COMMUNICATION: THE MORTAR THAT BINDS EVERY BUSINESS VENTURE

This blog was written by Samuel "Fiifi" Okore Mintah, the Vice President of BMIC. As always his article is a most inspiring and refreshing piece, I hope you really enjoy this! :)

Communication; the imparting or exchanging of information

Rarely is it such a fairy tale for somebody to finish university and almost immediately be at the helm of his own company with an estimated value of almost $100,000 and counting. Well I did it, through cold nights and lonely days at Evandy Hostel where I marshaled my thoughts to build my imaginary company in the form of a well-written business proposal. Though I wrote that proposal under compulsion, I later came to appreciate the amount and value of the work that was put into the business plan. When this plan metamorphosed into reality, I surrounded myself with a team of some of the smartest and talented minds I knew. We immediately jumped into gear, business prospects were looking good then suddenly I watched it all slip out of my hands. But as a firm optimist who believes in determination, hard work and the power of dreams no matter the problems that one encounters, I knew I had within my power the tools to create new and even better opportunities. As the great Winston Churchill said during the blitzkrieg of London, “Never, never, never give up!”

I graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology a year ago, with the grade class I had always wanted. But most importantly, I left KNUST with the right frame of mind and the right kind of friends, and these factors have been crucial to enabling my ideas and plans to come to life. As soon as this great opportunity to run this firm knocked on my door I called on the battalion to come aboard because I knew they were going to propel the business to the next level. Within a month of the platoon hitting the ground, problems begun to assuage the firm, unforeseen and unpredictable problems cropped up all over the place and I watched in horror as this amazing chance disappeared almost as quickly as it came into being. It was a real nightmare especially looking at the kind of personal investment I had made within that short period of time. I had sacrificed my valuable time, every single dime, and as a man in his prime I was ready to capably run this engine and yet, here was I going home without having barely started the engine itself. When I reminisce about that shattering week, I can only grin and sigh with relief that things are back on track now.

What happened you may ask? It had nothing to do with the team I brought on board to take the business to the next level but rather myself. Several minute flaws that I had neglected in my personnel life grew into the very same abyss that derailed my entrepreneurial train.  I have always been a smooth talker brimming with eloquence but a little miscommunication between my business partner and I created an air of mistrust. After many nights of reflection as to what caused this predicament, I came to the conclusion that communication is the most vital ingredient in any and all forms of business; something like the mortar that binds all the other components of a business venture to make it one big whole. In business we may agree, we may disagree and we may even agree to disagree. However without the essential ingredient – effective communication – which builds trust among all stakeholders, no business will be successful.

Since that fateful week, I have done a lot of soul searching and reassessment; I have completely revamped my way of handling business, and to tell you the truth now, I feel like I can walk on water. I am back on my grind with a big bang; thing is this time everything is in place and nothing is bringing me down. I have been thorough in purging those minute flaws, which do not augur well for business in favor of traits that can earn me the chips that can afford me that trip to Monaco twice a year, the mansion on the hill and that McLaren MP4-12c. What did I do to come back on track and resolve all the problems with my partners?  Well I have always been consumed with a burning desire to make it happen no matter the odds against me, but besides that I read voraciously to further become knowledgeable about the efficient management skills that still eluded me. I also delved into my inner person to discover my latent abilities, which I’m developing everyday, and also took the time to unlearn the unproductive things that were part of my psyche.  So now I am back, consumed with the fire of winning and trust me, I am winning. With my formidable team we have built those efficient mechanisms to weather any storms that may blow no matter how great. KTA is back, and here to stay!

Samuel “Fiifi” Okore Mintah,

Chief Executive Officer,

Kreative Terrain Agency

If KTA was possible, so is this! On track to make my dreams REALITY!

DREAMING ON: HUSTLING AMIDST THE TUMULT.....WHY I TRY!

Le pays historique.....

