It's becoming a common thing these days for South Africans to say "screw this, I've had it with this third-world crap, I'm heading somewhere I'm appreciated". Especially younger, white South Africans.
Most of them head towards London. Some to the US. Many to Australia. Sometimes they come back, often they don't, and become so arrogant about their right to a "first-world lifestyle" that they regularly cite how hopeless their prospects are in SA's economy - while they continue to buy expensive imported South African goods in shops abroad, and write longing poems about how they miss the great weather, rugby and braais.
"There's no way I'm going to give up earning pounds, I'd be stupid not to use this opportunity" is what one usually hears. "I can't earn even a third of what I'm currently earning if I were back in SA" is another. I usually keep quiet when I hear this…
Over the last while, I've been looking at a few interesting and very lucrative business models which make me chuckle when I consider the box within which these ex-pats think. I also per chance read a paper that CK Prahalad and Stuart Hart wrote back in 2002.
My thinking: There is a #!$@-load of money to be made in South Africa, and in Africa as a whole. More than most places in the world, if you carefully consider the unique opportunities for thinking creatively.
Africa is a huge chunk of dirt. It is inhabited by a huge number of humans. Yes, most of them are poverty-stricken and live below what is broadly considered as the "breadline". Many struggle to sustain their families. But (and it's a big but), there are also massive amounts of Africans who enter the productive economical cycle every day. Out of desperation comes ingenuity, and one need only walk down an average urban sidewalk in Africa to realise how enterprising people become when they have survival as a driving force. Market forces can be seen in their purest form, and trading becomes an art. Ingenious business models emerge out of necessity, tailored to circumstances that are unique to our continent.
Business in Africa has more potential to be exploited than you'll find in any first-world country. Why? Because it has unique challenges, and very few individuals and organisations clever enough to respond to these challenges. The market hungers for creative solutions (because traditional, "western" ones don't do the trick). And that, my friend, is what makes me smile… The fact that solutions are in short supply. The market isn't saturated. Which, if you're brave enough, means that there is more opportunity to step in and generate massive amounts of value and wealth than in mature, saturated markets.
Make no mistake, traditional thinking is not going to bring you this wealth. Africa is a market which requires a low margin, high-volume approach to things. Hundreds of millions of individuals buying low-value goods, consuming cheap services. Hundreds of millions, nonetheless. It's a market which in my humble opinion will fundamentally reward those who are able to build businesses that thrive around almost non-existent individual transaction costs. Transaction costs (whether in monetary, time, effort or human form) are the core. How does one continue to bring transaction costs down? Systems thinking. Process thinking. Automation. IT, in other words. IT in all its forms; but most importantly, in a form built for Africa.
I'm staying. I see the opportunity, and there's no way I'm giving it up for a few pounds.
Let's build Africa.