<h1 style="text-align:center;">Are We Losing their Hearts and Minds…Because of our Wallets?</h1> For the past six years I have been traveling in Africa and South Asia. I have spent most of that time in East Africa, where the United States has long been the dominant “goodwill” country. With initiatives like PEPFAR and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Africa fell in love with “Bushy,” and had high hopes for President Obama, with his paternal roots in Kenya. I have long enjoyed the strength of the American brand as a businessman traveling in Africa. But on my last trip, I noted a significant change.Our company does two things: One, we find and assess small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) investment opportunities in developing countries, and two, we connect those opportunities to angel investors. There’s a lot more technical stuff involved, and some amazing investor trips, but mainly we do transactions — brokering deals for "impact investors."Connecting investors to good investments in Africa and other developing countries has not been easy, seeing as most Americans hold an inaccurate perception about what is actually happening on the ground. Nonetheless, we are starting to see some interest from investors. We have even started to organize angel investors for investments in Afghanistan.Back to Africa…as I travel I always keep a close eye on who is making moves on the continent. If you have been reading the news from Africa for the past few years you understand why I keep a close eye on China. China’s presence in Africa is not new. They have been working in some of the hardest countries in Africa for years. The general sentiment in Africa, with its many different countries and cultures, is concern about China’s presence. I experienced a clear example of this three years ago at the Hilton in Addis. A group, who I believe were Chinese diplomats, walked into the business center in the hotel. One of them was confronted by, what appeared to be a disgruntled Ethiopian man in his mid-thirties. If you have met Ethiopians, you know that they are some of the gentlest people on earth. I was shocked by his outburst, and clearly so was the Chinese woman who was verbally assaulted. His attack was swift, direct and memorable: “Why are you in my country? I want you out!”So, on my recent trip to Ethiopia I assumed the sentiment would still be the same, even worse given the impressive advances China has made throughout the continent. I was wrong.The shock didn’t hit me at first, because I was still living in the memory of the scene from the business center. I’d ask question, like I always do, about the Chinese: Where are they investing? Why? Is it working? Who are they working with? What are the perks, etc.? The questions go on and on. For a long time I have been rewarded with scowling faces and answers like, “Roads, because they want to get mining consignments.” Or “They work very hard, but they treat us poorly.”For the first part of my recent trip around East Africa, this is exactly what I heard. I was even rewarded with a “They [the Chinese] are coming here by the thousands. You need to do something!” Now, I honestly think most of these were genuine statements from concerned friends, diplomats and entrepreneurs. But it wasn’t until Ethiopia where I was given a little dose of reality.I don’t know if it was irony given that I was back in Ethiopia, or that I finally spoke with someone that was not afraid to tell me the truth. Either way, the answers I was given did not tell the story I was used to hearing about China in Africa. The story is changing. And what’s more, so has Africa’s story about the United States.This is what happened: I was driving around with a successful Ethiopian entrepreneur looking at his stone crushing plant and a few other projects he is working on. Like most successful entrepreneurs in Africa, I am always fascinated and a little skeptical (hey, I get paid to ask questions) about how he “made it.” Nonetheless, I really liked this guy and he matched the profile we like to look for (I’ll save that for another post.). As I worked through my series of questions I finally got to the ‘China section.’ “What are your thoughts on China?” I asked. “Oh, they are great! We do tons of business with them. They are our largest trading partner, and we have been working with them on a number of projects.” His enthusiasm caught me off guard. I wanted to stop my questioning, afraid that if I scratched much deeper I would find out just how much sentiments towards China are changing.I am an American who encourages high net worth individuals (angel investors) to invest in SMEs in developing countries. It’s a new model for economic development, but it’s also a model for foreign diplomacy. In my humble opinion, diplomacy in Africa is more about business than it is policies or health initiatives, or aid.Entrepreneurs generally know what I do, and they know what to say about China to fire me up about the need for America to get involved with business in Africa. But this conversation ignored all of that. He didn’t sugarcoat his answer, or roll his eyes about the Chinese, or complain of their cheap goods, or talk about how they are corrupt, or throw his arms up asking why the Americans aren’t investing. He smiled and shot me a straight answer… “they are great!”I am not saying that everyone who has complained about what China is doing in Africa was lying to me, but maybe I have been getting some theatrics. The reality is that China’s economic success in Africa is dwarfing the U.S. — the international leader of capitalism. And these efforts on the part of the Chinese have begun to win the hearts and minds of the people. It’s not just about damns and roads and mining projects; it’s about trucking companies and textile factories and coffee farms. And yes, the Chinese do build nice hospitals, like the one they just constructed south of Addis. Ethiopia loves it. Read this from a newspaper:“The hospital is historical as it is named after the renowned athlete Tirunesh Dibaba, he said, adding it would further help to enhance the people to people relations of the two countries [China and Ethiopia].”There’s a whole <a href="http://et.china-embassy.org/eng/zagx/">website</a> on the China-Ethiopia relations. On the site are links to aid being given to Ethiopia alongside news of shoe companies wanting to invest, and investors interested in the cotton industry. The truth is that China has learned that the hearts and minds of the people can be won by working with them, giving to them, and investing in them.In the United States, we have taken a hard position on things like bribery, which we say the Chinese do almost blatantly. We are also doing amazing development projects all across the developing world that get little media exposure. Being an American visitor in these countries, I can imagine the frustration of our policy makers when the U.S. influence is so clearly diminished. As a Kenyan so eloquently put it, "we've turned our back to the West to face the rising sun." An outdated cliché but it still delivers a sting.So China is gaining favor in Africa and the U.S. is losing it. But thankfully, I don’t think it’s too late to try something new. It involves the U.S. Government doing what the Chinese are doing; taking a more active role in facilitating investments. And not just huge, massive infrastructure investments; I am talking about investing into SMEs—the backbone of any economy. I have had the honor of spending time with some amazing businessmen and women in the U.S. who know the value of entrepreneurship and the benefits that come from the investor/investee relationship. Our Government needs to get creative about how to efficiently facilitate these relationships.We’re missing out on a major opportunity for diplomacy through business, investing and good old-fashioned capitalism. China is winning in Africa by using this strategy and it feels like we’re stuck. Is it time for the U.S. to try something new?

