Category Archives: Gone to Ghana

Jan and Ed’s experiences in Ghana while business coaches for Stanford SEED in 2013

Designing Women

On Wednesday, Jan had the privilege of leading a Design Thinking seminar for 16 Ghanaian women entrepreneurs who are part of the local AWEP chapter. AWEP (African Women’s Entrepreneurs Program) is sponsored by the US Department of State and promotes small women-owned businesses.  Jan was invited to lead this seminar by her contact at the State Department, Janie James-High (also shown above). These ladies run businesses ranging from Shea Butter Cosmetics to Mushroom Farming to Clothing Design. The leader of the Accra chapter, Comfort, was sent to the US last year to meet Hillary Clinton and participate in a mentorship program. She received a “shout out” in a video on the Dept. of State site.

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The Design Thinking Seminar is all about listening to the customer and designing products that meet her specific needs. This was the same seminar that was taught by Jim Patell and his associates from the Stanford Design School during the immersion week for the cohort companies. In this particular session, Jan guided the women in a step-by-step process of interviewing their customer–the woman sitting next to them–about her needs for a wallet.

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They asked each other questions like, “What does your wallet mean to you?  Are you worried about losing it? What do you put in it?”, to go beyond functional requirements to uncover deep insights.

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The group was very animated discussing their purses and wallets.

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After listening to their “user”, each woman was asked to come up with three distinct ideas that might meet their partner’s needs.

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They discussed the various ideas, and got feedback.  Then they were given 12 (!) minutes to make a prototype of the wallet (again, as a tool to get more feedback  from their customer.) The resulting prototypes were amazing!

Debbie wanted a purse that matched her outfit – and she got one!

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Delali wanted a wallet that was simple and easy to open. Voila!

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Comfort wanted a cup holder integrated into her purse so she could drink water or coffee on the go!

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The ideas went on and on.  There was no shortage of ideas in this group!  Instead, they were very proud of their designs and looked forward to taking this Design Thinking process home with them to implement in their own businesses. Hopefully this will give them new insight into understanding the needs of their customers and designing products to meet these needs.

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“Tour de Coffin”

In Ghana, people of the Ga-Adangbe ethnic group believe that when they die, they move into their next life and continue to touch the lives of those left on earth. To guarantee smooth transfer into the next world, families bury their dead relatives  in elaborate coffins made to symbolize their lives.  On Saturday we toured three coffin workshops to see how the coffins are built and decorated.

In the early 1950s, a fisherman from Accra was buried in a fish-shaped coffin.  Since he had made his life from the sea, he wanted to move into his next life in a manner that reflected his skills. Shortly after the first symbolic fish coffin was built, a number of skilled carpenters popularized the practice around Accra. Seth Kane Kwei, one of the original creators of the coffins, opened the first special workshop dedicated to making the specialized caskets and the trade began to blossom.  Memorial to a Fisherman

Woodworking apprentices train for several years under the master craftsmen, and then when they’re ready, they move down the street (Teshie Road) and open their own workshop.  Thus, the three workshops that we visited were all descendents of the original Seth Kane Kwei shop

Coffins range from representations of careers, such as  fisherman, baker, truck driver, pilot,  cattle farmer, and  taxi driver,  to more detailed depictions of the deceased’s habits.

and a fish

with a bakers oven nearby

in a Ghanian jet

overseen by a cow

Alcohol bottles and cigarette-shaped coffins portraying the vices of the dead are also popular. (We didn’t get the details about the coffin representing a condom package!)

Nearby a memorial to an AIDS prevention activist, perhaps

Family members can choose anything representing the life of the deceased to serve as the vessel guiding them to their next life.  I asked whether anyone picks out his coffin style in advance, and was greeted by a rather shocked look, “No madam…it’s chosen after the person is dead.  The body is placed in a freezer until the coffin is ready to be used for the burial.”

Saturday is “funeral day” around Accra.  These are very elaborate parties where everyone is dressed in red and black, with photos of the deceased pinned to their skirts or shirts. A poster showing a picture of the deceased is often placed around the town with the date and time of the funeral so people know when it will be.  These are often labeled as “Gone to Glory” or “Called to Heaven”. Although Ga funerals are still a sad event, the unique coffins allow them to celebrate the life of the deceased and cull favor with their ancestors.

These skilled craftsmen have also branched out to use their woodworking skills for other commercial purposes. Thus, the iPhone sculpture and the John Lennon guitar.  One would have to be quite skinny to be buried in these!

John Lennon would have liked an iPhone

Ed thought this cabinet below would look awesome at our house in Ketchum!  And, he documented our day with lots of photos in the gallery, Final Resting Places.  Be sure to check it out!

