Measuring Like Against Like

Known for penning thought-provoking articles on business, economics, politics, climate change and social justice, Tim Cohen wrote a captivatingly interesting one this week titled: “The dubious economics of the Olympics”.

Editor of Maverick Business, seasoned journalist and widely respected Cohen is a former editor of daily newspaper Business Day and the weekly Financial Mail magazine.

But I’ll expand on Cohen’s article and the just-ended Paris 2024 Olympics later.

Executing an impact monitoring and evaluation exercise in Namibia’s northern administrative regions to determine the successes and expose the shortcomings of a growth support programme, there were similarities in challenges encountered by entrepreneurs in the running of their enterprises with those of large businesses.

Irrespective of the size of the enterprise, the differences, should there even be any, merely a lay in the magnitude or scale of the problem and not in the size, legal status of a business or the sector in which an enterprise operates.

Challenges include the cost of doing business, accessing funding, finding affordable, accessible and workspace to rent at locations that are visible to potential customers, operating in a business unfriendly environment, the absence of business know-how and a vocational skills deficiency, among others.

All are easy to address: the regulatory and compliance requirement at no or low cost, project-based funding to start or grow businesses, institutions aligning skills development to industry needs and rolling out mentorship programmes countrywide.

These and other challenges are well known and must be tackled at the grassroots level to attain Namibia’s economic growth targets.

As for Cohen’s article and the Olympics.

First participating in the Olympics in 1992, Namibian athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games since then and, unsurprisingly, never at any Winter Olympics.

At the games in Barcelona in 1992, Namibia’s medal tally was two silvers, with the result mirrored in Atlanta in 1996.

Then a medal drought followed at ensuing games, until 2020, when one silver medal was brought home.

For sparsely populated countries, it is a no-brainer that taking part is always about participation and not about the number of Olympic medals won.

In wondering about what the Games medal tally says about the world economy, Tim Cohen draws attention to a measurement standard developed by New Zealand in measuring a country’s performance at the Olympics.

In essence, it is a standard, a frivolous one Cohen says, nevertheless, an interesting one.

It measures medals won per capita and medals versus gross domestic products, but he points out that the latter is not overly revealing.

Cohen uses the example of New Zealand measured per capita against Australia, where Australia won more medals, but New Zealand ranks higher.

Big medal winners such as China and the United States also drop way down the list and Botswana is marginally lower than the United Kingdom.

As Cohen points out, the top winning nations are those with small populations. When measured per capita, they include the Netherlands and Hungary.

Home-ground is another factor highlighted by Cohen and he uses France and China as examples. China performed well at the Beijing Olympics and France outperformed in Paris this year.

As for challenges faced by businesses, measured like against like, large companies should know that only the scale differs for enterprises in the villages.

• Danny Meyer is reachable at danny@smecompete.com