“Africa is not a place that success is landing on; it is a place creating success for itself and others.” – Jonathan Berman
If I am being honest with myself, prior to traveling abroad, my perception of Africa was all wrong. My Grandma Judy asked me if I would see lions on my walk to work, friends asked if I would be riding elephants to the market to fetch groceries and my own brother wondered if my only source of hydration was going to be water from coconuts. To my grandma’s dismay, there were no lions in the streets of Cape Town, I rode in a car to the grocery store and the craziest part of all…there was running water (insert sarcasm here). The fact is we don’t know what we don’t know. I had no idea what exactly I was going to be embarking on as I flew out of the JFK Airport headed for The Mother City. Sometimes not knowing, but being open to opportunity, is exactly what is needed.
One point that needs to be made clear right off the bat, is that Africa is in fact a CONTINENT comprised of 54 different countries. So many times it is lumped all into the same giant land mass, with inferences and assumptions made and projected across the entire continent rather than an individual country, causing a disservice and quite honestly potential missed opportunities. We would never lump all the Americas together and make blanket statements in any setting, let alone a business setting, so why do we do it with Africa? In my own adventures, I have only begun to scratch the surface of what Africa as a continent has to offer the rest of the world. The heavy hitters and game changers that comprise Africa can no longer be glossed over by American leaders and CEOs.
U.S.-Africa Business Forum
At the beginning of August, more than 40 leaders from across the African continent were welcomed to our nation’s capital along with more than 200 U.S. and African CEOs, including the heads of General Electric, Walmart, Blackstone, Google, and Coca-Cola for a three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, the first such event of its kind. Aimed to strengthen ties between the United States and one of the world’s most dynamic and fastest-growing regions, the theme of the Summit was “Investing in the Next Generation”. Focusing on the next generation, this Summit provided an opportunity to discuss ways of stimulating growth, unlocking opportunities, and creating an enabling environment.
Jonathan Berman states in his book Success in Africa that with 6 of 10 fastest growing marketing in the world, “Africa is the new frontier.” While one rarely hears reports from leaders, Berman goes on to note that in Africa, there are “one hundred fifty $1 billion companies and more than five hundred with annual sales of $100 million.” We aren’t talking pocket change here. For many, Africa is a “big black box that we don’t really understand.” Taking the time to awaken to the vast opportunity that awaits and acknowledging the ambition and drive that has propelled Africa to the foregrounds of the frontier is a necessary component to future business relations between the U.S. and African countries.
Wyzetalk
A company that has stood out and continues to make a name for themselves in Africa is Wyzetalk. A secure social business platform that accelerates the performance of organizations, Wyzetalk believes in the power of engaging communities to collaborate. A cloud-based software solution developed by a South African team, Wyzetalk enables companies and communities to speed up the decision-making process, enable large-scale collaboration, improve all-around communication, encourage idea generation, and facilitate an open innovation environment to drive critical business success.
Headquartered in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape of South Africa, Wyzetalk Social Business Software is not your standard, off-the-shelf social business platform. Founded in 2011, Co-Founder and CEO Gysbert Kappers and Co-Founder and CTO Gerhard Pretorius realized with the rapid successful growth of companies, there was a need for organizations to become more collaborative and cohesive. With a goal of having C-Suite employees connecting with the blue collar workers and vise versa, an open platform for communication was developed. Situated in hilly region of the Cape Winelands, flanked by Parrot Mountain in the west, Stellenbosch Mountain in the south, and Jonkershoek, Drakenstein, and Simonsberg Mountains in the south and southeast, it is hard to top the beautiful view from the office. Fields are flooded with sunflowers in the summer and dusted with snow in the winter. (Yes, it snows in Africa!) Wyzetalk was developed locally in South Africa and proudly homegrown, with hosting services in Johannesburg, and the developers in Stellenbosch.
What makes them so unique and special? They are currently “the only software platform on the planet that can that can engage with any kind of device. From an African or emerging market perspective there is still a dramatic need for what one would call feature phone devices. Data and smartphone devices are still very expensive and out of reach for many Africans and South Africans. We have a platform that can engage literally on any device,” Gysbert Kappers noted in an April interview. There are currently 420+ established communities with over 11,000 users on the Wyzetalk platform. Having a “Plan for Success” and understanding the culture of the enterprise before implementing the technology is the key component and first step before any implementation. Unlike other platforms, Wyzetalk does not restrict community participation on the basis of domains and conversations. It can be triggered from events created from a company’s internal systems (financial, production, customer, sales) and public triggers (news sites, customer queries) while leveraging better knowledge for the enterprise over time while keeping thought leadership and employee collaboration on the rise.
By enabling conversation with context, Wyzetalk is forging new opportunities for businesses redefining the way of work. As the future of work continues to develop both Stateside and abroad, retaining company and employee knowledge is critical to success.
