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Africa Calling

Africa Calling

Author: James Siddall
Date: 2013-11-29
Commodity trader and local man Mark Mead has spent over 25 years mastering the perils and pitfalls of doing business across the African continent.

And now he's available to share his knowledge with businessmen, investors and entrepreneurs wanting to expand into Africa.

 "Over the past 25 years or so I've established a multi-million-rand automotive components business right across the continent," says Mead, who is based in Hillcrest.

"Along the way I've learnt all sorts of arcane but exceptionally useful things. Some of them have been learnt the hard way."

These include discovering which countries welcome foreign investment and have investor-friendly legislation, and how many locals need to be employed or uplifted when doing business with a certain country.

Other essentials that Mead has mastered over the past quarter century include which hotels to stay at in which countries, and how to smoothly clear customs.

Then there's the matter of what time of year one should do business in a certain country, and the issue of who really wields the power in any given company.

"The old saying that `Africa isn't for sissies' certainly holds true," says Mead. "But now more than ever the continent is exploding with opportunities. Consider, for instance, that right now Africa's population sits at a little over one billion. But by the end of this century, it's expected to quadruple to around four billion."

This is partly why he now advises on how to best do business in far-flung and exotic parts of the continent.

"I teach things like the history of the country - and not just the official, sanitized history - what hours of the day business is really done in, and how and when to socialise," says Mead. 

He also happens to be a mine of anecdotes. Just some of the more fascinating ones include the time he negotiated a multi-million-dollar contract to send food products out of South Africa to American and United Nations troops in Somalia. This of course necessitated spending time in Mogadishu - or "The Moge," as old hands call what is arguably the most lawless capital city on earth.

"Perhaps most importantly, I also teach people the importance of not going in with a `big-brand swagger' or the attitude that South African saviours are have come to save the day," adds Mead. "That sort of thing often just alienates local businesses and people."

Mead doesn't offer a rose-tinted view of doing business in Africa either.

"I'll teach clients facts that you're not going to find in a textbook or on a website anywhere," he says. "For instance, did you know that in Africa, October to December is known as hijack season?"

Mead also knows how to not only get paid, but how to get paid in advance.

Adds Mead: "I'll take clients on a virtual walk-through of every aspect of doing commerce in Africa. I'll teach them how to come back with successfully concluded, repeat business - and not just a bad case of dysentery or yellow fever."