What do you think of business in Africa?

An exciting initiative is about to be launched in South Africa called the African Baha'i Business Forum. "The African Baha’i Business Forum (ABBF) is a community that sees a responsibility and opportunity to contribute to the well-being of humanity, and then looks for practical ways to act to do this, giving each member a chance to make a difference. Rather than looking at what is wrong in the world today, ABBF's aim is to show how organizations and most importantly the people in those organizations can adapt from an old to a new world order underlining the virtues and opportunities of human beings and the way they relate to each other. Old economic systems and models have started to collapse and fail, a failure many are attributing to a lack of values such as integrity and honesty. Africa has not been immune, but it has the chance now to build its own systems and ways of working more consistent with African values and cultures, based on ethics and a spirit of unity." The vision statement is: "We contribute to a prosperous, sustainable and just civilization by promoting and applying ethical values, personal virtues and moral leadership in business and civil society."

I have long wondered about the strengths of Africa and how these could impact on our business relations. If we look at Northern America, Europe, China, India each of these business regions of power have a unique contribution to the world. Africa similarly has the resources and the potential to make its own mark. I have not explored the theme well enough to understand deeply what it might look like and am eager to include but also discover those aspects over and above the strong sense of community, justice and equality summed up in "I am because we are". But then has that saying really been understood beyond the marketing sound-byte, the cliche that we make of many a true thought without giving it much further thought? What does it mean in relation to what product or service we produce, how we charge, what guarantees we offer, who we market to, where we produce and how we dispose of it? Africa is only beginning to understand its potential or explore its strengths. It is exciting to be a part of this and I intend to become a member of the ABBF.