From Principles to Best Practices: A "Making Markets Matter" Guide to Managing African Agribusinesses

This book is built on fifteen years of experience in capacity building for African small and medium agro-enterprises through the “Making Markets Matter” training program. The authors recognize that the African business environment for SMEs presents unique challenges and opportunities that may not respond well to “standard” business management tools. To address this issue, this book captures local political, economic, social, and cultural realities that influence how agribusiness SMEs operate in Africa. Focusing on a host of management topics ranging from marketing to business strategy, from human resource management to family business, the book provides rich detail, gleaned from extensive interactions with African SMEs on the ground. Targeting a wide audience, this book is written in a clear, accessible, and easy to understand language. The “Making Markets Matter” guide should be especially informative to entrepreneurs – current and potential – as well as managers. Further, it should be a useful read for anyone working with agribusiness SMEs as a service provider or business partner, or for academics in charge of agribusiness training programs. It is our hope that, in addition to being a useful reference, this book will be an important starting point of for conversations about how to create successful agribusinesses in Africa.