Zoe L

Breeding the Next Generation of Female Leaders

Occasionally the WSJ is peppered with articles about the percentage of women in b-school and as I chat with prospective students, I realize that it's definitely an important issue to address. A fellow Georgetown Graduate Women in Business board member recently circulated an article highlighting the gender percentages at the top 25 business schools and Georgetown is in line with other programs listed. Yes, 27% women but we have fun. : )

 

Cramming dumplings into the mouths of competitors

 

We also get down to business. I was excited to see two M12s visit Georgetown to speak about how they obtained their CSR positions through conference networking and self confidence. Becca (pictured on the right) will likely be the next CEO of Applegate Farms and it was great to hear her state that as her longtime goal.

But we also enjoy ourselves at Kegs. Betsy and Ashley brought their own cup to help Net Impact reduce plastic waste at a recent Thirsty Thursday event.

Recently, GWiB had the pleasure of hosting Bank of Montreal (BMO) to encourage women to pursue iBanking. I have to say, meeting with these senior bankers almost made me wish I was pursuing that career track... One clear takeaway from that soft recruiting event was this, "In a room full of men, people will definitely notice you. Take advantage of how you stand out for your benefit."

So Much For the Second Year Blues

I definitely started the school year in a very relaxed state of mind while the 1st years were in a frenzy having already completed at least two courses - including final exams - I repeat FINALS already!?!

However, the frenzy of social and student organization activities soon took over my calendar and that is the reason for this looong delay between posts, for which I apologize. But rest assured, I am thoroughly enjoying myself in b-school and I'm thrilled that the experience is getting better with each moment. So here are highlights of the first two weeks of school. : )

Week 1: 
Lunchtime BBQ with words from Dean Romanelli and student government president and EVP. The weather was HOOOOT but it was nice to mingle and catch-up on the patio.

My friend Erika, listening intently... 

The Student Org fair occurred Thursday afternoon. Basically I stood around a table, talking to prospective Net Impact members imploring me them to give me membership dues and also encouraging them to attend the national Net Impact conference in Baltimore. 

Week 2:
I connected with more first years, especially during a morning "Inside the Internship" session that was formatted as a career fair with tables set up by industry and I, of course, represented international development. I felt like I had made something of myself when one student mentioned she only came to the fair to meet me because of my internship through the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Another one told me one of the career advisors said I was "well rounded".  I have to say, one of the perks of being a second year, is knowing that first years respect you and look to you for sage advice...at least for now.

The week ended with a Gray cohort mixer that ended up being attended by students from other cohorts. It was fun to watch the first years take on second years and I'm looking forward to a repeat in the coming weeks.

First and Second Years Mixing at Rhino Bar in Georgetown

Getting Ready for School

I remember Professor Comer once saying that by the time he taught our second finance core class (in mod 3 of our first year), our excitement for b-school had waned and so it was his job to bring that excitement back. Gotta hand it to the guy, he knew his audience, we were burned out by that point not realizing how harrowing mod 4 would also turn out.

Before I moved to DC in early August for boot camp, orientation, opening residency which preceded the start of classes, I took a month and a half off just to relax and finish that pesky MBA math, btw that's a requirement for matriculation. In that time period, I got really comfortable with doing absolutely nothing. To the point, where I considered just not going to b-school, rest assured, that wasn't a serious thought as I obviously completed a year + an internship.

I remember emailing some second years and asking them how I should prepare for the upcoming first year, they said relax. I kept thinking, yeah but I feel like there's something I should be studying. There probably was. But they were right, the best preparation was to catch up on sleep and take things easy since you'll naturally ease into the hectic pace after school starts. Your body will naturally know to shift gears and you're mental focus will likely sharpen and focus in on what needs to be done.

One thing is clear, there is no need to stress out prematurely. Just enjoy the break so that you can focus on "enjoying" school once it begins.

I can't wait to meet the M14s and Georgetown MBA prospectives.

My idea of relaxing is reading by the pool...yay summer.

Internship Highlights

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog. At some point in Lagos, I was fed up with the slow Internet connection and decided to table updates until I was back in the US. But once I was back, all I wanted to do was take it easy...maybe a little too easy. Regardless I did want to sum up some of my internship highlights.