I try because I dream. I am a wishful thinker at heart; deep down I am wildly optimistic. But all the lessons I have learnt in life have coerced me to build a wall of inscrutable sadness around myself. Yet however sad I may get, my hopeful confidence and enthusiasm to dream always shine through. I try to be infectious in my ambitions as well. I think dreamers like to know other peoples dreams as a matter of consequence. They do this to put their own dreams in perspective. You know, those deep down goals and fantastic objectives you had as a kid, but gradually are losing touch with, as you grow older. I ask other people what kind of life they envision for their future and they tend to give a safe answer; you know, the diplomatic response. The reply is always something sensible and expected instead of something incredible and juvenile. I sometimes feel very foolish because rather than play the safe game, I find Astons and yachts skipping all over the place. Hmmmm.....It’s really not my fault you know; blame my overactive imagination that is on a quest to build castles in the air and then proceed to wish them into being. If you are my friend you know as far as I am concerned Monaco is the place to be (probably because I am always trying to impress you with some tidbit of useless information about the principality) even though the closest I have ever gotten to this place is a mind-meld of James Bond, Wikipedia and recently Facebook. Actually Monaco is 641 miles (or 1032 km) away from London, I guess in geographic terms that is the closest I have been to that city-state. Oh, I almost forgot, I know this information because of....Google. Yeah, ‘technically’ Google is the closest I have been to Monaco. In fact courtesy Google, I go to Monaco whenever I want. I am amidst the tumult of 21^st Century Africa, and I dream of visiting some place in France so bad I find myself in random conversations telling people about it. I sometimes even wonder why, why there, why not somewhere else. I guess its an idiosyncrasy I seek to make a cliché, nothing more, nothing less.

Somebody drives one on the streets of Accra :)

And why, why am I always using words of Brobdingnagian proportions when I write, why bother? Its actually extra work you know. To find some obscure word that isn’t commonly used, string it with its brothers and sisters, and try to make them sing. That’s how I see it; I play with words the way physicists play with numbers. You put them together in interesting ways and then you try to convince other people that what you have conjured up makes sense and is relevant to them somehow. Maybe that is why I enjoy writing business plans because I like playing with both words and numbers. And it must be why I enjoy chasing business deals with such gusto because I enjoy playing with ideas; ideas that have a chance at becoming reality. I am not simply doing what I do to make money, no, that is not enough, not nearly enough. There are several easier ways to simply make money – a myriad really. But there is only one way to make an impact, especially a huge impact in the lives of people around you. And that is to look past the profit incentive, past the cash and dollar signs. I am not saying I don’t want money, I certainly do. But more so than that I want to positively affect the world around me, share what I learn, and show people that it is possible to succeed at anything, no matter how outlandish if you just try hard enough. I have learnt that the whole idea is to believe in yourself and never give up no matter what. That is why when people tell me to be less flamboyant in my writing, reduce the scope of my grandiose dreams or trade what I want for something less, I am obstinate to a fault. I really don’t see the point – personally – of wasting one’s finite time, energy and resources to merely exist safely, when one can truly live dangerously. Risk is always equal to Reward. That is why amidst this tumult, my hustle is to simply, try and never stop doing so.

I will try my hardest for supreme excellence because I can never settle for mediocrity. It is a very deliberate decision on my part to do so. I guess the norm is people grow and adjust to reality by downsizing their true dreams. They dilute their goals and they end up making it through this life safely but unremarkably. A few of us do the opposite, we do not adjust to reality rather we adjust to the fantasy we prefer to live in. We choose not to play it safe nor by the rules. Our whole agenda is to show that being unorthodox is another route through this life. A route that is fraught with so much danger and so much risk. A route that is most likely to end up in abject failure. And that is what most people see when they glance down this road, they see the path less travelled by and they shy away. Well, I tightened my belt, set my jaw and plodded on into the dusty winds. It is the avenue of tears and sorrows; where your confidence is sapped and obstacles beset you at all corners encouraging you to just give up. Yet I plod on, because I am willing to take these risks in order to stand a chance at getting the potential rewards. You see, that is all I will ever get if I try, a chance. The way I see it everything we do in life is a gamble, every decision we make will have certain consequences down the line. I would much rather play my game trying than not because the time we have on this earth is borrowed anyway. It’s not guaranteed that I will dream into reality but I don’t care because simply having that chance is good enough for me. Dare to dream and if at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again!

