Archive clipping - Graduate School of Business

Good
business to have a firm handle
principles and trading standards
when it enters this space,
commented Howse.
Better state governance structures,
on the other hand, allow companies
to get on with doing business
instead of having to negotiate the
murky waters of unregulated and
environments,
unpredictable
trading
it was further argued.
Here in South Africa, the impoverished
province of the Eastern
Cape was given as an example of
how poor governance can impede
growth
investment.
The
and
The Sun
International
experience
province
is plagued
by corruption
was mirrored
participant
preventing
it
and nepotism,
which byis panel
Howse, neighbouring
director of
from Claire
matching
tourism operator
which,
provinces
like the &Beyond
in
Western -Cape
by nature
its off-the-beaten-track
terms
of of
economic
growth, said
safari and eco-tourism business, has
Koelbie.
a large
partBlythe
footprint
in emergent
of itswrites
of
Melanie
on behaLf
economies.
School of Business
the Graduate
operate in extraordinary
We
locations and situations and find
ourselves with one foot in both
worlds
worlds with loose market
conditions and low regulation levels...,
for
a
on
its
governance
she said.
The
difficulty,
according
to
Howse, can be matching the governance
the time (11 years ago), the
structures
of a company with
recognised it
government
Zambian
those in the
external environment.
needed
to attract more direct foreign
A weak state is problematic for
It also realised if it was
investment.this
business
more chaotic space
investment
going to succeed
becomes
a
systemin bringing
in itself and it
sector it
into the tourism
may conflict with a businesss own
step in to facilitate the
would need
values
and to
ethics. Sometimes hard
process.
choices need to be made and its best
The Zambian government was
thus involved each step of the way even obtaining funds from the EuropŁan
Union in order to complete the
local airport, a key element in the
success,
subsequent
resorts
explained Bacon.
He later added that in other emergent
between different
capacity to mediate
markets where the hotel conglomerate
interests
perspectives itand
can take up to
operates
among diverse participants.
five different forms, from five different
reinforced by
view wasdepartments,
This
to
government
of Sun International
CEO
Peter Bacon,
a
bottle
of whiskey
order
a
simply
Town
and chairman of Cape
inefficient
stark instance of how
Rescue,
and Sea business
Routes Unlimited
impede
governance
can
Internationals
who
shared
Sun
operations.
experience of establishing a luxury
resort in the undeveloped Victoria
Falls area in Zambia.
dont
make
Governments
money, so governments must support
the private sector, said Bacon.
Unless we bring them together we
wont make any progress.
and sustain a business in.
These comments set the tone for
States need
to put
into place
Bacons presentation, in which he
measures to reduceInternationals
the risk of
maintained that Sirn
investment and generally lower the
Victoria Falls resort would never
transaction costs of doing business
have become the success that it has
said Koelble.
in these markets,
had it not been for the direct intervention
Where government
and business
government.
the Zambian
of
are able to work together in a trusting,
regulated and enabling environment,
growth and investment would
increase
exponentially, it was
argued.
Fellow
panelist, Dr
Ralph
Hamann from UCT, added that innovative
and effective forms of collaboration
between business, government
complexity,
high
degrees of uncertainty
and civil
society are crucial to
unfortunately, high
and,
deal with many of the increasingly
instancesproblems
of inequality.
complex
faced by citizens
to become
UCT GSB at plans
companies
various
scales,
andThe
within
the leading business schoolgrowing
such as food security and
the paradigm of emergent market
informal settlements. Success factors
business
within
the next five years,
partnerships
include
of
such
as a means
and used
leadership
new
formstheofconference
with the
to launch its new research agenda.
Koelbie said: It is one of the
CAPE ARGUS (City Late)
Tuesday, 29 December 2009, p. 17
commonplace assumptions made
by
business analysts that states are
necessarily nasty things because
they tax business and are generally
seen as a regulatory nuisance - at
least in the neo-liberal and classic
IF EMERGENT market countries in
business literature.
Africa are to attract increased business
Yet
when states are not willing
investment, good governance
or able to establish common rules,
structures need to be established
standards and norms of conduct, or
and maintained to lower the risks
provide basic services and infrastructure,
and transaction costs of doing business.
the business environment
becomes increasingly risky, uncertain
This is the view of Professor
and even impossible to manage
BLYTHE
MELANIE
Thomas
Koelble, who headed a panel
discussion on Governance in Emergent
Market Economies at the Centre
for Emergent Market Business
Conference held at the UCT Graduate
School of Business (UCT GSB)
this
November.
The conference brought together
leading thinkers from the world of
academia as well as the private sector
to debate and discuss the opportunities
is
key
to
building
investor
confidence
in