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Context is king for Africa’s business consultants

Africa doesn’t need another consultant… says the career consultant. But I think this statement is true for various reasons. The African consulting landscape comprises global and local consultants who position themselves as experts in subject matter, innovative thinkers, corporate entrepreneurs and so much more. They sit in client offices/businesses, professing they have what it takes to turn your business around ad nauseum. Why don’t they leverage their expertise to set up their own enterprises? There are, of course, those who have been responsible for the development of viable businesses over the last couple of years, such as Deloitte’s Innovation Centre.

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Delving into the African truth

To truly get to grips with marketing to the modern African consumer it is essential to realise that you are appealing to a “peculiar” audience. Throw away the theories and rules that you thought you knew and spend more time studying the behaviour of these consumers. “It is no longer about building a product or marketing it, it is about building solutions to answer the real African problem and productising these solutions,” says Allen Kambuni of Kenyan-based Bean Interactive. Speaking at a recent Pan African Media Organisation (PAMRO) conference held in Lagos, Nigeria, Kambuni challenged the audience —…

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Interview with Pepe Marais

Co-founder and owner of South Africa’s largest independent advertising firm Joe Public, Pepe Marais’s recently published book Growing Greatness is part autobiography, part account of the rise, fall and rise of Joe Public, and part how-to guide to discovering the deeper purpose of a business. Tracey McDonald proposed I write a book about entrepreneurship. One of my firm beliefs is that you can’t close the poverty gap in SA without creating more entrepreneurs…[so] the broader intention of this book was to inspire people towards entrepreneurship. But there is a deeper reason behind the book, and that is to inspire any…

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