China’s factory-sector index fell more than expected to 49.6 (a figure below 50 indicates shrinking output) on HSBC’s poll. Yet the figure touted by the Chinese government was 50.8 for May, up from 50.6 on the previous month. The discrepancy arises from the fact that different groups were questioned. The government’s survey includes state-owned giants, whereas the bank asks smaller, more independent firms. Economists seem to favour the bank’s figures. Both the IMF and the OECD, a rich-country club, cut their forecasts for China’s GDP growth this year to about 7.8%. That still looks healthy compared with the West but may be a cause for concern.

The report ‘Tracking The Renegade Technology Buyer’ uncovers the motivations and technology spending priorities of over 1,000 North American and European business executives.

Of the 891 respondents that had a budget over $1 million, 824 spent their own money on hardware, software, telecoms or IT services. A quarter spent over 21% of their budget on technology, accounting for more than $31 billion in expenditure.

Senior management and sales and marketing were the top spending business functions and financial services/insurance and telecom/utilities led the pack in “renegade” buying.

“The high business spenders are not doing it because it is faster or cheaper than central IT, they are doing it because they see technology as too important to their success not to be involved,” Forrester said.

In parallel to this this, the report says, senior management are more relaxed in dealing with technology, with 33% saying their “technology IQ has increased” and that they are more comfortable working with IT.

Another 20% said their use of consumer technology has “changed their expectations of how technology should be used”. Forrester stressed that this consumerisation of IT was not just about younger Generation Y staff wanting to bring their own Macs and iPhones to the office. Instead, it was about how senior managers drive business and technology strategy.

“There are 20,000 GE employees in the UK,” Dyke says. “There are two ways of looking at a country from within GE: as destination sales and as an operating centre. In the UK we have several global headquarters managing destination sales across the world.”

GE has eight business units and all eight have a presence in the UK; for two of them, the UK is the global headquarters. The eight units are: Capital, Aviation, Healthcare, Home and Business, Oil and Gas, Power and Water, Energy Management, and Transportation.

In the UK the 11 aviation manufacturing sites employ 5000 people. GE Healthcare has its global headquarters in Buckinghamshire, while the transportation business makes signal systems for railways here. GE Capital also has its EMEA headquarters in the UK with 3,000 employees, and the Energy Infrastructure businesses produces technology for all parts of the energy sector whether oil, gas, nuclear, coal, wind or renewable.

On its website GE says that since 2002 it has invested £10 billion into the UK, mostly through acquisitions. This means the map in Dyke’s office features 45 locations, 25 of which are manufacturing operations, in a country that some claim doesn’t make anything anymore.

We’ve been promoting the role of CIO for many years, championing them to make the move into the executive boardroom as the role of IT has changed within business and society in general. Our vision is for the next generation of digital leaders – the chief innovation officer – CIO 2.0. I believe this is a natural extension to the role of the CIO that will lead to the top seat.

IT is no longer a back room function, it has stepped into the boardroom itself – not in fixing the CEO’s laptop – but in enabling business to achieve dramatic change, whether to accommodate growth, achieve savings or deliver e-commerce. Indeed a recent Harvard Business Review article on Big Data highlighted that users don’t want IT projects, they want information services. This shouldn’t be a surprise given that the ‘I’ in CIO stands for information and not IT.

However, many organisations are unaware of what they need next and so it’s something that we’re going to have to define and manage for ourselves as IT professionals.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is fast becoming the land of opportunity. The region is home to 15 member states, over 300 million consumers, rich mineral resources and two of the world’s fastest-growing economies; Ghana and Nigeria. The return on investment in these countries is high, despite the global economic crisis. On the whole, these markets have been able to weather the storm, and GDP growth in 2013 is expected at 6%.

Nigeria and Ghana are considered two of the most exciting emerging markets in the world today. Nigeria has a population of over 160 million people, providing investors with a ready market. Oil remains a major draw card for investment, integral to the economy, with investment into other sectors of the economy steadily growing. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in 2011, Nigeria attracted the largest amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa, amounting to US$8.9 billion.

Ghana is best known for its sizeable resource endowment of minerals, gas and oil reserves. The country also has a strong investment environment, with long tax holidays, duty-free settlements, immigrants’ quota, low capital requirements and free transferability of profits, dividends and related income. With a stable and wellestablished democracy, the political environment adds to investment appeal.

Organizations succeeding in these two dynamic markets illustrate the emerging opportunities these economies have to offer. Between 2003 and 2011, Ghana and Nigeria cumulatively attracted over US$145 billion in FDI. The largest proportion of FDI in Ghana and Nigeria is in the oil and gas industries, with 69% and 79% contributed to these sectors respectively.

French-speaking Africa consists of countries informally grouped together, based on a common language and colonial heritage. This grouping is arguably dominated by Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, the Republic of the Congo (Congo) and Senegal.

Despite diversity, these countries have all experienced significant levels of growth over the past decade. Notwithstanding the volatile global economy, Francophone Africa is increasingly being viewed as a dynamic and exciting region to do business in. Growth across the region is averaged at about 6% for 2013, with foreign direct investment (FDI) continuing to improve annually. Between 2003 and 2011, the region received close to US$47 billion in FDI.

Seventy-eight percent of FDI comes from natural resources, which amounts to over US$36 billion1. Other sectors are growing rapidly off the back of this growth, with a diverse range of sectors existing within each country.