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The days continue to fly by…

Last week, we enjoyed an intensive four days with of all of the entrepreneurs from the participating companies.  During the sessions, Stanford professors taught classes on Operations and Strategy, and we broke into small groups to discuss cases (e.g. how to run triage at a refuge camp and how to look out for the “bottleneck” in a production facility).  These small groups were just like Business School.  Each entrepreneur also developed his or her own ‘Business Model Canvas’ and the coaches were able to assist and guide as needed.  It was very productive and lots of fun.

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Jan had a chance to organize a dinner for the ladies in the group.  Needless to say, the men were jealous!

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Also, one evening, the Nigerians brought a cake and sang the Nigerian anthem as a tribute to their national holiday.

We “bookended” this interesting week with other activities as well: Right before the intensive session, we volunteered as photographers for the Accra international Marathon.  When we signed up, we didn’t realize that this would mean getting up at 4 am to be able to “shoot” the runners at the start.

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We made it to the start line in the nick of time, and then drove the route in a car, taking photos out the window along the way.

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In true Ghanaian style, drummers created a pulsating beat at the start and at the finish line.

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By 9 am, we were pooped, so we returned to our apartment and went back to bed to get ready for the SEED session, which started at 4 pm.

After the sessions were over, we spent Saturday on a day trip to the Akosombo Dam on the Volta River.  This large dam, built in 1965, created the largest man-made lake on the planet.  It has since been passed by the lake created by the Three Gorges Dam in China and others, but it is still huge—covering 8,502 square kilometers (3,283 sq mi), which is 3.6% of Ghana’s land area!

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And, on Sunday, we hosted a barbeque for a very international crowd.  We noticed that our neighbor from the Saudi embassy, Sultan, has a barbeque, so we asked him if he’d let us use the barbeque for a party, as long as he would attend!  He readily agreed and also offered the services of Hussein, his “cookerman”, who was an expert at the grill!

jan and sultan cooker man

We originally planned to host the barbeque at the pool area, but right before the party was to begin, Sultan, our new friend, suggested the roof top deck on the top of his building.  This turned out to be a great idea, since the views were fantastic and there was a combination of shade and sun.  Ed posted a sign at the pool, and we could wave to anyone coming into the apartment complex from the 7th floor deck.  When the party started, we had no idea how many would attend, but we ended up with over 20 people, which was a perfect number.

party boys kweku and girls

In attendance, were guests from many countries – Russia, India, Singapore, Ghana, US, etc.  Most had founded companies or are currently in the process of founding a company.  Interesting!

Now we’re back to work – we’re off to Nigeria tomorrow to see our companies there.  It’s nice that we’ll be able to fly together, share the driver, and stay at the hotel together.  We continue to feel blessed to have the opportunity to share this experience with so many interesting people.

Never a dull moment…

Life in Accra continues to delight and surprise us.  There is always something new to learn.  Consider the following:

Planning the Business Process Flow
Who knew that Ed could master the LucidChart software quick enough during the first three days of the free 14 day period to complete a process chart for his Nigerian furniture company.  Now the challenge will be to finalize the definitive chart before they have to start paying for the software.
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Intercultural teamwork
Ed was part of a team that was working on a business plan for his fresh veggies company.  This team was sponsored by USAID and the governments of Sweden and Denmark.  With team members from Moldavia (requiring a Russian translator), India,  Brazil/South Africa/Canada (this is one person), and USA, this team helped the client create a business plan with details for a new factory.  It seems like a wonderful collaboration between governments to lend expertise on business planning so African companies can be better prepared to raise capital.

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The Goal
For the second immersion session for the cohort companies, everyone was requested to read The Goal, a  best selling business book from 1984.  Jan finished it on a flight with her client.

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Ed read The Goal by candle light since the the power was out on Friday night and the electrician had been”on his way” for over three (!) hours.  He finally showed up after midnight, saving us from a  pitch black night without  A/C.   This gave us new appreciation for light, our cook top (where we in the middle of preparing onions for pasta sauce), and A/C.  When our Macs, iPhones, and iPads ran out of juice, it was time for bed, since recharging was not an option.P1050969

Brand Review
Jan took her client through a comprehensive brand review, shadowing back to her days as a CZ Product Manager from 1979 – 1982. The company is especially interested in the energy drink market segment, so we purchased some drinks on Amazon and had them shipped to Stanford, where they were incorporated into the luggage for  some travelers for the SEED program.  Luckily none of the bottles exploded during their stint in the suitcase, and they arrived intact in Accra.

Electrical systems for oil and gas
Jan visited Takoradi, the oil and gas boom town and Tawkra, the mining town, with her client to learn about opportunities in the oil and gas and mining industries.  She learned that most passengers on the flight to Takoradi were headed out to six week shifts on the oil rigs.

It was a good thing our team was visiting the new office while it was under construction, since the external electrical work on the rented office was not up to standards!  The landlord promised to fix this.

new officebad electrical

On this trip, we also visited the local cement company, Ghacem. The public art on their factory was a bit different from what we’d see in the US!

