Rwandan businesses need to use their resources more productively in order to be competitive, says Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter.

"It does not matter what you are doing, but how you do it,” he said to a room of private sector members at the Novotel Hotel yesterday.

Porter spoke about creating a Rwandan economic strategy and advised the businesspersons to find their unique position in the market.

The Private Sector Federation should hold one voice in order to have a tremendous impact on what government does—this will improve the business environment in Rwanda, he said. "Governments don’t create wealth, only businesses create wealth.”

While he said there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in the Rwandan market, Porter commended the government of Rwanda on its macroeconomic approach.

"Macroeconomic competitiveness is the base of doing business competitively and productively. Government is doing better in terms of economic growth but not good enough to make businesses better,” he said.

Prof Porter is well known for his works on competitiveness and industry clusters. He is also hailed as the "father of strategy,” creating the value chain concept and captured the complexity of industry competition in five underlying forces.

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