Sophia Frisbie
I am an ambitious, impact-oriented MBA graduate with background in Management Consulting. Having grown up in Germany, I gained an interest in developing countries early on and thus relocated to South Africa. I am passionate about driving new business growth.
Phone: 0829040418
Phone: 0829040418
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Papers by Sophia Frisbie
The purpose of this literature research study is to show how corporate partnership can help to improve the maternal healthcare situation in South Africa by working to strengthen the country’s healthcare system.
The author points out that the closer the connection between a social project and a company’s core business, the higher investment volumes in social partnerships are likely to be. In terms of strengthening a health system, this means the private sector can engage in health-related policy dialogue with governments, bring in sourcing and distribution expertise, harness technology solutions, donate / supply medical products or leverage communication skills for public health initiatives. With regard
to the maternal health situation in South Africa, this review concludes that many deaths could be prevented through improved healthcare facilities and through better trained health workers.
The author concludes that in the context of maternal health in South Africa, the weakest health system blocks are Health Workforce, and Service Delivery. To close gaps within these blocks, additional capacity is required in the fields of human resources, education and funding. The case studies discussed show that cross-sector collaboration can tackle the causes of preventable maternal death through technology, management and financial support from private sector partners.
Having comparing two case studies, the author argues that value creation was higher in the case study of a core competence partnership with Intel on a midwifery e-learning solution. The two main reasons for this are (1) the fact that the initiative offers opportunities for tapping new geographic markets for Intel and (2) the way the partnership fosters innovation to solve the social problem, i.e., insufficient or nonexistent health worker training in remote and poor areas.
The interviews revealed that corporate commitments are critical for achieving the NGO’s goals, and that m2m strongly focuses on strategic corporate partnerships.
The NGO considers compatibility between the corporation’s activities and their own work to be a pre-requisite for any partnership. The author identified that from the NGO perspective, the strength of an alliance depends on how important the partnership is to the company’s social mission, how broad and deep corporate contributions are, and whether the alliance adds strategic value to the business.
We found that the potential quality of corporate commitment can be influenced by the source of funds within the partner’s organization (difference in budget renewal cycles) as well as of the hierarchy level of the initiator on the corporate side.
m2m experienced that the quality of corporate commitment is also determined by corporate policy, individual interests of CEOs, and CSR agendas. Mutual benefits are seen as a pre-requisite for sustainable partnerships. To create them, corporate risks and challenges should be tackled by the initiative, which should be viewed through the “operational lens" of the business rather than through CSR or
philanthropy. For m2m this means that ideally the partnerships meet strategic corporate interests such as government relations (stakeholder-dialogue/advocacy), increased access to health care (market opportunity), tackling HIV, empower women (business environment strengthening), and focus on the geographic area in which the company operates.
Having compared the partnership commitments of J&J and Pfizer, the higher levels of J&J certainly reflect the higher degree of matching goals between partners. The case study therefore concludes that there is a relevant relationship between the level of partnership commitment and goal alignment. However, J&J’s shared goals are probably not the sole factor that contributes to the partnership’s success, for example there is also a strong interaction and probably a strong commitment at executive level.
There are numerous emerging forms of organisational structure, many of them are based on principles of self-organization or self-management, whereby teams receive responsibility over the management of their tasks and enjoy autonomy over timeline, tasks, methods and sometimes even goals and team membership.
The company presented in our case study, an Artificial Intelligence solution provider and data strategy consultancy, is setup in a structure that is typical for startups, with a flat and centralized form. Going forward, the company will need to modify its structure as it aims to grow and scale its products. Given that the company operates in a highly uncertain environment, is still small, and consists of a millennial workforce – the implementation of self-organizing teams represents a great opportunity. This will allow the company to decentralize decision-making and create structure while avoiding the addition of a new management layer. Managing and controlling the team’s work will offer staff to learn new skills and increase motivation in a self-directed team.