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What does quality really mean in dry cleaning?
In Lagos, Jan lead a  brainstorming on operational efficiency and identified 25 key benchmarking statistics for dry cleaning quality.  Unless the company knows where it stands, how can they monitor improvement?  We set a schedule for 14 days of data collection and also set a date for reporting of the benchmark data.

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These topics, and many more, continue to intrigue us and keep us on our toes.

The 29 companies will be reconvening in Accra on Sunday for a four day intensive session.  Now that all the folks are pals with each other and their coaches, it should be a jolly, yet intense gathering.  More to follow!

Sojourn in South America

Santiago, Iquique, Sao Paulo! A whirlwind week with many miles, family togetherness, and good times.

After a 28-hour door-to-door journey from Accra, we arrived at our daughter’s apartment in Santiago, where she and her boyfriend, Marcelo, welcomed us with snacks and pisco sours.  Delicious!

The next day we were refreshed and enjoyed the Spring weather in Santiago.

statues in santiago

Jan and Marcelo had  a chance to try the local specialty — a “terremoto”(earthquake drink). It’s like a wine float!

terremoto

On Monday we attended Leslie’s class on social entrepreneurship at Universidad de Desorollo, where her class of 25 students is half Chilean, half European. We enjoyed seeing her in action. Later, we took the two-hour flight up the coast to Iquique, where we had been invited to give a three hour seminar at the Universidad de Arturo Pratt on Lessons from Silicon Valley. We thought the banner in front of the auditorium was pretty cool.

ed and sign

On Wednesday, we delivered the presentation to an audience of 150 in English, which Leslie translated expertly into Spanish.

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It was well received, and Leslie received this feedback from a student:

“I just wanna say thanks to you and your family for coming last day to Iquique, you opened my eyes and helped me to answer one of the most important questions in my life, what I want to be in the future?

Here in Chile are many talks, mostly from managers from mining companies, they always tell you how they became manager, so after the talk you and your classmates say “hey i want to be just like them, go to the same company and try to be the best” which is not bad, but they never tell you that you can create your own company starting with a great idea

So, When i went to your family talk you told me what i really want to hear in many years ago, i just want to be just like you, i want to create my own company and change the world, just like your father, your mother, your brother and you!  Thanks to you and your family, i hope to see you here in Iquique again.”

We even made the local newspaper!

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That afternoon, we also presented a three-hour seminar to 12 professors from three different universities in town. Phew! We flew back to Santiago for a day, before leaving for Sao Paulo, where we celebrated Ed’s birthday during a 24 hour layover with the family who hosted him as an exchange student in 1970. As always, they welcomed us with open arms and were more than happy to throw a birthday party —complete with many relatives and friends!

ed and jose ricardo

We spent the night Saturday and all day Sunday traveling back to Accra (through Johannesburg) and arrived at our apartment just in time to prepare for another week with our clients. At 6:00 on Monday, Ed was on a flight to Lagos for a weeklong series of meetings.

‘Glad we don’t travel half way around the world every week! It was fun to visit South America, but it’s nice to be back  “home” in West Africa.

Cote d’Ivoire Adventure

We spent four days last week in Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). First, we conducted successful meetings with our clients in Abidjan.  Jan led a “Plein Air” design thinking session (outside in a makeshift tent) for 30 eager mobile phone programmers and marketers.  She even used a white tablecloth (taped to the wall) as a screen for the projected PowerPoint presentations.  This was innovation in action, as the client provided simultaneous translation into French. The presentations were well received and the clients were enthusiastic.

jan at DAT

Ed spent time at a factory that makes pavers and roofing tiles. He learned about the “secret sauce” that makes them special, but was sworn to secrecy, so we can’t reveal it here.

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But the most memorable part of our trip was our journey to Yamoussoukro, the home of the largest Christian basilica in the world.  (Caveat:  Before he left, Professor Jim Patell told us about his journey to Yamoussoukro.  He and several Stanford students used a diplomatic car service, so they were able to smoothly bypass any roadside police stops and be assured that they would have no problems.  He recommended this approach. Did we listen to this tip? No. We checked this idea out with several locals who assured us that we would have no problems. Lesson learned … five drivers and five cars later!)

We asked our SEED client to book us a trip with a car and driver from a reputable car service.  We ended up with a driver (Bamba) plus an English-speaking student (Armand) as translator.  The driver and student met us at the hotel at 8:00 am. We set out in the relatively new silver Peugeot 505, and things seemed OK. We filled up the tank with $80 of gas, as agreed. However, once we started going, we noticed that the car was very noisy. (The backseat, where Jan sat, sounded like a go-cart.) And, the driver seemed intent on being the fastest car on the road. 100km/hour. 120 km/hour. 140km/hour. We were stopped by the police at the first checkpoint, where the driver had to get out of the car and call his brother (who owns the car). He also had to make a payment to the police to let him pass.

