Destination South Africa: uncovering a nation's past, present and future
Published 13 July 2010
Just as South Africa was gearing itself up for the World Cup, a group of Lancaster MBAs landed in Cape Town to learn how the country is building its economy and responding to social and economic challenges.
Small-scale enterprises in South Africa
17 students from the Full-time and Executive MBA were visiting South Africa for a one-week International Business in Context elective. Their study programme was hosted by the University of Stellenbosch and provided a rich mixture of lecture sessions from academic experts, company visits and evening functions with business leaders, entrepreneurs and professors.
To give a sense of South Africa’s past, the programme also included visits to Robben Island, Soweto and the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.
Forget any idea of it being a holiday, says Øystein Undertun, a Full-time MBA student from Norway. ‘They gave us a pretty packed programme – it was quite strenuous, but extremely rewarding.’
‘When you go abroad, it’s often as a tourist or with a company, and it’s very one-sided. Here we had the opportunity to see many sides of an issue, which was quite intriguing. It opened my eyes to the problems there, and maybe in ways I didn’t expect. For me it was a unique experience that I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.’
‘The exposure to the development the country has gone through during the last 15 or so years was very good,’ says Mike Hudson, an Executive MBA student who is Chief Risk Officer for Metrobank in London. ‘What struck me was the immense wealth and immense poverty living side by side. But what’s really good when you talk to people, whatever their background, is that they all believe in South Africa. They’re very passionate about their country. Very engaged.’
Øystein was also impressed by the enthusiasm he encountered – and by the frankness with which people spoke about issues past and present. ‘Everybody recognised that there are a lot of problems in South Africa and that these need to be dealt with, though they don’t necessarily agree on how to do it. We’ve grown up hearing about a very black and white situation, with apartheid, etc. But when you get there and talk to people, it has so many more nuances to it.’
Reflecting on differences
For Sree Vadlamudi, an Executive MBA student who grew up in India but has spent the last ten years as a research scientist in the UK, the visit invited interesting comparisons with India after independence.
‘Post-94, South Africa has been going through a huge transformation, politically, socially and economically,’ he says. ‘I wanted to see how that was working out – and in what ways there were similarities and differences to my Indian origins. Initially I thought there would be parallels with the Indian caste system, but what I found was in fact a society quite different from what I knew in India.’
MBA students learning about operations at SAB Miller, South Africa's largest brewer
Students were required to keep a reflective log, and started each morning at eight with a reflective period, something which Mandy Varley, a full-time MBA from the USA, found particularly valuable:
‘The reflective element was really good for making you challenge your own thinking. Often you see things but you don’t really process them. Giving us time for reflection and encouraging us to talk to one another about what we saw really made me focus and think differently about what I was seeing. Other people see things that you don’t.’
Emerging industries
‘We got an understanding of some of the market conditions in South Africa,’ says Mike. ‘We spent time looking at levels of competition, for example. How in some industries there are one or two dominant players, and apparently less competition than you would see in the UK.’
As new industries emerge, he adds, the inadequacies in South Africa’s educational system are laid bare: ‘What’s happening is that the core industries that have been there for 50 or more years – principally mining, where you don’t need skilled labour – are diminishing. As new industries are created, like mobile phone networks, retail or service sector, there’s a huge appetite for people with basic, high school qualifications, but an enormous gulf.’
Company visits
Øystein was struck by the differences in the private and public hospitals he visited. ‘I’m used to a very equal system for health care. Our hospitals aren’t the world’s best but they’re good. In South Africa we went to a private hospital that was much better than anything we see in Norway. It was very high quality, but I had the feeling it was really a business. There seemed to be a very clear separation between the doctors, nurses, operating staff and the aftercare facilities.
‘At the public hospital conditions were remarkably different – both the security needed and the quality of the facilities. In material terms there was a huge contrast. But there was another side to it: when the private hospital has problems which are too difficult for them to deal with, they have to send patients to the public hospital. There seemed to be a high quality of care, and a greater community feel, at the public hospital, despite the conditions. I found that very interesting.’
An optional safari trip rounded off the visit for some of the MBA students
On a similar theme, Sree is analysing the sustainability report of the South African brewer SAB Miller – how it compares with models taught at Lancaster, what may be missing, and what the company is doing in relation to black society.
But he reflects, ‘the biggest thing I’ll take from this visit is the resilience I saw – I’ll try and incorporate some of that into how I see things. When things are difficult or not happening the way we want, those seem quite unreal to me now, compared with what they are going through in South Africa.’
STOP PRESS: related news
From 2011, the International Business in Context module will become a core module for all Full-time MBA students, with students offered a choice between India, China or Poland.
International Business in Context will continue to be offered as an elective module on the Executive MBA programme.