For the past six years I have been traveling in Africa and South Asia.

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Are We Losing their Hearts and Minds…Because of our Wallets?

<h1 style="text-align:center;">Making Money From Doing Good</h1>According to a recent article in The New York Times entitled Will 'Social Capital’ be the Next Big Industry to Emerge? the concept of microfinance made alternatives to philanthropy popular. Now other industries and segments of the financial world are following suit.Within for-profit and non-profit entities alike, “the key was simply adding old-fashioned capitalism and a business model to charity,” claims the article. Now the world over, you can find entrepreneurs dedicated to both financial viability and social impact. Markets for organic food and fair trade have been producing results for a decade. According to the article, “their sucesses foreshadow a permanent place for social investment.”

"The key was simply adding old-fashioned capitalism..."

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Making Money From Doing Good

<h1 style="text-align:center;">West Africa: Photos and First Impressions</h1> As part of consulting project, the RENEW team recently traveled to Niger, Senegal and Ghana. Here are a few photos and first impressions: Niger<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/Collages_45a8dd87b7.jpg"></figure>Impressions of Niger: On the edge of the Sahara Desert, Niger is dry, dusty and in many ways it feels forgotten by most everyone (except the Chinese and <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2011/12/04/candy_cash____al_qaida_implants_itself_in_africa/?page=3">al-Qaida</a>). USAID is not even active there. But there are bright spots including one of our key contacts who said "Niger is not poor. We are just acting poor." The country has a variety of natural resources and though not evident upon first glance...there is great potential for economic growth in certain sectors including <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5474.htm#econ&quot;">oil, uranium and onions</a> of all things. Senegal<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/Collages2_10e3a50ee3.jpg"></figure> First impressions of Senegal: The international airport is in the heart of Dakar (it will be moved to the countryside in 2012) and as you fly across the city the vibrancy is immediately apparent. Signs of <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2862.htm#econ">economic growth</a> include the many buildings under construction, a decent highway system, and malls with things like pet shops and an Apple distributor. It's impossible not to notice the many people exercising on the beaches and roadways. All signs that the middle class is definitely growing in Dakar. And the great folks at USAID - Senegal seem open to public private partnerships to encourage the SME space. When you go to Dakar, do try to overlook the bad smells/pollution and trash though and don't forget to visit <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293831-d810749-Reviews-Chez_Loutcha-Dakar.html">Chez Loutcha</a> a great, affordable restaurant downtown. Ghana<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/Ghana_c06bbb0bdf.jpg"></figure>First impressions of Ghana: Grasscutter anyone? Across West Africa, a giant rat is considered a delicacy more expensive than beef or chicken. I am not sure what that has to do with my first impressions of Ghana, except that we saw our fair share of the not so little guys. The infrastructure, organization and growth in Accra is impressive. Traffic is quite bad and the city is spread out, but there is definitely good SME investment opportunities to be found in Ghana. For more information read the <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2860.htm#econ">State Department's economic outlook for Ghana.</a>

The RENEW team recently traveled to Niger, Senegal and Ghana.

