In the late 2000s and early 2010s, I used to travel to Sudan from time to time for certain business projects. It never occurred to me how eye-opening what I would see and experience in an underdeveloped country like Sudan could be. When I first landed in Sudan, the airport was covered everywhere with advertising posters of world-famous hotels. Familiar logos, familiar names. Yet the airport itself was terrible, with cats roaming all over the place. The cats were of a kind I h

One day in November 1996. It is the first day of my professional life. I am at DuPont’s European headquarters in Geneva. I begin conducting market research into how new supply chains might be established in the new markets that opened up following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. My first day at work coincides with the marketing group’s monthly meeting. There are seventeen or eighteen people around the conference table. Not even two of them are from the same country. Everyon