Week #6

By Hemali Mehta

It’s hard to believe that we will be in Ghana in less than a month! We are all very excited but have much to do beforehand. This week, for example, our client deliverable is due. As part of the deliverable, we must define our project plan – including the who, what , and how’s that surround our strategy.

Luckily, we have had some amazing speakers in the past couple weeks to give us better perspective on the economic and political conditions in Ghana, which also included how to conduct business with the Ghanaian entrepreneurs. It is safe to say that business meetings in Ghana will be quite different than we have experienced here in the U.S!

In the weeks leading to our country visit, each of the Globase Ghana teams will be incredibly busy conducting final research, addressing assumptions, and creating recommendations for clients. Although there will be a lot of work to do, we all look forward to the warm weather, exploring the Ghanaian culture, and making a positive difference for our clients!

Week #5

By Tyler Kirsh

This Globase Ghana session was great! We were honored to have members from the Cummin’s team and a professor from the African Studies Department come speak to us about Ghana and the culture. It is always great to hear different perspectives. We are really getting to know how things work in Ghana, well the best we can without ACTUALLY going there.

Stephen Aryee, Henry Malm & Patrick Djan-Sampson, from Cummins, created a presentation for us about the business etiquette of Ghana. They did a great job explaining the nuances of business and had a great understanding of the differences of Ghanaian work etiquette and American work etiquette. This will in very valuable to the class during our time in Ghana, and even potential future work overseas.

Dr. Samuel Obeng, the Director at the African Studies Department here at IU, had a great discussion with us about the culture of Ghana. He had some great stories! He told us about his time as a teacher in Ghana, and his father. He talked about the government and the people. It was very exciting to hear all about the people and the life there. He made it very hard to be patient; the anticipation is mounting to get to Ghana!
All in all, this was a great week!

Week #4

By Debbie Papiemik

The ice in indiana is definitely making me yearn for the hot temperatures of Ghana. But even though the ice kept us from attending class this week, it didn't keep the Kingsbridge team from being productive. On Tuesday, we finalized our project plan and project scope, and on Thursday, we brainstormed like crazy about what our client deliverable will look like. Our project plan and project sponsor, Raphael Tyson, even ventured out in the icy weather to meet with us in person about the project. Our team is so lucky to have Raphael here in Bloomington for the three weeks! It's definitely easier to get to know Raphael and what Kingsbridge is about in person than over the phone or Skype.

Our project is really starting to take shape, but we are still narrowing down our scope of work to something manageable for our team to deliver. Given taht we leave for Ghana in just four short weeks, we need to do as much as possible before our departure, so that we only have very specific tasks left for our limited working time in-country. Our frequent conversations with Raphael have helped us tremendously in sifting through our ideas. It seems like every time we talk to him we come away with a clearer picture of what Kingsbridge's efforts in Ghana entail and how we can provide them with insight. If our team stays focus on what is actionable for Kingsbridge, then we will be on the right track.

Week #3

By Aaron Gutting

Every week in GLOBASE just seems to get better, and this week the excitement for Ghana really built with client visits to Bloomington. Kelley arranged for Bridget Darko from Aid to Artisans and Raphael Tyson and Manasseh Portuphy from Kingsbridge to come to Bloomington for a week and meet with students and faculty. I’ll talk more about their visit in a moment but first want to talk about the week #3 class. The session featured a lecture by Management Professor Matt Semadeni. Professor Semadeni challenged the GLOBASE teams to alter our approach to our projects and take the perspective not of a manager but of an entrepreneur. He emphasized that we need to consider our clients motivations beyond just pure business goals and consider what is really driving them.

We were able to immediately put this advice to good use in our meetings with our clients. My group was able to meet with Bridget, discuss her organization and scope out our project. We also had the chance to meet with Raphael and Manasseh. We were able to bounce ideas off them and get a sense for some of the challenges we will face once we get to Ghana. Finally – a highlight was that we had the chance to go to dinner a couple of times with Bridget, Raphael, and Manasseh. It was great to take a break from project work and actually get to know the people we’re working with. It has made everyone feel more comfortable as we start the heavy work on our project and will make some of the adjustments once we arrive in Ghana a little bit easier.