Partnership matters for African and Japanesecompanies in African business

Africa Business Partners LLC
www.abp.co.jp
info@abp.co.jp© Africa Business Partners LLC. All rights reserved.

Overview of Africa Business Partners
 Established by 3 Japanese to provide business development services
to Japanese companies who want to do business in Africa
 We have local offices inKenya and Senegal and arepreparing new offices inSouth Africa and Côte d’Ivoire(Red mark) We have track records in many countriesof Africa (Blue mark)1

Our mission is Developing Business in Africa
 We support Japanese and African companies’ business to move
forwardResearch, Identify
Identify local partners,
business opportunity, Develop collaboration
Develop business
schememodelStart
business
study

Understandthe marketDevelopbusinessStartbusinessSupport pilot
project, Support
company set up,
Support fundraising

Sales & Marketing,Support business
operation2

What is the biggest issue for Japanese companies to dobusiness in Africa?
 Security? Political stability?
 Distance?
 Lack of Information?

 No. lack of Connection / Network between Africa and Japan are
more impacted– If you don’t know anyone in the country, it is impossible to startbusiness and succeed there.

3

Lack of connection Issue
 We search and identify your partner from our network of Japan andAfrica
 We are also going to establish a membership organization forJapanese companies that provides connection with African businesspeople Gap of communication method / business method make moredifficult to move partnership ahead4

Gap of communication(1) Objective and Goal should be discussed
 If you don’t share each idea on business objective and goal in thefirst step of making partnership, the business gap becomes bigger.
Japanese Company

African Company When Japanese companies
work with Japanese companies,
they don’t have custom toconfirm objective and goal
because they can imagine theother’s idea naturally African companies also havetheir own ideas but they also
don’t discuss with Japanese5

Gap of communication(2) Misunderstanding about competitive environment Now, in an office of African excellent company, many local andinternational companies are doing business meeting.
Japanese Company

African Company

 Japanese companies don’t
understand that they should
visit frequently to get businessfrom African Company.
Already African business iscompetitive. Connection is oneof the most important factors ofsuccess.

 African companies can't reactand manage every potential
customers because of lack ofresource

6Gap of communication(3) Right person and method of business development aredifferent A system of process management of business development isdifferent between Africa and Japan
Japanese Company

African Company

 In Japan, middle management
people manage and operatebusiness perfect. After all has
been determined, top person
appears on stage

 In Africa, top person manages
and decides everything

7

Take-away

Partnership with long-term common goal based on decent
communication matters for business between Africa andJapan We, African company and Japanese company should
understand that we have different method Therefore, we need frequent and decent communication
to develop business Assistance of communication make the businessdevelopment faster and move it ahead8

We briefly introduce two case studies regarding
partnership Case Study 1: Even good product cannot penetrate themarket without partnership Case Study 2 : Good partnership enables market entry

9Case Study 1: Even good product cannot penetrate the market without partnership

A Japanese company identified one Senegalese company asa potential distributor
 Introduced by some Japanese in Senegal, a Japanese company (Company“X”) approached the Senegalese company (Company “S”) as one of thepotential distributors– X has already set up business of the product in other African countries
 X thinks S is one of the most attractive potential partners in Senegal– S has a business related to the product of X in Senegal– S’s lucrative business network in Senegal was attractive for X– CEO of S has international business background which gave X someconfidence to appoint S as partner
 X started communication with Company S10Case Study 1: Even good product cannot penetrate the market without partnership

The recognition gaps emerged and were understood as“conflict” between X and S
Example issue 2
X requested to order one
container, but S refused

Example issue 1
X claimed for delayed
response from S
Recognition byCompany X
What really
happened in S?

Incompetentbusiness capacity
and lack of disciplineof the company

GAPSome emergent issues
were there
Only CEO can handle
the issue
This cannot be
disclosed to theexternal people

Recognition byCompany X

What really
happened in Senegal?

The product is sogood that S can selleasily
No intention todevelop business by
S even for good
product
Cheated byCompany SAs the market for the
product doesn’t exist,
market creation
should come first
For mutual benefit bylong-term businesssuccess, both party
should pay together
for market creation
activity

GAP

The relationship between X and S was “X v.s. S”, which is not“partnership”

11Case Study 2 : Good partnership enables market entry

Our company considered to make investment into rice
milling company “GAA” in Senegal
 We think agro-business is one of the promising field in African business Real investment by our company to such business can generate business
opportunity for the other Japanese companies
 We identified GAA as target company for our investment– Investment opportunity exists in rice milling business in Senegal• Many private companies exist in Senegalese rice milling business• However, demand is higher than supply still– GAA is one of the good company to invest• GAA is one of the largest rice millers in Senegal• Good financial performance• GAA’s CEO has international financial business background– GAA has good business network in Senegal not only for agriculture– GAA has plan to extend business in Côte d’Ivoire
12Case Study 2 : Good partnership enables market entry

We set long-term business development process with GAA
as partner to tackle with issues
Example issue
Detailed operation
data didn’t exist

Our recognition

What reallyhappened in GAA?

