We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr Divine Arpellet a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dr Divine, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Story of how I came up with the idea for my business?

My business is about capacity building in frameworks and ecosystems of US free trade agreements (FTA) with Africa. The capacity building is produced in forms of in-house training, workshops, and mentorship programs (B2B facilitation between the US and Africa),
The business idea stems from a gap I have observed throughout my professional career and while pursuing a doctotorate in business economics. Indeed, over the past 15 years, I have worked at US multinational corporations (MNCs) doing or attempting to do business globally, and I always wondered why we (US MNCs) had been slower (behind the European Union and China) at optimizing our globallyopportunities especially in Africa as a mean to create economic prosperity locally within the US.Thus, the business was intended to be one solution to the gap between the opportunity and the performance of US-Africa partnership that my doctoral research highlighted.
On a more personal level, I am driven by adding value to the economy of three communities dear to my heart: (1) my local state of Minnesota where I live, (2) the African diaspora in the US to which I belong, and (3) Africa, my continent by birth and ancestry. Scholarly speaking, a stronger trade integration between these three communities present both challenges and lucrative opportunities. I aim at helping lessen some of the challenges by galvanizing capacity building of better frameworks for FTAs in order to achieve the economic prosperity for all participants in the US, in the diaspora, and in Africa.

Paint the picture for us so we really understand the context, circumstances, the emotions etc. Walk us through how you knew this was a worthwhile endeavor – talk to us about the logic of why you felt this would work?

To paint a better picture of why capacity building in frameworks of US FTA with Africa is a worthwhile endeavor, think about chocolate. The US is among top chocolate consumers country in the world. In fact, last year (in 2023), thr US was the largest importer of chocolate in the world (Statistica). Yet, we’re not a commercial producer of cocoa bean, which is the chocolate-based crop because cocoa beans only grow in tropical regions (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2017). For cocoa beans, we (US MNCs) depends on West Africa that is the world largest producer at 70% with Ivory Coast producing 40%, Ghana 20%, and Nigeria 10% (United Nations, 2022).
Based on the economics law of supply and demand, there is clearly a lucrative opportunity that can result in the economic prosperity of both the US MNCs and the West African market if there are fairer trade agreements frameworks to support a win-win partnership between both actors. And such reality is not isolated to chocolate/cocoa beans only as the Africa market offers a plethora of raw/processed materials that are vital to US MNCs’ businesses. Understandably, fairer trade agreements (or the lack thereof) can impact the short-term profit margin as well as the long-term viability of US MNCs.
It is good for business practitioners to know that Coca Cola’s go-to-market strategy has already demonstrated the validity of this academic standpoint. Indeed, the global leader of carbonated soft drink owns 42% of the global market with most of its revenue generated in international markets, which represented 66% of its 2020 total revenue (Rider, 2022). 30 years ago, Coca Cola’s then-CEO, Robert Goizeata summarized their go-to-market strategy as followed, “We used to be an American company with a large international business. Now we are a large international company with a sizable American business” (Huey & Michels, 1993, p.49). I share the Coca Cola example to emphasize that integrating US MNCs to the global market is not a novel idea. Nevertheless, this is an idea that has not been as mainstreamed especially in relation to the opportunities in Africa. The role of my firm, Globally Interconnected, is to socialize working principles of such stronger integration.

Approach or what about this idea got you most excited?

The unique approach of my firm is the intentional focus and socialization of the US-Africa FTA frameworks: its contextual history, its ecosystem, its global competitors, its comparative advantages, and its potential opportunities.
What gets me the most excited about Globally Interconnected’s approach is that it socializes this knowledge in a simple but wholistic ways to empower business practitioners (not just economists and policy makers) with a shared baseline and a balanced perspective regarding the foundation and ecosystem of trade relationship between the African market, its global trade partners, and MNCs in general.
This helps US MNCs strategize in constructing better comparative advantages to become a preferred partner to Africa while (1) creating win-win economic partnership and (2) eradicating systemic inequities in trade relations between the US and Africa.

Dr Divine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

About me?

I am Dr. Divine N. Arpellet, PMP – founder and Chief Economics Officer of Globally Interconnected, a US-based policy consulting firm stemming from her doctoral research. My firm is dedicated to fostering fairer trade agreement frameworks with Africa, and it provides capacity building for civil society organizations, multinational corporations, and government trade partners.

I have a doctorate degree in business economics centered around the impact of US free trade agreements (FTA) on economic growth in Africa, and I leverage my expertise to support initiatives leading to win-win trade partnerships for Africa and its global trade partners (the US, the EU, and China).

I also hold a master’s degree in management of international business, and I am a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with gradual leadership in finance over the year at prominent MNCs such as Accenture, Ceridian, UnitedHealth Group, Thomson Reuters, and Target Corporation. Because I advocate for economic development within the US, the African diaspora, and globally, I volunteer on the board of various organizations locally and abroad that contribute to the economic betterment of populations.

I am a resident of Minnesota and a national of the Ivory Coast. On my spare time, I like to think that I am a superb bartender to friends and family. Rehearsing with my church diverse choir, on Mondays evenings, is my secret mood booster for the week. Otherwise, I enjoy hiking, walking around the lakes of Minnesota, and rest up by the beaches when traveling across Africa.

How I got into my discipline?

I got into capacity building between the US businesses and the African market to contribute to ongoing efforts of correcting the narrative about business opportunities in Africa. I see opportunities in Africa, so does China seemingly…since they have surpassed and tripled their trade with Africa since 2008. Having studied, worked as a finance leader in US MNCs, and lived in the US for the past two decades, I have observed a disconnect between the US’s often unflattering perception of the African market and the lucrative opportunities that market offers. This disconnect is detrimental to both local US entrepreneurs and businesses pessimizing their global opportunities in Africa by lack of knowledge.

What type of services/creative works I provide, what problems I solve for my clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others?

I have engineered the creation of a US-Africa trade chapter for a local non-profit that is now independently thriving in the space. I have supported various Country-to-Country summits with knowledge-sharing around FTA frameworks (via speaking engagements, lectures, working sessions). Globally Interconnected thrives when its clients can eventually self-serve and become subject matter experts of efficient trade engagement because they have a solid foundation around the FTA frameworks that sustain these business interactions.
Globally Interconnected specializes in the education of business practitioners in the trade space. We currently mainly focus on offering educational tools to empower business practitioners in becoming well-informed boots-on-the-ground in the space of US-Africa trade.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

– No Excuses by Brian Tracy
– Andrew Carnegie’s Mental Dynamite by Napoleon Hill
– The 5 Levels of Leadership by John C. Maxwell
– Transitions: Making Sense pf Life’s Changes by William Bridges

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was my default approach to conflict. Working in settings that required cross-functional and multicultural collaboration, I have learned that there is not one way of thinking or executing something even when we share the same initial motivation. Thus, I have learned to get curious when faced with contradiction instead of getting frustrated or upset.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://getgloballyinterconnected.com/#
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-divine-n-arpellet-dba-pmp-802b58144/