Professor Porter, recognised as the father of the modern strategy field and ranked globally as the most influential thinker on management and competitiveness, will speak at the TEF programme’s session-ending events on Sunday afternoon, August 7, 2011.

Professor Porter will lead two strategy workshops with the interns and the host business CEOs in which they will discuss their projects and lessons from the programme before the group and receive feedback, thoughts and strategic consultation on the way forward. The sessions will include a focus on the industries represented in the 2011 programme—media, agriculture, private equity.

“Our African Markets Internship Programme combines two ingredients that could put Africa on the fast-track to transformation: top-tier students whose talents we bring to bear in the world’s fastest-growing markets and the world’s keenest business minds, such as Michael Porter, whose ideas have shaped national markets and triggered regional development,” said Founder of TEF and Chairman of Heirs Holdings Tony O. Elumelu, MFR. “It is unique in Africa.”

AMIP is a 10-week internship programme, pairing students from Africa’s top business schools with students from elite business schools in Europe and the United States. The interns participate in intensive, highly structured programmes at fast growing African owned firms.

In his keynote address, on “Creating Shared Value,” Porter will discuss his paradigms on operating business efficiently and solving social challenges, which can be applied to the 10-week projects the interns worked on, as well as work with the host businesses CEOs to think through strategies to overcome industry and environmental challenges in the different regions of the continent.

“Over the next few years, Africa will approach a turning point in its economic development,” Porter said. “Its key business leaders could reinvent capitalism on both a local and continental scale if they are able to unleash innovation to drive growth in this region’s economies. As such, the fate of Africa rests upon the shoulders of a new generation of entrepreneurs and visionary corporate leaders.”

According to Efe Odeleye, programme manager for TEF’s AMIP, “This new generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders can be found at both ends of AMIP, as interns and host businesses. They represent the diversity and depth of African innovation and talent, and also demonstrate the interest of top business students from outside the continent in making contributions to Africa’s growth through the private sector.”

This diversity can be observed through the different projects the interns have embarked on. Over her internship in Nigeria, Julia Otis, a Yale School of Management first year student, interned with NN24 where she undertook an extensive market study to determine the cable news station’s audience, reach and perception in their quest to become “the African CNN”. Julia has rolled her market study into broader analyses that projects NN24’s outlook, and makes recommendations to the management team on the way forward. CEO of NN24, Anthony Dara, called her work “critical, timely and key to redefining our image and honing our viewership base.”

In all, 11 host businesses in Lagos, Nigeria, Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya, all led by individuals in their thirties or forties, have added capacity, knowledge, and in some cases, financing to their businesses as a result of the programme. In Lagos, Brandeis University International Business School first-year student and banker, Azuka Okofu, helped his host business, E-Motion Advertising to close a multi-million dollar investment deal with the Swiss government. E-Motion controls prime advertising real estate along four kilometers of one of Lagos’ most valuable expressways that cuts through the heart of the commercial center, Victoria Island. “We could not have done it without him” remarked CEO Simdul Shagaya.

In Nairobi, Christian Haukaas, 2011 IESE graduate, worked with two of Kenya’s leading innovative young companies, Craft Silicon and Pamoja Media. Christian performed a market study and business plan consultancy for Craft Silicon, which provides backend business solutions for banking institutions in more than 30 countries worldwide. While at Pamoja Media, Christian has worked to construct an innovative mobile-accessible platform to help improve yields for smallholder farmers throughout Kenya. Joshua Wanyama, CEO of Pamoja and TED Fellow, has turned the web advertising agency into a multi-purpose firm, creatively bringing his company’s technical savvy to bear on Kenya’s agricultural realities.

Cameroonian AMIP intern, Zekebweliwai Geh, Harvard Kennedy School first year, who brings experience from his work at the IFC to Injaro Investments, a Ghanaian private equity firm with a presence in a few of West Africa’s English and French speaking countries. Zeke is working on deals that expand the number of impact investments in the region. “Zeke’s keen understanding of finance, dexterity with models, and holistic developmental underpinning is making him a effective team member when it comes to Injaro’s impact investment deals, regardless of whether they’re in in Ghana or Burkina Faso,” says Jerry Parkes, MD of Injaro Investments.

