Business in Action

We have been a bit behind on the blog because there has been so much action happening in so little time.

So, we have completed the introduction, marketing and financial workshops. Yesterday it was Eiston and my turn to teach about the Operational Plan. In the morning, we had an unexpected speaker and that threw us off schedule slightly. We were flying through the Production Techniques, Quality Control, Customer Service, Supplier Selection and Operation Location and Hours section as we really made it into a combination review of the previous workshops. It was really funny because… Well, Eiston is a very action-action-action go-go-go type of person, so he speaks really fast. In the workshop, especially because we were pressed for time, he was speaking faster and faster and faster like how speed accelerates as one rolls down the hill. I was quite stressed out by that time because I cannot quite keep up with him so I finally told him to slow down in front of the class, and we had a good laugh. Sorry to have to build the humour upon you, Eiston.

Anyway, it took us a lot of time and effort to explain the significance of inventory control and cash flow, and how to keep track of it. The youths really understood the concept, but to put it into a standard North American accounting spreadsheet - the layout was quite foreign and confusing to them. Anyway, by the end of the morning session, I was totally losing my voice and my throat was going to crack. I feel like I’ve never talked so much in such a couple hours of my life.

In the afternoon, we did a business simulation exercise, and I’m very glad that the youths enjoyed it so much and had so much to take out of the exercise. How the exercise was organized is that we have two competing companies who are to make greeting cards (e.g. Hallmark vs. Carlton Cards) and the youths played the role of employer and employees in those two companies. The UBC Team played the customers, banker (to give out a $500 loan and to collect $60 interest at the end of each production round), equipment supplier (to sell equipment and materials e.g. scissors and papers to produce the cards). Like in real life, the companies always think the customers are too picky. What happened was that they just produced cards at really poor quality and sold it to us at huge discounts - which is worse than not selling because they are losing money with each card. It was really interesting to watch how the team behaves and how the CEO of each team behaves so differently and everybody was so into the situation - it was not just a game to the youths. I was one of the customers and someone started to yell at me, and obviously, I did not give them any business. Although one team had an organizational structure advantage over the other, they still lost by a huge margin because of poor leadership. This not only brought business to reality for the youths, but watching them brought a lot of reality to my own life and helped me reflect on how I work with my team members in different organizations. We did debrief this morning and they really had a lot to take out of this simulation, and I am very happy that all the work we’ve put into this workshop and simulation paid off. I really have to thank the entire team to help us run this because we could not have done this on our own and without the feedback of this exercise before we did this.

We have been facing some problems though. The business plan is really long and difficult to write in such a short time, and we really have to push to get things done… We are quite exhausted with the one-on-one sessions too. For next year, I think it is important that we just shorten the amount of homework that we hand out and just simplify the business plan template in general to make things more effective.

Some fun stuff… Two nights ago a couple of us went to a Slam Poetry performance. What this was is that there is an open mike where people read out their poems in very creative ways, including singing, dancing, and slow motion Kung Fu. It was quite an eye opener because the quality of poems is on par with students at UBC. I am not even half as creative or my language is half as good as the performers there. Last night, we went to an authentic Ethiopian dinner. Well, I don’t eat spicy food at all, but since I came to Africa, I just have to deal with the spicy food, and I think I am getting quite good at it. Ethiopian dinner was fun because there are these mega plates with injera (a type of sour bread) on which you eat your meat/vegetables with. Nancy also got her 2nd proposal today…

Other fun stuff… Well, all of us except for Nancy and Brittany decided to go visit Tanzania after our program is over. We will enjoy the weekend at Zanzibar together, and Eiston and I will go on safari and see the crater. This is all so exciting, but African time is quite the challenge for us to get organized and just get our chores done… on top of our super tight schedule.

So, this has been what’s happening so far… I’m really enjoying my stay here. It’s really nice to wake up and just throw on a t-shirt whereas in Vancouver, I spend a significant amount of time deciding what to wear everyday I wake up. I love Africa.

Posted by Josephine Wong