South Africa (Spring 2019)

From penguins to business

By Rahul

Africa is a growing market I hope to understand. South Africa, in particular, is a great gateway into the sub-Saharan economy.

A land which has winter when almost everyone else has summer, Penguins in Africa? I thought that was only in cartoons. South Africa has always sparked my curiosity. It has a culture that is very unique to this nation. It combines African and Western culture in an organic way with a spoonful of Indians and other cultures. My cousins had lived here for several years and invited me several times but it took a chance from BU to get me to finally pack my bags and book my tickets.

Coming from an engineering and pharmaceutical background, Africa is a growing market I hope to understand. South Africa, in particular, is a great gateway into the sub-Saharan economy. Its economy is the second largest in the continent after Nigeria. There has been rapid growth in the middle class in the decades post-apartheid. This serves as a good market for the development of new businesses and change in the demands of the customer base. Though it is an African nation, South Africa is vastly different from the National Geographic images in countries such as Somalia. It has a thriving workforce and a good quality of life. Yet South Africa is not without its issues. The unemployment rate stands at 26.6 percent and much of the work is informal. South Africa also faces large illegal immigration from neighboring countries and a high crime rate. It will be interesting to see how things are on the ground.

South Africa also has close ties with India. From the days of Mahatma Gandhi fighting against class inequality to being part of the BRICS nations. South Africa and India have been sharing economic benefits. There is a large population of Indians in South Africa, initially brought here by the British as plantation workers. There is also a large number of Indian expats. This was interesting to me until I learned that Indian citizens needed a visa to enter South Africa. I hope my day spent traveling to New York and filling out of 20-page application forms would be worth it in the end. At least we are not charged for the visa.

Looking forward to the trip.

A conflicted past & a promising future

By Naly

In order to move forward, we have to first acknowledge what we've been through and use it as a motivating source.

When first learning about the South Africa Social Impact Seminar course, I remember thinking how amazing of an experience it would be! What a great opportunity to possibly affect development in a country rich with history, with complicated roots, but yet still striving to move forward and grow in equality and diversity. Throughout my life, I've always been passionate about counseling people through their journey of personal and professional development. A recurring conversation that I have is that in order to move forward, we have to first acknowledge what we've been through and use it as a motivating source. I saw this field seminar as a chance to help an organization do the same within a country that has overcome so many challenges and is still striving to move forward.

While researching South Africa's evolving democracy and growing diversity, I was often curious about how much of an effect apartheid has had on their current business culture and development. I went about digging into research with a 'this is how it happens in the U.S.' mentality and wondered if the residue of their history would be as obvious as ours. Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) is now such a large part of today's business climate in the US that's it's become normal to have D&I conversations regularly. I've thought, well these types of initiatives/conversations might be what is needed in South Africa. I had to remind myself though that having pre-conceived notions about what the diversity and inclusion efforts should look in SA wouldn't be fair. It's taken a fair amount of time for the US to give D&I the attention it requires. Although, South Africa is a strong and confident country, it is still healing from a not so distant painful past.

I'm looking forward to experiencing cultural differences by actively listening, watching, and learning while visiting these organizations.  Observing what they've been through & having an understanding of where they are looking to go is the best practice in creating social impact within their organizations.

The real world doesn’t have easy answers

By Joye

Ever since I was a kid, my dream was to help people and the environment. I’ve been working in the nonprofit/social sector for several years now and feel fortunate that I have been able to help people in my work. However, all the work I’ve been doing thus far has been to address issues that are a microcosm of city, state, national, or local issues. What happens when you are tasked with solving a problem that affects thousands of people across a large region of an entire country?

Our consulting problem was to create a business plan to help the economy of Mpumalanga Province transition from a coal-based economy to a renewable energy one, create green jobs for the unskilled coalworkers who worked in the coal industry, and improve the environmental conditions in the region that the coal industry created. Talk about a large-scale problem!

In my Corporate Sustainability Strategy class that I took this past fall (and which I highly recommend), we learned about the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Many of these goals are relevant to the problem we are working on for our client, such as: No Poverty; Good Health and Well-Being; Clean Water and Sanitation; Affordable and Clean Energy; Decent Work and Economic Growth; and Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. In fact, all sixteen of the goals are relevant in some way. Sustainability would be at the core of how we approached this problem. However, I learned it is much easier to address a sustainability problem when it comes in the form of a case study or when you are looking at what a company should have done in hindsight than you come face to face with it in the present and have a deadline in which to come up with a practical solution. Nothing was cut and dry, but rather a tangled web of messy problems, and there was no easy answer. In addition, the sustainability plans we looked at in class were mostly for individual companies. This plan was for a business foundation to use to drive growth for an entire province! However, the end goals were still much the same: the main difference was that we were focusing on sustainability for an entire region, as opposed to sustainability for a specific company. Regions consist of many moving parts, from the people to the infrastructure to the energy source; but so do large corporations. Perhaps there were more similarities than differences. So we approached the problem in a similar fashion.

