Earthquakes, Broken Eggs and More!

John’s Blog:  Week Two  (August 20-27)

Latin America Meets East Africa

My colleague, Sergio Matviuk, arrived Sunday night.  He is the coordinator for global affairs for Regent University.  As an entrepreneur and an educator who has delivered training programs in Peru, Ecuador, and other countries, Sergio knew exactly what was involved in getting something like BDC Rwanda off the ground.  We had an enjoyable three days together.  I could see the class sit up and pay attention when Sergio talked about starting a business in Argentina when he was 17.  He encouraged them and challenged them.  We also had an excellent meeting with the Rwanda Development Board.  They asked for a proposal from Regent to train the presidents, deans and faculty of Rwanda’s 18 universities. 

Class Loosens Up in Week Two

Week two started off with a bang—or I should say a “crack”.  Monday’s class was devoted to a project in which each team builds a package that is both attractive and protective (of the raw egg it holds).  Each team has 60 seconds to sing the praises of its package.  Then comes the drop—from six feet onto a cement floor--followed by howls of anguish when the egg breaks (3 of the five) or shouts of joy when the package does its job.  This was the first day that the class really came out of its shell (bad pun, but true).  One team created an Easter basket for their “Easter egg”, and sang the Hallelujah chorus to introduce their product.       

Broken Egg

While Monday freed them to express their emotions, it took another day or two to free their minds to think outside the box.  When given the assignment to brainstorm business ideas without any constraints—that is, no limits on time, money, technology, labor, skills, etc.—the class produced a list of very “ho hum” ideas, such as cement block manufacturer, secretarial services, print shop, etc.  More than 70% of the ideas were businesses already operating in Rwanda.  I sent them back to the drawing board with the charge to come up with some really crazy, “out there” ideas.  That freed up their creative juices.  We had edible plates, self-cleaning shirts, human breath as an energy source, and houses floating on magnetic fields.  Although they probably won’t implement these particular ideas, the exercise will help them innovate new ways of doing the businesses they are contemplating.

We had several good discussions about the values and traits of an entrepreneur.  I started class by putting a word on the screen and asking for reaction--Trust, Action-oriented, Generosity, Resourcefulness.  These generated deep discussions and questions.  Sometimes the class referred by to my “Doing business with a pure heart” presentation from week one.  They would comment that a classmate’s position seemed to reflect doing business from the “stomach” (the lowest motivation from my tri-partite model) rather than from the heart.       

Staff:  Shaken Up and Reconstituted

We interviewed several candidates and hired Patrick Kanuma to replace Chrystel, who resigned two weeks ago. He is married with a young son and in his last semester studying law.  He seems sharp and has good sales skills.  We’ll put him to work recruiting.

Anatole informed me that he is leaving in September to spend a year in the Netherlands on a full scholarship for a Masters in Rural Development and Food Security.  We’ll miss him.  He has been faithful meeting the needs of both current students and graduates.  Fortunately, Pascal, graduate of Cohort 2, has agreed to join us part time.  Pascal received the servant leadership award for his steadfast volunteer help with Cohort 2.  Now, he’ll continue that service for pay. 

Several graduates volunteered to help out when they heard that Chrystel had resigned.  They feel a sense of ownership and loyalty to the BDC and want to see it succeed.   

 What’s Going On at Home?

I thought it was a joke—a 5.9 earthquake in Virginia?  But it was true.  Then I learned that Hurricane Irene was bearing down on my house while I was in Rwanda.  Amazingly, I was able to get home as scheduled.  I arrived home just after Irene passed through—3 p.m. Sunday, August 28.  Fortunately, Irene wasn’t much of a hurricane in Hampton Roads.  Easy for me to say.  I wasn’t there.  My family took care of mopping up the water that blew through our wall.  I sawed up the downed tree.  We all are suffering the aftermath of no power.  But we thank God it didn’t do any more damage than that.