We got back into the car. 100km/hour. 120 km/hour. 140/km/hour.  At the next police stop, the police were waving at the driver to slow down … but Bamba just sped through! After another noisy half hour (honking to pass any car on the road), we reached 150 km/hour and Jan suggested that he might want to slow down a little, since she was nervous and found his driving to be nerve racking. At first, Ed thought she was just being a “back-seat driver”, but soon he said, “Honey, you may get your wish.  Look at the message on the dash – ENGINE HOT! – I think the car is overheating.” Sure enough, the car had had enough!  The car decelerated, limped to the side of the road where it promptly died.

(Later we analyzed the situation – we think the reason the car was so loud was that Bamba was driving in 3rd gear! No wonder the engine burned out. We guess Bamba had never heard of 4th or 5th gear or checking the radiator.  Go figure.)

The driver popped out and opened the hood. Sure enough, the engine was smoking.  He grabbed a bottle of water from the back and added it to the radiator. About a minute later, two guys (Sam and Edmund) appeared from the median strip, which was planted with tall grass. At first we had no idea where they came from, but later we saw their small white car on the other side of the divided highway.

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The four men had a spirited conversation for a while. They added water to the radiator and tried to restart the engine. But nothing worked.  At the time we didn’t understand that they were on the phone with the “agent” in Abidjan who Jan’s client had hired to take us, arguing about price. Sam and Edmund knew we were stuck. Initially they were insisting on about $150 to take us to the next town, but later settled for $60.

About 45 minutes later, we agreed to be towed by Sam and Edmund in their small car. They crossed over from the other side of the median strip and came got to us by driving against the traffic. And, then, we were told, a new car would take us to Yamoussoukro. They tied a rope between their car and ours and we were off.

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Being towed by a 1988 Peugeot 205 was a new experience! The two guys drove slowly, but Bamba, our original driver, didn’t seem to understand how to be towed. So, then we stopped and switched drivers. Bamba drove the “tow truck” Peugeot (Where is AAA when you need it?), and Sam maneuvered the Silver Peugeot with us in the back seat. Sam knew how to maneuver the towed car so the line would remain taut. With this approach, we were able to move fairly quickly. A few times, we even passed trucks! You can see how close we are to the car in front:

documenting being towed

After about thirty minutes we arrived at a junction and basically got rid of Bamba and the silver 505.  Also gone was our $80 in fuel! We were in phone contact with the agent who had arranged for the car and driver, and he assured us that he’d work out a way for us to get home. As we probably should have expected by that time, there was no new car for us available so Sam and Edmund were engaged to take us to Yamoussoukro.

The five of us crowded into the 1988 Peugeot 205 for the 100 km trek to Yamoussoukro. Sam was a good driver and he knew the limitations of his vehicle.  (This reminded Jan of driving her 1974 Toyota Corolla with passengers.  You could never accelerate on an incline! However, Jan’s steering wheel was in a little better shape!)

white car interior

Sam joked that he wanted to move to San Francisco with us and be our chauffeur!  He loved the idea of driving our Mini Cooper and VW Tiguan up and down the SF hills.

An hour later, Sam and Edmund dropped us with Armand at the Hotel President , the nicest hotel in Yamoussoukro. This was our introduction to the capital of Ivory Coast.

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hotel presidente

According to WikiTravel:

“Yamoussoukro is perhaps the single most bizarre modern city on Earth. It is a large grid of paved streets and lights with almost nothing at all in between them. It would seem that former President Felix Houphouet-Boigny’s dream that his hometown would become a busy capital city never came to fruition. Nevertheless ‘Yam’ is worth a visit.”

To Ed, the wide roads were reminiscent of his first visit to Brasilia —a dream in the middle of the jungle—however, unlike Brasilia in 1970, there are hardly any people or buildings in Yam.

We took a cab to the Basilica, built between 1986 and 1989 by Felix Houphouet-Boigny. After completion, he donated the Basilica to the Vatican, with a 20-year fund for maintenance. The Basilica is enormous—larger than St Peters in the Vatican. It was quite the site—very controversial since it cost more than $300,000,000 and is surrounded by a very poor, dusty community. (You can get a feeling for the scale of the place based on the tiny dots representing people standing just in front of the Basilica and in the aisle in the picture below.)

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We enjoyed the English tour of the Basilica, and took an elevator inside a column to the top deck.We didn’t have a wide enough lens to do justice to the massiveness of the interior.

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During the tour, our student translator informed us that the plan was for us to take the bus back to Abidjan.  Since this is not what we had in mind, and none of the buses we had passed on the way seemed very comfortable (understatement!), we called the arranger and let him know that we preferred to go in a private car.  We took a second cab to a restaurant where we dined on spaghetti bolognese, our version of comfort food for a stressful day.