It is recommended to implement self-organizing teams in a step-wise approach, starting with skills and behavior training, followed by practical application that is accompanied by frequent coaching and advisory during early stages of adoption and finally continuous coaching. It can be practical for the company to start practicing and training self-organisation selecting a newly formed team, before rolling out to the remaining teams.
While self-management implies a considerable change process, bears risks, and requires training, it represents an opportunity for the company to grow while remaining flexible and in a flat hierarchy.
The first concept described, forms the basis for any market analysis – Growth Indicators. We link growth to trade since this is especially relevant for multinationals. We then consider the field of trade policy, elaborating Economic Integration as a key concept of trade creation and attraction of foreign businesses; the case study of the East African Community demonstrates challenges in practical implementation. One of the desired outcomes of Economic Integration is increased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which also has impact on economic growth and is therefore the third concept to form part of this literature research.
Nigeria’s government has acknowledged its inability to provide quality care and embraced private sector contributions. Public-private partnerships are considered an antidote for the country’s infrastructure and quality shortages. As an experienced hospital operator, LHC would encounter an investor-friendly environment but may still battle with other economy-related challenges, such as a fluctuating currency and capital shortages. It could further experience obstacles when setting up operations – there is a significant shortage of health professionals and medical equipment is harder to come by then in other international markets.
Overall, Nigeria would offer a high-risk opportunity with large potential for long-term growth.
In order to assess whether a potential market entry would be viable, we deployed the OLI framework. We observed that LHC would certainly have inherent disadvantages being a foreign investor in Nigeria, however, due to its internationalisation experience as well as due to its reputation as a quality care provider, LHC would have relevant Ownership advantages. The firm could leverage Nigeria’s FDI-friendly healthcare policy as a Location advantage and balance out disadvantages from a high-tax regime. The market gap for top-quality hospitals in Nigeria would offer the firm an Internalisation advantage, if it would operate a facility and take full control over its service provision.
Given that LHC can count on Ownership, Location and Internalisation advantages, it should consider entering the Nigerian market using an equity mode. In a Greenfield approach, it will take longer time to establish operations from the scratch, and without a local partner, LHC may encounter implementation barriers. A partner may also be beneficial in order to share costs and risks. Therefore, a Joint Venture with a local and a financing partner could improve the feasibility of such strategic initiative. A PPP would be an opportunity given the government’s openness to this; for example, LHC could manage a State-owned hospital. Alternatively, LHC and its investment partner could aim to acquire an existing facility and establish private operations.
Unfortunately, a potential market entry by LHC will not eradicate the devastating inequalities in health quality and service availability – the vast majority cannot afford private healthcare. If the company is willing to invest in good business ethics, it can make an impact via CSR initiatives. Besides financial contributions, the firm is well positioned to help with trainings for medical staff as well as for hospital management. Further, underutilized equipment could be used to help servicing the underprivileged.
Drafts by Sophia Frisbie
An analysis for South Africa and its political events from the last three years, identified whether these coincided with usual values in the stock market or the currency market. In reverse, it also identified which dates marked unusual values and mapped the political events.
The event study for South Africa, from December 2015 until today, showed that in both markets volatility was at above average on nearly all “negative news days” and these days were also marked by poor currency performance. “Positive news days” were always met with positive currency developments and also with above average currency volatility. In some occasions, especially with “positive news days”, a time lag was visible where market values improved one or two days after the announcement. The stock market prices, however, did not fall in line with the news indications across the entire period.
In both volatility analyses, for the currency exchange values and for All Share Index prices, only very few key events could be mapped to outstanding volatilities. Only one event can be identified to mark high volatility values across both markets: The multiple firing of Finance Ministers in December 2015, known as Nenegate. This was the first event in a series of what became known as “State Capture”, however, later events were not met with the same level of corresponding volatility.
An analysis of the weakest Rand values over the given period identifies some coinciding events, especially the negative update on reduced growth expectations by the World Bank in February 2016, seems to link to a significant drop in the Rand value. It appears that the currency reacted very positively to the recent leadership changes beginning in December 2017 – top peaks of the Rand coincide with the ANC leadership change and the presidency handover.