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West Africa: Photos and First Impressions

<h1 style="text-align:center;">Developing Critical Thinking Skills</h1>Observations here in Uganda continue to confirm our thoughts about the value addition RENEW offers to businesses in Africa. Our ability to provide management consulting expertise to growing enterprises is not only sought after by our partners, but by the local leaders whose businesses they fund. Many business owners and local executives are desperate for a management-class workforce here in Uganda — managers that understand and apply analytical thinking to solve the many problems that arise daily in the developing world as a business grows. Electricity shuts off, orders change, a machine breaks down or a customer asks for something other than what is exactly on the menu of offerings. When this happens you will almost always see operations and customer service come to a screeching halt. An innovative solution or answer to either fix the problem or meet the needs of a customer is hardly considered and rarely conceived. The result? The hallmarks of “brand Africa” — poor customer service, poor product quality, inefficient operations and missed deadlines.One could argue that part of this problem starts very early in the development of the working class. Local education often requires students to memorize information, including tables and equations. Rarely are students pushed to understand the why and how behind the information they are given. Students are rewarded on standardized exams. There is only one right answer, never partial credit for understanding the logic needed to get to the answer. Years later, these issues show up on the streets of Kampala. It is very common to find ten identical businesses operating side-by-side one another; always eager to replicate, rarely able to innovate.Instilling analytical thinking and problem solving skills in management teams will undoubtedly increase a company’s ability to provide excellent customer service in a world where meeting the needs of each customer can make the difference in a company’s success. These thinking skills can no longer be confined to the front office, but must find their way to the production floor. When this happens, middle management will gradually shift away from acting as task drivers over their staff, to focusing their time on developing ideas and plans for improving numbers, beating targets and developing their employees.But there is a paradox. The answer to “how does an executive instill analytical thinking into middle management?” points to the management systems. The executive and his or her team must move away from putting out daily fires and reinvent the management systems. If this is done properly, you will no longer hear “if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself,” or “when I leave everything stops. I can’t get away,” coming from the front office. A true management system anticipates problems and develops options for middle management to follow in order to meet them. Middle managers become empowered to make decisions, while executives focus on creating and enhancing the systems. Their focus becomes increasing on gaining market share and meeting new customer needs. Analytical thinking doesn’t develop overnight. Entrepreneurs that start successful businesses have it. They must use that thinking to develop systems that allow the managers to operate in an environment that anticipates problems, provides options and allows the business to live. Thus the paradox: like local education, the executive must shift their focus away from providing their staff with the answer, and move toward developing a system that empowers them to choose options given a number of variables.Helping executives to accomplish this shift is RENEW’s passion. More to come…

Observations here in Uganda continue to confirm...

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Developing Critical Thinking Skills

<h1 style="text-align:center;">Building a Global Company During a Tough Time</h1>To be sure, a recession poses plenty of challenges to a young company like RENEW. Many investors will hunker down and focus on businesses and business models with which they are comfortably familiar. But, as Daniel Roth of Wired writes <a href="http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/16-12/st_essay">Back to the Garage: How Economic Turmoil Breeds Innovation</a>, the instinct to turn insular during economic difficulty leaves the playing field wide open for up-and-comers:With the world’s economies apparently snowballing into a deep recession, it feels uncomfortably Pollyannish to see signs of hope. But for the bravest inventors and entrepreneurs, conditions are ideal to pounce on a business opportunity. In periods of economic turmoil, people are hungry and work cheap, and entrenched companies often concentrate on in-house cost-cutting instead of exploring new markets, which can explode with the next turn of the business cycle. When VCs from Foundation Capital met with their nervous investors recently, the partners advised them to stay the course rather than follow their peers into the bunkers. “Our strongest companies have the potential to be whales when the market opens up,” partner Paul Holland told the group. “This is the crucible that forges great companies.”Between a Wall Street full of talented people tasked with selling junk and a development field searching for a way to kick its aid addiction, the RENEW team sees tremendous opportunity in linking investors searching for solid businesses with entrepreneurs searching for the capital and management expertise they need to grow their businesses.Impact investing, currently regarded as a niche market, will not stay that way for long. As Western economies emerge bit by bit from economic turmoil, solid businesses in new markets are becoming viable candidates to enter the global economy as fast as RENEW builds the mechanisms to plug them in.

