A Summer in Uganda

 

April 2011

Jean-David Oladele, Yale SOM 2011, and Fabrice Ouandji, Ross 2011, spent their summer in Uganda, Africa, working for a US-based non-profit. In doing so, they learned about working abroad and about business opportunities in other places of the world.

Project Description

After the first year of our MBA program, we joined Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a non-profit research organization that specializes in evaluating international development solutions and works to scale up successful programs.

IPA had traditionally focused on areas such as vocational training, financial literacy, and savings programs, and wanted to learn more about Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries.

Under the SME Initiative, we set out to help IPA understand the challenges and barriers to growth for small businesses in Uganda, and to determine whether management consulting could have an impact on small businesses. IPA also had other MBA students working in Malawi and Peru under its SME initiative.

"I saw this as a terrific opportunity to pursue my interest in management consulting, while also leveraging my business training and my personal roots to make an impact. 

I was born and raised in Cameroon. I was even more excited when I found out that I would be working with a fellow Consortium member!" --  Fabrice Ouandji

Our Experience in Kampala, Uganda

Prior to getting to Kampala, we did our research to understand the dos and don'ts of the business environment.

Nevertheless, we were still pretty surprised that some of the things that we considered standard practice in the United States turned out be ineffective during our time in Kampala. 

Our assignment for IPA required that we meet and interview business owners, industry associations and government officials.

After sending numerous email and voicemail messages requesting meetings, we learned that it is often more effective to personally visit an individual's office to schedule a meeting for a later time. 

Email and voicemail messages were not returned quickly often because most of the individuals were too busy dealing with urgent issues at hand and you had to literally be in front of them to get their attention. 

In addition to general practices there were also cultural practices permeating the business environment that took some time to get adjusted to.

"I tend to get a bit excited when talking to entrepreneurs about their unique challenges and how they have found ways to overcome them. Imagine my surprise when I found out that my tone of voice was considered too loud and rude in the Ugandan business context!