Cheers,

The Bizmic

TRO-TRO DIARIES PART 3(b): ON ASSIGNMENT – MEETING WITH SANDER

Sander then proceeded to give me some background on SOVEC and why they are operating in Ghana – they could have stayed in Holland or gone elsewhere in Africa with their money, but they chose Ghana because it has a stable political system, an enabling business environment and also because of the presence of a young, yet professional VC infrastructure, providing the right caliber of investment partners they require. He also told me a bit about the investment portfolio of SOVEC in Ghana, particularly their support for the “Private Schools for the Poor” project by Omega Schools which is an innovative idea that seeks to provide high quality education to the poor by bringing such communities on board and giving them an incentive to ensure the schools are self sustainable. And then we launched into the vast entrepreneurial opportunities available in Ghana. 

Sander was particularly interested in discussing my personal entrepreneurial ventures. In fact once I put it out there that I was an up and coming entrepreneur we naturally fell into a deep conversation about my business interests especially in Oilfield Services, which is my day job by the way. I stressed on the fact that I felt it my duty to share my practical experiences as I navigate the entrepreneurial world with others, so as to inspire, encourage and motivate. He commended my meager efforts, and suggested that all groups such as BMIC should collaborate under one umbrella rather than operate as splinter cells going after the same objectives. I assured him that our partnership with Harambe Ghana is just such a co-operative effort and with TEDxHarambe we are marking the beginning of a long and fruitful working relationship; and there is always room for more on board because as a united front, youth-oriented NGOs in Ghana will be able to achieve similar goals quicker and more effectively.

The Dutch venture capitalist was rather insightful so I volunteered information freely knowing it may yield dividends later on. He was very plain spoken about his definition of social entrepreneurship, “being that [he] does not primarily go for profit alone, but that [he is] convinced that it should be a mix of financial (profit incentive) and social things (value creation) to make venture capital investments sustainable. It cannot (and should not) be simply either one.” He was adamant that social entrepreneurship should not be labeled as simply granting money on the basis of pure altruism, or pure profit-making but rather a balanced dance of both; they were not mutually exclusive goals but could become a harmonious model for incentivizing the rapid development of Africa through win-win investor partnerships. And I agree wholeheartedly with him on this one folks, it is not simply possible but prudent to be a businessman with a heart and a conscience in the 21^st century; it is perhaps the only sustainable way forward. 

He also gave me another view as to his personal belief that the present model for AID to Africa is deeply flawed, referring to Dambisa Moyo’s book, Dead Aid. Rather he proposed an interesting theory; that there should not be a difference between a good entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur. To him the word ‘social’ is sometimes not appropriate in description because it doesn’t reflect the reality on the ground, which is that the present state of blind philanthropy is not just failing, but acerbating the various issues they seek to solve in the first place. That is the old way of doing things. Though I certainly feel blind philanthropy has its place in the development of Africa owing to how far behind we still are, I also felt his stance was just the kind of edgy and fresh thought that was needed to compel people sit up and take notice that the old way of doing things is simply not enough. We agreed that he should run with his idea and deliver his presentation along these lines.

So finally, Mr. Sander Smits van Oyen broke into a warm smile offered his hand and said, “Okay you have me.” I heaved a silent but heavy sigh of relief, chugged down the rest of up my pineapple juice, smiled broadly, shook his hand, grabbed my Targus book bag and returned to the confused din of night traffic and Spintex. The Tro-tro ride back home that day was not so bad; truly it would not have made any difference if I were in a tram, a train or a Double Decker bus: Okay, save the noise, the jolts and that creeping feeling that the machine is about to break up any second away.

Now things are looking good; not only is Sander speaking at the event, he may be, co-incidentally, bringing along his investors to visit TEDxHarambe with him........Bit by bit, we are doing it!

TRO-TRO DIARIES PART 3(a): ON ASSIGNMENT – MEETING WITH SANDER

A simple and straightforward affair indeed – my meeting with Mr. Sander Smits van Oyen was not quite that. I went to Shangri La Hotel completely resourced and prepared to carry aloft the TEDxHarambe torch. When I have something important to do I ensure my homework is done, so I read as much information about Sander as Web 2.0 could offer and Derek, being the super-efficient guy he is, even provided precise and comprehensive meeting notes for the appointment. By the way, I had successfully avoided Tro-tros the whole day; I had certainly seen them, many of them, calling and honking out to me, begging to break my silent notes down into jingling coins. But between my father and my friend, I was Corporal First Class of the “Ghana AC Brigade” all the way that day– well at least up to that point.

