Motoring Africa. Edward T. Hightower

      Preface

       Who am I? Who should read Motoring Africa, and why?

      This book is forward looking and forward thinking. This book is about investing in making a positive impact on the world and being rewarded for your investment. I wrote Motoring Africa to create a vision for how African nations can develop opportunities for local entrepreneurs, create jobs for their citizens, and grow their local economies by building industrial capability in the high-potential and wide-open African automobile manufacturing sector.

      Dictionary.com defines industrialization as “the large-scale introduction of manufacturing, advanced technical enterprises, and other productive economic activity into an area, society or country.” From my career in the global automobile industry, I have had the opportunity to see first hand how the introduction of automobile production has transformed the economies of China, India, Mexico, and South Korea. Jobs are created, technology is both transferred and developed, product exports yield foreign exchange (fx) reserves, and standards of living rise. Many economists, investment professionals, businesspeople, and citizens of the world see Africa as the next major emerging market and the last and final frontier for growth and development. In this book, I will illustrate how the development miracle of automotive industrialization can also play out in several regions on the African continent. I will show how entrepreneurs and investors can contribute to and participate in the success of this movement. If you missed investing in China’s growth over the last thirty years, here is your chance to participate in Africa’s for the next thirty.

       My Automotive Journey

      The design, engineering, and manufacture of cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other motor vehicles is a complex yet exciting endeavor. For as long as I can remember, the creation and production of motor vehicles has been a personal interest and passion. I am truly blessed to have been able to turn this passion into a twenty-plus year automotive career, working around the world in the professional disciplines of product design and engineering, brand marketing, and general management for three global automakers: GM, BMW, and Ford.

      I started my career as a chassis and vehicle performance development engineer with GM. My desk was practically next to the test track. I was one of the engineers who determined how your Pontiac Bonneville handled as you were accelerating onto an expressway on-ramp, or how quiet your Buick Park Avenue sounded on the interstate. This role was followed by assignments in strategic planning for Cadillac products, and new vehicle development program management. After receiving an offer to leave GM to join BMW, I served as the brand manager for the 5 Series, 6 Series, and 7 Series models in the US. After three years at BMW, I received an offer to combine my technical and commercial experiences in an executive position at Ford Motor Company. I joined Ford as the department manager of chassis engineering for Super Duty trucks, and was later promoted to chief engineer of the Excursion, Expedition, and Navigator full-size SUV business.

      Along with my experiences working for three of the world’s best automakers, I worked as a hands-on business advisor for the global consulting firm AlixPartners LLP. I have travelled around the world to work with clients who were company owners, CEOs, and private equity investors. For these businesses, my job was to help fix company operations, grow revenue, improve operating profits, and execute merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. My clients included global automakers and suppliers, plus companies in the consumer electronics, industrial products, renewable energy, sporting goods, and life sciences industries. Automaker and supplier clients and their respective regions included: Chrysler, Dana, and Delphi in North America; Jaguar, Land Rover, and McLaren in Europe; and Geely in Asia. I have also served as an advisor to owners and investors in several start-up, commercial, and niche vehicle manufactures.

      Later in my career, I was offered the opportunity to return to GM to lead their $15 billion global crossovers business as the executive chief engineer and vehicle line executive. My team and I created nine new crossover vehicle models that are produced in three assembly plants on two continents, and sold in more than one hundred fifty countries, under five GM brands. These models include the latest generations of the Cadillac XT5, GMC Acadia and Denali, Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave and Avenir, and other unannounced models. The 2017 Cadillac XT5 crossover, formerly known as the Cadillac SRX, is the third generation of the world’s best-selling Cadillac. This new model is now built in an updated assembly plant outside of Nashville, Tennessee. For the Chinese market, the XT5 is also locally built, with a local parts supply chain, in an all-new plant in Shanghai, China. I also served as the executive chief engineer for the Buick brand, responsible for driving brand consistency in all global Buick product programs. Additionally, I served as GM’s executive director responsible for global emerging market industrialization, focusing on localizing the production and supply chain for a new portfolio of high-value vehicles in China, India, Brazil, and Mexico.

      I currently lead Motoring Ventures LLC, a private capital investment and management consulting firm focused on automotive and manufacturing businesses around the world. My work as an automotive engineering executive, global business leader, management consultant, private capital investor, and entrepreneur, has given me a deep understanding of how industry works. In addition, it has enabled me to gain on-the-ground experience in emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

      I am neither a journalist nor a development economist, academic, or Wall Street analyst. I have written this book from the perspective of a hands-on industry operator with a passion for the automotive business and extensive experience in both developed and emerging markets. While I have worked for and advised many automobile companies and suppliers around the world throughout my career, the views, recommendations, and proposals in this book are strictly my own, and do not represent the strategies or plans of any manufacturer.

       Who Should Read Motoring Africa

      But enough about me…this book is for people interested in investing in advancing the economies on the African continent and changing the world, while earning a return along the way. Target readers include: