The second thing is that there is need for transparency and more accurate data. “The solution to Nigeria’s problems is first and foremost, there is need for transparency, reduction in high level of corruption presently bedeviling the country as well as adoption of policies by Nigerian business owners in order to gain the confidence of banks to lend to them. The Editor-In-Chief is Andrew Jeffreys who has summed up matters as follows: Sarkozy stopped short of offering an apology.Įach participant is given a copy of the economic report on Nigeria by The Oxford Business Group. Diplomatic ties were restored only three months ago. Next was Nicholas Sarkozy, President of France who was on a visit to Rwanda with which diplomatic ties had been severed for many years since Rwandan President Paul Kagane accused France of complicity in the 1994 genocide by supporting the Hutu regime that orchestrated the murder of 800,000 Tutsis. You can have as many retreats as you like in Oxford. “I insist there will be no retreat on a new law in Zimbabwe requiring foreign investors to cede 51 per cent of their shares to indigenous Zimbabweans. He is unrepentant and emphatically declares: Business schools need to be at the forefront of this.”īefore we can get into our stride debating the weighty subject for which we have assembled, we are interrupted by a newsreel from CNN’s “BACKROOM” on Inside Africa.įirst there is Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe. Management education institutions can play a critical role in answering such questions by fostering discussions between corporations, development institutions and policy-makers. Capitalism has come under question and countries are questioning the best way to move forward. We are at an incredibly interesting time in global business. When you think about it that way, then business is not separate from development policy. “Business is one of the most powerful institutions on earth for creating wealth and opportunity and helping to lift people out of poverty. He is a champion of enhancing course content on the role of business in reducing world poverty and the ways in which globalization can benefit poor countries. In the meantime, we are assured that the professor has commenced his new position with tremendous enthusiasm and infectious vigour. Sarah Murray of The “Financial Times” has graciously assured us that before the year runs out the “Financial Times” will invite the learned professor over to savour the excellent tea for which the Bay Tree is rightly famous – scones, clotted cream, watercress sandwiches, muffins, smoked salmon etc. Specifically, we must resolve the critical issue that has been begging for an unequivocal answer Is it debt relief or aid which better serves poor countries.?” He would certainly have been the perfect guy to guide our deliberations on global financial instability and financial liberalization in emerging markets. My research in the past dozen years has been about policies for emerging economies (Nigeria and the rest of Africa) – and emerging economies are now in fact becoming more and more the world economy.” “Because I come from a place like Jamaica, which is a small, open economy, I viscerally get the importance of the global economy. We are compelled to settle for a transatlantic video-link to hear the message by the professor.
President Bill Clinton) and was awarded a Full Blue in basketball. In the 1990’s he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (in the footsteps of U.S. His credentials are truly formidable, almost intimidating. Much as he would have loved to join us he is in the midst of settling down in Manhattan, New York as the new dean of Stern School of Business.
In any case, the professor has just moved to California where he was for twelve years one of the star attractions at Stanford Graduate School of Business culminating in his being made professor of international economics, and associate director of the Centre for Global Business and the Economy. Unfortunately, he is unable to make the trip from the United States on account of the strike by British Airways – thanks to Managing Director, Willie Walsh’s intransigence.
WE are back at the Bay Tree Hotel, in sleepy Burford for a retreat, which was previously scheduled to hold at Balliol College with Jamaican-born Prof.
Randle, OFR, Chairman & Chief Executive JK Randle Professional Services (Chartered Accountants).