I definitely needed that little preparation; Mr. Sander is the managing director of a Dutch Venture Capital Firm called SOVEC Fund that is investing in SMEs in Ghana in collaboration with local partners like Fidelity II Fund and Oasis Capital. The main goal of the SOVEC Fund is to “stimulate sustainable economic growth in Africa. [They] strongly believe that this can best be realized by private sector development: i.e. investing in SME’s”. SOVEC’s model is to add value (i.e. create social value) by linking Ghanaian entrepreneurs to a networked group of Dutch investors who not only have capital, but also contacts, experience and expertise they would otherwise not have had access to. Bottom line, Sander and his partners are operating a fund of €6 million of private equity of which they have committed approx. 40% or € 2.5 million in about 10 indigenous investments so far. That is an average of €250,000 or $320,000 per venture, and this is probably just the beginning because this fund and its portfolio are still growing. You can obtain more information on SOVEC Fund and its mother company, SOVEC Foundation from their website, www.sovec.nl. The TEDxHarambe Team contacted Sander hoping he could share his thoughts on social entrepreneurism – SOVEC stands for Social Venture Capital so we felt their business model was exemplary of social value creation and Sander’s experienced perspective would shed more light on the issue.

Some of the points that were covered in the meeting were:

1.     A synopsis of BMIC, Harambe and our Joint-Venture (History, Objectives)

2.     A briefing about the TED, TEDx brand and their licensing requirements

3.     TEDxHarambe and its primary objective, “Social Value Creation”

4.     An orientation on the format of his speech at the conference

5.     Securing his consent as a speaker for the event

Well the above represents the main points that were to be covered, but the meeting went further and delved deeper. One of the first things I uttered to Mr. Smits van Oyen was that we were “trying to organize an event,” and he immediately cut me short and said, “Don’t try, just do it.” And later on when I went on to say that “In Ghana we face a lot of problems”, he corrected me by saying, “They are not only problems, they are also opportunities.” Therefore throughout the ensuing conversation I was ‘trying’ very hard to avoid this ‘problem’ of perception and rather use the situation as an ‘opportunity’ to show him I could ‘do it’ because I was a quick learner. However of all the things that we discussed that day, these two statements left the biggest impression on me, I will simply DO as I should by adequately utilizing the various OPPORTUNITIES present in Ghana........

The rest of this blog continues Mid-Week......Keep Checking this space for Part 3(b)

Cheers

TROTRO DIARIES PART 2: MR. P. GRAMMAR THESAURUS

So where were we? Yes, yes, I remember! Derek is somewhere in the former marsh and Olivia – the President of Harambe Cameroon, my virtual twin and a member of the TEDxHarambe organizing team – joined him and their Harambe Endeavor colleagues to hobnob with the chic politicos of Yankee – Cheese! All this was in commemoration of almost half of the Dark Continent celebrating 50 years of independence and uniform mismanagement. Honestly, I am neither a cynic nor a Pollyanna because I like to think I’m stuck squarely in between. Well, saying that would be slightly duplicitous because it will demand a concerted effort not to be cheerfully beaming in a 5 Series. In the same vein, it will be an onerous task not to be disconsolate, stuck in traffic – in a Tro-Tro – resigned to the sun-drenched African noon, with absolutely no hope of precipitation and in the certain knowledge that the ineluctable sultriness is inexorably dissipating the last few whiffs of an already dwindling supply of Armani Extreme. I used to detest people that put on too much cologne before they went gallivanting, but after forty-eight contiguous months in this sweltering tropical mugginess (now tell me this tautology is NOT permissible), I am gunning through eau de toilettes with the panache of the leader of the peloton on the home stretch of the Tour de France; not forgetting all associated sweat and drama. That is not to say that you cannot be ebullient in a Tro-tro or morose in a Murcielago...hmmm...now that was a very vague attempt at assonance and not to be considered a remote possibility, not even Jeremy Clarkson can frown in the belly of the raging bull.

