In short: Every business depends on the health of the nation around it: its infrastructure, policies, institutions and, above all, its young people. Business leaders who treat national development as someone else’s job are ignoring their biggest strategic risk, and their biggest opportunity.
How can businesses thrive in a nation that is not thriving? It is a question I ask business leaders often, and the honest answer is: they can’t, at least not for long.
Your strategy sits inside the nation’s strategy
Every strategic plan rests on assumptions about the environment: that customers can afford your products, that roads and power will work, that policy will be predictable, and that you can hire skilled people. Each of those assumptions is a national outcome. When national strategy is weak, every company’s strategy inherits that weakness.
Youth: the force that decides the future
In most African economies, young people form the vast majority of the population. They are the future workforce, the future customers and, increasingly, the voices shaping public debate. A nation that gives its youth opportunity creates a growing market and a talented workforce. A nation that fails them creates instability that no business can plan around.
What good national strategy looks like
National and county strategy follows the same disciplines as corporate strategy:
- Define the objectives: where should the nation or county be in five, ten or twenty years?
- Assess the current situation honestly, using data and demographic insight.
- Devise policies and programmes that close the gap.
- Execute and measure, adjusting as conditions change.
The difference is scale and stakeholders: national strategy must align government, parastatals, counties, the private sector, development partners and citizens.
What business leaders can do
- Engage in policy constructively, through industry bodies and public participation.
- Partner with counties and parastatals on programmes that align commercial and development goals.
- Invest in young people through skills, mentorship, internships and entrepreneurship.
- Plan for national scenarios as part of your strategic planning, not as an afterthought.
Let the Fixer fix the nation
At Be Strategic Global, we work with presidents, governors, key government leaders and parastatals to define national objectives and design the policies and programmes that achieve them. We also help businesses align their strategy with national development. Because when the nation thrives, business thrives with it.
Learn more about our Political & National Affairs and Corporate advisory practices.
Beverlyne Wangari, “The Fixer”, is the founder and CEO of Be Strategic Global, a strategic management advisory firm in Nairobi, Kenya. She has over 20 years of experience in strategy, sales and marketing, brand experience, banking, aviation, entertainment and media. Learn how our Political & National Affairs practice can help.