Through the TEF, the associates and I had learning sessions with:

• Doreo Partners Founder & Managing Director, Kola Masha: Lesson learned - don't eat boiled peanuts, a Lagos street delicacy, because of the harsh chemicals it contains
• Jobberman.com CEO & Founder, Dr. Ayodeji Adewunmi: At the time it was founded, it was Nigeria's only job site, similar to a Monster.com for Nigeria and much needed. I think the concept was very interesting because I had been told that jobs that are advertised are often filled through informal networks vs applicants. 'Deji didn't seem to think that was too much of an issue for Jobberman.
• Verod Capital Management, Danladi Verheijin: The frankness of this presentation was refreshing but also showed the high investment risk in Nigeria. Regardless, I thought it was cool that they own Spinlet and are the head investor in a group of firms building Lagos's first rail line to be completed in 15 years.
• Vanso, Mobile Money with Jason Mycroft & Udochi Nwogu (AMIP '11): We're all familiar with mobile payments (for credit cards) but mobile money involves storing monetary values on cell SIM cards since it's so expensive for the Nigerian Central Bank to print and maintain currency (apparently $4/bill). This was insightful and also a great innovation to target the bottom of the pyramid.
• Echo VC, Eghosha Omoigui - sourced investments for Facebook and LinkedIn and are interested in early stage tech mentorships in Nigeria.
  
  • Given that they were the third VC to visit my company, I'm starting to realize the business interest because there's huge potential for infrastructure development. I'm glad I got to see it in its early stages.

Overall, I came into this summer wondering about applications of business skills for international development and I definitely received it. While the intuition is seemingly obvious, it was helpful to hear someone say "Africa is not going to reached developed nation status through aid grants. Africa needs to encourage business development." I'm not saying that there isn't a need for policy and NGOs, but the public and private sector need to work together and I definitely got a sense of how the private sector can contribute to economic development.

Me with the ccHub staff and techies. : )

Sprint to the finish line begins

My last day of work is August 8th then it's preceded by three days of AMIP closing ceremonies which includes a retreat with all the associates (including those posted outside of Nigeria), cocktails with the advisory board and 2 days of presentations...

All of the associates (I believe there are 28 in total for this session) are required to submit a 10 slide deck detailing our assignments. The top 8 will present to a panel of TEF/Heirs Holdings employees who will narrow the list down to the top 4. The top 4 will present to TEF's advisory board. Then 2 winners will win either the Michael Porter Award for Competitive Strategy or Tony Elumelu Award for Entrepreurship.

Since we're not all presenting, the associates were asked to submit our decks by COB Monday July 30th...naturally, I started my presentation the night before. Also, the house eerily reminded me of nights at the Hariri building, where my classmates and I frantically worked on deliverables for at 3 different classes that always seemed to be due on the same day.

7/29/2012 11:04p...with The Help on in the background, I made an outline on a post-it.

7/29/2012 11:37p - Decided to read Olympic updates on Twitter

7/30/2012 1:28a - I made some progress! Created the title slide!

7/30/2012 2:30a - Bedtime! But at least I'm 40% done!

Naturally, I was hoping to finish the remaining slides at work but of course, my supervisor, feeling the urgency of my pending departure, piled on a long list of tasks. Somehow I managed to squeeze that in between my Monday to d0 list and submitted my deck close to 5p that afternoon.

However, this Friday, I'm required to submit 2 more decks that closeout my 2 assigned ccHub projects, Asa and Efiko. Good thing the Georgetown MBA included courses on comprehensive deck building. ; )

I Wanna Be An Angel VC When I Grow Up

I realize that I should have a clearer idea of my ultimate career goal since  my internship is near completion and I'm about to start my second and final year of the Georgtown MBA program. But I don't and I hate the question "So what are your plans once you graduate?" because I'm still toying around with career possibilities. But I might be one step closer.

