Wednesday, 6.3. – Getting into shape

Felix (again) ‘early bird’ leaves at sharply 8:30 AM for MMU and – after taking some pictures of the university campus in the beautiful African morning light – sits together with the class to discuss their findings from the interviews they had with local companies on their balance sheets and their corporate cash conversion cycle. 

Saaka MMU University Campus in the early morning light

MMU's canteen kitchen staff preparing lunch for today

The majority of the students were quite well prepared and had actively looked for information in various sources – including Wikipedia. One group coincidentally had chosen KIKO Tea Company as the object of their studies – Felix had to admit he was a bit envious, since our visit to KIKO on last Saturday was not that successful!

'Mr. Felix' opening the lecture

Boiling brains in team of three ...

... and two students

and 'Mr. Felix' always in the middle

So it was a very busy morning for Felix since he spent the whole time with each of the five student groups, and he comes back to my ‘garden office’ in a quite enthusiastic mood.

In the meantime my morning is – again – on the phone with some banks in order to discuss details of the workshop. I have now won one bank as speaker for the conference, sharing their experience with one of BBDF’s students as intern.

The morning and afternoon is more or less spent with fine-tuning the agenda (collecting company logos from the internet and putting everything together in a neat manner) and a draft of the feedback questionnaire we are planning to hand out to the students after the workshop.

Our Workshop Agenda for 14. March

Late afternoon I sit together with Oliver Schmidt to discuss details for next week, as I am expected to hold another lecture for colleagues from GIZ in Kampala on Product Management and Organisation.

Having finalised the agenda, the event for next week now becomes much more tangible and we agree to send it out to all participants together with the latest version of the MMU Marketing brochure by tomorrow.

Tuesday, 5.3. – Powerpoint without Power

I start the day with calling some more banks from my ‘garden office’ at the Dutchess and have an early lunch before taking a Boda-Boda to the university campus.

Calling Ugandan Banks from the 'MMU Dutchess Garden Office'

There, our ‘senior Banker’ Daniel (he is a retired banker from Stanbic and now works part-time as a lecturer for the BBDF Students) already expects me and guides me into the classroom where 20 curious students await my session on presentation techniques.

It turns out to be a challenge to explain skills in Powerpoint to students who do not even have that much experience in working with a Computer. So we start at a lower level and gradually work ourselves up into the idea of working on concepts and how to bring them on paper and communicate them to an audience. The session gets really challenging when the electric power is suddenly gone and the beamer does not work any longer. At that point, I am grateful for the battery in my laptop so at least I can continue with the presentation by explaining the contents I want to bring across.

Explaining Powerpoint without electric power

All in all the session is well received and I have the impression the students have just been introduced to a new universe. All I can do is encourage them to get their hands on a PC wherever they can get hold of it.

Daniel kindly gives me a lift to downtown in his car and over the afternoon I complete my list of banks that are going to be invited for the 14. March. All in all I have now touch-based with 11 commercial banks in Uganda and do hope we have raised their attention to the BBDF program and the event we are planning next week in Kampala. Together with a draft of the agenda for the 14. March I send over a package of the project documentation to Oliver Schmidt in order to give him an update and ensure we are on the same page.

Before closing the day, we have a follow-up call with Alexander and Michael in DB Frankfurt in order to discuss administrational aspects of the project as well as the status and progress made so far.

Monday, 4.3. - A different day

The day starts totally different from the routine we have got used to. After 2 weeks of absolutely gorgeous weather, the climate is much cooler after some heavy rain showers that went down over night and still go on during the morning. Secondly, Felix finds out that two Laptops (one from DB and one from GIZ) have been stolen out of his room. We suspect a guest who stayed for one night from Friday to Saturday and did not even pay when he left. So for Felix, the rest of the day is busy with a hell of administrational work and experiencing the Fort Portal Police universe – Michel from the Dutchess kindly accompanies him and offers help wherever possible. Our expectations of the PC’s turning up again are limited, however, investigations are ongoing.

I am picked up by Oliver Schmidt at 8:30 and we move up to the university since today the Banking ‘department day’ together with students from the management course is scheduled. We have a tight agenda and kick off with Priscilla’s presentation on Product development and management, which gives student a good basic insight of what a product is and how it can be managed along its life cycle.

Her presentation is followed by a breakout session with 5 student groups who are asked to think of exemplary products and present them in a 5-minute pitch in front of the class – which gives us all a great time in hearing from very innovative banking products and a magic telephone!

Creating new bank products

Breakout session

We conclude the session with a short break and continue with my presentation on the organisation of product management, sharing not only some insight on organisation theory, but also how to apply it to the task of product management in selected business scenarios along the product life cycle.

Organisational aspects of Product Management

After lunch in the classroom we continue with a session on career development in the banking industry with an extra loop into social media such as facebook, myspace, and linkedin. After a quite extensive group discussion on the pros and cons of facebook, we conclude the day with a presentation from Daniel as a senior ex-banker and – representing Felix in his absence – my final contribution on social networks as well as important aspects that should be taken into consideration when going for a career in banking.

After more or less 7 hours sitting together in one room with a group of 40-50 people no one opposes against calling it a day and we all head for home.

Sunday, 3.3. - The Ndali-Mahoma waterfall scramble

A day to be seized. ‘Healthy’ Breakfast at the Dutchess as every morning (Coffee / Tee, Fruit Platter, fresh Passionfruit juice and a muesli with homemade yogurt. At 9:30, Solomon picks us up with his 11-year old Toyota which makes us wonder how far we want to get with it. He proves to be a swift driver who knows his way flying across the gravel roads to our destination for today, the Ndali Lodge.