Harvard Business Review recently featured a blog from Tony O. Elumelu, MFR, “What Tomorrow’s Leaders Are Learning in Africa Right Now”, about TEF’s AMIP and the critical need for Africa to establish leadership in home markets first.

Through TEF and Heirs Holdings, Elumelu uses his experience and resources to spur African development. The internship programme, for example, seeks to infuse the private sector with business talent that serves African interests by using market tools to solve these problems while meeting demand in burgeoning markets.

“Professor Porter’s commentary and his ideas can only drive home the significance of the interns’ life-altering experiences, which included making executive presentations and contributing to decision making processes at host companies,” said the Foundation’s CEO, Dr. Wiebe Boer. “The internship creates a pipeline of talent to serve Africa’s interests and opens recruitment opportunities for African firms. The internship also takes on global significance. If the interns decide to leave Africa, their experiences will be transferable to emerging markets worldwide.”

…………

Original post from the World Stage Group website
Image from the Wharton Africa Business Forum

We recently asked this question to our fans on Facebook in trying to establish how exactly do we expect social media to affect the lives of Africans in the days to come. Main reason we focused on this continent is because Africa has managed to establish herself as the fastest growing technology destination and as marvel in connectivity growth with simple applications and mobile gadgets having enormous impact in everyday life. Recent statistics have shown that a majority of us access the Internet through our mobile phones and most of us will spend our time on social networks; with Facebook leading the pack.
Here was your verdict of the top 5 areas as at the time we were publishing this post….together with some of your comments:

Advertising and marketing for businesses – 28.3%
At 28.3%, most of the respondents said that they expected social media to provide a major marketing platform for brand and businesses to reach out to their audience. As one of the first online marketing agency focusing on reaching the African online audience, we can agree with this, but do point out that the rate of adoption has been rather slow. The next few months does promise to come with major changes as SMEs lead the way in flocking the online advertising scene.

Comark Onani – “I think social media will change the way media disseminate information, the way we transmit info will be more collaborative than produced by controlled sources. This is the beginning of capacity building in the African social sphere”

Connecting with friends and family – 24.3%
We actually expected this to be the biggest in terms of the impact of social media, surprised us by coming in second. 24.3% of the respondents vouching for this option, saying it has helped in cutting down the cost of travel and communication through traditional media such as telephone calls. It was also noted that social media has enabled Africans in the diaspora to be in-touch with their families back home with much ease with more interactivity beyond audio only. The capability of social media platforms to easily support images, video and other multimedia is highly accredited for this.

Evans Gikunda – “the aspect of advertising and marketing for business using social media hasn’t been harnessed fully in Africa so I think its impact is more on connecting.”

Enabling Africans tell their own story – 23%
The influence of bloggers and people in the social media scene is unchallenged in a well-connected society. Reviews, travel stories, personal dairies, Twitter, YouTube videos and even photography site such as AfricaKnows are presenting a whole new angle with regards to information about Africa. The platforms are helping get information out of the once ‘dark continent’. Breaking news as well as cultural information is easily spread to the rest of the world. Social media basically provides Africa a ‘chance to set the record straight’ as one of the respondents put it.

Chris Orwa “The drop in prices of Internet connection has increased the number of Africans using social media and an outburst of blogs, this will greatly impart Africans telling their own stories and putting it online. The advent of micro-blogging sites like twitter and foursquare has lead to an African generation that document their lives online.”

Politics – 10.8%
As usual when mentioning this subject, the reference goes back to the same cases; Tunisia, Egypt, Liberia and a number of Arab countries that recently saw uprisings against oppressive regimes by protests and rallies organized mainly using social media platforms. Nigeria (the most populous nation in Africa) is about to hold its elections this year and the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan has set a precedence of how to use an Internet presence in campaigning. With a Wikipedia page, a website (www.goodluckjonathan2011.com) and even an impressive Facebook page (with over half a million fans) we can easily say he has been one of the most serious guys to use the Internet in selling his vision for an an African country.

Brian Mungei – “I also wonder how politics will play out…think the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. Fore-sightly, will it have the same effect in Kenyan politics in 2012 like it did in Nigeria?”

