Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think

Vijay Mahajan, author of The 86 Percent Solution: How to Succeed in the Biggest Market Opportunity of the 21st Century, and eight other titles brings us a wonderfully balanced view of Africa. Decades ago, Mahajan, a US marketing professor from India predicted his home country's future success that we see today. Now, he does the same with "Africa Rising." The author discusses how much of the world views Africa as a charity case, rather than a market opportunity with more than 900 million consumers. Various market segments are explored in this text, including: food, clothing, medicine, shelter, cell phones, bicycles, automobiles, education, water, and more. Colorful photos are also included. Such areas like the media, advertising, and entertainment [and Nigeria's booming film industry, termed, "Nollywood"] were also outlined with detailed examples of growth sectors. This book is highly recommended for Africanists, Marketers, Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, Students, and more. Some large firms, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Guinness, have already taken full advantage of the African arena, with not only their products, but with clever advertising systems for repeat business and culturization. As a Master of Business, I found this text to be truly enlightening, and hope that others will take part in the growth and sustainability of Africa's economy.

So as the accolades and awards rolled in for "The 86% Solution," his 2005 book about how companies reach the billions of consumers in emerging markets, Mahajan was busy filling in the gap. "I was feeling very uncomfortable because I was not finding much on Africa, and my consulting and teaching rarely took me there," the University of Texas marketing professor said in an interview. "Toward the end of the book, around 2003 and 2004, I could feel something was going on in Africa. I said, 'My God, I have to really dive into this.' " After four years of research, dozens of 4 a.m. phone calls and thousands of frequent-flier miles, Mahajan put his misgivings to rest with "Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think." The book builds on many of the conclusions Mahajan reached in "The 86% Solution": Emerging markets, even in the nascent stages, can deliver healthy returns for a company that takes time to understand local customers, the products they want and need and how and where they purchase them. The message was easy enough to digest when examples came from India and China, each a booming economy with plenty of positive press and hundreds of multinational companies paving the way. With Africa, Mahajan has a harder sell, especially given the endless stories of war, malnutrition, corrupt regimes and poor health care. One executive quoted in the book derisively called the West's constant, negative media coverage "CNN Africa." Yet "Africa Rising" comes at what could be a threshold point in the continent's economic history. Per-capita income in many countries is higher than in China and India, Mahajan writes, and the steady development of African markets could help foster an atmosphere that encourages political stability and entrepreneurial frenzy. In many respects, Mahajan argues, Africa currently resembles India and China before their emergence. "Whatever is happening in India and China, those stories are the best things to happen to Africa," Mahajan said. "Even Africa feels if these two countries can do, we can do." Of course, no single book can dispel the deep-seated picture of the continent, but Mahajan does offer a credible counterpoint with numerous anecdotes about successful multinational companies and local entrepreneurs. For all the barriers to running a business -- and this book doesn't sugarcoat the fact that many exist -- a growing pool of middle-class consumers in Africa offers a lucrative opportunity. Those challenges and opportunities can be one and the same. A company ultimately must address the wants and needs of its customers, Mahajan writes. Coca-Cola, for example, built an extensive distribution network to reach some of the smallest towns throughout much of the continent. It uses the same network to deliver condoms in an effort to help limit the spread of AIDS. It also built a factory in Nigeria that can supply ice to its local vendors during power outages. Moncef Belkhayat took a differe

At this time, November of 2008, The US is in the midst of a severe financial crisis. People are worried about how bad things will get. And, for those who follow such things, there are problems everywhere in the world, including the developing world. Africa has been down for so long, I'm not sure what people think. I have followed Africa for 20 years, mostly through the World Service of the BBC. It can be a dismal place. What is interesting is how well the economic development of Africa has been working. This book is worth a three hour investment. It is partly dry statistics, but it is also very human stories of progress. It's all about how the rich in Africa are fine, but the middle is developing, and the bottom often works better than people would think. It's about what makes Africa unique, but it's also obvious that Africa is tied to the rest of the world. It seems the China and India are doing the best of job of investing in Africa. This might give people pause, since there are 900 million people, and the population might double in this century. No one can say how bad the world economic downturn will be, but eventually things will turn up. This is a good balance to the narrow concerns about Terrorism. Africa has a lot of states where people are Muslim, mostly in the North. If Africa develops, there is a lot less chance that it will be extremist. There are a lot of lessons in this book about what people want. It can be difficult to reconcile where Africa is going, in terms of credit and banking, consumerism, with the excesses in America right now. The world clearly needs a balance of economic growth, sound financial policies, and hard choices about the environment. This book is great on the first area. Ultimately, this book is a message of hope. It's well worth the read.

