Giving Compass' Take:

• This excerpt from the book "Africa's Business Revolution: How to Succeed in the World's Next Big Growth Market" posted on Stanford Social Innovation Review shows how “doing good” and “doing well” go hand-in-hand.

• Are impact investors paying enough attention to the opportunities for growth in Africa? Which private-public partnerships show the most promise?

• Here are some tactics to encouraging female entrepreneurship in Africa.

We have had the privilege to meet and work with many remarkable businesspeople, from every corner of the globe, who have built successful enterprises in Africa. Each of those companies has adopted strategies that include all or most of the imperatives we spell out in this book. They’ve set out bold visions for growth. They’ve spotted and acted on favorable long-term trends—and recast Africa’s challenges as opportunities—ahead of the competition. They’ve drawn a map of Africa around the most promising countries and cities. They’ve made smart moves to innovate their product and service offerings, harness technology, and drive up productivity. They’ve managed Africa’s volatility by building resilience into their business models. And they’ve invested in talent, bringing out the best in Africa’s people.

What has struck us time and again in these conversations, though, is how many of Africa’s successful business leaders are driven by a deeper purpose. They look at Africa’s high levels of poverty; its gaps in infrastructure, education, and healthcare; and its governance problems, and they don’t just see barriers to business, but human issues they feel responsible for solving.

Read the full article about businesses accelerating Africa's development by By Acha Leke, Mutsa Chironga and Georges Desvaux at Stanford Social Innovation Review.