As part of my series on my upcoming trip to the Olympic Congress in Copenhagen in October this year I will be discussing several aspects of my submission  on the theme The Digital Revolution - How to increase the size of the sports audience?

In today’s blog I would like to discuss the limitations involved in communicating with the billions of people trapped behind an “economic iron curtain”.

Until the widespread adoption of mobile phones in developing nations it was practically impossible to effectively communicate with this demographic however in recent years a growing number of subscribers have emerged in developing nations.

This provides an effective means of communication and has catalyzed significant economic growth in these countries however there are still many other challenges to face.

The greatest problem in my opinion is the lack of disposable income. It is great to be able to communicate non-profit messages to this audience but if a marketer intends to communicate with a target market, the market needs to have the relevant disposable income available.

A priori, there are 3 options to solve this dilemma:

1. Stimulating economic growth availing additional disposable income

2. Creating products/services that are uber-low-cost thus affordable

3. Designing business models which are able to tap into 3rd party funds to provide products/services to the target demographic.

For any management accountants operating outside the 4 cubits of financial statements these issues should provide you with ample head scratching material for now, but I believe that in order to hone strategic management skills it’s necessary to dabble in creative problem solving.

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Jarred Myers is a CIMA student working in business development and innovation and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.