After climbing the rock we had an excellent lunch of amala, fish, egusi, draw soup and goat meat. I swallowed the amala in the Nigerian way instead of chewing it and napped on the drive back to Ojota. My interview on Social Edge is online now and can be viewed at: http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/new-entrepreneurs/archive/2008/06/24/ari-sznajder

In my spare time I have been working on a new documentary about a typical Lagosian man who lives in the old abandoned Chinatown in Ikoyi. During the week he sells cell phones, SIMs and recharge cards and he is learning how to play polo on the weekends. Many Lagosians, even those with low income, have 2-3 phones, so telecommunications is a promising business.

In terms of my project on business ethics, we have compiled a lot of data through our survey and are actively soliciting survey responses and case studies about Nigerian companies who have successfully implemented policies to deal with ethical issues. Please send them along if you have any examples.

At LEAP Africa, I am managing a project to write a book which I hope will result in significant knowledge creation about business ethics in Nigeria. The objective of the book is to demonstrate how you can be profitable and ethical in Nigeria, and how employing business ethics in your company leads to long term financial sustainability. A challenge has been how to measure the impact of ethical business and to determine how much of a premium ethical companies can place on their products and services. I have conducted interviews with business and academic leaders and am designing a survey to measure people’s perceptions about a variety of business practices in Nigeria.

Ari is an MBA/MPP dual degree student at the Ross School of Business and Ford School of Public Policy at Michigan. Prior to grad school he directed a documentary film entitled “Rivers, Wats and Riots” and consulted for USAID in Cambodia. Ari has worked for the Chicago Tribune in China, conducted a renewable energy feasibility assessment for a mining company in Mozambique, and worked as a Marketing Associate for GlaxoSmithKline. He hopes his experience, tenacity and passion for business in emerging markets will serve him well as a Business Development Associate in Lagos, Nigeria.