I have been travelling in Africa for the last six months, exploring and experiencing the African continent – nature’s bounty, human ingenuity, socio-cultural diversity, eco-political apathy, and brilliant leadership visibility in the corporate and developmental spaces.

I am writing this article to share with the leaders of Africa, from every sector, how each one can really empower oneself and impact one’s own circle of influence, causing ripples, that can transform one’s own organization and also the economy of the nation, at large. This article seeks 15 min of your time, to just read this article, but needs an hour of your investment to watch the video snippets and read the relevant article links embedded herein, that can transform the way you will see your organization’s potential and future. I urge you to invest that one hour if you are keen on your organizations next 20 years!

I must confess that I can see immense potential that is waiting to be harnessed to make the continent of Africa, the next compelling engine of the growth of the world economy, if only the political class across the countries have the purposefulness and collective vision to make it happen! Almost every leader in the socio-economic planes of the countries, talks about their political leaderships letting the nation down, with their myopic vision of self-aggrandizement, which in turn makes the brilliant growth engines in every economy – the leaderships of the organizations – to have only a short-term vision, as they are unsure about what can befall on their businesses.

I gained deep insights about these dimensions, as I have been engaging with many leaders in the last six months –

• Been interacting with over 350+ CXOs and founders over the phone regularly.
• Engaged 180+ leaders facilitating various in-person workshops and forums.
• Facilitated 45+ CXO teams (100+ organizational leaders) in the Data Science A I Retreats
• Meeting at least 70+ CEOs in person, investing a couple of hours, on average with each.
• Been interacting with a dozen industry organizations, ministers, and ambassadors.

Having shared the insights that emerged, I wish to share that we also discussed that the leaderships in the business world of Africa must set the agenda of transformation for at least their own entities, which in turn, will be influencing their economy and the nation too, in the near future.

No nation can be left behind in the rapidly changing world, and soon the political leaderships of the countries will have no choice but to realize that their own survival will depend on the growth of their countries – robustness of education and healthcare systems, flourishing businesses creating employment opportunities, taking care of the welfare of all the citizens – all fueling the economic growth. If we look at India or any of the Asian nations, this has been the path, each progressing one has taken in the last couple of decades, and African nations will have no choice but to tread the same path.

India, the 5^th largest economy ($3.73tn) in the world now, with a growth momentum faster than any other world economies in the last 2 decades, has taken the lead to build the south-south cooperation and is offering a big helping hand in facilitating the transformation, with its policy initiatives towards mainland Africa and, Middle East and North Africa (MENA). She certainly wishes to impact the education, skills, and healthcare canvas that form the bedrock of any economy. Indian Institutes of Technology, the tech-leadership churning engines of the world, have followed the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Kampala, Uganda), to East Africa (IIT Madras Zanzibar) and MENA (IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi). I am sure in the next few years, various institutions of eminence, in every field of education and healthcare, will be dotting across the map of African continent, building capacities in every economy.

In continuing with the purpose and vision of impacting the African continent in the area of capacity building, CL Educate Ltd (www.cleducate.com), one of the largest listed entities in Education, Skill development, Research, and Innovation in South Asia, stepped to explore and understand Africa six months ago. As a co-founder of CL Educate, and also a perennial start-up person, I have been spearheading the foray.

CL Educate is partnering IIT Madras (iitmz.ac.in), a sixty-year-old world-class institution of eminence in technology, that has stepped into Africa with Zanzibar campus, with its initiatives in Data Sciences, along with Zindi (www.zindi.africa), from South Africa, the largest platform of data scientists in Africa. 

When I look back, at my student days of 1980s, as India embarked on the first computing revolution, I read about a little-known paint company in India then, Asian Paints, that was implementing technologies to build efficiencies in its production processes and warehousing. That was a good 35+ years ago.

Today Harvard Business Review has a case study, “Asian Paints: India’s BIGGEST DATA SCIENCE COMPANY that sells PAINT.”

