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Rwanda: President Kagame's jet flies Professor Porter to Lagos

By businessdayonline.com
The Voice of Business
July 20, 2009

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has offered a presidential jet to fly Professor Michael Porter to Lagos where he will be speaking at two events organised by BusinessDay, Nigeria's leading business and financial daily. Professor Porter will arrive Lagos in the evening on July 22 from Kigali where he has been leading sessions on strategy and competitiveness for President Kagame and his entire leadership joined by that country's business leaders.

While in Lagos this week, the distinguished Harvard University professor and global authority on strategy and competitiveness, will lead a breakfast dialogue on how to enhance Nigeria's competitiveness in a globalised world and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan will be special guest of honour.

MTN is the sole sponsor of the event holding on Thursday, July 23 at the Civic Centre, Lagos.BusinessDay publisher, Frank Aigbogun, said in a statement that "the breakfast at which participation is by invitation only, will involve key players from government including state governors and ministers as well as the Central Bank governor and members of the government's economic teams as well as the NESG, NACCIMA, LCCI, MAN and leading CEOs and business leaders."

According to him, "BusinessDay is delighted to be joining in this worthy effort at national development and we are particularly encouraged by the help from the Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsudeen Usman, who immediately saw the linkage between this event and the government's vision 2020 track."Later the same July 23, Professor Porter will lead two sessions for senior business and government executives on strategies for winning in tough times and breaking into new markets. Participation will be by subscription.

Professor Porter first visited Nigeria on April 8, 2009 on the invitation of BusinessDay and spoke at the newspaper's maiden annual CEO Forum held in collaboration with McKinsey & Co, the world's leader in consulting.

During that visit, Porter who said he had looked forward to coming to Nigeria for 20 years, offered to contribute meaningfully to efforts that could reduce the yawning gap between Nigeria's rich potential and her actual output.

Generally recognised as the father of the modern strategy field, Professor Porter has been identified in a variety of rankings and surveys as the world's most influential thinker on management and competitiveness. His expertise spans competitive strategy, the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states, and regions, and the application of competitive principles to social problems such as health care, the environment, and corporate responsibility.

He is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, based at Harvard Business School. A university professorship is the highest professional recognition that can be awarded to a Harvard faculty member. In 2001, Harvard Business School and Harvard University jointly created the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, dedicated to furthering Professor Porter's work.
He is the author of 17 books and over 125 articles, including his seminal works: "The Competitive Advantage of Nations," which has guided economic policy in countless nations and regions; and "Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, " now in its 63rd printing and which has been translated into 19 languagesProfessor Porter is actively involved in assisting governments and advising national leaders in the U.S. and abroad, including Armenia, Ireland, India, Kazakhstan, Libya, Nicaragua, Portugal, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development is based on his thinking about economic development for groups of neighbouring countries. Extending his work on competitiveness to states, provinces, and other sub-national regions, Professor Porter led the Clusters of Innovation project, which developed a framework for economic policy in U.S. regions. In addition, he is dedicated to addressing the relationship between competition and important social issues such as poverty, health care delivery and the natural environment. He has devoted growing attention toward economically distressed communities and poor and developing countries.

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posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 2:30 PM