Little coincidence was identified between All Share Index price and political event dates. This leaves to conclude that out of all the measures reviewed against political events, the weakest link can be found in the All Share Index prices. All other indicators considered, especially exchange rate volatility and absolute Rand values, it can be concluded that political events affect South Africa’s markets overall. However, the recent drop in the Rand value caused by the US-initiated Trade War and the Turkey crisis, reminds that South Africa is particularly vulnerable to U.S. American economic policy changes. Therefore, fixing local politics, creating stability and boosting investor confidence is important, however, creating a less vulnerable financial market by attracting more direct investment as opposed to portfolio investment, will be equally important for South Africa’s economic future.
This essay analyses publicly available ICRG data, comparing risk performance across countries. Chapter 3 analyses the three indices to identify the best and worst performing countries. Chapter 4 breaks down ICRG ratings for South Africa as an example to understand the composition of the assessment. Chapter 5 concludes with findings and the author’s observations.
Findings:
In terms of overall performance, the Nordic countries have consistently scored at the top across all indices showing very low risk. Globally, the highest level of risk can still be found in Africa, only the financial risk assessment shows low risk profiles for a few African countries.
The author further analysed risk assessments for South Africa. Based on ICRG 2016, the country shows a moderate risk profile and is positioned in the lower-middle field globally. Its political, economic and financial risk ranking is at similar levels across the three indices (place 78/76/75). With the recent leadership change in the country, we can suspect that more recent datasets would show an improved performance in the political risk assessment, based on positive investor and business confidence developments.
In consideration of the top- and bottom 20 rankings, the author notes that while performance results within the political and economic assessment are rather homogenous, the financial risk assessment results stand out. For example, Nigeria is ranked in the top 20 of financial risk (lowest risk), but in the bottom 20 in the political risk rating (highest risk). Consequently, the author suggests that a composite risk rating as it is provided by The PRS Group should be applied with caution as it would combine results of the three indices based on the given formula, showing a composite risk performance which could be misleading.
The purpose of this literature research study is to show how corporate partnership can help to improve the maternal healthcare situation in South Africa by working to strengthen the country’s healthcare system.
The author points out that the closer the connection between a social project and a company’s core business, the higher investment volumes in social partnerships are likely to be. In terms of strengthening a health system, this means the private sector can engage in health-related policy dialogue with governments, bring in sourcing and distribution expertise, harness technology solutions, donate / supply medical products or leverage communication skills for public health initiatives. With regard
to the maternal health situation in South Africa, this review concludes that many deaths could be prevented through improved healthcare facilities and through better trained health workers.
The author concludes that in the context of maternal health in South Africa, the weakest health system blocks are Health Workforce, and Service Delivery. To close gaps within these blocks, additional capacity is required in the fields of human resources, education and funding. The case studies discussed show that cross-sector collaboration can tackle the causes of preventable maternal death through technology, management and financial support from private sector partners.
Having comparing two case studies, the author argues that value creation was higher in the case study of a core competence partnership with Intel on a midwifery e-learning solution. The two main reasons for this are (1) the fact that the initiative offers opportunities for tapping new geographic markets for Intel and (2) the way the partnership fosters innovation to solve the social problem, i.e., insufficient or nonexistent health worker training in remote and poor areas.
The interviews revealed that corporate commitments are critical for achieving the NGO’s goals, and that m2m strongly focuses on strategic corporate partnerships.
The NGO considers compatibility between the corporation’s activities and their own work to be a pre-requisite for any partnership. The author identified that from the NGO perspective, the strength of an alliance depends on how important the partnership is to the company’s social mission, how broad and deep corporate contributions are, and whether the alliance adds strategic value to the business.