Soon thereafter, our SEED client called and said he was mortified (since he had done the arranging for the original driver.) He said that he had arranged for a new car and driver (already in Yamoussoukro) to take us back to Abidjan. This new driver met us at the restaurant, and he successfully navigated the trip back to the hotel in Abidjan.

Our SEED client met us at the hotel in Abidjan and was glad to see that we were in good humor! We decided that it was time for a beer. As the wise man sayeth, “You can’t make this s**t up!”

Our client taught us a new expression: “T. I. A.” This is what he and his friends say when they encounter unexplainable situations.  “This is Africa”.

Some Things We’ll Miss. Other Things … Not So Much!

We are about to celebrate our two-month anniversary of living in Accra. We’re blessed with a great living situation, wonderful teammates and ambitious clients. We’re experiencing lots of new things … some good, some not so good:

 House “Fairy”: On Sunday night, we had a dinner party for seven grownups and two 18-month olds.  We made veggie pasta, salad, garlic bread, and fruit salad. The dinner was great, and the two children had lots of room to chase each other around. They even shared their pacifiers!  Both moms are Stanford grads, so this duo comes from a smart gene pool:
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At the end of the evening, we realized that we had dirtied every dish and every pot we owned. We left all of these in a pile on the counter for Francis. We didn’t see him prior to leaving for the office on Monday morning, but by the time we had returned in the evening, everything was clean and put away. Now this is a service we’ll miss!

The Music: Ghanaian music is ubiquitous and wonderful. Since our last post, we attended a concert of Ghanaian Highlife with a New Zealand twist. Zohzoh, the artist, is a big personality who struts on stage in true Mick Jagger style! His band includes an incredible drummer and a brass section that fuses big band, funk, Afro, and reggae. It was so fun that we bought the CD.

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Drivers: When we need to go to a client meeting, we pop into one of the three cars under contract to Stanford. We primarily use Randy as our driver. He is very conscientious and knows his way around Accra. This is very helpful since there are no addresses! Once in a while, he yells at the other drivers in Twi … but the windows are closed and they can’t hear him. It’s a good thing we’re not trying to drive here since there is definitely a knack to merging and cutting in front of the other cars.

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Cabs/Ditches: Sometimes we take cabs, which are usually ok. We have to negotiate the price before getting into the car.  They are likely to start with the “obruni” (White person) price. We now know how to bargain them to a reasonable price, since we have a vague idea of how far it will be to the various locations.

One time, when Ed hailed this cab, the cab turned around to pick him up, but landed in the ditch.

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These ditches are open sewers that are on the sides of most roads. Some homeowners elect to put grates on top of them (which is much appreciated). When it’s hot, the smell can be bad. For this taxi driver, Ed had to get another cab (because he had to get to his meeting), but Ed noticed that other drivers rallied to the cause and helped lift the car out of the ditch!

We have learned to pay rapt attention while walking down a street. We do not want to twist our ankle in a pothole or fall into a ditch. (We heard a story of one WHO manager who fell in and was waist-deep during the rainy season.)

Internet/Phone:  Since we have a huge task of serving six clients per coach, we depend on “always on” Internet and phone service. Over the last week, it’s been more like “always off”.  Ed was nominated to be the point person to assist the local manager with dealing with Stanford’s (complicated) Internet system (complete with firewall.)  This “opportunity” allowed Ed to have an 8-hour conference call with the US for troubleshooting!  The coaches were switched from a MTN “prepay” to a “post pay” phone plan, but as a result, we had no phones or Internet on our phones for two days. This caused quite a problem, as no one could reach us, and we couldn’t call or email anyone. We went to an interim solution with a temporary phone, but this wasn’t so good. Later we found out that the whole country was having MTN phone problems!

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Elevator Landing:  Our apartment is great, but there are some things about it that make us scratch our heads and wonder, “why did they build it this way?” For example, the elevator landings are on the half floor.  This means that on the ground floor, we walk up a half of a flight to get in the elevator. Then, we push “5” for fifth floor. We get off the elevator and walk down half of a flight of stairs to get to our apartment. This is especially confusing for guests, who don’t know where to go when they get off on the 5th floor stop. Up half a flight?  Or, down half a flight? Perhaps the builder wanted to make sure that elevator riders got at least a bit of exercise!

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Cash-Only Society:  Due to the extent of credit card fraud around Ghana and Nigeria, it’s a cash based society. This means that even most plane tickets have to be purchased with cash. The last time we went to Nigeria, Jan took a wad of cash ($700) to the airport to buy the tickets. This required two trips … because during the first trip (4:00 pm), the agent said I had to pay at a bank. Then I went to the bank, which was then closed. Later I called the airport to see if our “hold for 24 hours” reservation had been cancelled, and a different agent asked me to return to the airport (with the cash) by 9 pm. So, Ed and I took a moonlight cab to the airport and bought the ticket by 9 pm. Not the most efficient use of time!

