Sharmi Surianarain of Harambee Talks About Africa’s Untapped Talent Potential

Charlotte Umutomi Karera is the CEO of the Rwanda GBS Growth Initiative. In this discussion she elucidates Rwanda’s case as the best place to do business in Africa. Charlotte is charged with promoting the GBS (Global Business Services) sector in the country.The Rwanda GBS Growth Initiative partners with other organizations such as the Rwanda Development Board, GiZ, Harambee, the Mastercard Foundation, and Carnegie Mellon University—which now has a campus in Rwanda—to promote Rwanda’s unique set of advantages to the world. These include attributes such as:Deductions on corporate income taxNo restrictions on foreign ownership#2 in Africa, #38 globally in terms of ease of doing businessBusiness registration takes less than 1 dayLOW crime, “2nd safest country in the world” for lack of violent & property crimes95% 4G LTE coverage and 7,000 km of fiber optic connectivityEcological commitment to protect the country’s natural resourcesEnglish native with strong FrenchVery low labor costsRwanda’s relatively small size with a population of about 13.7 million, is actually an advantage for emerging outsourcers, as the government has the critical mass of talent to provide an adequate labor pool, but emerging and specialty outsourcing firms with small to medium-sized operations still receive enthusiastic government attention and support.We met during CCI Global’s grand opening of their 5,000 seat contact center in Nairobi, Kenya’s Tatu City business park, though CCI has already invested in Rwanda with a contact center that opened over a year ago. Along with global players like CCI Global, TTec and Tek Experts/TeKnowledge (doing enterprise IT-support from Kigali!) Rwanda has home-grown players such as WEC Outsourcing led by Dr. Innocent Rusagara. Like Kenya, Rwanda’s official language of business and government is English, though there is ample French and German language talent available, as well as local languages. The country takes developing local talent seriously, through tertiary education such as universities, or technical training such as Kigali-based Weclearn, with an additional campus in Nyamata, outside of the capital.Led by Martin Roe, CCI Global is an example of a company that champions African talent with over 15,000 customer and technical service seats on the continent serving corporate clients in North America and Europe while providing professional growth opportunities and life-changing employment in the countries where it operates. As a growing multinational enterprise, CCI actively partners with government initiatives and the nonprofit sector to scale up opportunities in a way that maximizes positive impact in the communities where it has a presence.Article links:• Rwanda GBS Growth Initiative https://gbs.rw/• Rwanda Development Board https://rdb.rw/• GIZ https://www.giz.de/en/html/index.html• Mastercard Foundation https://mastercardfdn.org/• Carnegie Mellon University https://www.cmu.edu/• Carnegie Mellon University Africa https://www.africa.engineering.cmu.ed...• CCI Global https://cciglobal.com/• Tatu City https://www.tatucity.com/• Tek Experts https://tek-experts.com/• WEC Outsourcing https://wecoutsourcing.com/• Worldwide E-Learning Campus https://weclearn.rw/

During CCI Global’s grand opening of their 5,000 seat contact center in Nairobi, Kenya’s Tatu City business park, Loren Moss was able to speak with Sarmi Surianarain of Harambee on the untapped potential of Africa’s talent pool, especially in the areas of information technology and customer service.Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator is an organization that works to synergize partnerships across the private sector, governments, and local nonprofits focusing on workforce readiness across several countries, including South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Young aspiring professionals that matriculate through Harambee’s programs are ready and eager to compete on a global level for employment opportunities.Led by Martin Roe, CCI Global is an example of a company that champions African talent with over 15,000 customer and technical service seats on the continent serving corporate clients in North America and Europe while providing professional growth opportunities and life-changing employment in the countries where it operates. As a growing multinational enterprise, CCI actively partners with government initiatives and the nonprofit sector to scale up opportunities in a way that maximizes positive impact in the communities where it has a presence. As a bonus, listen to Sharmi’s latest EP “Lost” on Spotify by clicking here.

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing needs a clean sweep of its leadership that got the company into this mess; board and management. Bring in aviation people – not just people in the aviation industry, but people passionate about aviation. Tap the likes of Lockheed Martin, or Northrup Grumman.Tech companies must be driven by engineering excellence, product quality, and innovation, not financial shenanigans designed to manipulate stock prices, so analyst and financial media writes nice things about you. That is what destroyed General Electric. Intel is an example of a company losing its way when the visionary technical founders were replaced by financial engineers. Apple has no new products since cofounder Steve Jobs died. Maybe this Apple Vision Pro counts as one, but it’s still too early to tell if it’s anything more than a gimmick. Rather than build a new aircraft, Boeing jerry-rigged its old 737 platform to peddle it as something new, with deadly results.In Michael Treacy’s “The Discipline of Market Leaders,” he lays out why great companies must be excellent in either operations, innovation, or customer intimacy; and at least competent in all three. Boeing clearly fails in both operations and innovation.  Customer service begins with customers who are alive to use your product.  Books mentioned:Flying Blind – The 737 Max Tragedy And The Fall of Boeing – Peter Robison https://amzn.to/3TF1MIXThe Discipline of Market Leaders – Fred Wiersema & Michael Treacy https://amzn.to/3vmNuDmAmerican Icon – Alan Mulally and the fight to save Ford Motor Company – Bryce G. Hoffman, https://amzn.to/3Pqn3DUThe Hard Thing About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz - https://amzn.to/3wWxetk  Magazine articles cited:Simple Flying - John Barnett: What Boeing’s Biggest Whistleblower Claimed About The Company https://simpleflying.com/john-barnett-boeing-biggest-whistleblower-claimed-about-company/Wall Street Journal - ‘Everything Hit the Roof’: A Moment of Horror Unfolds on a Latam Boeing 787 https://www.wsj.com/world/everything-hit-the-roof-a-moment-of-horror-unfolds-on-a-boeing-787-528e3b11?st=uz57etp2hyoz84v&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalinkThe Hill - Boeing whistleblower found dead in apparent suicide https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/4524968-boeing-whistleblower-found-dead-in-apparent-suicide/BBC - Alaska Airlines blowout: Passenger describes being on Flight 1282 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68583149  We  participate in the Amazon Associates program and may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.