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Who am I? Who should read Motoring Africa, and why?

This book is forward looking and forward thinking. This book is about investing in making a positive impact on the world and being rewarded for your investment. I wrote Motoring Africa to create a vision for how African nations can develop opportunities for local entrepreneurs, create jobs for their citizens, and grow their local economies by building industrial capability in the high-potential and wide-open African automobile manufacturing sector.

Dictionary.com defines industrialization as “the large-scale introduction of manufacturing, advanced technical enterprises, and other productive economic activity into an area, society or country.” From my career in the global automobile industry, I have had the opportunity to see first hand how the introduction of automobile production has transformed the economies of China, India, Mexico, and South Korea. Jobs are created, technology is both transferred and developed, product exports yield foreign exchange (fx) reserves, and standards of living rise. Many economists, investment professionals, businesspeople, and citizens of the world see Africa as the next major emerging market and the last and final frontier for growth and development. In this book, I will illustrate how the development miracle of automotive industrialization can also play out in several regions on the African continent. I will show how entrepreneurs and investors can contribute to and participate in the success of this movement. If you missed investing in China’s growth over the last thirty years, here is your chance to participate in Africa’s for the next thirty.

My Automotive Journey

The design, engineering, and manufacture of cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other motor vehicles is a complex yet exciting endeavor. For as long as I can remember, the creation and production of motor vehicles has been a personal interest and passion. I am truly blessed to have been able to turn this passion into a twenty-plus year automotive career, working around the world in the professional disciplines of product design and engineering, brand marketing, and general management for three global automakers: GM, BMW, and Ford.

I started my career as a chassis and vehicle performance development engineer with GM. My desk was practically next to the test track. I was one of the engineers who determined how your Pontiac Bonneville handled as you were accelerating onto an expressway on-ramp, or how quiet your Buick Park Avenue sounded on the interstate. This role was followed by assignments in strategic planning for Cadillac products, and new vehicle development program management. After receiving an offer to leave GM to join BMW, I served as the brand manager for the 5 Series, 6 Series, and 7 Series models in the US. After three years at BMW, I received an offer to combine my technical and commercial experiences in an executive position at Ford Motor Company. I joined Ford as the department manager of chassis engineering for Super Duty trucks, and was later promoted to chief engineer of the Excursion, Expedition, and Navigator full-size SUV business.

Along with my experiences working for three of the world’s best automakers, I worked as a hands-on business advisor for the global consulting firm AlixPartners LLP. I have travelled around the world to work with clients who were company owners, CEOs, and private equity investors. For these businesses, my job was to help fix company operations, grow revenue, improve operating profits, and execute merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. My clients included global automakers and suppliers, plus companies in the consumer electronics, industrial products, renewable energy, sporting goods, and life sciences industries. Automaker and supplier clients and their respective regions included: Chrysler, Dana, and Delphi in North America; Jaguar, Land Rover, and McLaren in Europe; and Geely in Asia. I have also served as an advisor to owners and investors in several start-up, commercial, and niche vehicle manufactures.

Later in my career, I was offered the opportunity to return to GM to lead their $15 billion global crossovers business as the executive chief engineer and vehicle line executive. My team and I created nine new crossover vehicle models that are produced in three assembly plants on two continents, and sold in more than one hundred fifty countries, under five GM brands. These models include the latest generations of the Cadillac XT5, GMC Acadia and Denali, Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave and Avenir, and other unannounced models. The 2017 Cadillac XT5 crossover, formerly known as the Cadillac SRX, is the third generation of the world’s best-selling Cadillac. This new model is now built in an updated assembly plant outside of Nashville, Tennessee. For the Chinese market, the XT5 is also locally built, with a local parts supply chain, in an all-new plant in Shanghai, China. I also served as the executive chief engineer for the Buick brand, responsible for driving brand consistency in all global Buick product programs. Additionally, I served as GM’s executive director responsible for global emerging market industrialization, focusing on localizing the production and supply chain for a new portfolio of high-value vehicles in China, India, Brazil, and Mexico.

I currently lead Motoring Ventures LLC, a private capital investment and management consulting firm focused on automotive and manufacturing businesses around the world. My work as an automotive engineering executive, global business leader, management consultant, private capital investor, and entrepreneur, has given me a deep understanding of how industry works. In addition, it has enabled me to gain on-the-ground experience in emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

I am neither a journalist nor a development economist, academic, or Wall Street analyst. I have written this book from the perspective of a hands-on industry operator with a passion for the automotive business and extensive experience in both developed and emerging markets. While I have worked for and advised many automobile companies and suppliers around the world throughout my career, the views, recommendations, and proposals in this book are strictly my own, and do not represent the strategies or plans of any manufacturer.