What do you think of BMIC's New Logo? Please comment below.

The point I am making is this, positivism and pessimism feed of each other in order to create a realistic view. In other words, “optimism is the force behind a realist’s cautious cynicism.” So it is with an enthusiastic but pragmatic approach that we are implementing TEDxHarambe: we are leaving no stone unturned; no sail unfurled; and no holds barred for all the chips are on the table now. Fortunately, between the services provided by Google Inc, Vodafone Broadband and Skype Limited, communication is VOIP and collaboration is via attachment and virtually free; I reiterate again, the power of IT! But through all this I digress slightly, my first real assignment as a member of the TEDxHarambe Team was to meet with a Dutch venture capitalist called Sander Smits van Oyen and confirm him as a speaker for the event. A few emails and phone calls later (non-VOIP), Sander and I set up an appointment to meet at Shangri-La in the late afternoon. This was incredibly fortuitous because I also had an oily early morning meeting at Shangri La that same day. In retrospect, that morning, my father saved me from the ‘joys’ of a Trosky trip in the early morning which is identical to a Tro-tro ride in the afternoon save for the oppressive heat or one in the evening; when all the rattling and jolting fuses with a day’s worth of fatigue into the most intense feeling of...of...utter despondency. Again I deviate, Mr. Ampofo Snr. treated me to an unending but somehow pleasant cacophony of intense business calls all the way through the idiosyncratic traffic of Spintex Road till he dropped me off. Indeed, we had about 25 seconds of ‘intimate’ conversation which literally went, “Busy morning?” to which I was replied, “Hmmm, it never ends you know”, then he was back to the intermittent tintinnabulation and wheeler-dealing; my patriarch is as bona fide an astute business man as they come.

As at 9:30am that day, I was deeply engrossed in negotiations with some oily gentlemen who were trying to convince me to part with thousands of dollars they did not know I did not have; and fast track negotiations on an ongoing Joint Venture. My business partner’s attorney, having come fashionably late, was now trying to bill me for his client’s expenses. I was just sitting there contemplating how my own legal consultants are racking up some hefty fees under our current tenuous pseudo pro-bono disposition: on account of waning paternal inducements; patrilineally inherited intelligence; maternally acquired gregariousness; and a proclivity for manipulative suasion using any and all means necessary. Now I am wandering again but it serves to illustrate how indignant I had become after this first meeting, dealing with two men old enough to be my father yet selling me a deal with so many encumbrances that I was almost ready to give up that business idea on the spot, and go relax at the beach. I did go to the beach, but I refrained from doing the former, I refrained from letting my tempestuous nature sour the grapes as it were. I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon relaxing with friends at the beach, dreaming, laughing and planning. I had been prepping for my next meeting with Sander for a while so I felt adequately prepared because it seemed to me a pretty simple and straightforward affair. Well it turned out to be anything but simple and straightforward.......

To Be Continued, Cheers!

Please Tune in Next Week for the next blurb in the series. I will try to proceed without my trusty friend: Mr. Punctilious G. Thesaurus :)

Mr. P. G. Thesaurus himself

TRO-TRO DIARIES PART 1: INTRODUCING PROJECT 4/11

Spot TheBizmic?

Things have really moved up into high gear of late so I have been moving around a lot. Since I don’t own a car, and my parent’s vehicles are off limits 95% of the time (owing to some bad teenage choices) I have had to consider other transportation options. Taxis have always been a staple part of my mobility requirements and they still are but their outrageous charges when you string the words, “Spintex” and “Regimanuel” in the same sentence encouraged me to master the Art of the Tro-tro. Seriously, whenever these taxi drivers first hear ‘Spintex’ I can see their eyes going dull contemplating the ever-present traffic, but when ‘Regimanuel’ follows, their eyes light up and some will even manage an avaricious smile and gesture me to sit down. That is my cue to release the fluent pidgin or Twi to let them know I am in for business, genially asking the fare before sitting down even as the price fencing proceeds. Perhaps it was the annoying nature of this constant haggling back and forth with taxi drivers over their hyper-inflated prices, or perhaps just the sheer affordability of the Tro-tro, that convinced me by and large to patronize them more and more. Now, I am a certified pro on the Spintex-37 Tro-tro route, I know all the bus stops. Though I am yet to figure out the mechanical jungle that is Kwame Nkrumah Circle, I have enough experience points to face the whole city in these rickety boneshakers. Alas, my knees, my butt, my back, my ears and my nose tend to pay the price but it is well worth the sacrifice – GH¢2 will fully finance the cost of a return trip home and still leave enough change for kelewele. Sometimes, I just love living in Ghana!

