Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think

Preface: Consumer Safari

I have to admit that until a few years ago, I was guilty of overlooking Africa. My book on emerging markets, The 86% Solution, included only a few African examples. As a professor of marketing at the University of Texas, I have extensive experience working with companies in Latin America. I have traveled and lectured extensively in Asia and the Middle East. Like most scholars in the developed world, however, I saw Africa more as a charity case than a market opportunity. I was wrong, and this book is here to set the record straight.

It is particularly surprising to me that I failed to recognize the story in Africa because I remember when India was discussed in the same way. As Ramachandra Guha recently wrote in a book ...