To be sure, a recession poses plenty of challenges...

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Building a Global Company During a Tough Time

<h1 style="text-align:center;">It Takes Heart, Head...and Grit</h1>The <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204630904577055663749586298.html">Wall Street Journal</a> recently published an excellent article highlighting the trends and growth in the impact investing space. With <a href="http://www.eurosif.org/">Eurosif</a> projecting that HNWIs will be investing 1.2 Trillion Euro in impact investments by 2013, wealth managers and financial advisers need to find creative ways to satisfy the blended appetites of their clients.I want to discuss a statement made by Klaus Tischhauser, CEO of <a href="http://www.responsability.com/site/index.cfm?id_art=66199&amp;actMenuItemID=21178&amp;/id_site/428/id_corp/428/vsprache/EN">responsAbility Social Investments.</a> He states that "the 'hottest' area of impact investing is small-business finance," and I completely agree with him.One of the challenges in the impact investing market, especially funding directed to frontier markets, is that most of it is going into microfinance institutions (MFIs), or MFI funds. But as Mr. Tischhauser also notes, the microfinance sector is well established; and I would say oversubscribed. Many working in the field actually call microfinance: "sustainable poverty." Although I don't agree with this sentiments, I do believe local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been an overlooked asset class that hold the potential (albeit risky) for strong financial returns and local impact.My only concern from the article was this statement "A typical holding is Silicon Valley-based Driptech, which has developed a novel drip irrigation system for poor farmers in India and China." Although this is an amazing technology, my hope is that these business innovations, and subsequent investments, are being looked for in-countries like Kenya, Ethiopia and Ghana. Understandably, this requires a considerable leap of faith from investors that many not be willing to travel around Africa searching for deals. And investing in an irrigation company in Silicon Valley is less concerning than an IT company in Uganda. Yet, in my opinion impact investing needs to get to this place soon - financing local firms in frontier markets. Why? Because of the multiplier effect: Local firms buy and sell locally, hire locally, and pay local taxes. <a href="http://seaf.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=159&amp;Itemid=178&amp;lang=en">SEAF</a>, one of the leading SME investment organizations, claims that every $1 invested in a frontier market creates $13 of benefit in the local society.

Why the future 1.3 T Euro impact investment industry should consider SMEs.

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It Takes Heart, Head...and Grit

