Chain Reaction

Last week, I had the pleasure of closing SAPICS’ 30th anniversary conference in Sun City, South Africa. What I saw and heard there renewed my faith that the African continent promises growth opportunities that are still badly underestimated by the outside world. Back in December, I wrote a bullish piece on Africa as an emerging business hot spot. The madness in Zimbabwe and Kenya earlier this year, however, drew out the perennial cries that the continent is somehow beyond redemption and maybe we were falling into the same trap of false hope that bedeviled Afrophiles for hundreds of years. Sorry, but I’m still optimistic, and 1,293 attendees from Africa and the wider world at the SAPICS event make me more confident than ever that this time it is different. I wrote up why in this article for our sister publication (complimentary subscription here) and blog, First Thing Monday. You can read what some are doing to help build tomorrow’s supply chains in Africa, today here: “Africa Opportunity: Building Supply Chain Foundations.”