A Palo-Alto based tech VC company, Echo VC, came on site since they're prospecting future investees in Lagos. For a majority of this day, they've been listening to pitch teams from ccHub as well as other local incubators. I loved sitting in and listening to the feedback they gave local entrepreneurs because it's been on point with my observations thus far and made me want to become an Angel VC when I graduate in the not too distant future. Not to mention, their feedback wasn't limited to the entrepreneurs themselves, they also turned the lens on my host company, ccHub and questioned their mission statement and operations. What I witnessed today, also reinforced  concepts discussed in b-school that is applicable to all industries and all country markets:

• Presentation is everything, this means:
  
  • Your delivery/your sell/your pitch: You may be really talented, but if you can't sell your product, an investor won't invest in you.
  • Don't spend too much time on the background. Focus on the solution, the product and the business rationale.
• Build credibility - I saw this in 2 ways:
  • Earlier in my internship, I had given feedback that was repeated by Echo VC today. However, being just a lowly MBA with only 1 year of school under my belt, my managers didn't take my comments too seriously nor did I have a champion that could help push my point. However, when delivered from a VC firm with a history of investing in tech ventures in emerging markets, my managers listened. (I won't lie, it was nice to have their validation.)
  • In the VC feedback, they stressed that each of the teams needed to better present their team's credibility. Oftentimes it was buried in the deck or they didn't tell the story of how the idea came together.
• Applicable to women entrepreneurs - don't be afraid to step forward and call yourself the CEO if that really is your role. Marissa Mayer shouldn't be the only one on top. ; )

So why do I want to be an Angel VC? It seems like part of the job entails skills I'm really keen on but it's also skills that I wish all African tech hubs would impart on their entrepreneurs. However I should note, that's not all Angel VCs do. But what I really like about this field is that it seems they (seemingly unknowingly) include a social component in their investment portfolios though it's not always their original intent so you could argue, it's not true social impact. But even if it's intentional or not, it's still creating opportunities.

It was awkward taking photos of the entrepreneurs during their pitches, but here's the boardroom after Echo VC's meeting, so you can at least picture the space. You can see the detritus of our lunch.

However, a friend was able to grab  a shot of the ccHub and TEF staff watching a pitch presentation at TEF's offices the following day. Yay #Africapitalism!

 

Sneak Preview of Gtown's O.B. Course

Intrigued? Hope you were... I employed a MBA skill I learned in one of my 1st year core classes: exclusivity.

In case you were a little slow on the uptake, o.b. stands for organizational behavior and focuses on the people and systems side of corporate operations. Common o.b. career paths include corporate HR (I hear AmEx has a great department and Georgetown is a core recruiting school) and human capital consulting. 

I realized I've rambled a bit in previous posts about organizational behavior as it relates to Africa's human capital challenge. I figured for those unfamiliar with the core concept of o.b., a diagram would be helpful. So I've created, hopefully a short & illustrative post to explain what I ramble about.

First I wold like to give Prof Brooks Holtom credit for the o.b. triangle. He starts every class with a video that exemplifies excellence (often very fun to watch), 3 current headlines contributed by students, then begins the lecture with an image of the o.b. diamond (below) before expanding upon the assigned readings or topics.
 

He uses the diamond to show how each aspect (people, culture, systems & strategy) is integral to business operations but also interlinked to contribute to a highly functional and usually profitable organization.

Quick tip regarding o.b. case papers - your exhibits should always include the o.b. diamond as it relates to the case you're studying whether it's Infosys, JetBlue, Deutsche Telekom, whatever. So thus, I created an o.b. diamond for Africa as a larger entity. This is based on my personal observations from my time here so I apologize in advance if anyone is offended.

So in a very simplified diagram, I've listed out what I perceive as Africa's o.b. problems. I plan on going in detail later, once my internship has concluded and I've had more time to reflect on my experience here. In the mean time, for those of you taking o.b. with Prof Holtom, you're in for a treat.

*If you're interested in an o.b. related career path, I recommend joining the Human Capital and Leadership club -- HCAL for short. HCAL's president is a corporate HR interning at Estée Lauder this summer and she's a great resource.

Georgetown MBA's Net Impact Gold Status Streak Continues!

In all fairness I've known for a few months that Georgetown MBA's Net Impact chapter had been awarded Gold Chapter status (for a 3rd year in a row) ...but it's always exciting when we're honored in the b-school's press release and listed on Net Impact national's website.