You can read the article at https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit/submission/asian-paints-indias-biggest-data-science-company-that-sells-paint/

To summarize –

Using Data Science, Asian paints

• Predicts with 90% accuracy which color, type, quantity at its 70000 retail outlets, that gets sold within 3hours of delivery.
• Delivers precisely needed stocks to every one of the 70000 outlets 3-4 times a day.
• Eliminates 20% margins usually paid to middlemen.
• Competition spends 30-40% on logistics and distribution; Asian Paints spends only 3%.
• They have now penetrated deeply into home decor, using the understanding of consumer choices and behavior with help of data science.
• Asian Paints is twice as large as any other paint company, present in 15 countries, catering in 60 countries, growing faster than even any other FMCG.

There are many stories from the Indian sub-continent that are as dramatic as Asian Paints.

Technology cycles are shrinking faster now. Data Science and AI are reducing the cycles to a few months, if not weeks. Today, over 60% of the Indian companies deploy data science to impact their top-line and bottom-line. Here is an article quoting the study by IBM. https://ift.tt/dGjR56a

Data Science needs to be part of every strategic move in any organization to catapult itself to the next orbit of growth, in the immediate future. The size and age of the organizations do not matter. The younger, the merrier; The smaller, the easier. Africa needs to catch up. Every entity in Africa needs to wake up. No Escape! One cannot be left behind in the fast-changing landscape. It will decide the leadership role of an entity in any industry that we look at. Yours will be no different.

DATA SCIENCE AI RETREATS (DSAIRe) in EAST AFRICA

Every company can create similar magic as Asian Paints. The journey had to be kick-started and, we three – CL Educate, IITMZ and Zindi – together did it in December 2023 with Data Science A I Retreats (DSAIRe) in Africa – to help every CXO embrace data science with a 2-day deep dive in understanding how they can make data science integral to their organizational strategy making.

The progress:

• Three successful and fruitful DSAIRes in East Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania, in the last four months, 45+ CXO teams, over 100 participants.
• With the positive word of mouth from the CXO participants, we got/are getting requests from industry bodies, associations of organizations / entrepreneurs from many sectors. We are going to kick-off with a series of Institutional DSAIRes (part of their regular training calendar) in April-May 2024 to cover as many members as possible in due course of time.
• A few of organizations that have participated in these 3 DSAIRes are seeking deep dive within their organization, to start their transformational journeys.

The following Flyer talks about the DSAIRe in one snapshot.

• What is the Data Science AI Retreat all about?
• Who should be attending it?
• Why must you attend it?
• What impact you can create on your business?
• What is expected of you?

For greater details, kindly visit the link https://www.careerlauncher.com/machine-learning/csuite-africa/dsretreat/

The Participatory Design of the DSAIRe – CXO teams of 4+1, why?

Prof Raghunathan Rengaswamy talking about the Data Science AI Retreat design and how it has been impacting organizations like yours.

Prof Raghunathan Rengaswamy, an Authority in Data Science, a professor of IIT Madras, with a PhD in Data Science, and groomed quite a few data scientists over the last three decades. He has been a consultant to many industries guiding them to immerse and incorporate Data Science and AI in their Strategy making and execution, catapulting the organizations to higher levels of excellence, leading to dramatic growth in their bottom-lines.

Prof Raghu shares his experiences and learning from the DSAIRe in East Africa :

• About the Data Science A I Retreats (DSAIRe) in Africa, how these retreats are going to impact every organization like yours…
• The unique design of the composition of the leadership teams (4 + 1) from corporate, in DSAIRe, and Why?
• The effectiveness of learning within such teams, and how the follow up to the DSAIRe has been significant!
• Significance of taking this DSAIRe to all countries of Africa, and how the economies will get impacted.
• In what all ways we can create an impact in every organization like yours, post DSAIRe
• How we will be able to hand-hold the companies like yours in transformation.

You will meet facilitators of eminence in Data Science, Prof Raghu, Sujit Bhattacharyya and Celina Lee along with teams from IIT Madras, Zindi, CL Educate during the DSAIRes.

