Business Development Consulting in Africa

Cross-border and greenfield investments are increasing in Africa; advising companies and entrepreneurs wishing to embark on an exciting journey of investment and life across Africa is essential to increasing the number of successful multinational companies in Africa. A fundamental element for more multinational companies to successfully spread across Africa, such as Dangote Cement, Naspers, UBA, MTN, Orange, Ecobank, etc., is business development consultancy. They are essential to guide and assist these businesses and entrepreneurs to establish, develop, and expand their operations across Africa.

 

The first step towards achieving this goal is to penetrate the new market by facilitating market entrance, which is feasible given the specificities of your product. A product attractive to customers has 3 characteristics, giving pleasure, solving a problem, saving/earning money.  Shaping your product to be desirable in the market is an inevitable step in your strategy to attract customers.

Therefore, the business development consultant must define the product refinement strategy to motivate sales. A good product establishes a brand, and with the right strategy, sales can be created. For example, Rolls Royce or Maybach can increase their sales by offering an artwork such as a cigar box at a similar price to their cars, made of high-quality wood encrusted with precious metal. These companies can double their sales as the car they sell is the price of two cars. Offering an innovative and exclusive product in order to establish a corporate brand increases the value of the company; an excellent product with a good strategy establishes a brand, that positively impacts a company's market share. Creating, refining, and improving a product to meet customer expectations is the creative part of business development that I admire the most. It also shows your understanding of the market.

 

A good knowledge and understanding of the African country adapted to your investment is necessary; we know that Africa is an emerging market by specificity, not by wealth. Therefore, a key element of a business development strategy will be to ensure the establishment of a brand while creating sales, because "a business that does not sell will close its doors." These are the medium-term results after the establishment of their operations that a business consultancy must obtain for companies.

Penetrating the African market requires the know-how of that specific market; having the right strategy to establish your business is essential. For example, Vodafone failed in Nigeria with a contract SIM card, but some time later MTN succeeded with a prepaid SIM card; BBM collapsed, but WhatsApp has succeeded. Identifying the business opportunity comes down to making "the right move at the right time" or being patient to make "the right move at the right time" when the market is mature. Building strong partnerships is key to sharing the risks of greenfield investments. By gaining a comparative advantage in focusing on your core actions based on your skills and strengths, you can create safe investments by establishing such partnerships with well-established companies and streamlining your supply chain operations. All these actions are based on market research and analysis in order to have the right tool to build a solid and successful business in Africa.

 

Technologies such as business intelligence make it possible to analyze and identify with accuracy the weakest links in the structure of your company, identify lack of productivity, inadequate business segments, and operational dysfunctions. Business intelligence improves analysis for better decision-making. With the help of technology, business development is more efficient by improving operations and productivity. Creating such efficiency for a business will result in increased sales, which leads to success: "the more you sell, the more you succeed." While technology is a major asset in growing your business and achieving tremendous results, let's not forget that most African countries are facing huge youth unemployment, so choosing a labor, technology and agricultural intensive investments must be a priority for governments. Moreover, an overhaul of education systems to produce the necessary skills is a challenge on the continent; education systems must adapt to the technological revolution. A company can develop rapidly in Africa, especially with the observed improvements of the business landscape, which is why young people must be equipped from school to be the driving force of business scalability in Africa. In Africa, a business can grow quickly, the product offering must then adapt to the needs of customers. Isn't it true that Apple, in addition to selling computers, also offers telephony and high-tech accessories?

Effectively equipping businesses to conquer new markets in Africa is an incredible task where one encounters various industries, from mining, renewable energy, media, tourism, agriculture, construction,... it's an amazing multicultural journey with many features.

 

Africa is a multi-faceted continent where politics plays a vital role in business (to be considered), great efforts are being made by African states to create adequate business environments, and government agencies such as IDC in South Africa have a framework to support companies wishing to expand their operations across Africa. Africa is a vast field for investment; African states and regional organizations should help African businesses by putting in place appropriate measures such as tax incentives and facilitating financing to capture this thriving African market, which will develop intra-African trade and investment. The return on investment in Africa is still one of the highest in the world, so the development of Africa relies on the desire of corporations to expand across their borders and the actions of African governments to help their private sectors.

 

 

 

Marius C. Oula