by Alec Hogg
One of the gems to emerge from Singularity University’s visit to Johannesburg last week was the “zoom in, zoom out” strategy that’s the norm in Silicon Valley. ExOs (exponential organisations) have found their plans work best when they focus on what they think the industry will look like in 10 years (“zoom out”) and then apply what they should be doing in the next 12 months (“zoom in”) to get there. This avoids three or five year plans getting in the way.
General Electric, one of the US’s great industrial companies, appears to have taken a similar view when deciding to locate its African HQ in Nairobi rather than Sandton. I heard from GE’s Thomas Konditi at the WEF in Cape Town yesterday that the group’s view was shaped not by the SA advantage today, but by Nairobi’s likely one tomorrow – driven by easy access to a market of 650 million people compared with SA’s 50 million.
For the moment, Nairobi is outnumbered ten to one by Johannesburg as a location of choice for multinationals. But with a spread in the long-term thinking GE is employing, together with well documented infrastructure challenges in SA, that might not always be the case.
From Biznews community member Colin Dennis
And the only response we have is to laugh like a clown…
Yesterday’s top stories:
Andrew Donaldson: Asking RW Johnson why SA only has two years left
Tim Noakes: will the Nutrition Inquisition finally silence him?
Jimmy Manyi: Black CEOs bank accounts transformed not the companies
Lonmin – now so cheap you can buy company for cost of single mine shaft
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