Former IBM Chairman to bring online courses to Africa thanks to Rockefeller

Sam Palmisano, former Chairman, president and CEO of IBM and currently the founder of Center for Global Enterprise. (photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore)

With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Center for Global Enterprise (CGE), founded by Sam Palmisano, former CEO of IBM, will launch an online course designed to provide practical management expertise in emerging platform business models opening up new opportunities across Africa and the global economy.

The course will be launched in May, whereby, CGE will offer Africa Platform Management, Strategy & Innovation, a first-of-a-kind, 5-week course designed to give Africa, its entrepreneurs, and workforce access to the knowledge and skills enabling new ways of doing business that are transforming corporate strategy and entire industries.

Up to 50 participants will be selected for the Africa Platform Management, Strategy & Innovation micro-course. The course is free and will run from May 9 to June 10. Individuals will be selected based on the quality of their application. Applications will be accepted through Sunday, April 10 at 9 pm (EST). You can apply here.

“Platform companies are transforming competition in a host of African markets spanning ecommerce, travel, media, real estate, transportation and banking,” said Peter Evans, Vice President of CGE and a course leader along with Olayinka David-West of Lagos Business School. “Participants will have an opportunity to learn from top scholars and practitioners shaping the rapidly changing digital landscape.”

The course, which is the first of two that CGE will offer in 2016, is designed for executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and students seeking to improve their skills in a business environment where new approaches to management are needed.

The Africa Platform Micro-course is part of CGE’s 2016 Global Scholars (GS) online course offerings. This year, GS members aspire to help African platform companies solve real world business challenges. Other GS initiatives include two digital internships, the first of which launched in February 2016. The internships aim to expand opportunities to provide workforce and workplace training for populations that have traditionally had unequal access to business management and technical training.