Executive Summary

Background

The Africa Management Forum (AMF) was conceived by the board of directors of ACLAIM Africa Limited in 2004 to provide networking opportunities that can enhance business opportunities and open up new frontiers for CEOs, top management and business leaders in Africa and as a method of consolidating the values that the organisation stands for and to be able to influence a greater impact of these values among the leaders and managers all over Africa.

The AMF was added as a product of ACLAIM in 2004. ACLAIM is a business dedicated to management training and consultancy. The founders are internationally recognised specialists with wide experience of private corporate sector and NGO/CSO management across Africa and the UK.

The ACLAIM mission is:
 
“To transform organisations by strengthening management for effectiveness, competitiveness and growth.”

We achieve our purpose by:
o Demonstrating integrity in all we do
o Exceeding client and staff expectations with tailored solutions
o Anticipating needs to create client and staff value 
o Delivering excellent results

ACLAIM is committed to ethical values, client focus, team work, transformation and participatory approaches. ACLAIM seeks to serve Businesses, Government ministries and departments, Local Governments, Donors, NGOs, Financial Institutions and MFIs (Microfinance Institutions) in Uganda and throughout Africa.  Since 1995 when the company was incorporated, many assignments have been handled in Uganda as well as in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In addition, participants in the company's training programmes have come from some 25 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. ACLAIM has also ran management training in Europe, including orientation for students from the developing world, as part of preparation for their return to their respective countries. The company has an Africa-wide network. From the feedback that ACLAIM has been receiving from its training sessions over the years, there has been a need identified by the clients for a forum that can bring a bigger audience together to facilitate the exchange of ideas of how to put in practice the principles that are learnt through the training and recommendations in consultancy reports.

The Objective

The aim of the company is to respond to the acute need for competent and effective managers in every sector of the economy and Africa at large. ACLAIM acknowledges that economies in other parts of the world have prospered due to improvements in technology, human resources, markets and firm as well as individual capabilities. Indeed, while industrial and service firms and organizations in these economies have driven this new prosperity, Africa’s position in the global economy has continued to drop. Africa’s position in relation to world poverty has worsened, from one fifth to one third of the world’s poor.
 
There are five particular challenges that ACLAIM seeks to address in all its assignments, and which it seeks to address through the AMF. These are:

1. The Productivity challenge
2. The Management/Leadership challenge
3. The Human Resource Management challenge
4. The Accountability challenge
5. The Corporate challenge

The Objective of the Africa Management Forum (AMF)
The objective of the forum is to provide an opportunity for those in leadership and management, in both public and private sectors in Africa -- whether as corporate business leaders and executives, non-profit sector executives, civic leaders or public policy makers -- to engage in mutual exchange of lessons and experiences in their areas of engagement, and to provide networking opportunities that can enhance business linkages, promote investment opportunities and enrich participants through learning new ideas and lessons from colleagues in dealing with the challenges faced in their individual leadership situations while opening up new frontiers. Particular attention is given to developing the younger CEOs.

How AMF has Progressed

ACLAIM has worked with various partners in achieving AMF objectives. The forum is a network with an annual event, which evolves into a platform for promoting the values of effectiveness, professionalism, excellence and integrity in management and leadership. The targeted audience for the forum includes Africa’s CEOs, leaders, entrepreneurs, as well as civic leaders and executives from the business community. Senior government officials are specifically invited to participate, so as to promote the public-private partnerships.

The forum has an annual summit that is organised in a style that differs from the conventional conference format. Instead of seminars and lectures, the summit has motivational presentations and key-note speeches by renowned and respected guest speakers, which forms the basis for network sessions in form of group discussions and dialogue.

The forum enhances the understanding of the situation (the challenge) and the solutions that are possible/ available (e.g. the responses others have given). Importantly, a few guest speakers (both foreign and local) from:
a. Universities (specialists in industrial development of developing countries, ICTs, international marketing, mentoring, organisational development, etc.), and
b. The policy sphere (talking about how they solved problems, created institutions, worked with Private sector, TNCs) and
c. Business sphere (in the areas of upgrading partnerships, management of the human resource, finance issues, corporate social responsibility, issues of corporate image, corporate strategy, etc.) have given inspiring insights.

The Forum currently includes:

• Executive breakfasts
• Executive dinners
• Annual summit

All of these are sponsored events and corporate sponsors are solicited to partner with ACLAIM in hosting them. In particular, the annual summit has significant outlays that cannot be fully covered by the registration fee, and sponsorships are always sought from different companies. Prominent international speakers are invited as key-note speakers, and support from various organisations is sought in sponsoring these speakers. It is also proposed that a limited exhibition will also be added.

ACLAIM’s overall forum objective is in line with its mission to transform organizations by strengthening management for effectiveness, competitiveness and growth and the forum will contribute positively to the achievement of this objective. The forum is also in line with the objectives of the East African Community, COMESA, SADC, NEPAD, AU, and other partners in development, in addressing the challenges of leadership in Africa, and promoting private sector development, investment and wealth creation.

Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes from the forum include:
• Documentation of lessons learnt in dealing with leadership issues in different situations and countries;
• Mentoring opportunities for younger executives seeking learning experiences from seasoned leaders;
• Enabling networking and exchange of learning experiences between African executives facing similar challenges.

The forum aids in the development of an African leadership and management forum from an agglomeration of African perspectives.

Outputs

ACLAIM recognises the stages in the process of training as including: introduction of concepts; supported learning and coaching; independent implementation with ‘hands-off’ support; ‘confident implementation’; and introduction of concepts to others.  The results of the forum are solutions leading to improved business performance. 

The outputs of the Africa Management Forum are:
1. Key-note addresses/presentations that highlight specific areas of concern such as governance, public policy and corporate accountability.
2. Network sessions that involve dialogue and discussions of the issues raised in key-note presentations, and how different leaders and managers handle the challenges presented.
3. A report of proceedings is compiled to provide the lessons learnt from the forum.

Beginning this year, a follow-up of summit participants to document lessons learnt and best practices to share with others has been incorporated in ACLAIM’s programme.

Challenges Faced by the AMF

Although ACLAIM has partnered with several corporate organisations since inception, to bring the forum to reality, much ground has yet to be covered. Also, while networking of the leaders to learn form each other was enabled through various forum events, a fully fledged membership programme is yet to be launched. The partnering organisations have been largely local entities without the Africa-wide influence and impact. The AMF has not been widely publicized in Africa, and has drawn participation primarily from the Eastern Africa region. Thus the challenge is to get organizations of significant influence in African business, particularly from South Africa, to support a publicity drive, and to help get more participants on board for the next summit from South Africa and West Africa.

Way Forward

The summit is the main forum event, and AMF has successfully held four such events that registered participants from in and around East Africa, with limited participation from South Africa and West Africa. It is hoped that a few major sponsors will consider becoming part of a forum in 2009, to take advantage of a network that cuts across borders and the sponsors’ involvement will enhance their (sponsors’) reputation, influence and business opportunities all over Africa.