We’ve learned a new way of coping with some of the nuances brought about by life in Africa.  This was a suggestion put forth by Bill’s son.  When something is frustrating, we say “WHEEEEEEEEEEEE” in a high pitch voice. You can’t help but smile while saying this.

The adventure continues!

 

Founding Universities At Age 60!

One of the delightful aspects of being in Ghana has been the chance to  meet  some amazing people. Here’s an example:

Why not start a University for Women in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? Princess Lolowah al Faisal was in charge of the project her mother, Queen Effat, had started, and the need was certainly there. At 60 years old in 1999, when most of her generation were contemplating retirement, Marcia Grant  “leaned in” and moved to Saudi Arabia to help start the University.  She arrived on August 2nd.  By September 8th, 37 students were enrolled and Effat College was born.

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Marcia ran the college for almost two years, and was “on again, off again” for the following two years. The remarkable Saudi woman who took over the helm, President Haifa Jamal al-Lail proceeded to start an engineering School for women and Effat University now enrolls 1500 students.

But that’s not all. Marcia spent four years pioneering the liberal arts in planning the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, and then two years developing the liberal arts in Forman Christian College (no relation!) in Lahore, Pakistan. She’s currently the Provost at  Ashesi University College outside of Accra, Ghana, an extraordinary new university focused on educating a new generation of ethical, entrepreneurial leaders who will transform Africa.

Marcia Grant is no ordinary woman.  Higher Education in the developing world is better because of her contributions. We joined her for lunch in Accra recently and learned about her life journey.

Marsha Grant

At age 6, she moved with her family from Walnut Creek, California (right next to the town where Jan grew up) to Colombia where her father designed the American School in Bogota.  In fact, he designed it after Acalanes High School in Lafayette—Jan’s alma matter!

At age 9, now living in Mexico City, she decided that she wanted to pursue an international career.  She told her mother that she didn’t like the American School in Mexico City at that time, and switched to be the only American in a local Mexican school.

When she returned to Walnut Creek, she lamented, “will I ever get to travel internationally again?”  She became an accomplished flautist, and earned money by teaching flute lessons, washing cars, and babysitting to purchase her own custom made Powell Flute for $450.  (She still has this instrument, and it was recently appraised for over $7,000.)

At age 16, she graduated from Las Lomas High School and headed for Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.  She flew in blue linen suit, hat with veil and white gloves!  These items of clothing did not get much wear once she arrived at the college, as Swarthmore provided quite the culture shock.  There were many New Yorkers, and guys with beards. Hey, it was 1956!

One of the reasons she selected Swarthmore was that it offered a scholarship to Peru.  Of course, she applied for this and was granted the scholarship, so off she went.  During one summer, she also traveled to Africa as part of the Crossroads Africa program, where she learned construction and fell in love with Africa. She graduated from Swarthmore at age 20.

She spent two years at the Fletcher School at Tufts and received two Masters Degrees.  Then, she moved to England on a Fulbright, and then ended up in Nigeria to work on her PhD, studying the workings of the press in Nigeria. She received her doctorate from The London School of Economics.

She became a tenured Professor at Oberlin and was a member of the Faculty Council. She later worked for the State Department in various roles, including as the cultural attaché for youth programs in Paris. Her career spans many countries, continents, and leadership positions.  There are too many fascinating positions to list in this limited article. But the central thread is challenge and contribution.  This is one dynamic woman who never stops!

As an illustrious alumna, Marcia received an honorary doctorate from Swarthmore. You can read Marcia’s commencement address that she delivered in 2007 at: http://bit.ly/12SgvCL .   She focuses on “lessons learned.”  What an amazing journey.

And we spent part of our lunch pondering, “where she wants to live when she grows up.”

marcia grant

 

Ten Companies, Ten Industries, Ten Days

Wow. We’re on quite the ride!

In the last two weeks, we’ve spent four days in Lagos, Nigeria and six days in Accra and have initiated contact with ten of our twelve companies. (The remaining two are in Cote d’Ivoire, and we’re arranging our visit there later in the month to conform with the clients’ vacation schedules.) Our client companies are excited and ready to roll towards “transformation”. The journey will be long and complex, but everyone has to start somewhere.  Our goals for the past two weeks were to get to know the key issues facing the companies and start developing the vision of where they want to go.

With 20 million people (compared with a total of 24 million people in all of Ghana), Lagos is vast, congested, and swarming with a myriad of commerce. Luckily we had an excellent driver who was skillfully able to navigate the roads, including backing up in the driveway of our hotel at 8 am, when all of the hotel guests were leaving for meetings with their drivers and all wanted to back up down the driveway at the same moment.  This was not a job for the amateur.