Then there are those moments when both the taxi and the ‘trosky’ become dim memories; these are the times when I find myself rolling with any of my friends who unlike me, either did not make those same teenage mistakes or have more indulging parents. I don’t think all the horses in the world can drag some of these people within a 2-mile radius of a Tro-tro station, they even tend to view taxis with such disdain – merely backups for emergencies. I understand them partly because I used to be a member of the “Ghana AC Brigade”, you know those people that talk of winter with nostalgia and cannot live without the air conditioners in their houses, their cars, their offices and yes, even their bathrooms blowing on the arctic scale. It is when I occasionally break into goose bumps and shivers in an air-conditioned environment nowadays that I realize how acclimatized I have become to walking in the sizzling heat that is the African afternoon and the sultry humidity that is the inside of a Tro-tro. For now I am juggling both temperature differentials with some practiced ease and this is all well and good seeing as I have taken upon myself the huge task of Project 4/11 which demands a lot of simultaneous troskying and dilly dallying with the Ghana AC Brigade. Consequently I have developed a very ‘balanced diet’, a heterogeneous mix of taxis, trotros and saloon cars. So when I am bouncing along in a Tro-tro, I dream of the days when it will be a mix of sports cars, yachts and jets; and when I am perched in a sleek saloon I stretch out my knees and lean back as far away from the AC as possible – I think I have found my niche in each setting.

Whichever environment I find myself in though, I am always preoccupied with Project 4/11 – TEDxHarambe. Thanks to the wonders of the internet and the blogosphere I was approached by the president of Harambe Ghana, Derek Nnuro, to jointly organize and host the TEDxHarambe conference – an independently organized event operated under licence from TED, a US conference where the world’s leading thinkers and doers – e.g. Bill Gates, Al Gore etc – congregate to share ideas on what they are most passionate about. In essence we are seeking to recreate the same unique experience of a TED event on Ghanaian soil, our theme for the event is “New Capitalism” seeking to spark a serious conversation among all stakeholders about encouraging youth entrepreneurship and social value creation. When I first heard about Harambe Ghana, TED, TEDx (x=independently organized TED event) and TEDxHarambe, I immediately thought where does BMIC fit in the equation. Well as it turns out, this was really a match made in heaven. “Harambe Ghana is a private, non-political and Ghanaian organization whose mission is to nurture a new generation of young leaders, entrepreneurs, and thinkers who see problems as opportunities in need of solutions and have the ability, will, and inspirational capacity to create long-lasting social impact.” Hmmm....rather much like BMIC’s mission statement don’t you think. Derek was a really cool guy and right off the bat I got the sense we could work together and make this program a prodigious success.  He had gone through the wahala of securing a license from TED to host a TEDx event but he needed someone on the ground with the experience and know-how to make things happen, be it via trosky or AC movement; enter TheBizmic. So he has jetted of back to the US to meet Obama at the Young African Leaders Forum in DC, wrestle with his people (Harambe Ghana is a subsidiary of Harambe Endeavor Alliance) and handle the international front in terms of the speakers flying in and what not. I am on the ground handling the local front tackling all the unending issues that crop up when organizing an event of this scope. It has been a few weeks since I got involved in this project and the momentum is gradually picking up as the team coalesces better and we sort out the workflow of this strategic alliance. Watch this space for more details on TEDxHarambe, the eminent personalities that are making speeches at the event, the who and what of the whole show. For now I give you the when, November 4^th, 2010, so mark your calendars people, you now know that truly, THEBIZMIC IS BAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!

Tune in for Part 2 next week.

Cheers