Managing Knowledge in Africa – 6.8%
Information accessibility has always been an issue in a continent whose literacy levels have been one of the lowest in the world. Google and other search engines have provided a major tool for accessing information. Now with the advent of cloud computing tools integrated with social media capabilities; storing, sharing and managing knowledge has become easier and more effective. Local African experiences and stories and shared for people to learn from them and add their ideas. A good example are online collaborative sites include the Climate Exchange Network for Africa (CENA) platform. CENA (a Rockefeller funded project) enables ordinary farmers to connect and share with researchers and university professors on farming practises, issues that affect the climate and climate change resilience efforts.

Eric Mugendi Nyagah – “There is so much in terms of content and knowledge that social media can bring to the African people, like getting information from people in their networks that they would not otherwise have access to. And sharing stories of Africa by Africans”

How do YOU think social media will impact Africa? – Log into Facebook and take part in the poll here, or drop us an email (joshua@pamojamedia.com) to find out on how we think social media will impact you and your business.

The GPC offers a world-level platform to share best practices and develop collaborative strategies in areas of community service, education, health care, water resource management, disaster response, and conflict resolution, guided by a vision of One Family under God. This convention was held from 17th – 21st November, 2010 at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, Kenya.

(Video courtesy of gpservicealliance’s Channel on YouTube)

Hi folks, am sure most of you have been wondering why we had cut down on the posts for the past few days…well, we actually have no excuse for that at the moment. But on the bright side, Pamoja Media East Africa now has a new home! It’s now almost 2 years since we set up a presence in Kenya and our family has seen a steady growth in talent, ideas and opportunities. We are happy with the new convenient location that now makes it much easier and faster for you to access our offices from the city centre than previously. The entire team loves the new offices. We have all been pledged to play around with the bigger space in developing even more innovative online marketing campaigns for you….We appreciate the support and business you have accorded to us.

Give us a call, lets set a time for the site visit. We will be honored by your presence!

We promise to post a few photos later on.

Centres for Health Solutions (CHS) Kenya is a newly-registered Kenyan NGO whose goal is to strengthen public health programs with specific emphasis on HIV prevention care and treatment, TB and malaria. The organization recently held its official launch (on February 25th, 2011)  in Nairobi and was attended by CHS partners who included government officials, local and international NGOs, the corporate sector partners, institutions of higher learning and the media among others.

Pamoja Media worked with CHS Kenya to increase its presence online through the development of an dynamic and scalable website that will allow people to easily find information about the organization and the great work they are doing. The CHS Kenya website (www.chskenya.org) covers the organizational objectives and provides a platform for people to participate in promoting their activities by donating or volunteering to their cause.  Read the whole story here

On Thursday 24th February 2011, the Capital Markets Authority of Kenya (CMA) launched a report on Impact Investing on ICT in the East African region. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation (who we currently working with on developing an online platform for Climate Exchange Network for Africa), the CMA established a task force whose main work was to look at the current situation and identify the areas to focus on to enable the region overcome existing barriers to SMEs accessing funds for executing ICT projects. Recommendations that offer solutions to the predicaments highlighted in the report in-order to boost investments in small ICT ventures with huge potential were presented.

Why the fuss about Impact Investing? This is basically where an investor will pro-actively seek investments that generate both financial as well as specific social or environmental return. Such investments are expected to go a long way in changing the lives of people in the region through offering technological solutions to everyday problems and having a financial benefit to the investors and enterprenuers. The main objectives such investments usually include:

• Increase incomes and assets of the poor
• Improve basic welfare for people in need
• Mitigate climate change

Headed by Richard Bell, the East Africa ICT Impact Investing Project task-force has successfully completed intensive research and brainstorming and have finally presented a very comprehensive report that covers legislative changes, details on fast-tracking and enhancing the growth of incubation and angel investors.

You can download the full report in pdf here: Impact Investment Challenges Opportunities in the East Africa ICT Sector

We have been running a logo competition for the Climate Exchange for Africa (CENA) project which is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. The project brings together different organizations within the agricultural space in East Africa to come up with ways to build climate resilience thus benefiting the small holder farmer.

Please click on this link below vote for a design that you like and help us come up with a great mark for the network. Thanks.

The‭ ‬18th of November‭ ‬2010‭ ‬saw the first ever CIO 100‭ ‬awards take place at the exclusive Safari Park Hotel where the top ICT personalities and organizations were recognized for their contribution.‭ ‬The CIO100‭ ‬is a premier awards event that brings to the limelight the innovation and hard work done by Chief Information Officers‭ (‬CIOs‭) ‬in the East Africa region in improving the communication and interactive processes in the organization to add business value and I was privileged to be one of the judges.

