Week #2

By Nicole Francis

GLOBASE Ghana has been such an exciting and rich learning environment thus far….and it is only class 2!! Today, I felt that the highlights of the session were our visitor from Ghana and the international business discussion. Bernard, the amazing musician, led an interactive session where he introduced us to traditional Ghanaian and African instruments. He played us a song that we were able to sing a long to and participate by clapping and singing! A great time was had by all J One thing that I took away was the meaning of a Ghanaian symbol that is extremely popular and meaningful, it is called the Adinkra, and I have seen it as tattoos to earring designs at Emefa Jewellery. I feel the music helped our class to experience the culture up close and personal.

The International Business discussion was also helpful in that it allowed the four teams to take some time to think about how to effectively communicate with our clients, by understanding that the data collection process will require some creativity and leniency. We, as a group, pinpointed some areas that we anticipated difficulty and worked on contingency plans that would help us to work around them. GLOBASE Ghana just keeps getting better. I look forward to the weeks to come.

Week #1

By Liesel Mertes

We all returned safely from our three-week break, ready to face the craziness of internship season. Thoughts of business formal suits, CAR statements, and networking tips are at the forefront of everyone’s mind. So, walking into the Ghana GLOBASE class was a dramatic shift during the first week back at Kelley.

During this first class session, the reality of our project and upcoming trip began to sink in. One of the second years shared details regarding visas and vaccinations…yes, we would be traveling halfway around the world to a place where foreign sounding afflictions like yellow fever still lurked.

The “otherness” of Ghana was also revealed in the presentation of Professor Roberto Garcia, who gave an excellent talk on communicating successfully in cross-cultural environments. I especially resonated with his presentation, reflecting on the mistakes I made communicating with my Kenyan colleagues during a previous job in Nairobi.

Yet, in spite of the cultural and physical barriers that divide us, it was exciting to think about the common ties we would establish through our consulting relationships with Ghanaian clients. Right now, Gladys of All Pure Nature is just a name on a piece of paper. However, by the end of the course, she will be an in-the-flesh woman who (I hope) I have come to like. I will know her house, her neighborhood, perhaps even have shared some of her favorite Ghanaian dishes.

Our first session was one full of anticipation: anticipation for all that is to unfold over the next BUSY seven weeks.

Globase Ghana Incoming Students Welcome Discussion

The welcome discussion for Globase Ghana incoming students was successfully held on Nov 5th 2010. The main purposes for this discussion are:
1. Develop closer relationships among consulting team students, student leadership team, and faculty team.
2. Build engery, excitement, and enthusiasm for the incoming consulting team students
3. Enrich students with Ghana culture and other basic knowledge.

The Disucssion lasted for 2 and a half hour from 5:00pm to 7:30pm on Friday at the Institute of International Business, and includes section such as: Pictionary, Ghana Trivia Question, Human Knot, Match and Eat, Two Truth and A Lie etc. Students get excited about the coming semester Globase Ghana, and also got the chance to meet each other.

Listen to Faculty Leader, Sheri Fella, discuss her thoughts on GLOBASE Ghana

GLOBASE Ghana Video from July 2010 Travels

Reflections on Ghana

Our final partner meeting in Accra took place at the headquarters of West Africa Trade Hub. Their mission is to build market linkages, bringing buyers and producers together. The team at West Africa Trade Hub met us with great enthusiasm for their own mission and for a potential partnership with the Kelley MBA Global Business and Social Enterprise (GLOBASE) team. West Africa Trade Hub works with people to improve transport, access to finance, business environment and ICT to make West African businesses more competitive. Currently, they're working with six sectors: apparel, cashews, fish & seafood, home decor & accessories, shea, and specialty foods. As they shared during our site visit, Trade Hub recently engaged in a gap analysis analyzing the challenges of implementation of ECOWAS protocols on the free movement of people, goods and transport in West Africa and included a few insights from that study in a recent newsletter.

As I reflect on my March and June visits to Ghana, I consider myself extremely lucky. It's been a privilege to travel and learn alongside Kelley School of Business faculty scholars, staff and students, to push my personal limits, and challenge what I know, or thought I knew, about the global economy.

The March trip to Accra with the Kelley School of Business Undergraduate Emerging Economies class proved to be an excellent introduction to the business and cultural nuances of a developing country and its economy. Meetings with The Ghana Cocoa Board, Cummins-Ghana, SEND-Ghana (an NGO that focuses on poverty-related research), and others, provided first-hand exposure to food, culture, climate, and diverse viewpoints regarding the advantages and complexities of living and conducting business in West Africa.

The June trip was a full-immersion experience. Although I find the diversity of thought and energy of a big group stimulating, there is real benefit to traveling with a small troop. Numbering just three, the agility of the Globase Ghana Leadership Team allowed us to be flexible with our schedule and take full advantage of the introductions and gracious hospitality provided while in-country. In essence, our ability to build meaningful relationships with potential partners was greatly enhanced. And isn't that really the foundation of global business?

Thank you to all those who hosted us during our travels. We're so glad to have met you and look forward to working with you in the future!

There's no place like the marketplace in Accra . . .

Thanks to our new friends at Kingsbridge, we were able to spend several hours at a local marketplace speaking with entrepreneurs who are clients of Kingsbridge. What a fantastic learning opportunity!

Walking through a local marketplace in Accra is an experience that overwhelms all of your senses. The chatter of the exchanges taking place to sounds from the live animals being sold to the hustle and bustle of product movement causes your hearing to be the first sense overloaded. All of the buzz creates an energy as soon as you step into the market, and of course the sights of the marketplace are equally energizing. As you look at the brightly colored garments, freshly picked vegetables and fruits, and yes - even snails crawling out of their bin - your eyes struggle to take it all in. And let's not forget the smells - some more pleasant than others thanks to the heat. I do have to say that the meat market was especially unforgettable and to understand how unforgettable, you really have to experience it in person.

Understanding what is bought and sold in the local markets, and how it is sold was critical for our Globase team. We were able to spend time with a shoe cobbler, a dressmaker, a chicken farmer, a restaurant & bar owner, and a phone & laptop salesman. Each entrepreneur was engaging, open, and faced varying challenges and opportunities in order to grow their business. It was very exciting to engage with each of them and understand how our MBA students could impact the growth and prosperity of their business.

There's no place like a marketplace in Accra, and I'm so thankful to Manasseh and his team for sharing such a rich learning experience with us . . . I can't wait to go back in March!