Can an African Country can win gold at the Olympics?

With the August 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics rapidly approaching one is reminded of the Olympic ideals of competition and excellence. Putting aside the recent raucous around the Olympic torch and China’s human rights record in Tibet the world’s nations will bring their best athletes to Beijing and engage in ferocious athletic competition. As individual athletes compete the ultimate glory though belongs to competing nations as each medal awards ceremony is accompanied by the raising of flags and a rendition of the victor's national anthem. At the end of the games the medals table will be finalized and each country will know how well or poorly it has fared.

What if national economic performance was an Olympic sport which countries would be on the podium watching their flags being hoisted? And whose anthem would be played? Well for the 15th straight year the anthem played is "The Star-Spangled Banner". This is the finding of the 20th World Competitiveness Yearbook report released May 15, 2008 by IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook measures 55 countries on the basis of 323 criteria. The report's author, professor Stéphane Garelli, expects Singapore to take the top spot next year.The small city-state trails the U.S. by less than seven-tenths of a point in the 2008 rankings. While it still has the world's strongest domestic economy, the U.S. is particularly vulnerable because its financial sector contributes 40% to corporate profits.

Only one African country makes the cut to be included in the 55 countries in the IMD survey, South Africa which this year is ranked 53 down from 50 in 2007. The criteria used to compute the rankings are grouped into 4 main factors Economic performance, Government efficiency, Business efficiency and Infrastructure which are divided into 20 sub-factors.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) also provides a similar competitiveness ranking. The usefulness of these rankings can be debated but I think a clear observation is the paucity of African countries. In the eyes of the world or at least those who compile the rankings African countries are not meaningful players on the global economic stage.

While many emerging economies post double-digit annual growth rates, they often still lack sophisticated financial markets, highly developed education systems, and the macroeconomic stability needed to outrank more established rivals on the WEF list.

So the critical question to ask at this juncture is how can we make African countries more competitive? At least to the point where we see more African countries listed on the IMD and WEF rankings.

The crux of the rankings is that countries need to create an optimum business environment. There is a host of things that African governments and organizations can do. These have included notable initiatives such as Mo Ibrahim’s Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.

To achieve economic competitiveness and leadership there are 2 critical areas that the continents nations needs to seriously invest in:

1. Math and Science Education
2. Entrepreneurship Development

Industries such as Finance, Information Technology, Engineering, Life Sciences and Biotechnology, require enormous investments and development of talent in Math and Science. In this regard efforts such as those by Neil Turok whose stated dream is to produce an African Einstein need support by governments and industry. Turok’s efforts have seen the establishment of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences.

South Korea for instance has prioritized the development of biotech and is a leader in stem cell research. The country’s ubiquitous Wi-Fi and broadband access has made it one of the most networked places on earth.

The result of this whole hearted embrace of technology has a direct business consequence. South Korean mobile phone companies Samsung Electronics and LG have moved up the global market share rankings to become the 2nd and 4th global phone makers, in the process leapfrogging over such formidable competitors as Motorola (USA) and Sony Ericsson (Japan/ Sweden).

The second area of entrepreneurship development is more elusive. A formal approach to teaching entrepreneurship exists, where the concept is studied, understood and codified. The practice of entrepreneurship however often bears little or no co-relation to the study of it. It’s hard to think that Sir Richard Branson actually took a course in entrepreneurship. On the other hand a host of entrepreneurs have caught the bug while studying for an MBA or other graduate studies. There neither seems to be a ‘right’ age to become an entrepreneur; Ray Kroc started McDonald’s at 53 while the world’s youngest self made billionaire Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook as a 20 year old Harvard student. The rule with entrepreneurship seems to be that there is no rule.

This state of affairs however is not a call for inaction. The solution as entrepreneurship itself may consist in constantly trying, experimenting failing and succeeding. It by all intents and purposed is a mix of the formal and informal: teaching entrepreneurship courses at universities and colleges, promoting mentorship and internship programs, celebrating the achievements of homegrown entrepreneurs and encouraging young people to take risks and try new things.

Maybe with the adoption of these measures 10 years from now the anthem being played will be "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", and since 3 African countries have that as their national anthem it’s anyone’s guess which one of them will be the gold, silver or bronze medalist!