CH 9: Don't Do Business in Africa

This chapter discusses developing countries and how they factor into the flat world. I liked the creative example Friedman made about “What if regions of the world were like a neighborhood?” Even though I think it was a sort of stereotypical, especially as he placed a label on countries that had populations of hundreds of millions or billions of people. The most interesting descriptions were:

The U.S. – Gated community with a metal detector at the front gate and a lot of people complaining on how lazy everyone else was. However, there is a small hole in the fence for Mexican labor

Latin America – The fun part; the club district; workday doesn’t begin until 10pm and everyone sleeps to mid-morning

And last but not least: Arab Street – Curtains closed, shutters drawn, signs on their front lawn that say “No Trespassing. Beware of Dog.”

Also found it interesting that each country has VASTLY different rules and regulations on new businesses in their company. A new biz in Australia takes 2 days to open, while Haiti makes a new biz wait around 200 days to open. Over half a year! Ridiculous!

The study the IFC did called “Doing Business” was a good study as it showed which countries were the best to do business with. Singapore, New Zealand and China are countries that you SHOULD do business with. However, many countries in Africa you SHOULD NOT do business with. I agree that developing countries need to analyze themselves and decide what all do they need to eventually become a developed country so they may be able to better survive in this flattening world.