Tuesday 9/13
I spent the morning doing facilitator training with visiting executives Michael and Janet Shultz from Australia. The gateway into the Rwanda Business Development Center is a 14-week entrepreneurship training program that uses an action-based learning model. As such, the content in the training is presented in a discussion format rather than through lecture. Our facilitators (we prefer this title to “instructors”) learn how to create a learning environment where they can draw the right conclusions out of the learners. We want the members of the cohort to discover the learning objectives rather than merely have a facilitator tell them. This approach becomes second nature with time, but often feels awkward at first.
The training tonight focused on marketing research. The following is an example of how we approach the subject: The facilitator asks the entrepreneurs a question, in this case "Why is research important?" Heor she then captures some of the most promising answers on a whiteboard. A follow up question could be, "What kinds of things should an entrepreneur research?" The facilitator has a diagram in mind: a stick figure entrepreneur with a couple of thought bubbles. As the learners call out things that should be researched the facilitator begins organizing them in one or the other bubble. The facilitator knows that all the good answers will fall under one of three categories: customer, industry or economic trends. Through a series of leading questions and clarifying questions the facilitator helps the class build a diagram that essentially shows – the entrepreneur must conduct research to be aware of what is happening in his or her industry, to know his or her customer and to understand the larger trends that are impacting both (above the bubbles). This class discussion would then be followed by a small group discussion where we ask the entrepreneurs to analyze their own business concept and identify areas they need to do more research in light of this diagram.
Wednesday 9/14
Today we had a working lunch focused on an insurance business startup that some of our graduates, as well as current learners are working on. Visiting executive Dale Fenwick, who works in the insurance industry, has been able to help them think through their business model and their approach to capitalization and come up with some out of the box approaches that could lessen their capitalization burden and help them with speed to market.
Visiting executives have a huge impact on our entrepreneurs, through their expertise (depth) and their general business experience (breadth). The payoff for VEs is that helping in this way is extremely gratifying and often downright fun. Furthermore, this coaching/mentoring environment provides ample opportunities for VEs to have meaningful conversations, share testimonies of God’s goodness and pray with the entrepreneurs. As I write this I am thinking of all the Christian business people who could come for a week or two and bless the socks off this nation by just spending time with entrepreneurs and sharing their real world business experience.
Class tonight is focused on segmentation, targeting and positioning. I am looking forward to this, but missing family. Especially my son Mark who turns 11 today. Happy Birthday Mark!
I spent the morning doing facilitator training with visiting executives Michael and Janet Shultz from Australia. The gateway into the Rwanda Business Development Center is a 14-week entrepreneurship training program that uses an action-based learning model. As such, the content in the training is presented in a discussion format rather than through lecture. Our facilitators (we prefer this title to “instructors”) learn how to create a learning environment where they can draw the right conclusions out of the learners. We want the members of the cohort to discover the learning objectives rather than merely have a facilitator tell them. This approach becomes second nature with time, but often feels awkward at first.
The training tonight focused on marketing research. The following is an example of how we approach the subject: The facilitator asks the entrepreneurs a question, in this case "Why is research important?" Heor she then captures some of the most promising answers on a whiteboard. A follow up question could be, "What kinds of things should an entrepreneur research?" The facilitator has a diagram in mind: a stick figure entrepreneur with a couple of thought bubbles. As the learners call out things that should be researched the facilitator begins organizing them in one or the other bubble. The facilitator knows that all the good answers will fall under one of three categories: customer, industry or economic trends. Through a series of leading questions and clarifying questions the facilitator helps the class build a diagram that essentially shows – the entrepreneur must conduct research to be aware of what is happening in his or her industry, to know his or her customer and to understand the larger trends that are impacting both (above the bubbles). This class discussion would then be followed by a small group discussion where we ask the entrepreneurs to analyze their own business concept and identify areas they need to do more research in light of this diagram.
Wednesday 9/14
Today we had a working lunch focused on an insurance business startup that some of our graduates, as well as current learners are working on. Visiting executive Dale Fenwick, who works in the insurance industry, has been able to help them think through their business model and their approach to capitalization and come up with some out of the box approaches that could lessen their capitalization burden and help them with speed to market.
Visiting executives have a huge impact on our entrepreneurs, through their expertise (depth) and their general business experience (breadth). The payoff for VEs is that helping in this way is extremely gratifying and often downright fun. Furthermore, this coaching/mentoring environment provides ample opportunities for VEs to have meaningful conversations, share testimonies of God’s goodness and pray with the entrepreneurs. As I write this I am thinking of all the Christian business people who could come for a week or two and bless the socks off this nation by just spending time with entrepreneurs and sharing their real world business experience.
Class tonight is focused on segmentation, targeting and positioning. I am looking forward to this, but missing family. Especially my son Mark who turns 11 today. Happy Birthday Mark!
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