Also, registration for the 2012 National Net Impact conference, held in Baltimore this year, is now open. Georgetown is one of the five sponsor schools. Attendees are an even mix of students (undergrads, grads, b-schools and other masters programs) and professionals. For those interested in clean tech and energy, international development, CSR, social impact and nonprofit should definitely attend.

This year, our chapter is planning:

• Social Impact week: Sept 10-14th - each day focuses on a different topic such as impact investing, CSR, health care, ice cream social & a themed Thursday Kegs
• Career Speed Dating with the Georgetown Graduate Net Impact chapter
• Site visits to DC organizations
• Career/conference prep tips
• Much more...

Hope you'll join us!

And now...pictures of our gold status board:

Take 1 - not quite but I love the look on Katie's face (blonde)

Take 2 - A little closer, Erika open your eyes!

Take 3 - Third time's the charm.

<3 our board diversity
1st row: (left) Erika Markgraf - 2012 Conference Chair, Katie Delaney - VP of Communications, Lauren Miller & Tanya Skubiak - VPs of Service Programs
2nd row: (left) Moi - Co-President, Suki Misra - VP of Events, Mallory Moats - VP of Community Events
3rd row: (left) Kilkil Shah - VP of Finance (MSFS/MBA dual degree), Pat Jordan - Co-President, Eric London - VP of Career, Sarah Rosenzweig - VP of Membership
4th row reserved for really tall people: Dominic Cronshaw - VP of Career, Jon Blanchard - 2012 Conference Chair 
[Not pictured: Laura Baker, VP of events & Maureen Kickham, VP of Fundraising]

Follow us on Twitter!

Side note: Executive boards for student orgs are elected in December of your first year and serve for a full calendar year. Georgetown's MBA student services hosts an official transition day at school but usually the process begins once the new leaders are elected.

"From Lagos With Love"

Reflections on doing business in Africa

The quote above was provided by Joseph Orji, Georgetown MBA Candidate 2013

I know the Georgetown's MBA Admissions staff has been planning and hosting the summer "around the world" happy hours in the US, South America and China. But I wish we could host happy hours in all the countries current MBAs are stationed for their internships. This list includes South Africa, Kenya, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, India, England (actually, the Oxford exchange program), Dubai ... and NIGERIA! Truly, we're a global minded class.

This past Friday, two of my fellow associates, Takemune and Emma, from IESE and GWU respectively, and I met up with Joe who is working for a real estate development company in Lagos. Naturally, we're sharing our work experiences and Emma mentioned that due to Africa's lack of infrastructure and development, business solutions by default will have a social impact. I found this statement to be true and very well put.

Joe and I both ended up in Lagos for the summer but we came about it differently and with different career goals. As I mentioned in my first post, I wanted an experience in social impact and international development.  I primarily relied on my involvement in Net Impact and secondarily my involvement in Emerging Markets Network during my overseas job search. Joe is Nigerian-American and he relied on his DC networks to secure his summer internship, he's also worked here before and hopes to return full-time after graduation. Regardless of our professional aspirations, the work we're doing is still part of a larger goal to develop Africa's economy.

BBC, via NPR, has an African Entrepreneur series that is worth listening to. "It's spot on." to borrow a phrase from ccHub's CEO. Each episode features different entrepreneurs who have established successful businesses and they address the challenges of corruption and creating products marketable to the bottom of the pyramid.

Since I'm a Georgetown woman in business, my ears immediately perked up when Njeri Rionge's interview came on. She's a Kenyan businesswoman who has dabbled in Internet infrastructure, human capital consulting and creating a tech hub environment. Each of the entrepreneurs in the broadcast cited human capital as one of the challenges in Africa's business development and she saw an opportunity to address that challenge as part of her consultancy business. This is definitely bang on because:

