When You Are #2 You Need to Try Harder

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Had an interesting encounter at Tigo, the second largest cell phone company in Rwanda, today. In the cell phone business in Rwanda, Tigo is to MTN as Avis was to Hertz in the U.S.—a distant #2. Tigo is the up and comer—energetic, edgy, ambitious, but also chaotic.

They dropped the ball on our invitation to the Leadership and Customer Service Seminar we are doing for big companies next week. Dona and I decided to give it one more try with a personal visit, because we want to have representation from as many of Rwanda’s top companies as possible. We met the new HR Director—so new that he didn’t even have a business card. He hadn’t heard about the seminar, but after checking said they definitely wanted to come. I told him that we could no longer honor our invitation to bring 5-10 of their executives, but we would open up two places for them.

MTN is sending twelve.

A picture is worth...

 Scenes from Kigali, Rwanda

Kigali International Airport

  

Union Trade Centre is the center of downtown. 
It has stores, Bourbon Coffee, banks, and
Nakumatt, Kenya's version of Wal-mart

 

Solace Ministries:  the tall building has the dining room on the
ground floor and rooms above.  The building in the foreground
has offices, a worship center and our several rooms for guests.

John, Jason and our other partners stay at the Solace Guesthouse when they are in Kigali working with the Business Development Center.

Worship team at Solace Ministries' church service

Guests from Wisconsin at Solace worship

John Mulford (center) with Dan O’Bryan and Gordon Schrank,
Chick fil A operators visiting the BDC to teach, advise, & consult

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Solace Ministries was established in 1995 as a way to comfort widows and orphans who had endured the great tragedies of the 1994 genocide in which over 1 million people were murdered.

heading for Rwanda!

The last few weeks have been non-stop, as John and Jason have been preparing to leave for Rwanda and Hanisha and I doing our best to keep up! It's exciting to see how the Lord has opened the door for us to do entrepreneurship training there.

The first class is on August 23! Check out the new website for the Center in Rwanda: http://www.bdcrwanda.com/. What do you think?

Tea with The Economist: Glen Hubbard on international aid

Institutions that support local businesses are what works to help developing economies, says Glen Hubbard, Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He sees the Marshall Plan as a prototype for restarting Africa's once vibrant local business culture. Watch the interview or view other topics on economist.com.

Haiti

My last post was nothing but a link... I was running out to catch a ride but wanted to at least provide a list of organizations through which people could give to relief work in Haiti.

Partners Worldwide sent out an email on the weekend regarding their work in Haiti; here is the text:

Since Tuesday, we have all grieved while hearing reports of the pain and suffering in Haiti. The first 72 hours are critical after an emergency and we are very thankful for the skilled disaster response teams who are working around the clock to meet as many immediate needs as possible.

Leveraging the strengths of our network, Partners Worldwide has established the Haiti Business Recovery Fund. Through our Haitian business partners, we have identified urgent needs that can be met by skilled professionals to help restore and rebuild local businesses that supply critical goods such as clean water, food, medical supplies and temporary housing.

Your contribution will go directly to Haiti Business Recovery and will help to lay the foundation for long-term development and lasting restoration. The Partners Worldwide network is made up of passionate and skilled business professionals so please consider how your experience can make a difference in Haiti.


Your continued prayers, encouragement and financial contributions are deeply appreciated. (Click here to give through Partners Worldwide.)

email: info@partnersworldwide.org
phone: (616) 818-4900
web: http://www.partnersworldwide.org

Supporting development in Mongolia

The work ADRA * is doing in Mongolia is exciting, including a business component, and I wanted to share it here. Not quite kingdom business, at least not explicitly, but certainly kingdom work. Enjoy!

*The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) was initiated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The basis for its existence, its reason for being, is to follow Christ’s example by being a voice for, serving, and partnering with those in need.

ADRA seeks to identify and address social injustice and deprivation in developing countries. The agency’s work seeks to improve the quality of life of those in need. ADRA invests in the potential of these individuals through community development initiatives targeting Food Security, Economic Development, Primary Health and Basic Education. ADRA’s emergency management initiatives provide aid to disaster survivors.

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency Canada (ADRA Canada) is an independent humanitarian agency established by the Seventh-day Adventist Church whose mission is to empower the poor around the world and in Canada with the resources, skills and opportunities to live a better life with dignity and hope. Our vision is to achieve a world without poverty.

Connectivity for Africa?

by Jason Benedict ⋅ September 2, 2008

Finally, we are beginning to see a decrease in broadband prices for parts of Africa, and it looks like we can be hopeful about greater and cheaper connectivity in the future. Retail rates for 512kbps are now down in the $90 - $200 USD range[1] in certain countries, and while this is still outrageously expensive, it marks progress. Furthermore, there are currently at least 10 major fiber projects going on in Africa, and several of these are scheduled for completion in the next couple of years. What this means is that Africa will finally be connected to the rest of the world with affordable internet. In fact some are even projecting a glut of bandwidth[2].

The story of broadband in Africa is basically one of low connectivity, high prices and monopoly. Until now the only options for connectivity have been expensive satellite, and the SAT3/WASC/SAFE monopoly (SAT3/SAFE for short). Essentially, SAT3 connects Portugal to West Africa and on to South Africa where it connects to SAFE and then Asia. Some of the current reductions in price are due to a loosening of the SAT3 monopoly over the last year. SAT3 and SAFE have a capacity of 120Gbps and 130Gbps respectively. When other cables come online Africa’s connectivity will be measured not in gigabits but terabits.

Some Projects to Watch:

SEACOM – To link RSA, Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, India and Europe. Expected to be online in 2009.
GLO 1 – To link Nigeria and other West African Investors to Portugal. Expected to be online the by the end of 2009.
EASSy – To link South Africa, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and the Sudan. Projected to be online in 2010.

The kind of connectivity we are describing here is essential to economic development on the continent. It appears that the Sub-Saharan regions with the most connectivity will be West Africa, South Africa and East Africa. This should open up a host of economic and educational opportunities. Sectors to watch will be ICT, Business Process Outsourcing, professional and technical services, medicine, finance, education and transportation.

The Kingdom impact of greater connectivity for Africa is largely dependent on our vision and the initiative that we take now. The benefits of economic development seem obvious. It seems like there will be BAM opportunities in the sectors mentioned. Additionally, this kind of progress will move people around, and these people movements will create opportunities for the Gospel. There could be dramatic shifts in personnel location and training dynamics with all kinds of strategy implications for each.

Jason is a strategist with the Regent Center for Entrepreneurship. He is also a contributing editor with Momentum Magazine (where this is also published) and serves as a missionary with Calvary International. He has written a book on business as mission titled Eden Inc.


[1] Africa Broadband Price Cuts - Retrieved: 09/02/08

[2] Six Submarine Cable Projects Not Watertight – Retrieved: 09/02/08