Poor infrastructure remains one of the biggest growth hindrances in emerging markets – applying equally to technology infrastructure as to traditional bricks and mortar. However, a lack of entrenched technology presents significant opportunities for organizations to take advantage of recent technology developments – bypassing traditional thinking and solutions designed for environments that don’t suit Africa’s emerging market.

Organizations able to recognize and take advantage of this paradox will develop and implement technology solutions, enabling them to outdo their competition and significantly improve business performance.

Recent developments, such as cloud computing and big data, are creating new channels to manage technology in business. Much of this new technology is becoming more established and better understood, but has not fully evolved into the leading business solutions predicted.

The non-traditional business environment that Africa presents requires organizations to completely rethink their operating models – challenging their technology and how they use it. Innovative and pioneering technology has the ability to be one of the biggest drivers of growth in emerging markets. However, harnessing the benefits of new technologies requires careful consideration and planning. Arguably the most important issue is the perception gap between the supposed stability and familiarity of the status quo and the promise of new technology.

To better understand emerging technology, we must explore the biggest opportunities available to businesses in Africa, learning from mistakes made in more established economies to leapfrog the common pains of IT.

Africa has a population of one billion potential new consumers, with this trend set to more than double by 2050. Consumer spending is expected to hit US$1.4 trillion by 2020.

Delivering goods to these customers on time and at the right cost represents a sizeable prize for any company.

However, due to differing maturity and complexity of routes across the continent, getting goods to market at the right cost requires innovation.

Companies, particularly those with perishable goods that have time-sensitive supply chains, have difficulty understanding and navigating African border-crossing issues, with respect to infrastructure and bureaucracy.

Logistics across the continent is a major issue, both in terms of distance and infrastructure. Roads, trains and ports are poorly maintained, unreliable and often disconnected.

Tax and regulatory frameworks in Africa also tend to differentiate vastly from one jurisdiction to another. This is in comparison to greater uniformity across country borders, seen in markets such as the European Union.

Companies, therefore, need to consider making better use of local suppliers. Organizations using domestic suppliers are viewed in a positive light and, through gaining an understanding of the environment, may overcome any logistical challenges the continent presents.

Increasing confidence and growth potential backed by supply chain infrastructure is highlighted by the wide and rapid expansion of major multinational logistic companies in the continent. A major lesson learnt by existing operators is the extent of the skills challenge in Africa. This is a challenge that can be managed, taking into consideration both regulatory and cultural requirements.

Consumer confidence, on the Conference Board measure, hit a new high for the year in May, at 76.2.

Analysis

This marked the second month of improved sentiment, after a reading of 69 in April and 61.9 in March. Consumers’ forward-looking sentiment was particularly strong, with the expectations sub-index registering 82.4. Consumers were upbeat about both economic and labour market prospects, according to the Conference Board, which publishes the consumer confidence index. Consumers’ positive outlook is especially compelling in the context of the federal fiscal tightening since the beginning of the year, which so far seems to have had only a limited impact on household spending. This is reflected in retail sales and personal spending data as well. Even two to three months after automatic federal spending cuts took effect in March, consumer confidence remains buoyant, supported by sustained jobs creation.

One factor that is likely to be underpinning positive consumer sentiment is the continued dynamism in the housing market. House prices at both the national level and across the bulk of individual urban housing markets have been signalling a housing market revival for a year now. In March 2013 the Case-Shiller house price index (covering 20 major urban markets) showed house prices up by 10.9% year on year. Residential housing starts are still well below the peaks achieved pre-crisis, but construction activity is nonetheless expanding steadily. After almost seven years of weak construction rates, much of the overhang in the housing market has been absorbed. Meanwhile, continued population growth and household formation during the crisis are supporting demand for new housing during the recovery. The monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve (the central bank), a bond-buying programme, has also served to make house purchases more affordable by helping to lower interest rates for mortgages.

The Bank of Canada (BOC, the central bank) left monetary policy unchanged at its May 29th meeting.

Analysis

The BOC’s May gathering marked the final one under the chairmanship of Mark Carney, the outgoing governor who is departing this week to head the Bank of England (the UK central bank). In the event, the central bank did not make any significant changes to its monetary policy stance. The bank’s main interest rate was kept at 1%, as it has been for the last two-and-a-half years. The Bank of Canada also maintained its existing expectation that the next move for monetary policy would be a tightening – although it expects this to be some way off. For now, the outlook for the Canadian economy is still clouded by the weakness in some export markets and high domestic household indebtedness. Despite these economic headwinds, the Bank of Canada’s May statement suggested that the economy was performing slightly better than it had projected in its quarterly economic forecast in April. At the time, the central bank had projected real GDP growth of 1.5% in 2013, which is broadly in line with the Economist Intelligence Unit’s forecast of 1.6% growth.

The US economy, Canada’s largest market by far, is growing at a reasonable pace, which is positive for the Canadian economy, but prospects in other export markets are more mixed. Moreover, the fact that Canada has amassed one of the highest household debt/disposable income ratios in the OECD, at 160%, could still have adverse consequences for economic growth. Mr Carney may not have wanted to make substantial changes to monetary policy at his final meeting, but the incoming governor, Stephen Poloz, has plenty to deal with. We continue to expect that official interest rates will not rise until the second half of 2014. In particular, the central bank will avoid putting upward pressure on the already strong Canadian dollar. If the fall in the currency in recent weeks is sustained, this would eventually provide scope for interest rates to rise without unduly threatening export competitiveness. At present, though, the loose policy stance looks set to persist, as inflation remains well below target and economic growth is subdued.