• Government corruption is an avoidable challenge. Each of the entrepreneurs featured mentioned that if you establish a company that buys into corruption, you're setting a bad corporate governance example and this sends the wrong message. They basically echoed commonly held organizational behavior views. Njeri mentioned that she's started numerous ventures in Africa and she's been successful at avoiding government corruption and that it's not as hard to avoid as foreign businesses may think. 
• Nigeria has a high young population but they're coming into a culture that's not incentivized to work hard because previous generations were burned by their experiences and this has colored the younger generation's perceptions. Addressing human capital is a definite need whether it's through improvements in the education system or offering professional training programs, as was the case of Nigerian fertilizer manufacturer, Norotore Chemicals started by Jite Okoloko in the Niger Delta.
• Nigeria (and likely other African countries) is experiencing a brain drain: The well-educated and successful ones are moving abroad because of better opportunities. Note, I'm also including other countries on the African continent, such as South Africa. 
  • A lot of Nigerians work in South Africa. After apartheid ended, companies started mandating a minority quota but there was a lack of educated minority South Africans so those spots are filled by other Africans.

Business is more than just financial returns and other metrics. In Africa's case, improved social returns will contribute to financial returns. In emerging markets, it's especially about understanding, sourcing and utilizing human capital which is core to how every business runs. After all, we each know how important it is to work for a company with a great culture. So why shouldn't that apply to Africa (and beyond)?

The Rise of the Silicon Lagoon

A Midsummer Reflection on My Work Thus Far

The Yaba neighborhood of Lagos is home to many budding tech companies and incubators, including my host company, ccHub Nigeria. The media has nicknamed this area "the Silicon Lagoon". ccHub focuses on the pre-incubation step of a technology venture. The diagram below captures how they position and differentiate themselves from other Nigerian incubators. The work I've done thus far has been helping developers in the pre-incubation phase transition to the next step - MVP launch and then seeking investor funding.

Mostly I've been brought in to handle the business and project management matters since ccHub is filled with developers or "techies" as they're called whose primary focus is coding, graphic illustration and other technical skills but need help with getting their ideas off the ground. Since I focus on the business side of things, my duties primarily revolve around research and presentations. I've done a lot of research on the mobile environment, spent time meeting and speaking with other techies at other incubators and attending local industry events. Then I compile my findings into a takeaway deck (takeaways include more information than a presentation deck) as a reference for techies since their projects will continue long after the conclusion of my internship.

I was selected because of my digital marketing experience which I've been happy to apply since it's a way to gain a foothold into International Development. (A fellow AMIP associate told me she was declined by ccHub because her background was too "finance oriented".) Most of my work is around assessment, developing a social media strategy and packaging developers' work into pitch decks. Which brings me to an observation a Georgetown MBA alum shared: In the development field, organizations want a jack of all trades because they don't have the time/resources  and/or feel the need to invest in training individuals - so a candidate is expected to come in and hit the ground running. Use this to think about how to position yourself for your target employment organizations.

Another valuable b-school lesson that is applicable to any field: Develop/brush up on your powerpoint and presentation skills! I've sat through painful employer presentations and conference presentations because presenters focus too much on preamble because they want to showcase everything they've done and then run out of time when they get to the meat of the presentation. Here are a list of Georgetown courses that include comprehensive presentation/deck deliverables as part of the coursework. 

• Management Communications (1st year core)
• Pinkowitz's Measuring & Creating Value (Popular finance elective)
• Any classes in Homa's Marketing Trilogy: Marketing Strategy, Advanced Marketing Strategy or Price, Value & Profitability (Popular marketing elective that's not just for marketers!)

I'll end with a general observation about working in Africa which is a sentiment that's been echoed by a few of my peers. The business culture and mindset is different -- it's slower paced and not everyone has a hard work ethic because of the poor incentive structure. In Lagos, I've interacted with a number of Nigerians educated in the US or UK, however a majority have not and you have to adapt to a slower pace of work. Oftentimes matters will be categorized as "urgent" but the urgency dies fast and there's significant idle time. (It reminds me of a dysfunctional organization that needs a new CEO to create systems and support to turn the culture around. Yeah Professor Holtom, I paid attention! However in Nigeria, the CEO is a President and you're dealing with ~159 million peeps, significant change is not gonna happen soon.) It's always good to take this time to see what opportunities or work you can create that will add value. To me, that has been one valuable application of my skill set.

If you're interested in learning more about Africa's mobile instructure, check out this blog started by SlimTrader's CEO and Founder. It provides a nice summary and overview of the mobile environment and challenges an unreliable/nascent credit system poses on everyday transactions.