Management is notefficientAll the data we got
provided may not bereliable No necessity so far tohave detailed operationdatao Even without
detailed data,business works
o Because of lack ofexperience to beinvested by foreign
investorInvestment to GAA
would be difficult

GAP

Actions taken
1Set long-term common goals– GAA wanted to enlarge business in Senegal andCôte d’Ivoire– GAA wanted to be partner with ABP to bring
Japanese technology and products– ABP wanted to introduce good agro-business
opportunity in Africa to Japanese companies→ GAA and ABP confirmed theintention to bring investment from Japan2Discuss in detail about the longterm business development– GAA and ABP decided to do real transaction at
this time anyhow– ABP can provide some financing & consulting
service and wants to make this case profitable– GAA can provide business opportunity and has
intention to know what Japanese investors want
→ As the 1st step, ABP provides loan to assure

return, with consulting to manage operational
data which benefits ABP as upside earning

We successfully established the relationship of“GAA & ABP v.s. short-term issues” to achieve long-term goal13

Introduction of Africa Business Partners

Africa Business Partners LLC
http://abp.co.jp/vision_e.html© Africa Business Partners LLC. All rights reserved.

Corporate Profile Company Name： Africa Business Partners LLC
 Established: July 2012
 Offices– Headquarter: Tokyo, Japan– Overseas office: Nairobi, Kenya and Dakar, Senegal(Offices in South Africa and Côte d’Ivoire are to be opened) Board members– Managing Director & Chief Consultant: Shigeomi Sato (Mr.)– Chief Consultant: Yukari Umemoto (Ms.)– Partner：Akinori Niimi (Mr.)
 Advisor– Ken Shibusawa (Mr.)
President, Commons Asset Management Inc.
Vice Chairperson, Africa commission, Japan Association of Corporate Executive

 Collaborations– The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry– The Industrial Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry– Consulting and Research firms in African countries15

As the only Japanese consulting firm specialized in Africanbusiness, we support client’s African business to move
forward based on the exceptional field experience
Research, Identify
Identify local partners,
business opportunity, Develop collaboration
Develop business
schememodelStart
business
study

Understandthe marketDevelopbusinessStartbusinessSupport pilot
project, Supportcompany set up,
Support fundraising

Sales & Marketing,Support business
operation16

Track records
 Industries– Manufacturing
•••••
•
•
•

Construction equipment
Construction material
Agriculture, Irrigation
Agricultural material
Environmental material
FoodElectronics
toiletry– Service•••••

Agriculture
IT, Software
Finance
Human resource
Advertisement agency– Trading company– Public institution• International organizations• Japanese governmentalorganizations（JICA, Ministry ofEconomy, Trade and Industry）

 Countries– East Africa•••
••

Kenya
Ethiopia
TanzaniaUganda
Rwanda– West Africa••••

Nigeria
SenegalCote d’Ivoire
Burkina Faso

– Southern Africa••

South Africa
Mozambique– Central Africa•

Democratic Republic of Congo– North Africa
•
•
•

Egypt
Tunisia
Morocco17

Publication: ：List of Japanese Enterprises Doing Business withAfrican Continent and Countries (in English)～The only document which describes Japanese companies’ activities in Africa～ Base on the request by African Development Bank, we research Japanesecompanies’ activities in Africa, publishing the list of them every six months– The only document you canunderstand which Japanesecompany does what in which
African country– The latest version published in Jun
2014 lists up 424 Japanesecompanies which has subsidiary,branch or representative office inAfrica and/or has business
relationship with Africa

 This list can be downloaded from our website. http://abp.co.jp/about_e.html
We can also provide paper version. Please contact us from info@abp.co.jp .

18Consultants’ profiles
 Shigeomi Sato
– Started his career in Japan and India as a system engineer– Worked for Booz Allen Hamilton (currently Booz & Company), a U.S. based strategic
consulting firm. Supported business transformation for private companies in ICT,
human service, apparel and governmental agencies– Worked for Japan Bank for International Cooperation for India and Southern Africa– Having worked as a consultant to support Japanese companies’ investment for Africa
since 2011
– 1st Japanese who obtained Master of Business Administration in Sénégal (InstitutSupérieur Management, Senegal, 2011)

 Yukari Umemoto– Working for Nippon Research Center, an Marketing research firm, focused on overseas’market research for FMGC companies and develop sales and marketing strategy inoverseas markets– Worked for Corporate Direction Inc., strategic consulting firm. Supported businessdevelopment, corporate strategy, strategy implementation for private companies in ICT,Foods, Restaurant, FMGC industries– Having worked as a consultant to support Japanese companies’ investment for Africa
since 2010
– Established music label business AMP MUSIC of musicians in Kenya and Senegal– Master of development, currently studying in Ph. D program in the field of Industrial
development, labor market, vocational training in Africa
19Contacts
 Missions, Services of Our company
http://abp.co.jp/vision_e.html
 About Us
http://abp.co.jp/about_e.html
 Inquiries / Contacts
info@abp.co.jp

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