership for Africa to build Africa, for Africans

Dear Mr President,

The United States has and will be a major strategic partner of Africa for a long time.

In that context your recent visit is a good opportunity to analyse how the mutual interests of the USA and Africa can best be served.

You will have noticed that not everyone in Africa was happy to see you. In addition, certain factions operating on this continent represent a threat to your security interests. Those who are deprived (especially the young) see the United States as an oppressor whilst those who have, or are aspiring to, a better life find great inspiration in the American Way. 

Trade between USA and Africa is characterised by the export of commodities (mainly oil) from Africa to the USA and the import of manufactured goods and intellectual property in the opposite direction. This is not sustainable because it is heavily imbalanced, not in terms of value, but in terms of value added.

A striking feature of the post 2008 downturn is the path of the US recovery. Since 2009 the US has added 7 million jobs to the payroll, is now only 2 million jobs below the all-time 2008 peak, and is steadily raising employment levels monthly in excess of its labour force growth. The way in which this has happened represents a lesson for Africa in particular.

Despite an adverse investment climate, small to medium enterprises (SME’s) in post 2008 USA contribute just over 50% of your country’s GDP. Significantly, SMEs provide important opportunities for US citizens to develop entrepreneurial skills. In the USA the SME is a realisation of the American Dream for millions and SMEs are celebrated for their contribution to the development and growth of efficiency in the country, particularly where innovation, job generation, and international competitiveness are concerned.

Compare this to Africa where SMEs and the informal sector cannot participate in local, intra Africa, and international trade. On a continent where half or more of the population is under 25 years of age, in which Africa remains at 2.7 % of global trade whilst about 15% of the world's human population live here, this is a socio economic powder keg.

It is the extent to which the African economy is capacitated to celebrate, nurture and grow SMEs that will determine whether that powder keg can be defused.

And this, Mr President, is where you come in. The potential of SMEs to promote domestic-led growth in new and existing industries and to strengthen the resilience of the African economy in a competitive and challenging environment is inarguable. Growth in African employment leads to increasing markets for your country’s products and decreasing threats to your security. Key to this growth is the type of “yes we can” entrepreneurship which the hallmark of American SME’s. The abundance of African natural resources indicates that entrepreneurial efforts on this continent should be focussed on beneficiation. 

Whilst the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is significant, what it vividly reveals is the need for greater trade capacity assistance and the need to address "supply side" issues in Africa. The greatest potential to build local economic capacity which the US could make is in sharing technology through training to empower young entrepreneurs to convert our raw materials into products needed by American businesses to better serve their markets. This means that the AGOA ship needs to change course in the direction of business to business partnerships based on capacity building.

How about it, Mr President?

A Confluence of Opportunities

“One of the striking features of modern times is the emergence of men and women who have chosen the entire world as the theatre of their operations: we are the beneficiaries of this inspiring phenomenon”

Nelson Mandela, 9 April 1998 

Today’s global supply chains – a confluence of opportunities

Three trends provide significant opportunities for those in the business of managing global supply chains:

1. Pace of world economic recovery

Global recovery is a flat “U”, not a sharp “V”.

For those managing supply chains, this steady but slow upward trend means that cost effectiveness has become key. More than ever, winners are those who are able to achieve more with less.

If successful supply chain management is the optimal combination of infrastructure, processes, technology and people, then winners are those who bring these elements together with maximum output for minimum input.

Establishment of robust infrastructure, the harnessing of appropriate technology and the implementation of innovative and effective processes all require high levels of competency. As a result, salaries, wages and benefits are one of the most significant overheads for the supply chain manager, irrespective of the supply chain cluster or trade lane.

These high levels of expenditure on human capital mean that those who thrive are those who achieve the highest returns in this area.

2. Increasing pace of globalisation

Borders to international trade are crashing all around us. According to the World Trade Organisation, the value of world merchandise trade increased from USD 5.2 billion in 2002 to USD 17.2 billion in 2012 - a 231% increase. Considering the way individual country economies have slowed down, this is quite staggering.

To what may it be attributed?

Markets are seeking out the most competitive sources of supply. Any manufactured item –computers, motor vehicles, underwear for example – will be sourced from widely scattered global sources whist the end products may be sold in a number of other countries.