Who Should Read Motoring Africa

But enough about me…this book is for people interested in investing in advancing the economies on the African continent and changing the world, while earning a return along the way. Target readers include:

 Entrepreneurs

 Investment community – investment bankers, family investment offices, commercial banks, venture capital and private equity professionals

 Global business leaders looking for growth opportunities

 Local African business leaders

 Global automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and supplier executives, strategic planners, and corporate development professionals

 African heads of state, government leaders, and ministers of industry, trade, finance, infrastructure, energy, and education

 Local African automobile dealers

 Automotive industry associations around the world

 International development and development financial institutions (DFIs) including the United Nations, World Bank, International Finance Corporation, African Development Bank, and China Africa Development Fund

 University faculty and students of business schools, schools of international affairs, and schools of government and public policy

 Persons with a general interest in emerging markets

 Persons interested in sustainable manufacturing

 Persons interested in investing in the future growth and success of Africa

Why it Matters

The African continent is currently experiencing a period of tremendous population growth and economic growth potential. India is following the economic miracle that China experienced over the last three decades, and the African continent has the potential to be the next economic miracle. According to the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa (ECA), the population of the African continent is expected to grow from approximately one billion people today to two billion by 2050.¹ According to the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the African continent is expected to have the world’s largest workforce by the year 2034.² Ten million jobs per year need to be created to absorb this new workforce.

The creation and production of automobiles and other motor vehicles requires a sizable and skilled workforce. When done correctly, locally creating industries like automobile manufacturing on the African continent can lead to the development of many profitable businesses across many sectors, and the sustainable transformation of local economies. History has demonstrated the ability of industrialization to transform economies, stabilize nations, and improve lives. Compared to foreign aid, the impacts of industrialization have shown to be more sustainable and enduring in numerous cases around the world. It is also a global business enabler and imperative. Industrialization and localization of the production of products like motor vehicles can significantly improve efficiencies and reduce manufacturing costs, leading to higher margins, reduced risks, and more profitable business ventures.

Economic growth which is solely built on agriculture or mineral extraction is heavily dependent on global commodity prices, supply, and demand. Also, extractive industries are limited in their ability to create direct and indirect employment, and to raise wages and per capita GDP. The development and production of motor vehicles requires many people of various skill levels. In addition to assembly line workers on the factory floor, these jobs include product engineers, manufacturing process engineers, accountants, administrators, software developers and information technology professionals, machinists, electricians, plant maintenance technicians, and other skilled tradespeople. Automobile production also creates local jobs in automotive components manufacturing and transportation and logistics services, for both parts and finished vehicles. Together, automobile product development, manufacturing, and the parts supply chain have a leverage effect in creating jobs in the retail and services sectors in their local communities. Success in the motor vehicle production sector can lead to sustainable economic success in the region where it is located. “If you get an auto assembly plant, Walmart follows; if you get a Walmart, an auto assembly plant doesn’t follow,” said Ron Bloom, Senior Counselor to U.S. President Barack Obama for Manufacturing Policy.³ Entrepreneurship, jobs, and greater economic success typically leads to greater political stability of local governments and the development of robust institutions to serve the nation’s people. Industrialization is world changing.

Motor vehicles and the automobile industry have progressed significantly since the early days of Gottlieb Daimler, Karl Benz, and Henry Ford. Cars go faster, stop sooner, better protect their occupants in the event of a crash, pollute less, and continue to become more accessible to consumers of all income levels. Recent technology advancements and current trends point to more vehicles running on electricity vs. the internal combustion of fossil fuels; more consumers sharing vehicles and rides instead of everyone aspiring to own a car; and soon…the introduction of autonomous or driverless vehicles.

As relative newcomers to mass scale automobile production, African regions would have the opportunity to avoid many of the negative environmental impacts of automobile manufacturing, use, and disposal. Car production plants of today can now use less energy, operate almost completely on renewable energy, and generate less waste. Advanced manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing and advanced robotics contribute to higher productivity, reduced material waste, and lower costs. Developing nations have the opportunity to integrate these technologies at the outset of their industrialization journeys instead of retrofitting them down the line.

From a customer and consumer use standpoint, vehicle sharing solutions enable personal mobility while avoiding mass ownership of vehicles, reducing congestion in urban centers and cutting the number of high-polluting internal combustion engine vehicles on the road. Being forward thinking in the approaches to both manufacturing and delivering personal mobility will allow newly industrializing (and motorizing) nations in Africa to leapfrog outdated practices, and create new technical solutions that are environmentally sustainable and minimize the impact on the planet.

Recently there have been a number of writings in business news and world affairs publications about the progress and potential of the African continent. Several articles include the refrains “Africa is rising” or say that we are living in “the African century.” Other articles refer to the African countries with greatest promise as the "African Lions." These claims are supported by the recent improvements in economic metrics such as gross domestic product (GDP) growth, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, and average income levels. There has not been a more favorable period of news about Africa’s advancements in recent history. The positive state of current affairs is well documented, so I will not attempt to review it in detail in this book. I will instead focus on how we leverage this progress to create a sustainable automobile manufacturing industry and overall industrial development on the continent.

Motoring Africa: Sustainable Automotive Industrialization. Building Entrepreneurs, Creating Jobs, and Driving the World’s Next Economic Miracle, will review how nations in Asia and Latin America have successfully industrialized the auto sector in their countries and how their economies and people have benefited. After this exploration, this book will propose strategies and recommend approaches for creating similar successes on the African continent. While many of these lessons and strategies will be applicable to other industrial and consumer product manufacturing sectors, our vehicle for driving industrialization is automobile production…puns intended.