Ford - Sub Sahara Africa

My assignment in Africa is Regional Manager, Ford Customer Service Division, Sub Sahara Africa. So, what does that mean? I’m responsible for the parts and service business for Ford in the area called Sub-Sahara Africa. These are the African countries that are south of the Sahara Region (the countries to the very north of Africa such as Libya, Egypt, etc.) minus South Africa who operate as another Region. Geographically speaking, I probably have one of the largest land masses of any Regional Manager at Ford given the size of SSA. It’s a nice sound bite, but it doesn’t give me any real bragging rights because the revenue we generate is small in comparison to our geographic size. Why is this? Well, for one, we only have representation in 23 of the 45 SSA Countries. Additionally, many of the countries we operate in are a mixture of 1st World Meets 3rd world – or to put it another way, many countries do not have a well-established middle class. It’s a mixture of the very wealthy, and the very poor. As a result of this, we sell very few “retail” units, and a whole lot of “fleet” units. Another factor is the poor infrastructure in many of these countries (roads and utilities). That has often been cited as a major contributing factor to the reason why Africa as a continent still hasn’t seen significant economic growth given its rich natural resources. Combine these factors with political instability, and you can see why Africa’s real potential is yet to come. I’ve inherited a small team of highly skilled, experienced automotive professionals. These individuals have done some amazing things to develop the Ford Business in SSA over the past several years. I’ve been very impressed at their in-depth knowledge of the business and ability to solve some really unique issues. Together with the SSA Sales Team, there are 15 of us dedicated to growing the Ford Business in Africa. Our offices are co-located with the Ford Plant in Pretoria, South Africa where we manufacture the Ranger (no, not the North American Ranger – it’s a completely different vehicle – more on that later). I’m proud to be leading this team, and excited about working to unlock the potential Africa has to offer to Ford in SSA.