I recently had the privilege and honor of training 12 incredibly bright, witty and motivated women entrepreneurs from South Africa on the fine art of developing a positioning statement and elevator speech for their high tech companies and incubators.  For those of you who have ever experienced this exercise, you’ll relate to the following statement written by one of the participants on her blog after my session, “Refining my elevator pitch was slightly traumatic, but so insightful. And having to say it ten million times today, was most certainly helpful.”

The training course was sponsored by Meridian International Center, in partnership with Maxum Business Incubator at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria, South Africa, and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County’s Center for Women in Information Technology (CWIT).  The program is  a two-year program funded by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) Office of Citizen Exchanges. The goal of the project is to empower and train 12 current and aspiring South African women entrepreneurs to establish or grow their information and communications technology (ICT) business/business model or ICT-enabled business/business model.               

With the rise of globalization both for physical and human capital, these women were extremely interested in how GXS helps conduct business without being hindered by international boundaries.  We talked a lot about what makes B2B ecommerce tick and how to take advantage of human capital resources in other parts of the world while keeping productivity high.  I learned a lot about South Africa during my 3 hours with these ladies.  The most eye opening is that South Africa is a developing and up and coming region for global trade.  So much so,  manufacturers in many vertical industries should begin to take notice.  Here are some statistics:·         Since 1994, over US$1-billion has been spent on upgrading and modernizing South Africa’s textile, clothing and footwear industry, making it efficient and ready to compete internationally.  o   South Africa has trade agreements with the European Union and the United States whereby the country enjoys a 17.5% duty advantage. In the case of the US, textile exports have increased by 62% since the advent of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). o   South Africa will soon also have preferential access to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, thanks to the SADC Free Trade Agreement, which will be in full operation in 2008. o   Other competitive advantages for the sector lie in competitive labor costs and the ready availability of natural fiber raw materials. o   South Africa produces in the region of 40,000 tons of cotton a year providing the potential for the local cotton pipeline to become increasingly export-oriented. o   South Africa has the raw materials needed to produce any type of footwear, from low end to high end. Bovine, ostrich, Nile crocodile, game leather, textile, PVC and PU synthetic raw materials can all be sourced locally without difficulty. South Africa is successfully growing and processing natural fibers such as flax and hemp, in response to increasing demand from the automotive and aeronautics industries for environmentally friendly body parts. South Africa is the world’s largest mohair producer and the fifth largest producer of wool. ·         Information and Communicationso   South Africa is the 20th largest consumer of IT products and services in the world. o   South Africa’s IT industry is characterized by technology leadership, particularly in the field of electronic banking services. South African companies are world leaders in pre-payment, revenue management and fraud prevention systems, and in the manufacture of set-top boxes, all exported successfully to the rest of the world. o   Electronics industry revenues in South Africa are growing at levels well above the ovarall GDP growth rate. o   South Africa’s information and communications and electronics sectors are expected to continue showing strong growth in the future, due key competitive advantages specific to the country and the continent. ·         Automotiveo   South Africa’s automotive industry is a global, turbo-charged engine for the manufacture and export of vehicles and components. o   With annual production of 535 000 vehicles in 2007, expected to rise to 630 000 in 2008, South Africa can be regarded as a minor contributor to global vehicle production, which reached 73-million units in 2007. o   The government has identified the automotive industry as a key growth sector, with the aim of increasing vehicle production to 1.2-million units by 2020, while significantly increasing local content at the same time. o   All of the major vehicle makers are represented in South Africa, as well as eight of the world’s top 10 auto component manufacturers and three of the four largest tire manufacturers. Many of the major multinational companies use South Africa to source components and assemble vehicles for both the local and overseas markets.

So to all my new “Brus” (meaning friends) from South Africa, good luck in contributing to a growing and promising economy! GXS will be here to help you when your companies go global!