‎“‏It has been a very interesting journey for the CIO‭ ‬100‭ ‬team,‭ ‬we have seen excellent applications from various companies across East Africa,‭ ‬and I can confirm to you that businesses in the region are now starting to look at ICT very strategically,‭”‬ said Harry Hare,‭ ‬Publisher CIO East Africa‭ (‬www.cio.co.ke‭) ‬the organizers of the event.

The event was kicked off by a golf tournament that was followed by a‭ ‬3-day symposium that saw the participants and eventual winners make presentations and showcase the impressive and innovative ways in which they had implemented IT in solving some of their business problems.‭ ‬The main event was the dinner gala that saw Safaricom,‭ ‬Kenyatta University,‭ ‬AAR Health Services Tanzania,‭ ‬Makerere University,‭ ‬Nairobi Stock Exchange and Equity Bank emerge as‭ ‬the some of big winners of the inaugural CIO100‭ ‬Awards Competition.

Some of the guys who have made it work…

The main thing that caught my eyes was that many of the impressive technologies submitted by the companies and were in the finalist were mainly mobile-based.‭ ‬Safaricom’s M-Pesa emerged victorious as not just been innovative,‭ ‬but having positively impacted both Safaricom as a company and its more than‭ ‬3‭ ‬million users.‭ ‬M-Pesa has changed the way people do business today by making payments easy and convenient. ‭

‬The NSE was also recognized for implementing the Automated Trading System‭ (‬ATS‭) ‬making it one of the most advanced stock trading houses in the region.‭ ‬But what caught our eyes was the third placed M-Kesho technology.‭ ‬Close as‭ ‬2nd runners‭ ‬up was M-Kesho by Equity Bank which takes the advent of mobile money to a new level by integrating M-Pesa with its banking services thus allowing M-Pesa users to have and run bank accounts through their mobile phones.‭ ‬It morphs the new and the old to bring‭ ‬mobility,‭ ‬mobile banking and traditional banking to its customers.‭

Coca Cola East‭ & ‬Central Africa bagged the manufacturing sector category based on their submission of the new mobile based system developed by Virtual City that seeks to streamline their chain of distribution.‭ ‬This is basically the same application that emerged top at the Nokia Apps competition earlier in the year.‭ ‬Kenyatta University was mainly recognized for its implementation of the smart cards for students and staff but with one had to‭ ‬mention the use of mobile technology by students in accessing information such as fee balance.‭ ‬and exams results.

Think about it…

I can write an entire series to highlight and mention numerous case studies on how organizations in Kenya‭ (‬and Africa as a whole‭) ‬have successfully used mobile technology in increasing efficiency in their business processes.‭ ‬The above are classic examples of how African companies and industries are coming of age in implementing technology to increase business value and CRM‭ (‬Client Relations Management‭)‬.‭ ‬Its impressive how much mobile technology have been adopted across the continent but at the same time its rather heart breaking to count how many other firms are still promoting Neo-Luddism‭ ‬by taking a back-step in the moving forward with technology.

This blog post was only meant to open the minds of company executives in Africa to the possibilities of technology and show that it can be done rather well in Africa.‭ ‬the diverse industries shown in the examples above are a testimony‭ ‬of how easily technology can be adapted into the different organizations in diverse sectors ranging from education‭ (‬Kenyatta University)‬,‭ ‬banking and finance‭ (‬Equity Bank‭) ‬and even manufacturing and consumer products‭ (‬Coca Cola EA‭)‬.‭ ‬According to the reports from the event‭ ‬organizers,‭ ‬a‭ whopping ‬29%‭ ‬of the entire projects submitted relied on mobile and wifi technology either partially or entirely for their successful implementation.

What is your organization doing to tap into this new territory that will help take your firm to new heights in terms of business process efficiency and sales lead generation‭?

Tell us about your digital marketing agency, Pamoja Media.

“Pamoja” is a Swahili word for “together.” I started Pamoja Media in the U.S. with my business partner, Benin Brown. Our initial idea was to create an African ad network for marketers who were thinking to reach out to Africans in the Diaspora and on the continent. We thought that if we could monetize more of the African inventory that exists out there, maybe we could improve the African economy by increasing the value of trading online.

