UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research projects in lieu of a thesis. The nation’s first business school field study program, AMR partners students with top organizations to solve a key strategic problem. In honor of Anderson’s 2017 Impact Week, the theme of which was Purpose + Profit, we’re highlighting stories of AMRs supported by the Center for Global Management that took UCLA Anderson Class of 2017 teams overseas to collaborate with NGOs whose mission-driven work includes such global challenges as health care delivery, international labor standards and environmental conservation.
By Chigozie Muoto, Jessica Thompson, Rebecca Hilton, Petro Kit and Lucia Ehimika
Winners of the 2017 Deloitte Consulting Award for Management Consulting Achievement
Since the 1970s, Nigeria has been heavily reliant on oil, with over 90 percent of the country’s export value currently coming from crude oil and crude oil products. With the global decline in oil prices, Nigeria needs to diversify its export products and attract foreign investments. The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has a long-term goal to achieve zero-oil exports from Nigeria, and our Applied Management Research team’s project was to devise a strategy to increase export of an agricultural product to the United States.
NEPC is the government agency in Nigeria that is responsible for the regulation, promotion, recording and monitoring of export trade, administered by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. Our proposal for broadening Nigeria’s non-oil export activity takes maximum advantage of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), a United States trade act that enhances market access to the U.S. for qualifying Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries.
After seven weeks of secondary research and prep work, our entire team made the two-day trip from Los Angeles to Abuja, Nigeria, with the goal to:
- Meet the client and better understand Nigeria’s resources, capabilities and limitations
- Evaluate the supply capacities of cocoa, cotton, palm oil and hibiscus in Nigeria
- Explore the current opportunities and challenges of exporters and businesses in Nigeria
The trip kicked off with our attendance at the Abuja SME Expo, a trade show organized by NEPC for small and medium businesses to gain exposure to customers, distributors and potential financing. It was the perfect opportunity to speak with several entrepreneurs and businessmen and women to learn about the unique challenges of doing business in Nigeria, as well as understand the general perception of Nigeria’s economic climate from Nigerians themselves.
We spent the first three days in the capital city of Abuja, visiting several federal government ministries and agencies, such as the National Assembly and the National Bureau of Statistics, to gain perspectives from policy and lawmakers on the country’s trade and exports. We conducted a notable interview with Dimeji Bankole, the former speaker of the house (2007 – 2011), who painted a realistic portrait of Nigeria’s economy, culture and social challenges. On day four, the team took a day trip to Tomato Jos, an agribusiness with plans to export, and gained invaluable insight into the information glut that obscures the export process in Nigeria.
We spent the second part of the trip in Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria, visiting and interviewing cocoa exporters, palm oil exporters, the Nigerian Port Authority and Tin Can Island Container Ltd., the private company that runs the busiest shipping port in Lagos, among others. We witnessed first hand the export process and acquired a good understanding of the supply chain for cocoa, specifically, and other agricultural products in general. By the end of the week, Nigeria’s critical challenges around electrical power, roads, infrastructure and transparency were all too evident.
(The trip ended on a decidedly high note with a traditional Yoruba wedding and a coffee chat native Nigerian Chigozie organized for prospective UCLA Anderson students in Nigeria.)
Following the primary research trip to Nigeria, we turned our focus to the U.S. market. The visit to Nigeria had uncovered supply challenges and the team needed to evaluate market opportunities and demand in the U.S. Of the four commodities on the short-list — cocoa, cotton, palm oil and hibiscus — we decided cocoa was the product that offered the best export opportunity for Nigeria. Over the course of six weeks, our team conducted more than 30 phone and video interviews with cocoa buyers, food manufacturing companies and cocoa traders; designed and analyzed a perception survey; and attended the Africa Business Conference at Harvard Business School to better understand import challenges and the opportunities for Nigerian products. The conference enlightened us to perspectives on agriculture in Africa from industry leaders, entrepreneurs and Nigerians in the diaspora. The panel on agribusiness delved into the future of agriculture on the continent and then discussed the current obstacles to commercial agriculture. We were delighted to reunite with Tomato Jos CEO Mira Mehta, who was one of the panelists!
Interviews with buyers at companies such as Nestlé and Starbucks not only provided information about consumer preferences, but also highlighted the business opportunity for Nigerian cocoa beans and by products. Interviews with cocoa traders and other experts expanded our knowledge of cocoa futures and premiums. Our primary research of U.S. market opportunities began to point to recommendations for our client, NEPC, with ideas to improve cocoa production quality as well as quantity and capture premium U.S. pricing.
To dispel Nigeria’s own widespread negative beliefs about Nigerian products, we conducted a perception survey using Qualtrics software and distributed with the help of the Qualtrics team to a targeted U.S. consumer base. This survey ended up being a much-appreciated surprise for the client because it debunked the widely held belief that Nigerian products are perceived particularly unfavorably in the U.S. market, thereby affecting imports into the U.S.
Three NEPC team members flew from Nigeria to Los Angeles for a final debrief with the team. We hosted the client team for dinner, and the visit ended with a final presentation to the team adviser and several judges. Our team’s final research report outlined three umbrella recommendations:
- Create “Export 101” programs and assemble documentation to clarify and promulgate the export process
- Establish a Nigeria-based U.S trade team to champion U.S.-Nigeria trade relationships
- Form a task force to focus on increasing cocoa production capacity and product differentiation
Our team thanks the UCLA Anderson AMR office and the Center for Global Management for supporting our primary research trips to Nigeria and within the U.S. and for empowering our team to tackle a different type of business challenge.
this is a good read keep up the good work
Posted by: njeri | 06/30/2017 at 01:10 AM
This was a good project.
Posted by: Pauline | 06/30/2017 at 12:58 AM