Archive for the ‘Shinu Thomas’ Category

Living in a cushy ex-pat villa can be nice, but it can also be deceptive. The security gates may keep thieves out, but they in turn rob you of the realities of Ghanaian life.  Don’t get me wrong, life here can be harsh: abandoned houses with squatter families are around every corner, and the air in the cities is so thick with soot and grime that you feel you’ve added a layer to your skin and taken a year off your life. But a few Sundays ago I had the rare opportunity to walk right into the alternative reality of Ghanaian life: the magic of its culture and people.

Dying to escape the ignorant bliss we had created inside the walls of our villa, I called up a friend on a whim and we decided to meet at a local coffee shop. Grateful to be doing something, but not expecting anything wild to come up, we sat chatting casually until we got a phone call from his friend who sounded like he was directly in the midst of a carnival – so of course we asked if we could join the party. A three cedi cab ride later we arrived at a huge crowd of people standing in a circle with the sound of pounding drums, clapping hands, cowbells clanging and female wails beckoning from the middle. We stood on tiptoes to peer in and through broken communication we came to find out that the chief of the local village was celebrating the birth of his twin boys and so had invited the chiefs from all around to this grand celebration. It’s hard to explain the energy that was erupting from that circle. Dozens of men in traditional garb pounding on every type of African drum with other instruments chiming in and the group in the center performing a dance that told a story. We stood in the back in awe – until all of a sudden we were recognized as obrunis and all eyes were on my friend and I. Suddenly we were pulled forward through the crowd and were given front row seats to the show; literally, they insisted on seats even though everyone else was standing. We were even moved to the head stage next to the chiefs! This went on for some time, with magic tricks and fire eating and members of the crowd brought out to dance – an incredible experience. Soon it was wrapping up and we met with the friend who had originally notified us of the celebration. He’s a professional photographer and was personally requested by the chief to photograph the event, so he needed to return to the chief’s house to pick up some of his belongings. As a group, we were escorted to the village center – how amazing!! The village itself was a site to see, but to make a long story short, we were invited as guests of honor by the chief so we watched what seemed like various soothsayers, village shamans and bards telling stories through song, singing praises to the chief and telling peoples’ fortunes.  With the help of a village translator, the chief expressed his gratitude to our friend the photographer for helping to share his story. I later learned that the village we were in was a tribe from the north that transplanted to Accra, but was unrecognized by the government and therefore an ignored population.

Throughout the experience, the unmistakeable dichotomy of modernity in the midst of development (or lack thereof) was ever present. Cell phones with the familiar Nokia ringtone going off while the soothsayer is expelling truths, jeans and cowboy boots to match tops and hats made of animal skin and goats bladder, families huddled around the television watching soccer while rice cooked over a barrel fire made with twigs. Developing countries are rich with these juxtapositions and it’s exactly what makes doing business in these environments so challenging but also the source of so much innovation.  As we continue our project, our challenge is to accept the environment we are in, so that we can identify the non-traditional opportunities that emerge. Information is scarce, realistic forecasting measures are weak, but if we can understand our client and create a tool that reflects the voids he faces, we can be the catalyst for better decision making.

When we arrived last week in Ghana our team had prepped enough to know what it was we didn’t know. That way we could immediately start gathering the information necessary to develop a set of deliverables that would best meet the needs of our client. So we got on site, did just that, and showed up at our meeting last Friday confidant in our proposed deliverables that we were hoping to get our client’s sign off on. But of course, as a rule of thumb in consulting, we should have expected the unexpected. Despite discovering that PALMS’s moringa-focused business was still in the earliest stages of infancy and deserved our full consulting attention to get it off the ground, our client was very focused on having us work on developing a business plan for biodiesel production – something that almost seemed like a pipe dream from our vantage point.  As our team sat around (admittedly a little frustrated and confused) collecting ourselves to determine how to go forward, I was hit by a wave of inspiration and excitement when I recalled something I had learned in Professor Ramaswamy’s Global Strategy class – one of the foundational principles of operating in an emerging market is long term vision. This was exciting for two reasons: 1) the ideas on the table were starting to make sense and 2) I could breathe a quasi sigh of relief that the tuition money was starting to pay off.

In a western environment where business plans are developed to attract investors who want an exit in two years or less and a payback period less than 12 months, planning is linear, we focus on the most immediate need and speed to market is king. These things are important in the emerging market space, but the institutional voids are many and barriers are high, so you have to be ready to dig your heels in and hold on for the ride – no matter how long it may be. Planning is systemic, you need to be open to the whole picture in order to plant seeds well ahead of time (literally and figuratively in this case) to reap harvest even years down the line. In Ghana, where savings and credit culture is only budding (both indicators of longer term thinking), our lead client, Pastor Brenyah, is truly a visionary.

As a result, we’re now on a massive learning curve studying the worldwide market for biofuels and creating a forecasting model that can be used as a tool to guide decision making for this plant in the future. As an alternative energy enthusiast, I’m incredibly excited to watch our project take shape.

On a more personal note, my cultural experience in Ghana thus far has proven to be equally rewarding. My excitement for riding tro tros, taking the back roads, and seeing Ghana for everything it is has led to some incredible experiences. I think it’s fair to say I’ve adjusted quickly and, as I’m probably the most open to experiencing life as a local out of my colleagues, I’ve had the opportunity to venture out on my own and experience the incredible street nightlife in downtown Accra, attend a very lively local church service with some of the hotel staff, make friends with school children on my morning runs and of course learn a little bit of Twi and Ga from every taxi driver. More on the fun stuff next time.