Indian-Origin Entrepreneur Ramesh Awtaney Invited To Speak At London Business School’s Africa Business Summit

New Delhi: Mr. Ramesh Awtaney, a visionary Indian-African entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, and the Founder and Chairman of iSON Group, Africa’s largest technology and BPO specialist, has been invited to speak at the 16th African Business Summit to be held at the London Business School on Saturday, 22nd April, 2017. Organized by the London Business School Africa Club, this year’s Summit will focus on “Made in Africa” and will explore how Africa’s governments, companies and entrepreneurs are finding innovative solutions to move the continent beyond commodity-dependence. The summit attracts over 400 delegates every year.

Mr. Awtaney’s Thought Leadership Session at the event in London Business School will focus on “Bringing Intellectual Property (IP) To Work”, iSON’s unique and proven onshore services model for Africa, which has helped iSON become one of the leading centers of IT & ITeS excellence with presence across Africa, India, ASEAN and the Middle East. Under Mr. Awtaney’s dynamic leadership spanning over 28 years, iSON Group has expanded its presence in 29 countries with more than 12, 500 employees. In 2016, Mr. Ramesh Awtaney was also recognized by ASSOCHAM as the India-Africa Entrepreneur of the Year.

With its headquarters in Nigeria and Kenya, iSON has created 10,000 skilled jobs in Africa alone using its “IP to Work” model. iSON leverages its IP developed in India and the Middle East to provide training and development to the local youth in Africa, and transform them into a tech-enabled global workforce that serves clients in a diverse range of sectors such as telecom, banking and financial services, education, real-estate, manufacturing and oil & gas. This local workforce is now mastering this “IP” to “work” on Africa-based clients such as MTN, Etisalat, Orange, Airtel, Zain, Kenya Tourism Board, Zuku, Millicom International Cellular (tigo), AIICO, GT Bank, Union Bank Nigeria, AXA Mansard, UNICAF as well as global clients such as ENOC, IDEA, Vodafone, Telenor, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du), Viettel Vietnam, Alcatel-Lucent, Pepsi, GE, Toyota, Standard Chartered, Sterling Holidays and IndiaMart.

At the Africa Business Summit, Mr. Awtaney will also participate in a panel on the theme, “Innovation: Changing the game, sustainable solutions fuelling the next phase of Africa’s economic development”. iSON has been a key partner in Africa’s tech-revolution and has inspired several industries in the continent to start outsourcing for the first time. iSON’s IT and ITeS offerings have helped African telecom providers reduce customer service costs by 50%, cut down customer care wait times drastically and register high growths in customer penetration. iSON is also helping telcos make ‘customer experience’ a competitive edge in the African telecom industry by surpassing service levels beyond Africa’s conventional industry norms by far. iSON is also developing technology-driven growth ecosystems especially in Sub-Saharan Africa by setting up state-of-the-art facilities in Category B cities such as Ilorin, Abeokuta, Ibadan and Kano in Nigeria, and in countries like Liberia, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Chad and Niger.

Its unique “IP to Work” business model has helped iSON win several accolades including the Great Places to Work Nigeria Award 2016, West African Business Process Optimization Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award 2016 by Frost and Sullivan, Distinguished Achievement in IT & ITeS Award by ASSOCHAM 2015 and 2016, Africa Best Employer Brand 2014, 2015 and 2016, and Champions of Governance Award 2015 among several other recognitions.

Talking about the theme for the Africa Business Summit, Mr. Ramesh Awtaney, Founder & Chairman of ISON Group, said, “I’m honored to be called upon at this Summit at the London Business School to share from my experiences about Made in Africa. Over the past 7 years, iSON Group has been focusing on making it possible to take “IP to work” as against the conventional industry practice of taking “work to IP”. This has helped us generate large-scale employment and economic growth in Africa. From our headquarters in Nairobi and Lagos, iSON is adding business value for clients all over the world, proudly with a “Made in Africa” label. Buoyed with the success of our “IP to work” model, I am confident that even if 10% of the industry adopts it, we can add exponential velocity in disappearing several of Africa’s challenges relating to jobs, economic prosperity, health, education and public services.”

Some of the other speakers at this year’s Africa Business Summit include Dr. Oba Otudeko, CFR, Founder and Chairman of Honeywell Group; Robert (Bob) Collymore, CEO, Safaricom; Segun Agbaje, CEO and MD of Guaranty Trust Bank plc (GTBank); Jay Ireland, President and CEO, GE Africa; Bunmi Banjo, Head of Brand and Reputation, Google Africa; Yvonne Ike, MD, Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Harold Leenen, MD, Deutsche Bank, Middle East and Africa; Razia Khan, Chief Economist, Standard Chartered Bank, Africa; Adnane Addioui, Co-Founder and President, Moroccan Centre for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship; Tracey Austin, Head Impact Investing, Palladium Group; Alex Thomson-Payan, ‎President and Founder, TGI Group. The Summit also features several other top speakers from BitPesa, AppsAfrica.com, RisCura, CDC, Ignite Power, Tyburn Gallery, Style House, Aduna, Asoko Insight, Guepard Group, WorldRemit, Global Career Company, MoveMeBack, RED, EchoVC Partners, Clifford Chance’s Africa Group, Denham Capital, Renaissance Capital. The Africa Business Summit is sponsored by African Export Import Bank, OCP Africa, GTBank and BCG among others. CNBC Africa, Forbes Africa, African Business, Oxford Business Group, Business Council for Africa, Think Africa, TEDx Euston, La Tribune Afrique and Oya Media are some of the media partners for the Summit.