<h1 style="text-align:center;">U.S. Investors Offer Something Different to Africa</h1>“The U.S. wants to invest in Africa? [pause] Really?” Looking slowly over his shoulder, he leans in and whispers…”It’s about time. Where have you been?” These are not the words of one of the hundreds of small- to medium-size business owners RENEW has been meeting with. These are the words of a well-established business man who has worked relentlessly for years, and long since transcended the upper echelons of the Ugandan society. I have seen and heard variations of this same astonished reaction from many meetings with business men and women here in Uganda. Many are in no need of investment capital. They are not trying to impress me. They just want something different. They generally describe this difference in two forms. The first has to do with the U.S. brand. The U.S. brings with it standards and ethics like no other country in the world (these are their words). Other countries that have successfully been investing in Africa for years, don’t generally focus on raising the standards and ethics while simultaneously making profits. Rather they focus on the latter. This is understood, they recognize, but not optimal. I’ll save the elaboration on this point for a later post.The second reason, which I will go into, is that the current approach the U.S. takes with Africa is not working (again, their words). U.S. resources, both money and people, flow into Africa in large quantities in the form of aid. The target recipients are the poor (a large and in-need group) and the government (a small group). We’ve seen results, true. But are they the best return on the dollar and manpower?Well, let’s take a closer look at this equation. One can quickly see a critical sector that misses the direct benefits of these U.S. resources. The business community. One could argue (and some try) that business owners are a benefactor of aid through things like improved roads, clean water and electricity that the government provides. Take one drive around Kampala and you will have some questions. No. The reality is businesses fend for themselves. Being a capitalist I am OK with rough conditions; it drives innovation. But, for capitalism to succeed — and thus create taxes, provide jobs and build up a stable middle class — you need capital. So, banks start growing, and charging handsome fees to outweigh their risks. If a business is lucky enough to get a loan it most likely goes towards expenses that could be minimized by an effective government. Namely they buy generators to keep their manufacturing plants operational because electricity shuts off multiple times a day. They pay for vehicle maintenance because the roads rattle their cars apart. They pay for unhealthy and sick workers because waterborne pathogens and malaria are commonplace.So, one could deduce that the current flow of resources into Africa has not targeted the one group that could potentially be the solution for advancing development, making it “sustainable”, and directly eliminating all of those wonderful problems that many NGO’s build their mission statements around. But, there is doubt in the voice of my affluent friend who is clearly wondering if this new approach will really happen - this “U.S. investing in Africa.” They naturally go onto to ask “How will you do it?”For the past two years RENEW has been diligently trying to build a business-understanding of Africa. We recognized early on just how important it would be to “go slow to go fast” with this new approach. We knew that well before we could operate in Africa, we would need to understand our stakeholders’ wants and needs; we would need to have a strong formal and informal networks within each country to advise us, guide us and vet opportunities with; and we would need an information technology- and process-driven system that would make our operations efficient and cost-effective to the IAN. After over two years of focusing almost exclusively on working “on our business”, these three pillars (service, relationships and systems) have become the foundation of our operational model. And since RENEW has been operational in East Africa since October, this model has proven itself to be very successful.With our fundamentals in place, we have been busy defining our country-strategies for Uganda and Kenya. Starting from the top, RENEW’s desire is to help build amazing businesses by using an investment approach that ensures both a financial and social return. This is done by directing U.S. resources (money and people) towards businesses with high growth potential. Although new, this model of market-driven development has been proven to be successful by many other brilliant scholars, and continues to be written about in the news. Therefore, I will not go into unpacking the details of this model here, but rather say RENEW is focused on putting it to work.We are looking along strategic supply chains like healthcare, agribusiness, land development and energy. We seek out the ethical, visionary and strategic. In just under two months RENEW’s business model has borne fruit. We have found some diamonds in these rough middle markets, and it is time to change the hesitation in the voice of our affluent, local friends by showing them that the U.S. is ready for change—that we see the potential and that it’s time for a new equation. One that bring ethics and standards with capital. One that is sustainable. One that works.

”It’s about time. Where have you been?”

U.S. Investors Offer Something Different to Africa

<h1 style="text-align:center;">Financial Services Over the Longhaul: Lessons from Recessions</h1>There’s no question that portfolios managed by financial services and wealth management firms have taken a nearly unrelenting beating in the past six months. That bodes ill for everyone, from retirees to entrepreneurs just starting out. In some ways, all the red ink can make impact investing seem like an indulgence–an idea only fit for flush times. But as Kevin Jones at <a href="http://www.goodcap.net/">Good Capital</a> writes, “When the existing system is at risk, people are willing to ask a new set of questions and take a look at new ways of doing things. For the people who believe you never could divorce economic from social value, the new reality creates a window of opportunity.”As social value becomes more “real” to investors, RENEW sees a window of opportunity opening for wealth managers, who can now offer to capture and present social returns as part the portfolios they build for clients. The prospect of capturing social value in client portfolios provides a distinct competitive edge at a time when wealth managers are reeling from losses and defending their value to clients. Social value, approached with the same thoughtful, measured method that financial firms are now re-emphasizing in their portfolios, amounts to a new service offering that can help investors capture and enjoy all the value their investments are creating.Not only is the economic crisis forcing investors to consider the social impact–positive and negative–of finance; we’re also learning that a range of investments, particularly those outside of sectors and regions traditionally regarded as “safe,” can actually insulate investors against downturns. This was one of three findings in a study published in the December 2008 Harvard Business Review, titled “Lessons from the Past for Financial Services.”Authors Matthew Sebag-Montefiore and Nuno Monteiro analyzed seven downturns affecting 600 North American and Western European companies in banking, asset management, consumer finance, insurance, investment, and specialty finance over the past 28 years. Among the recommendations that emerge from this research: “Banks that were high performers in the early phases of the current downturn drew, on average, nearly 10% of their revenues from outside North America and Western Europe prior to the softening. That’s compared with 4% for low performers.”Investments in small and medium-sized businesses in emerging economies certainly come with their own set of risks. But if the recent financial collapse is teaching us anything, it’s clear that creatively diversified portfolios are more valuable than ever.

There’s no question that portfolios have taken beating in the past six months.

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Financial Services Over the Longhaul: Lessons from Recessions

<h1 style="text-align:center;">Never Waste a Good Crisis</h1>This entry is cross-posted on <a href="http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/2009/03/17/never-waste-a-good-crisis">NextBillion.net</a>.President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are fond of <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5251VN20090306">reminding</a> the press that leaders should “never waste a good crisis.” During times of upheaval, people are scared, but they’re also willing to try something different. That applies in both the political and <a href="http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/02/seize-advantage-in-a-downturn/ar/1">business worlds</a>.RENEW was launched in the midst of upheaval. Incorporated two years ago because we saw an opportunity to grow small businesses in developing markets, RENEW was designed to implement a set of new ideas about what investors who rethink their model can accomplish in markets largely “hidden” by their lack of structure.Of course, another sort of upheaval quickly followed. Just as RENEW launched its on-the-ground operations in East Africa in November, global markets fell into disarray. The fallout is still falling out. In the meantime, RENEW, one company among many in the burgeoning BOP/double bottom-line/social enterprise/pick-your-descriptor marketplace, is determined not to “waste” the present financial crisis.First, the basics: RENEW is a social investment intermediary that sources SMEs for U.S.-based investors, conducts due diligence, manages the investment, and provides life of the investment consulting to support business growth and gauge social impact. In the strictest sense, those are its service offerings. But during the two years that the company has been working with investors and entrepreneurs, we’ve come to envision more than the addition of an investment intermediary to the marketplace.We see an opportunity to create a new set of expectations between capital and the entrepreneurs and managers who shape investment capital into enterprises that create value and generate return. We believe investors should be able to generate meaningful financial return and see sound governance at work when they deploy capital to SMEs in developing countries. And we believe that managers of these SMEs should hold themselves and their employees to the sort of ethical and operational standards that will allow them to compete globally in the 21st century.We’re not the only ones. Last summer, a group of 35 scholars and business executives assembled to lay out a road map for reinventing management to make it more relevant to a volatile world. (These findings comprise a February 2009 Harvard Business Review article titled <a href="http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/02/moon-shots-for-management/ar/1">Moon Shots for Management</a>.) The group, which included luminaries like C.K. Prahalad and others familiar to NextBillion.net readers, was inspired by a collective desire to help managers overcome what they call “ambition-deficit disorder. What, we asked ourselves, was management’s equivalent to unpacking the human genome, inventing a cure for AIDS, or reversing global warming?”The group synthesized its discussions into a list of 25 grand challenges for managers in the 21st century. At least half of these will make immediate sense to many NextBillion regulars. (For example: "#1 Ensure that the work of management serves a higher purpose; #2 Fully embed the ideas of community and citizenship in management systems; #13 Develop holistic performance measures; #22 Enable communities of passion; #23 Retool management for an open world.”)Similarly, throughout the course of RENEW’s initial market research on investors in the United States and managers in the developing world, we saw “ambition-deficit disorder.” To be sure, in some areas investors exhibited <a href="http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant">too much ambition</a>; financial markets are undergoing severe corrections as a result. But when it comes to the fundamentals of finding, investing in and building ethical, well-managed businesses, capital markets have not been keeping up with what’s going on in developing countries. To a large degree, illusory returns in developed capital markets obscured real opportunities in new markets. Take this growing business in Kampala, for instance. In fact, the same February 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review cited above featured an article titled <a href="http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/web/2009/hbr-list/now-the-time-to-invest-in-africa">Now’s the Time to Invest in Africa</a> as one of HBR’s “Breakthrough Ideas for 2009.” The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, speaking this week at a conference in Tanzania to examine the effect of the financial crisis on low-income countries, <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2009/031009.htm">said</a> much the same thing.There is opportunity aplenty in the midst of this crisis. The “Moon Shots” group and others working to create a shared code of conduct for managers, taken together with recent studies on the prospect of a true impact investing marketplace (see the Monitor Group’s excellent report) offer an alternative to the myopic view that investors and managers tend to suffer from as they evaluate investment opportunities and craft strategies for business growth. Renew aims with its services to provide a template — and real-life examples — of how impact investing meets better management in practice. But we are one small part of a large marketplace. No one with similar goals should waste this crisis.

During times of upheaval, people are scared, but they’re also willing to try something different.

Investing in Africa