Investigating Income Inequality at EMBA Global Network Week

As part of the Yale SOM MBA for Executives (EMBA), I had the incredible opportunity to participate in Global Network Week at the end of my first year in the program. This week-long study and immersion program allows students to explore different business environments at some of the top business schools around the world. I was excited to visit the University of Cape Town in South Africa for a course called Doing Business in Africa.

Several factors drove my decision to study in Africa. As an EMBA student, I am completing my degree while still working full-time at Microsoft. In that role, I previously partnered with the Kaduna state government in Nigeria to train officials in the use of Microsoft 365, enhancing their productivity and fostering a more collaborative work environment. This culturally rich experience, coupled with insights into Nigeria's specific challenges, ignited my desire to better understand the business landscapes of different countries in Africa..

Our week in South Africa was packed with learning about the opportunities and challenges of doing business within the country and across the region. Given that the African population is among the youngest globally, and rapidly growing, this area of study felt especially important to me: In many ways, Africa represents the future of business, and ignoring this dynamic region would be a missed opportunity.

My classmates and I spent the first two days in the classroom, gaining a grounding in the South African business and policy environment. The rest of the week was filled with excursions and opportunities to practically apply our knowledge. We discovered that South Africa is the most unequal country in the world, with a Gini coefficient of around 0.67 (the Gini coefficient is a measure of wealth distribution, with 0 representing complete equality and 1 representing maximum inequality). A staggering 10% of the country’s population own 86% of the wealth, and the top 0.1% own 30%. Additionally, 55% of the population lives in poverty, and 46% of young people are unemployed. We viewed these stark disparities first-hand when we visited Camps Bay, an affluent suburb, and Philippi Village, an underserved township.

For me, the real highlight of the week was engaging with local entrepreneurs and understanding the challenges they face in Cape Town. We then applied the knowledge we gained during the week and from our first year in business school to provide recommendations on managing these challenges effectively. My group worked closely with Pillar 5, an organization dedicated to empowering unemployed youth to digitally transform informal businesses within their communities.

I was surprised to learn that the informal economy represents a significant portion of South Africa's economic activity, estimated at 29% of the country’s GDP. This segment had been heavily overlooked, even though it is growing faster than the formal sector. As we continued our dialogue with Pillar 5 founder Cole Davids, I was inspired to hear that he had been partnering with the local Microsoft office to empower these informal businesses. That full-circle moment demonstrated Microsoft's mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, and made me grateful to be able to once again connect my SOM education to my work.

Beyond the classroom, we had the chance to explore the beauty of Cape Town. We marveled at the penguins on the shores of Boulders Beach and took in the breathtaking views of the Cape of Good Hope; some of us even hiked Table Mountain. We also enjoyed local wines in the famous wine region of Stellenbosch, experienced the thrill of cage diving with sharks, and embarked on a safari at Kruger National Park.

The combination of theoretical and practical knowledge we gained, along with the stunning beauty of South Africa, left us inspired and enriched. Global Network Week provided us with invaluable global perspectives that we wouldn't have gained without the EMBA program.