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Also, in Lagos, the business life is very competitive, and even street vendors have to differentiate themselves to get noticed.  This was the first time we’ve seen a hawker on stilts!

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Nigerians are resigned to the fact that they have to “BYOP”—Bring Your Own Power.  The national electrical grid is completely unreliable, so each company has at least on generator and needs to have backups as well. (We know of one telco services provider who has seven levels of backup!) Generator power is huge hassle that presents a big, unpredictable expense for every business. The factory of one client company was without power Monday through Wednesday. They have to pay workers regardless, so they incurred three days of labor cost with no production output. They paid all the production workers double time to come in on the two-day national holiday since they were late on delivering orders and had reputation and cash flow at stake.

We’ve learned a lot lessons and we’re just six weeks in.

Leading “Design Thinking” workshops with several clients can open up new ways of approaching problems and challenges.  With materials developed by Jim Patell (of the previous post) of the Stanford d.School and GSB, we took groups from two of our clients through a crash course of Design Thinking, first working on a fun design exercise and then moving on to challenges that confront their companies.

These folks created the ideal wallet for each other (by listening to customer needs, iterating on ideas, and making a rapid prototype.)

Designing wallets for each other

This group was able to propose solutions to key issues facing the sales department.

Brainstorming

This manager summarized the findings his group had about HR issues and their proposed solutions.

Presenting Brainstorming Ideas

And, what was even more gratifying, a team in Lagos had already implemented the brainstorming concepts back at their company.  Here was the CEO at the Stanford SEED session in July:

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And here she is in her conference room in Lagos, showing us the outcome of the exercise that she had done with her staff!  The goal was to learn how to improve the production flow. They had this brainstorming with the entire company, including the factory floor workers and came up with some “out of the box ideas.”

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Other lessons included learning about the margin structures of various paint grades and application techniques. This paint company has lofty goals for expansion and is currently in the process of building a new factory.  But, apparently the road to the new location is abysmal; so, to really beef up production there will take some capital investment.  Jan toured the current facilities, where paint was finally being made again (since they had just spent $2,000 to repair the generator.) One thing Jan learned was the importance of putting a lab coat over her black dress BEFORE going in the paint plant where white pigment was being combined with water in the vat.

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At an ecommerce company, they ‘re implementing a move of their call center in a 48-hour window during the national holiday. Since this company is on a “rocket ship” pace of growth, they don’t want any downtime for orders during this move.  So, they’re planning carefully and are confident they will be able to pull this off.

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And they’re deploying their fleet of motorcycles to deliver products to people’s homes and offices. In Nigeria an ambitious ecommerce company has to take on the roles of both Amazon and UPS/FedEx.

Jumia Delivery Spokesmodel

Another company is pioneering the farming and distribution of healthful vegetables to quality conscious customers in Accra. Providing the right incentives to farmers so that they grow what customers want, when they want it, is a major challenge.

Happy Farming

Turning to electrical contracting, the team is analyzing the bottlenecks in the supply chain for their products and services.  Getting paid on time seems to be a universal problem throughout West Africa.  Without a Dunn and Bradstreet type of service, there is no sharing of information about “deadbeat payers.”  Each company has to deal with this challenge independently.

Wearing our “dry cleaning hats”, we observed professional client service and exceptional quality control.  Ed also read in the local paper that the Nigerian Federal Government is now requiring all workers in the capital to wear “suit and tie”, instead of traditional dress.  This could be a bonanza for our client who is about to open a branch in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

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In food products , Jan used her “store check” experience (learned when she was working in consumer products right out of Business School) to visit the small shops in Nigeria to find out more about how they buy and sell their oil.

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She also checked out the supermarkets to learn about how the larger stores display oils.

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Ed coaches a  client building a world-class, business-to-business, software platform.  They’re dealing with the universal problems of missed deadlines, tardy features and customer pressure to customize the platform and applications for specific scenarios or integration requirements. The challenges of delivering enterprise software transcend national borders.

Enterprise Software Development

The past two weeks have whizzed by. It’s now Saturday night and we’re watching the sun set from our deck, sipping South African Sauvignon Blanc.  Tonight’s entertainment will be a concert of Ghanaian Highlife music, joined by another group from New Zealand (!), at the nearby Alliance Francais.  What a rich international mélange!

Sunset over Accra

From Cost Accounting to Design Thinking – A Lesson in Transformation

One of the central figures of the Stanford SEED program is Professor Jim Patell – the Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). His initiative, curriculum, and involvement in designing products and services for the developing world have been pivotal to the launch of SEED. Jim has been in Accra for the last three weeks, sharing his enthusiasm for design thinking with the SEED entrepreneurs and Ghanaian high school students.