The CEO of a large bank network across a few African Countries, Mr Gowri Shankar Rao, talking about why a CEO must attend DSAIRe with key leaders of the organization:

The following flyer talks about how the consortium of CL Educate, IIT Madras Zanzibar and Zindi can hand-hold businesses transform themselves using Data Science, if the CXO team after participating in the DSAIRe wishes to deep dive. Of course, every entity needs to, sooner or later.

Here are reflections from a few CXOs who attended one of the DSAIRe, to help you understand and gain the need to participate in the next DSAIRe.

SUPERDOLL – One of the Largest Manufacturing companies of Tanzania

Mr. Sridhar Nagarajan, COO, Superdoll Trailer Manufacturing Ltd. Tanzania, talks about how Data Science and AI applications within superdoll can enhance decision making with concerted analysis of data that is being generated from various process across the business value chain of superdoll.

VitaFoam Tanzania – The Sleeping Solutions Company

Founded in 2001, Vita Foam has grown stronger in Tanzania, becoming the most trusted brand for providing consistent healthy sleeping solutions for homes, hotels, hospitals, school and university hostels, defense forces, prisons, various institutions, high-end residential apartments, and every individual. By Integrating Data Science and AI in the strategy making and execution, Vita Foam (T) Limited can easily grow its bottom-line by 10-20% above the normal expected growth that it will, otherwise gain, in a couple of years. Here Mr Suraj Chandalia, CEO, and Mr Prateek Chandalia, Director are talking about their take aways…

Njoro Canning – Food Processing Industry

Vipul Patel and Prity Patel, Directors of Njoro Canning Factory, Kenya sharing about what all they gained from the Data Science AI Retreat that they attended in Nairobi on March 1-2, 2004, and how they are going to use the knowledge to better their data harnessing to grow the business

Mr Kailas K BhattBhatt, Managing Partner, Baker Tilly DGP Co – Consulting and Auditing

Mr Kailas talking about how the DSAIRe has helped him understand not only to have closer look at their own practice to harness data, but also to help all their clients who they serve, in harnessing data. He is excited about a new practice of data science advisory emerging in his consulting firm.

How DATA SCIENCE can transform companies to dominate in their respective sectors

I am sharing a few articles that I had written for specific industries and sectors, in detail, on how data science can facilitate you transform various process in the business value chain, not only to deliver customer delight but also multiplies revenues, dramatically reduce costs and thereby growing bottom-lines exponentially..

• Manufacturing
• Insurance Sector
• Food Processing and Products
• Retail, Logistics, Supply Chain
• Healthcare
• Banking and Finance
• Legal Fraternity

A few more articles talking about other sectors and industries

• Packaging Industry
• Generative AI – Text to Video
• Travel Industry
• Hospitality

I am sure this article, if you have read, watched the embedded videos and explored all the links, in detail, would have given you a lot of insights and ideas about how Data Science integrated strategy incorporated for your organization can really do magic to the financial health and growth of your company. Such an effort, by a collective members of any industry vertical, is bound to transform that industry to be one of the growth engines of the nations economy.

Before I wind up this article, I would definitely like you to hear what Mr Sumit Shekhar, Head – Strategic Matters, Exim Bank, Tanzania has to say, about why you should not miss the next Data Science AI Retreat that is coming your way!

We invite you and your leadership team, to join Prof Raghu, Sujit Bhattacharyya and Celina Lee along with their respective teams from IIT Madras, Zindi, CL Educate, for an exclusive 2-day DATA SCIENCE AI Retreat for C-suite executives, that will be scheduled shortly.

Learn how to use DATA SCIENCE AND AI in decision-making, all in an informal setting, yet an intense learning environment in your beautiful city!

This DS AI Retreat will be a great beginning of the transformational journey you are keen on.

Since we are looking at a meaningful number but limited, in the learning retreat that can facilitate good engaging interactions, I request you to register at the earliest, the moment we throw open the registrations for the next one..

Looking forward to seeing you in the next DSAIRe.