But when I came back home to Kenya, I ended up discovering how the web is treated differently than in the U.S. Over here, most people start and end their web experiences on social platforms like Facebook and hi5. Corporations and government are not really using the web effectively. For example, we don’t have an automated payment system in most of Africa. We don’t have ways that people can actually use the web so they can leverage the functions of government — public services and things like that. So the original Pamoja Media model did not work out. We found that we could not market a website when people can’t do anything on those sites. That’s not a sustainable business model.

So the thing that we needed to start addressing was building the capacity for corporations, organizations, and maybe government to be able to look at the web a little differently. The web should be a platform where they can move processes, reduce costs, and serve a greater number of people efficiently. We ended up incorporating online strategy, creative development of some of the solutions we offer, online PR, social media marketing, media buying and placement.

I think Pamoja has the best of both worlds: Benin and I have seen how the web works in the U.S. I’d say the web here in Africa is about how it was in the West in 2002 or 2003. So we’ve actually seen the process of what’s happened in the West in terms of automation, efficiency, web 2.0 and all those things. With that in hindsight, we’re able to advise our clients a little better.

Read more of this interview with Joshua Wanyama on the TEDBlog.

A while back, I had an interesting discussion with a client with regards to the best way for her organization to have a an effective digital footprint. Our meeting went on well as we covered Internet strategy, website design and content, SEO and online advertising . But come social media and major doubts came into play. “I know its important but not at the moment. We need to focus on selling the product and reaching more clients.” was the response. As an online PR and marketer, I felt this was a challenge and decided to try and answer some of the main questions to help clear the the name of social media, of which business executives already consider a grey area.

So here goes:

Social Media is time consuming and labor intensive:
No one understands the company brand and products better than the company employees and if they can not talk about it, then there is a big possibility no one else will. We find many companies that ‘block’ their employees from accessing social sites so that they spend more time working but in essence we are just keeping most of the information and facts about your brand or product bundled up within the organization’s walls. I suppose thats not good for business right?
Well, with the correct strategy on time, content and target metrics, a company can be able to provide a good customer relation management through social media using minimal resources and time. Updates, responses and posts can be done in a scheduled and regular manner that even the clients can get accustomed to. The most important thing will be to ensure consistency so as to earn the trust of your audience and hence gain more followers who know what to expect and when. But most importantly, how to get in-touch with you.

Basic function of social media is to reflect what’s on my company website:
What ever is said on social media platforms can be said on the website using even more words and explanation with even better results; This is a lie. Yes, social media can not replace the use and effectiveness of a website in some areas but it presents the personal side of the company. Its pretty hard to reach the hearts of your clients when the communication is analogue.
With social media, its more of a digital dialogue that has the potential to be replicated and shared by other people. This is basically getting a thumbs up from your audience to others who will most likely be directed back where you want them; your website. An effective use of social media to increase traffic to your website and generate online conversations about your brand is dependent on the social media strategy execution plan put in place.

Measuring ROI and Impact of social media is complicated and is usually inconclusive:
Two ways, qualitative and quantitative measure of success and impact. Under the qualitative measure of social media and online PR, you need to determine the areas to be measured that is, corporate reputation, conversations or customer relationships, get benchmark questions on the current situation then come up with the questions to measure the success.
Quantitative measures of a successful social media campaign will include number of new followers/friends joining the company page/accounts, amount of mentions and links shared, retweets and level of increased traffic to the company website generated from the social sites.

The African online scene is still too young and immature:
I think the question should be “What does the future hold for social media in Africa so that I can invest my company resources in it?” The leading countries in terms of social media presence and use in Africa are South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt with each contributing in its own way via mobile, videos, blogs and popular micro-blog topics. The continent has created some impressive social media presence through user generated content that originate from social media platform such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and YouTube. Uganda produced its first viral video this year and Kenya has had more than three global Trending Topics under its belt but just to mention a few as there are many more examples we could list.

Its evident and quit understandable that many corporates in Africa still view social media as time consuming and an unnecessary undertaking. At the same time, many other organizations are setting up an online presence without fully understanding the benefits that can be achieved by the endless opportunities created by having a detailed and well structured strategy. At Pamoja Media, we offer a fully integrated social media and online PR expertise to unlock the endless opportunities that social media provides as an invaluable customer relations and management tool.