We found that the potential quality of corporate commitment can be influenced by the source of funds within the partner’s organization (difference in budget renewal cycles) as well as of the hierarchy level of the initiator on the corporate side.
m2m experienced that the quality of corporate commitment is also determined by corporate policy, individual interests of CEOs, and CSR agendas. Mutual benefits are seen as a pre-requisite for sustainable partnerships. To create them, corporate risks and challenges should be tackled by the initiative, which should be viewed through the “operational lens" of the business rather than through CSR or
philanthropy. For m2m this means that ideally the partnerships meet strategic corporate interests such as government relations (stakeholder-dialogue/advocacy), increased access to health care (market opportunity), tackling HIV, empower women (business environment strengthening), and focus on the geographic area in which the company operates.
Having compared the partnership commitments of J&J and Pfizer, the higher levels of J&J certainly reflect the higher degree of matching goals between partners. The case study therefore concludes that there is a relevant relationship between the level of partnership commitment and goal alignment. However, J&J’s shared goals are probably not the sole factor that contributes to the partnership’s success, for example there is also a strong interaction and probably a strong commitment at executive level.
There are numerous emerging forms of organisational structure, many of them are based on principles of self-organization or self-management, whereby teams receive responsibility over the management of their tasks and enjoy autonomy over timeline, tasks, methods and sometimes even goals and team membership.
The company presented in our case study, an Artificial Intelligence solution provider and data strategy consultancy, is setup in a structure that is typical for startups, with a flat and centralized form. Going forward, the company will need to modify its structure as it aims to grow and scale its products. Given that the company operates in a highly uncertain environment, is still small, and consists of a millennial workforce – the implementation of self-organizing teams represents a great opportunity. This will allow the company to decentralize decision-making and create structure while avoiding the addition of a new management layer. Managing and controlling the team’s work will offer staff to learn new skills and increase motivation in a self-directed team.
It is recommended to implement self-organizing teams in a step-wise approach, starting with skills and behavior training, followed by practical application that is accompanied by frequent coaching and advisory during early stages of adoption and finally continuous coaching. It can be practical for the company to start practicing and training self-organisation selecting a newly formed team, before rolling out to the remaining teams.
While self-management implies a considerable change process, bears risks, and requires training, it represents an opportunity for the company to grow while remaining flexible and in a flat hierarchy.
The first concept described, forms the basis for any market analysis – Growth Indicators. We link growth to trade since this is especially relevant for multinationals. We then consider the field of trade policy, elaborating Economic Integration as a key concept of trade creation and attraction of foreign businesses; the case study of the East African Community demonstrates challenges in practical implementation. One of the desired outcomes of Economic Integration is increased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which also has impact on economic growth and is therefore the third concept to form part of this literature research.
Nigeria’s government has acknowledged its inability to provide quality care and embraced private sector contributions. Public-private partnerships are considered an antidote for the country’s infrastructure and quality shortages. As an experienced hospital operator, LHC would encounter an investor-friendly environment but may still battle with other economy-related challenges, such as a fluctuating currency and capital shortages. It could further experience obstacles when setting up operations – there is a significant shortage of health professionals and medical equipment is harder to come by then in other international markets.
Overall, Nigeria would offer a high-risk opportunity with large potential for long-term growth.
In order to assess whether a potential market entry would be viable, we deployed the OLI framework. We observed that LHC would certainly have inherent disadvantages being a foreign investor in Nigeria, however, due to its internationalisation experience as well as due to its reputation as a quality care provider, LHC would have relevant Ownership advantages. The firm could leverage Nigeria’s FDI-friendly healthcare policy as a Location advantage and balance out disadvantages from a high-tax regime. The market gap for top-quality hospitals in Nigeria would offer the firm an Internalisation advantage, if it would operate a facility and take full control over its service provision.