The lodge is a place with some kind of history, led in the third generation of an Englishman who was thrown out of the country by Idi Amin and was given back his land by the following and still acting president, Museveni. The place still emanates a distinct ‘colonial style’ and offers breathtaking views into two crater lakes to both its sides.

 

One of the many volcanic craters - up to 180m deep

We start the day with a tour to the Mahoma waterfall, a remote place in the middle of the hilly area of volcanic origin. The waterfall hike requires a guide from the nearby campsite and with Steve we have a very profound expert of the local plant and animal life we walk through on the – partially quite steep – way to the waterfall. However, the way is worth the effort!

Our guide Steve

The waterfall scramble

Mahoma Waterfall

On our way back, we cross a farm where have the opportunity to meet some local folks and their children, who are quite interested in the Muzungus and their cameras.

On our way back

Tooro Handshake

Back in Ndali, we enjoy the cool pool with a view into the valley and finally have our lunch. The afternoon is quickly passed along with reading, calling home and enjoying the beautiful surroundings and two lovely dogs looking after us.

A dog's life ...!

Saturday, 2.3. – No cup of tea

Well – originally this chapter was intended to be named ‘A cup of tea’, since our plan was to visit the KIKO tea company today. However, once we had taken the trip with Boda-John and Company to the gates of the factory we had to learn it was closed. Quite disappointing after everyone had told us there is no point in calling someone at the company, but we should just come by any time we like.

Tee collection place and banana bicycle

Close to our (closed) destination

Anyway – the tour was still worth while, since we had an exciting trip out of Fort Portal through the beautiful tea fields around the town – and back.

Close to Fort Portal we ask our Boda-riders to stop by at the entrance of the Botanical garden and take a tour with a local guide there. This turns out to be one of the most exciting and interesting trips we had so far. The botanical garden itself does not look really pretty at first sight, however our guide turns out to be absolutely literate on all kinds of herbs and plants and takes us through the whole process of drying and packing herbs, which are also sold there. The garden itself is 100 acres big and we learn too much about local plants and their healing effects to record every detail. After picking some of the delicious little strawberries from the ground, we walk through a stunningly high forest of Eucalyptus with trees as high as 40 to 50 meters – amazing!

On the way out we buy two seedlings (one called ‘yesterday – today – tomorrow’) and a small mango tree for our hosts where we are invited tonight. Felix takes a bag of dried lemon verbena and I buy a tin of ‘Organic Justicia adhatoda’ mixed with honey, which – according to our guide – is the perfect medicine against all kinds of cold. Perfect for me, I have tried it right away. The taste? Hmmhh... must be very healthy!

We spend the afternoon with lunch, calls with home, reading and some work for next week before we are picked up by Christine and Moses for our dinner invitation at Oliver Schmidt’s house, where he and his wife Bettina have prepared a barbecue on the roof terrace of their hideaway house in the green depths outside Fort Portal.

Friday, 1.3. – On the phone

Felix ‘Early Bird’ breakfasts at 7:55 and takes a ride to the university with Boda-John for his second lesson on Cash Conversion. One of his experiences with his course’s participants (including staff) is that the students are not only eager to learn more on the topic but also demonstrate room for improvement regarding being on time – so the course finally starts shortly after 9:30 instead of the originally planned 9:00.

My plan for today: ‘on-boarding’ Banks for 14. March. After my quite successful and encouraging kick-off from yesterday with two banks having already committed participating in our MMU Banking Day, things turn out to be a bit more cumbersome today. I am working myself through a multitude of lists with contacts from various banks and – after the first 5 fruitless calls – get the impression there is bank holiday today. However, over late morning and into the early evening I manage to touchbase with the HR departments of 6 more local banks, so that already now we have a list of 8 potential banks participating in the event.

In the late afternoon, we sit together with Oliver Schmidt and discuss a number of topics around the event and the agenda for the week, which seems to become quite busy with a lunch on Monday with the Uganda Country head of GIZ on Monday, some appointments with banks before Thursday, a press event on Friday and a scheduled lunch or dinner with the German ambassador in Kampala.

We spend the evening with a stroll through Fort Portal ‘downtown’ and go for dinner and a game of snooker in the Forest Pub (no link available...). On the way back I decide to test my camera’s capabilities on night shots and manage to produce a snapshot from one of the local gas stations:

Thursday, 28.2. – Reaching out

Following the project plan, I start to touchbase with the first Ugandan banks and succeed in reaching HR contacts in two main banks, who both confirm their interest to participate in the event that we have scheduled for 14. March. This is an excellent kick-off and indicates that we seem to be on the right track with our project.

At 11, Oliver Schmidt from GIZ kindly gives me a lift in his car from Fort Portal to the University (which saves me another shirt covered with dust!) and I am up to meet the group of students who I plan to give a coordination role in the banking cooperation project. I meet 3 students from 2^nd year and 2 students from 1^st year who very curiously look at me since they have no clue of what expects them now.

So I give them a rough overview on what the project is about  by going through the terms of reference, which ultimately also defines their role: being a subject matter expert on the banks participating in the cooperation, being a first point of contact for BBDF students who are interested in working in banks as interns or graduates, and also act as secondary relationship managers towards those banks.

All in all this is a great opportunity for all of them and once they realised this, they seemed to be quite happy to be chosen. We perfected the meeting with handing out a USB stick from our GTB marketing department as gift to everyone and agreed to meet again the following Friday at 1PM.

Oliver Schmidt then gave me ride back to the Dutchess for a late joint lunch. I used the afternoon for some recovery, since I am maintaining a bad cold for some days now. Around dawn, Geoffrey hands me over his overview with bank addresses, so I can call some more banks tomorrow and further carry on with the project.