Ghana Reflection

By Rob Herrick

On Saturday, March 19th the GLOBASE student consultant teams and staff returned to Bloomington after two weeks of intensive work in Ghana and seven weeks of pre-trip coursework and preparation. Although this was a relatively short time, the clients expressed that all of our work dissecting their challenging business problems and formulating strategies had produced very valuable results. In many cases, they thought we had accomplished far more than they had anticipated was possible. This feedback from the clients was of course very gratifying for all of the consulting teams not just for the fact that we had spent so much time and energy on the projects. It was also gratifying because we had learned a great deal about the importance of taking on a clients’ problems as if they were our own, especially as we had immersed ourselves more into the Ghanaian culture and gotten to know our clients on both professional and personal levels.

For our team, who worked with Kingsbridge Corporate Services Limited, we had the chance during our field research to meet our client’s clients and business partners who our suggestions would directly impact. For example, my teammate Jimmy Bettcher and I went with Kingsbridge management to do a pre-loan on-site assessment at an elementary school in Accra. There we had the opportunity to see the operations of local businesswoman who ran the school meal program and was seeking a bridge loan to cover inventory costs until she received government reimbursements. Our entire consulting team also had the chance to meet Daniel, a very bright business partner of Kingsbridge who does susu collection (traditional Ghanaian small savings system) and provides basic business skills training to local small shop owners. These experiences both informed our recommendations for Kingsbridge and helped us understand the connection the organization held with its stakeholders and the real impact we would have on their businesses and lives.

Moving forward will involve monitoring and evaluation to periodically check in to see how things are progressing. From my own previous professional experiences doing project development in emerging markets, there can often be a lot of enthusiasm for new ideas, which is great and needed, but might not be followed by measured implementation. Our team has already planned to review our final deliverable one last time in the next week or two with the client. We also intend to touch base with Kingsbridge every few months to catch up with each other and see how things are going. Maintaining the relationships built over this inaugural program and into next year’s work will help ensure accountability for the success of Kingsbridge’s work and of the GLOBASE Ghana program.

It was truly an honor to be involved in this first year of GLOBASE Ghana and pleasure to get to know our clients in Ghana.