Given that LHC can count on Ownership, Location and Internalisation advantages, it should consider entering the Nigerian market using an equity mode. In a Greenfield approach, it will take longer time to establish operations from the scratch, and without a local partner, LHC may encounter implementation barriers. A partner may also be beneficial in order to share costs and risks. Therefore, a Joint Venture with a local and a financing partner could improve the feasibility of such strategic initiative. A PPP would be an opportunity given the government’s openness to this; for example, LHC could manage a State-owned hospital. Alternatively, LHC and its investment partner could aim to acquire an existing facility and establish private operations.
Unfortunately, a potential market entry by LHC will not eradicate the devastating inequalities in health quality and service availability – the vast majority cannot afford private healthcare. If the company is willing to invest in good business ethics, it can make an impact via CSR initiatives. Besides financial contributions, the firm is well positioned to help with trainings for medical staff as well as for hospital management. Further, underutilized equipment could be used to help servicing the underprivileged.
An analysis for South Africa and its political events from the last three years, identified whether these coincided with usual values in the stock market or the currency market. In reverse, it also identified which dates marked unusual values and mapped the political events.
The event study for South Africa, from December 2015 until today, showed that in both markets volatility was at above average on nearly all “negative news days” and these days were also marked by poor currency performance. “Positive news days” were always met with positive currency developments and also with above average currency volatility. In some occasions, especially with “positive news days”, a time lag was visible where market values improved one or two days after the announcement. The stock market prices, however, did not fall in line with the news indications across the entire period.
In both volatility analyses, for the currency exchange values and for All Share Index prices, only very few key events could be mapped to outstanding volatilities. Only one event can be identified to mark high volatility values across both markets: The multiple firing of Finance Ministers in December 2015, known as Nenegate. This was the first event in a series of what became known as “State Capture”, however, later events were not met with the same level of corresponding volatility.
An analysis of the weakest Rand values over the given period identifies some coinciding events, especially the negative update on reduced growth expectations by the World Bank in February 2016, seems to link to a significant drop in the Rand value. It appears that the currency reacted very positively to the recent leadership changes beginning in December 2017 – top peaks of the Rand coincide with the ANC leadership change and the presidency handover.
Little coincidence was identified between All Share Index price and political event dates. This leaves to conclude that out of all the measures reviewed against political events, the weakest link can be found in the All Share Index prices. All other indicators considered, especially exchange rate volatility and absolute Rand values, it can be concluded that political events affect South Africa’s markets overall. However, the recent drop in the Rand value caused by the US-initiated Trade War and the Turkey crisis, reminds that South Africa is particularly vulnerable to U.S. American economic policy changes. Therefore, fixing local politics, creating stability and boosting investor confidence is important, however, creating a less vulnerable financial market by attracting more direct investment as opposed to portfolio investment, will be equally important for South Africa’s economic future.
This essay analyses publicly available ICRG data, comparing risk performance across countries. Chapter 3 analyses the three indices to identify the best and worst performing countries. Chapter 4 breaks down ICRG ratings for South Africa as an example to understand the composition of the assessment. Chapter 5 concludes with findings and the author’s observations.
Findings:
In terms of overall performance, the Nordic countries have consistently scored at the top across all indices showing very low risk. Globally, the highest level of risk can still be found in Africa, only the financial risk assessment shows low risk profiles for a few African countries.
The author further analysed risk assessments for South Africa. Based on ICRG 2016, the country shows a moderate risk profile and is positioned in the lower-middle field globally. Its political, economic and financial risk ranking is at similar levels across the three indices (place 78/76/75). With the recent leadership change in the country, we can suspect that more recent datasets would show an improved performance in the political risk assessment, based on positive investor and business confidence developments.
In consideration of the top- and bottom 20 rankings, the author notes that while performance results within the political and economic assessment are rather homogenous, the financial risk assessment results stand out. For example, Nigeria is ranked in the top 20 of financial risk (lowest risk), but in the bottom 20 in the political risk rating (highest risk). Consequently, the author suggests that a composite risk rating as it is provided by The PRS Group should be applied with caution as it would combine results of the three indices based on the given formula, showing a composite risk performance which could be misleading.