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

PICKING AT THE MIND OF A LUMINARY CHIEF WITH MR. INVESTOR: PART TWO

Mr. Investor and myself waited in a Gas Station close to the bus stop until the chief’s wife picked us up and drove us to their commodious abode. We settled into our rooms, had some dinner and had a long chat with Nana Kyia. As always I tried to glean as many nuggets of wisdom as I could from this luminary chief and vastly experienced entrepreneur, and indeed I got a goldmine full of knowledge. During our stay whenever Mr. Investor and I had a chat with our “Chief Consultant”, I had my pen and notebook out, scribbling furiously! And he kept reminding us of how people pay him for similar advice and how lucky we were to be getting all of his precious face time for free. We were very lucky indeed. I probably should have taken videos of our conversations, because we roamed a vast landscape of business, social and economic issues, far more than can be packed into this blog. Mr. Investor and I fielded all the questions that we could, and the chief always gave us a flood of sensible answers from a perspective we did not have enough experience to elevate to yet. He sat adjacent us in this rather comfy chair in a corner of his large living room adorned with biographical pictures of the chief in his younger days, his first wife and his children; a portrait of his life and his legacy. It felt rather appropriate when he said, “Everybody (in Ghana) is having fun making a living but not leaving a legacy”. With his legacy complete he was encouraging us, and you to begin thinking about creating ours, a legacy we can be proud of during our old age.

In relation to a question fielded by Mr. Investor concerning business in Ghana the chief said, “There are many bureaucratic disincentives that prevent investors from coming into Ghana”. Among those we discussed were the poor state of our physical infrastructure; the lack of reliable energy; entrenched corruption, inefficiency and dissatisfaction in all levels of the public sector. According to him, Ghana has “a system that forces conformity” because it doesn’t reward innovation but rather favors blind adherence. In a sense it is a country whose people prefer to follow and therefore leaders are in short supply; people rarely think outside the box. This is difficult for foreign investors to adjust to since the internal and external realities they have to deal with are in a system where things tend to be rather different (I think the actual word Nana used was ‘backward’) from their experience in their home countries. He felt that, “Idea testing is essential for success” because every business investor needs to do a lot of market research before they embark on any business. According to the chief, “Nobody should go into any business without testing; you must have a minimum of a B+ certainty that it will succeed before moving forward”.

The chief also delved into the poverty issue by stating that; “In trying to solve poverty we must move poor people away from what they are used to (their comfort zone of being given freebies; food, water and clothing) by challenging and empowering them to be upwardly mobile economically”. He was greatly dissatisfied with the status quo of begging donors for money to simply throw at the poverty issue, rather we should be teaching poor people to fish rather than just giving them fish. He stressed on the need to provide quality education as the basis for empowering the poor, because according to him as literacy levels increase so will the living standards in general, and this is a self evident fact. Nana Kyia III felt strongly that the Ghanaian youth, especially those in the Diaspora had a lot to give back to the country. He understood the temptation of seeking greener pastures abroad but felt that if they could be encouraged to come back to Ghana they would be critical to the development of the country. He encouraged people to try to monetize their passions saying, “If you have a hobby and if it can be turned into a business, quit your regular job then do it full time” because you are then motivated out of intrinsic passion instead of being stuck in a job that has extrinsic benefits (good pay) but is not truly fulfilling.

Yes, Mr. Investor had reception, AMAZING!

We talked, and talked some more and then he took us on a trip to his beautiful seaside village. We first went to a council meeting of the traditional chiefs of the area, and Mr. Investor and myself had the honor of meeting all the other chiefs in the area, to the extent of being treated like VIPs even though we were wearing simple white tees. We then went on to his village, Ekumfi Ekumpoano and even deep into the hinterland we still had reception on our mobile phones and several of the villagers were busily chatting on theirs; the power of IT! When we got there we had that iconic scene where all the little kids run behind the car. Everybody there was buzzing about the arrival of their chief, and of course a “white man”. Alas Nana himself was at the council meeting, but it was still such great experience, his wife took us on a guided tour and then cut us loose. For me the village was about these little kids, smiling, dancing, treading our footsteps and asking 20 questions a minute. They were such a happy riot, excited and inquisitive beyond belief. I acted as the translator since they seemed so fascinated by the ‘obroni’ who had magically appeared in their midst and then after following the sound of the waves a short while, we hit the beach, and OH was my breath taken away! It was a beguiling sandy beach, untouched by development and pollution, and there were only a few canoes in sight because the fishermen were out to sea. I couldn’t appreciate the scene fully then but now in retrospect I was rather affected by the serene beauty of the soft clean sand, the clear blue sea and the rolling waves all hidden away and unknown, a real unpolished gem waiting to glitter. The ideas begun to flow, and the plans begun to form.........