As expressed in a recent research paper:

“Supply chain execution and responsiveness require the tight synchcronisation of supply and demand, as well as the orchestration of the three flows of commerce – the movement of goods, information and funds – across an increasingly large number of logistics and trading partners spanning wide geographical areas.”

Aberdeen Research

Global trade is a highly specialised field: globalisation of supply chains creates an increasing demand for those who have the expertise and the systems to manage that inventory from the time an item is ordered from a supplier’s supplier until the time the manufactured product it is delivered to the final consumer in the manufacturer’s market or another country.

3. Increasing political, social and economic uncertainty

Strategic planning is no longer based on 3 – 5 year horizons (if it ever really was).

The agility needed to meet market demands that will constantly change at short notice is what distinguishes the winners in this dynamic environment.

The competitive edge thus resides in those organisations whose people are capacitated to achieve maximum flexibility from the supply chains which they manage.

The confluence of opportunity brought about  by these three trends can therefore only be exploited by those who have implemented a policy of continuous improvement through training.

Such a policy is:

•  designed and built for alignment to the organisation’s strategic objectives;
•  integrated throughout the organisation: across all divisions and at all levels;
•  visible to every employee as the pathway to advancement;
•  informed by individual gap assessments, the findings of which are consolidated into an annual plan and whose progress and achievements are reported and reviewed at top level;
• the responsibility of a C level executive.

Is there any higher priority needed to hone and sustain your organisation’s competitive edge? 

Important Milestone: Competencies for Competitiveness

In a previous post the table below was suggested as a framework to build the competency requirements of the organisation.   

	Technical	Soft Skills	Management	Company In house Systems and Procedures
Aware
Basic
Operational
Expert

Each column needs to be unpacked so that an individual company can select those competencies which are key to its competitiveness.

Some experience and more research have suggested the following “menus”:

Technical	Soft Skills	Management	Company in house Systems and Procedures: Role Specific
Contract Management	Strategic thinking	Enterprise Management	Accounting/ Finance
Compliance Management	Critical thinking	Group Management	Inventory
Risk Management	Thinking agility	Business Management	Payroll
Intellectual Property Management	Decision making	Functional Management	Customer Relationship Management
Logistics/  Return Logistics Management	Problem solving	Manage Managers	International Logistics
Financial Management	Negotiation	Manage Others	Statutory Compliance
Marketing Management	Emotional intelligence	Manage Self	End user computing (e.g. Microsoft Office etc.)
Warehouse Management	Self awareness
Procurement and Materials Management	Self-belief
Financial Management	Self-promotion
Human Capital Management	Stress management
	Communication
	Presentation / public speaking
	Technical writing
	Facilitating
	Mentoring / coaching
	Active listening
	Interviewing
	Selling
	Quality client service
	Team work
	Conflict resolution
	Networking/ Collaboration
	Cross-cultural intelligence

Each business is different: every company maintains and grows its competitiveness in different ways.

Now comes the interesting part:

• These menus need to be verified in terms of our own organisation. Best recommendation is to workshop. 
• Copy and paste these menus on to as many separate documents as there are position in the organisation. Then, for each position, tick off the competencies needed and ADD any which have been left out. These additions will most likely be needed under the “Technical” and “Company in house Systems and Procedures” pillars because these tend to be specific to a particular postion (i.e. role specific). There will be blurring between each pillar: this should not be a concern – what is more important is to capture all the competencies for each job under one of the pillars. Some of the competencies listed may need further unpacking (example: Warehouse Management may need to be specified in much more detail). There may well be competencies which have been listed here but which are not required. 
• The question which needs to be asked during these workshopping sessions is “In order for us to be as competitive as possible, what competencies does each person holding this position need?”
• In capturing these competencies try to ensure that, as far as possible, requirements do not only reflect the NOW of the position but what it will be in the next TWO TO THREE YEARS.
• Once all the competencies have been captured for each position, by indicating against each competency the LEVEL (Aware, Basic, Operational, Expert) at which that competency is required for that position, a competency profile for each position is created. 

This is an important milestone: the competency requirements have been objectively established for each position and they reflect our organisation.

Having obtained this vital information about the organisation, we need to find out, in future posts, how it can be used to turn our people into super performers. 

Does a methodology for creating competency hold values for your organisation?

If so, is it worth spending time in developing these?