Class was fun tonight. Students responded well to Gordon and Dan (Chick-fil-A operators) and had lots of questions. Many signed up for one-on-ones with them throughout the week. Dan had taken pictures of billboards and other signs around Kigali. This provided some interesting discussion on advertising messages and look and feel. When they understood the message of Chick fil A’s ads “Eat Mor Chiken”, they laughed loudly.
Other notes:
1. Had a relaxing Sunday with Gordon and Dan. Nice brunch by the pool at the hotel next to the guest house where we are staying. Then I took them to the Telecom House—we teach in the boardroom and have a small suite of offices on the 4th floor. They took several pictures from the decks on the sixth floor. Good 360 degree views of Kigali.
2. Monday morning started with a meeting at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to discuss our agreement and their provision of a facility. Difficult meeting. They don’t have a facility that can accommodate our planned growth. They will present a written proposal on Thursday describing what they can provide.
3. Dona picked us up at Telecom House and we drove to UTC (center of town) so Gordon and Dan could change money. Then on to Mille Collines Hotel. Wanted to check on their quote for graduation venue and talk with HR about their customer service training needs. Instead, they had us speak the General Manager, who is from Netherlands. Quite an interesting, intense discussion. We told him that we wanted to discuss his training needs. He said he would never send his people out for training. He does it in house. He said he was hired to turn around a disorganized, poorly run hotel. His management philosophy is quite different from ours, so we didn’t pursue the training opportunity with him.
Dan O’Bryan and Gordon Schrank, Chick fil A operators visiting the BDC to teach, advise, consult
MTN is Rwanda's bigest cell phone company.
Other notes:
1. Had a relaxing Sunday with Gordon and Dan. Nice brunch by the pool at the hotel next to the guest house where we are staying. Then I took them to the Telecom House—we teach in the boardroom and have a small suite of offices on the 4th floor. They took several pictures from the decks on the sixth floor. Good 360 degree views of Kigali.
2. Monday morning started with a meeting at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to discuss our agreement and their provision of a facility. Difficult meeting. They don’t have a facility that can accommodate our planned growth. They will present a written proposal on Thursday describing what they can provide.
3. Dona picked us up at Telecom House and we drove to UTC (center of town) so Gordon and Dan could change money. Then on to Mille Collines Hotel. Wanted to check on their quote for graduation venue and talk with HR about their customer service training needs. Instead, they had us speak the General Manager, who is from Netherlands. Quite an interesting, intense discussion. We told him that we wanted to discuss his training needs. He said he would never send his people out for training. He does it in house. He said he was hired to turn around a disorganized, poorly run hotel. His management philosophy is quite different from ours, so we didn’t pursue the training opportunity with him.
4. Met with Olivier Kamanzi, the deputy head of the Capital Markets Advisory Commission. Fascinating to hear him describe the opening of their capital market. The first public Rwandan company was listed Jan 31, 2011. He showed us the stock exchange trading floor, which consisted of two whiteboards—one for stocks and one for bonds. Black and red markers showed the trades that occurred today in the one stock. It was interesting to see the start of a financial market. They are already working on putting together the hardware, software and systems they will need for an electronic version of their manual system.
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