As we worked on our business plan, we had to prioritize some of the goals over other.

We had to make compromises, ones that I would not make in an ideal situation. For example, was creating work and economic growth for the coal miners more important than reducing pollution? Was it simply not possible to create a plan that addressed every single problem?

We used our conversations with our client to aid us in prioritizing.

As we wait to see our client’s reaction to our plan, my mind is filled with thoughts of the people who will be affected by our plan: the coal miners of Mpumalanga Province. I am glad we are going to gain on-the-ground experience in South Africa, but it is doubtful that we will have the opportunity to visit Mpumalanga Province to meet the coalminers face to face and see the conditions that they are living and working in. I wish we could. I think having a deeper understanding of how your recommendations affect people is what makes you a better consultant. Learning what the people in the community want and how they feel about a proposed plan is something that can’t be learned in a textbook or a course. However, talking with our client and spending time in South Africa will at least give us a better understanding and a glimpse into the lives of the people we are trying to help. Hopefully our recommendations will give our client some ideas

Business practices, racial justice, and human rights

By Aseem

I contemplate more questions and thoughts about how business is conducted in South Africa and how it differs from the US, the UK, and India, where I have lived/worked

Robots are traffic signals. Lekker is slang for cool. After scrolling over the Afrikaans and Xhosa words and slang most used in Jo’burg and the rest of South Africa, I am filled with excitement and gratitude for the incredible opportunity to finally visit this spectacular country as well as work with companies that are addressing current inequities related to diversity and skills building.

My interest in South Africa began at the age of ten when I was introduced to the history of apartheid most innocently through the Disney movie The Color of Friendship. This sparked an interest in the ongoing issues of racial justice and human rights that South Africa has and continues to confront. By reading Cry the Beloved Country and the works of other figureheads like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I developed a more advanced look at the issues regarding equality in South Africa. Also, as someone of Indian descent, I have found it especially interesting to learn about Mahatma Gandhi’s life in South Africa and how it sparked him to start the Indian independence movement. And more personally as someone who identifies as gay, the extensive progress South Africa has made in recent years on legislation related to LGBTQ equality. Each of these points illustrates my continued fascination with South Africa.

After starting my MBA at the Questrom, I was quick to jump at the opportunity to travel to and work on a consulting project in Johannesburg. The project will address how a non-profit organization, based in Johannesburg, can expand their current public-private-partnership trainings within South Africa and the rest of the African Union. Upon finding out about this project assignment, I promptly opted to work on it. I had just accepted an internship with IBM in their Human Relations department, so focusing on human capital development seemed like a great segway. I also began working on an executive profile for a company focused on Human Relations consulting specializing in diversity and inclusion, for the same reasons as the non-profit organization. While researching the work that this non-profit organization does, I found myself enthralled and humbled by the skills based training for public-private partnerships which have lead to numerous infrastructure projects including the North South Rail Corridor and Strategic Water Partners Network. Additionally, I am incredibly excited to see the companies that my fellow students are consulting with including for-profit organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

As I finished working on the presentation my team will present to representatives of the non-profit organization, I contemplate more questions and thoughts about how business is conducted in South Africa and how it differs from the US, the UK, and India, where I have lived/worked. How will the dark history of apartheid coincide with the business world in Johannesburg? And most importantly, what sorts of experiences  will I bring back to my life in the US and at Questrom?

HIV/AIDS and the lasting effects of Apartheid

By Daphnie

It was recently announced that a second person has been “cured” of HIV. This is especially promising news as our class heads to South Africa, the country with the largest population of those living with HIV/AIDS. But doctors warn that this procedure of stem cell transfers is prohibitively expensive and dangerous. What, if anything, does this advancement mean for the citizens of South Africa affected by HIV/AIDS?

While on the trip we will be visiting the World Health Organization and Wits RHI, both leading health organizations that have advanced the field of HIV/AIDS research and treatment. I’m looking forward to hearing from their experts on what the next frontier of HIV/AIDS treatment will look like and if it includes this most recent “cure.”

Beyond the potential for a cure, it’s important to consider the socioeconomic issues that have led to such a large prevelance of HIV/AIDS. That this disease largely affects only the black population of South Africa speaks to the lasting affects of apartheid.

Poverty, lack of education, and high unemployment likely contribute to the conditions that have led to this epidemic in South Africa. It will be interesting to see this level of inequality and how it compares to that of the US.