Ed and I originally met Jim at the GSB in 1977, where he taught Cost Accounting as part of the First Year core curriculum.  Ed was in his class, while Jan was in a different section, so only knew him by sight.  And what a sight.  All of the students thought he was younger than we were!  He, and another professor, Mark Wolfson, looked very young. We called them “whiz kids” since they already had PhD’s and were professors.  We also called them the “accounting guys”, but we now know that was selling them short.

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So, when I tell my friends from the GSB class of ‘79 that our Accounting Professor, Jim Patell, is a renowned expert in “Design Thinking”, they are intrigued.

Chatting with Jim over lunch recently, I learned that his career has been much more than an “Accounting to Design Thinking” transformation.  In his academic life, his path has followed conscious choices, amazing mentors, and brilliant collaborators.

Jim’s higher education started out at MIT, where he studied from 1966 to 1972, during the height of the Vietnam War. He worked at MIT under contract to the Department of Defense to help fund his education.  During this tenure, he worked on the design of the Spruance Class destroyer and also worked for Dr. John Craven, who had been the Chief Scientist in the Polaris-Poseidon FBM submarine program. The years spent at MIT were a time of amazing technology development, and he received a BS in Navel Architecture and Engineering and a Masters in Ocean Engineering.  And, he studied Finance under Bob Merton, who later won the Nobel Prize in Economics in conjunction with Myron Scholes for option pricing.

After MIT, Jim had the choice of getting an MBA at Stanford or earning a PhD at Carnegie Mellon University, where Professor Bob Kaplan, “saw himself in me” (Jim’s words).  Kaplan also had an engineering degree from MIT and a PhD in Operations Research from Cornell.  As a formidable mentor, Bob convinced Jim to go to Carnegie Mellon, where he received his PhD in three years.

In 1975, at 27 years old, Jim landed a job on the faculty at the GSB.  Initially, he taught Financial Accounting and Cost Accounting as part of the First Year Core Curriculum.  According to Jim, “Accounting and Finance were closer together then”.  His research focused on empirical finance and the effects of corporate disclosures on stock and option markets.

After teaching at the GSB for 6 years, Jim and Mark Wolfson both became Visiting Professors at the University of Chicago.  During this year, Jim traveled to Africa and consulted with SAB (South African Brewing) as they were divesting their holdings in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia).  Little did Jim know that many more African adventures would be in his future.

Jim returned to Stanford and became a full professor in 1985.  He became an Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Business School and managed many innovative programs, as well as revamping the Public Management Program.  He served as Associate Dean for six years, and when left the Deans’ Office, he shifted fields from the Accounting group to the Operations and Information Technology group in the GSB.  He taught the core Operations course for seven years, developed Operations electives, and then taught the core Computer Modeling course with Jeff Moore.

In a Computer Modeling elective in the late 90’s, Jim offered two extra units for students who wanted to hone their skills on a real-world project.  He found out that non-profits were great clients for student projects.

 “I learned that when students do a project for for-profit companies, the companies say, ‘Thanks so much.  Well take it back and evaluate it.’  But when the students work for non-profits, the non-profits say, ‘Thanks so much.  We’ll begin implementing your recommendations next Wednesday.’’”

The Modeling course ran for two years, and then in 2003 Jim launched the course now entitled, “Design for Extreme Affordability (aka “Extreme”). http://extreme.stanford.edu/

This “Extreme” class, initiated by Jim, David Kelly of IDEO, and one other professor, encourages graduate students from various disciplines – Business, Engineering, Medicine, Law – to form teams to learn about the needs of the poor in the developing world and design solutions to meet their needs.  Over the last 10 years, this course has grown into a very popular magnet for grad students (who have to survive a competitive application process to get in.) And, many long-lasting solutions have come out of the course, including Embrace, a sleeping bag incubator for at risk infants in rural villages and d.Light, a solar powered lantern that allows kids to do their homework without kerosene fumes in their hut at night where there is no electricity.  Many projects have turned into successful companies, which are exploring new models of business structure and governance.  Even the tax laws in California are changing to fit the needs of these social businesses that come out of this course.

Also, the course, and collaboration between Jim, David Kelly, and others, provided the foundation for the development of the “d.School”, also known as the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. http://dschool.stanford.edu/

Bob and Dottie King were initially introduced to Jim during an open-to-the-public final presentation of student projects from “Design for Extreme Affordability”.  They were intrigued and inspired by the students and their work.  They met Jim, and their friendship began.  The rest is history.

As in any life story, this brief synopsis doesn’t do justice to the rich and complex subject matters that Jim has mastered over his career.  But, hopefully it paints a picture of the amazing journey of a Professor who never sits still or rests on his laurels.  Constant change. Innovation. Exploring new areas.  What a privilege for us to be with him in Accra to share this part of his personal transformation.

Patell Design Thinking