One day I shall be a luminary business guru but for now I’m just a visionary mind making his dreams a reality, so I seek the counsel of greater minds to inspire me and point me in the right direction. Nana Kyia III is among those whom have had an undeniably positive effect on my personal development and propitious future. Thank you again Nana!

The happy riot of smiles, questions and poses.....cheeeeese!

Tune in next week for the next blog.......Cheers!

PICKING AT THE MIND OF A LUMINARY CHIEF WITH MR. INVESTOR: PART ONE

Mr. Investor, Nana Kyia III and Me

The second half of last year was perhaps the most hectic of my life up until then. I was still a student as well as trying to set up a new business with an American, codename Mr. Investor; a young man with the vision, drive, discipline, energy and hunger that perfectly complemented my particular set of skills and talents. We had met previously a couple years before and he promised to come back to Ghana to invest and against all my expectations otherwise he did truly make it back with an open mind and understandably, a tightened fist around his purse strings. In the course of searching for accommodation for Mr. Investor, I had the honor to make the acquaintance of his landlord for the duration of his trip, Samuel Oscar Eskin, also known by his stool name, Nana Kyia III, Adontenhene of Ekumfi Ekumpoano. Nana Kyia is a rather energetic man for all of his 70+ years and he took an immediate liking to Mr. Investor and myself. Like most eminent septuagenarians, Nana Kyia could discuss any topic at length and he gave me so much to think about that I still ruminate over some of his wise words to this day. For example after I told him about being cheated several times in oil deals he said, “When someone cheats you, see it as being on a learning curve”, or another time when he said, “Failure is an opportunity to take a different path to success”.  How apt!

Nana Kyia gave us an anecdote about his hey days running the local subsidiary of a British firm in Ghana in the 1970’s. He was always harking back on how the problems that existed in his youthful days, bribery, bureaucracy and inefficiency are still endemic in Ghana today. He noted the incongruity of the nation having more supervisors and managers than are needed instead of a trained caucus of highly efficient low-mid level functionaries, especially in the public sector. This has led to a serious deficiency in the effectiveness of many governmental organizations and this canker even permeates the private sector but to a lesser degree somewhat. He also noted how political regime after regime have essentially been, “Robbing Peter to save Paul”, Peter being the people, Paul being themselves. He was rather critical of the sorry nature of Ghana’s political system, “In Ghana, our priorities are misplaced”, but overall he sounded optimistic about the prospects for the future especially considering all the buzz about Ghana’s recent oil discovery. He encouraged us to persevere in our entrepreneurial ventures because, “Good projects take time to bear fruit”. Every minute of the time I spent with him was rather worth it, and I thank Mr. Investor for enabling me to encounter such a luminary mind.

Mr. Investor spent a lot more time with Nana Kyia and I was always getting even more information on the chief and his vast interests. Apparently, the chief was the person who brought computers into Ghana first, in the 1970’s, and he giggles with glee when he talks about ICT and how web cafes have now proliferated the country. He said, “ICT is the new frontier that can help bridge the gap between the third world countries and the developed world”. At his age, he is very tech savvy, he regularly conducts business via email, and knows pretty much all the new technology trends that abound. I mean, seriously, this old man followed Mr. Investor to the Afrodesiac Nightclub one night and from what I surmised he loved every minute of it; that’s the kind of man he is! After several discussions with him concerning our ambitious entrepreneurial plans, the chief decided to take us on a trip to his fiefdom near Mankesim to show us his idyllic seaside village. And so we set off, Mr. Investor and I, taking a bus from Kaneshie Station headed towards Cape Coast and I will never forget that bus ride; certainly one of the least comfortable I have ever had. Apart from the serious bone-shaking and constant scraping sounds of rusted metal that made it seem like the bus was going to fall apart any second, we faced a 2 hour delay because the driver pissed a police man off and everybody on the bus became judge, jury and chief enforcer! So we ended up in Mankesim several hours later than planned, tired and hungry but nonetheless continuing our almost constant banter on business in Ghana and Africa in general.

To Be Continued!