Idea in Brief

The Context

African markets present a multitude of challenges. For example, in some cases the infrastructure won’t support business growth, while in others potential employees lack access to good public education.

The Possibilities

Hundreds of companies have achieved high levels of growth and profitability nonetheless—often by seeing the potential in those challenges.

The Focus

Tremendous innovation is emerging in six areas: financial services, infrastructure development, manufacturing, food production, affordable consumer products, and education.

How many companies in Africa earn annual revenues of $1 billion or more? Most global executives we speak with guess there are fewer than a hundred. Many answer “zero.” The reality? Four hundred such companies exist—and they are, on average, both faster growing and more profitable than their global peers.

A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2018 issue (p.116–125) of Harvard Business Review.