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Doing business in Africa, strategy, leadership.

The case is intended for use in MBA and Executive Education courses in Strategy, Business in Africa and Leadership.

This case study examines the growth of the Dangote Group in Nigeria and its ambitious expansion across Africa. Driven by the visionary leadership and energy of founder, President and CEO Aliko Dangote himself, the rise of the Dangote Group also represents the changing geopolitics of the African region. A true conglomerate, the company dominates every niche in which it operates. Best known for its cement, Dangote is also active in sectors as diverse as pasta, real estate and steel. It has expanded into the oil industry and is building a refinery in Nigeria, an oil-producing state that imports most of its fuel requirements because of inadequate refining capacity. The Dangote Group serves as an example of true African capitalism, representing the new and somewhat nuanced style of doing business in Africa, which involves undertaking capital intensive projects; using unique methods, management approaches, technologies and innovations; leveraging state connections for business advantage; and understanding the growing need for local partners or local content in new markets across the continent.

Students should gain insights into various business strategies in Africa, contextual leadership intelligence and the role of institutions when doing business in Africa.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This case study applies the scanning of marketing environment (i.e. typology of marketing environments); strategic marketing planning process, involving SWOT analysis, growth strategies; and marketing mix (four ps).

This is modeled as a qualitative study. Primary data were collected through a phone interview with the key informants, and secondary data came from various publications such as government reports, news portals and company websites.

Ghacem was the first cement manufacturing company in Ghana and had enjoyed a monopoly for almost 33 years. The company offered a homogeneous product to an undifferentiated market from 1967 until competition began in 2000. New competitors promote the use of cement grade numbers on their product packaging to signal a better value, which intensified the competition. As the Head of Marketing of the company, Benny was asked to develop a marketing strategy for the company’s newly developed product for the company to remain competitive.

Undergraduate students taking Principles of Marketing.

The essence of formulating an effective strategy should be dependent on a company’s understanding of its operating environment. The implementation of a unique and effective strategy in an indigenous and competitive business environment will result in a competitive advantage. Drawing on the models that reduce uncertainty in business organisations, this chapter examines the dynamics of indigenous strategic management practices in Africa using Dangote Cement in Nigeria and Equity Bank in Kenya as case studies. The conceptual framework of this chapter presents the synthesis of strategic management practices in Africa; a global perspective and emphasis on Africa and as a result of which emerging organisations adopt these management practices and findings from both organisations. We discuss the tenacity of Dangote Cement entrepreneurial understanding of the Nigerian political, social and economic environment and its effective government relationship. This chapter examines the challenges and trends of strategic management practices in Africa and the key success factors in doing business in Africa, despite the depth of challenges in a business environment that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. We discuss Equity Bank’s stakeholder management practices, strategic leadership and its inclusive business model, developed to enhance financial inclusion and access to available and attractive financial services for those at the bottom of the pyramid. Significantly, we argue that to succeed in Africa, businesses must understand the dynamics of strategic leadership, the cultural context of the operating environment, stakeholder management and include the social dimension of business in their business strategy.

This chapter addresses the need to evaluate the outcomes of extractive companies in the mining industry’s behaviours in terms of CSR expectations of the host communities as perceived by the indigenous peoples themselves. Employing Dangote Cement Company Plc as a case study, questionnaires were conducted using a Likert-type scale on the immediate host communities of the company. Chi-squared, Kolmogorov–Smirnov normality test and t-test distribution were employed for the study. The result is that the impact of CSR of the company on the host communities, as perceived by the indigenous peoples, is abysmally low on economic, environmental, philanthropy and legal perspectives. The implications are discussed.

Entrepreneurship.

This case is designed for teaching entrepreneurship at master’s level. Depending on students’ interests and exposure levels however, it can be applied to teaching undergraduate entrepreneurship courses that are taken after at least the two basic entrepreneurship courses.

Nigeria’s tomato industry is one of the most dysfunctional in the entire nation’s economy. Although the country is West Africa’s largest tomato producer, nearly half of the produced tomatoes rot on the way to the market, which makes Nigeria heavily reliant on imported tomato paste. Amidst growing concerns among stakeholders of the need to address the dysfunction of the tomato industry, Tomato Jos emerged as the earliest social impact venture in the tomato paste industry. Nigeria’s changing macro-economic conditions clearly call for a tomato processing industry and the entry of Tomato Jos is well timed. Within a span of two years, the company successfully raised $600,000 in equity, debt and grant financing that has catered for start-up expenses and expansion to 150 hectares of farmland. The company plans on raising an additional $25m to cater for their planned Stage III growth. Amidst growing excitement over the entry of Tomato Jos in the industry with a social enterprise, Africa’s top business tycoon, Aliko Dangote, announced entry into the tomato processing industry with a major tomato processing facility in the same region as Tomato Jos. The Dangote Group of companies is seen as very tough competition to contend with, due to their sheer size, political leverage and financial capital. This case study primarily teaches how multiple aspects of start-up entrepreneurship may be handled rather than being taught separately as is often the case in mainstream business education. Entrepreneurs in the field rarely confront real challenges in this way. This case study introduces a practice of teaching a collection of key aspects of entrepreneurship, their nuances and inter-relationships in an integrated fashion.

The overarching objective of this case is to teach students how to interpret the shifts in industry position resulting from the entry of an important competitor within the larger context of growing a social venture. At the end of the case study analysis, students will be able to analyze the effects of changing forces and conditions in a country’s business environment on a start-up social enterprise; interpret the shifts in a venture’s industry position after the entry of an important competitor; identify appropriate funding sources and financing strategies to fuel the growth of a social enterprise; identify areas of a start-up’s business model that need improvement and/or iteration to support faster growth; and develop an effectuation-based strategy for a growing venture.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.