All my life, I have been reading and hearing about the plight of Africa. Wars, famine, plague, genocide, poverty and despair have always been the main news stories emerging from the continent since the end of colonialism. Two award-winning films about areas in Africa in recent years, "Hotel Rwanda" and "The Last King of Scotland" both dealt with genocidal regimes and the violent deaths of millions. Therefore, it was a great pleasure to read this book, which has a very positive message about the continent. Until I read this book, I had no idea that ten nations on the African continent have a per capita Gross National Income (GNI) higher than the People's Republic of China (PRC) and an additional eight have a GNI higher than that of India. When you factor in that the PRC and India are considered to be emerging global economic powerhouses, then this is an incredible statistic. Given that the population of Africa is on average the youngest in the world, then there is a physical and economic dynamic that is almost unknown to the broad population of the westernized nations. This combination means that there are incredible opportunities for opening new markets provided they are suitably modified to appeal to the local populations. Which are extremely diverse and sometimes very conservative. For example, marketing personal hygiene products to young women in Muslim countries is a very delicate issue due to religious restrictions. There is also the problems of political instability, lack of legal traditions, tribal hostilities and barriers due to limited physical infrastructure. Nevertheless, entrepreneurship will in most cases win out over what appear to be insurmountable odds, which is what is happening in Africa. Clearly, there is an enormous and largely untapped market in Africa that can be successfully entered by anyone with the courage, intelligence, capital and knowledge of local cultural mores. This book will not give you all of these things, but it will show you how many companies and individuals are transforming the continent into a rising economic powerhouse. You will be impressed by the initiative and originally that is driving this movement.

Congratulations to Professor Vijay Mahajan on an excellent book about the entrepreneurs in Africa that are creating jobs and improving the quality of life in Africa. I especially appreciated the author's emphasis on marketing in his book. I have been waiting for an author to write a book like Professor Vijay Mahajan has. Thank you Professor Vijay Mahajan. Pasted below is an Africa Rising book review I found of interest. "Business Books: Africa's need is good for business", Book Review by Clar Ni Chonghaile, Reuters, 9.11.08, Africa may be a needy continent but this need offers rich rewards for businesses that are daring, innovative and flexible enough to grapple with poor infrastructure, underdeveloped markets and volatile politics. This is the premise of a new book, "Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Can Offer More Than You Think" (Wharton School Publishing, $29.99). Author Vijay Mahajan, who holds the John P. Harbin Centennial Chair in Business at McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, debunks traditional stereotypes about a continent that is starting to beep ever louder on the radars of global investors. His book, published this month, is built around interviews with African and expatriate business people across the continent, including producers of consumer goods, alcohol, soft drinks, airline firms and retailers. "(Many entrepreneurs) were tired of the media reporting too many negative stories about Africa ... if something happened in one country, all Africa was on fire. They were saying 'how come our story doesn't get out?"' he told Reuters in an interview. High commodity prices, greater political stability in many countries, fewer wars, better communications and economic growth of around 6.5 percent have helped lure new investment, often from China and other emerging countries, primarily for resources such as oil and gas. Mahajan says Africa's 900 million plus people in 53 countries offer much as a market -- they need to eat, they need clean water, clothing and medicine and they want cell phones, bicycles and computers. If Africa were a single country, according to World Bank data, it would have had $978 billion total gross national income in 2006, placing it ahead of India. "You cannot ignore that chunk ... if you are a company that has ambitions of being global," he told Reuters. But you have to be nimble. "HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT" His book is at its best when it exposes the nitty-gritty of marketing, distributing and selling in African countries. He cites the example of Zimbabwean company Innscor which operates the restaurant chain Steers in that country. Short of foreign exchange, it got into crocodile farming and became one of the world's biggest producers of crocodile meat and skins. In Zambia, he writes, Gillette put some 18,000 young men on bicycles to sell small cards with five of its inexpensive double-edged blades -- they took the product all over the country, increasing sales fro