Going Slow-Going Fast…A Theodora Africa Project Update

 

A little over a year into the actual launch of the Theodora Africa Project, we seem to have reached a significant juncture on our evolutionary journey. Up until now, it has all been about 1) Could we even get the project off the ground? And once having achieved that 2) Could we even get close to having the Minimum Viable Service required to have a true on-going project?

The answer to both of these is yes. We are definitely ‘off the ground’. And we are getting closer and closer to our Minimum Viable Service.

 

This has brought the project to an interesting place. We still need to do more to get to our Minimum Viable Service. But the best way to achieve that is by going at a reasonable pace. We don’t want to burn our people out. We want the learning to develop with deep roots. I will use the analogy of firing a very large clay pot. If you go too fast, you cause it to crack or have structural imperfections. Too slow and it doesn’t set correctly. You have to go at just the right temperature for the right amount of time.

 

At the same time there are a lot of pressures to grow faster. As we do a better job of describing our services and get more testimonials from satisfied clients, the referrals of new business grow. Members of my Boards of Directors in both Ghana and the United States want to know when we are going to be able to serve a greater number of women. There is a need to do more investment spending in a number of areas to support our continued development. And these, in turn, call out for more money/capital.

 

Up until this week, my strategy was to work my local contacts for more donations while we grew the client revenue base. Together that would create positive cash flow that we could use to fund investment spending. But with our need to go at a steadier pace for the development of our people, that strategy is not going to work because a steadier pace would restrict sales growth.

 

As fate would have it, my networking brought me in touch with a professional fundraising agent, a very experience person in his field. Over a number of conversations, he led me to understand that the world of charitable donation was probably not the right venue for me to pitch the Theodora opportunity. He made a very strong case that we should be seeking social impact capital – funds that want to go into real, for-profit businesses that have a significant social impact component. You couldn’t better describe the Theodora Project.

 

Further, he encouraged me to seek out more money than I had intended…WAY MORE. He quoted an axiom about finance that I am well aware of. It is easier to get a larger deal done than a smaller one because it takes the same effort on the part of the investor and the return is greater.

 

Somehow this flipped a switch inside me. I hadn’t considered that option because I didn’t feel we would pass muster with a legitimate investor. I don’t feel that way now. So on Thursday I made a decision. We were going to go for it, we were going to seek out significant real social impact capital.

 

To do this is going to require a lot of work. I am going to have to muster all of the resources I have among my Boards and significant volunteers to accomplish it. But I am filled with a feeling that this is the right course. As we often say in deal doing, “Go Big or Go Home”.

 

I am feeling very energized.

My Newest Love

 No I have not given Wife the heave ho. What I have done is find another Asian Supermarket. For years I have gone to one that was (what I thought) the largest in town. I vaguely knew of this other one on the far south side of town. 

 

Come the pandemic and my preferred store is having less and less on its shelve. Of particular annoyance has been the lack of Phnom Penh style Fried Onion Paste. This has become my 'go to' condiment when I want an umami punch without fish or meat flavor. 

 

Today, I finally decided to venture to another store, one I know had been around for many years but had not gotten to because of distance reasons. I was amazed. The seafood was much more numerous and looked fresher. And where my old store had suddenly not stocking my Fried Onion Paste, the new location had it in vast quantities. 

I know where I will be going in the future.

Defining Freedom

 Things are opening up here in the Land of Enchantment. With vaccination, has come more comfort with actually being with people in-person.

This last week I had four (4) in-person, face-to-face business meetings. I was flooded with reminders of how much was lost when we went into our locked-down/virtual world. The primary thing I was reminded of was how the virtual world constrains movement.

It may not seem like a big deal, but when you are communicating via screen only, you are restricted mightily from moving. Plus it is very hard to not obsess about your own image. That lack of movement is (at least for me) painful. It limits the amount of time I want to spend in a meeting. AND it limits my creative thought. I noticed in the in-person meetings I had this last week, how free I was to move and let my vision wander. But that didn't decrease productivity. It rather opened the creative mind to finding opportunities to connect with those I was meeting with. 

On the other hand while I am very much looking forward to more in-person work, I continue to accept the value of the virtual meeting and will continue to use it.

Dinner

 Vanilla gelato with homemade blueberry sauce, homemade  chocolate sauce, homemade whipped cream

This was part of a grand meal I made for Wife's birthday this weekend. We had shrimp cocktail, beef tenderloin and mashed potatoes and the dessert. This was a classic Julia Child style meal where making the three sauces (the beef stock reduction for the tenderloin, the berry sauce and the chocolate sauce) plus the whipped cream took more time by a factor of 7 than the whole rest of the meal. 

Unfortunately, as is so often the case with our aged digestive tracks, by the time we were done with the main meal , we had no room for dessert.

So this is what we had for dinner. We loved it but decided this is maybe a once a year thing to do!

 

 

 

Theodora Africa Update - Yes, I Did More Go To The Hospital

 Actually, I went to Ghana for reasons other than the full immersion experience into the Ghanaian Hospital system. The actual reason was to conclude our search for a full-time local manager.

Since the first of the year and especially after the client survey, it has become apparent that lack of day-to-day, onsite, local management was inhibiting our Participants development and therefore the projects development. Working with a number of our volunteers, we established the position expectation for this role and the criteria for screening candidates. We publicized this in Ghana and got over 100 applications in two weeks time.

Two of our volunteers,  then screened the applications bringing the number to 12. I now became involved. We shed another 4. The remaining 8 were interviewed by the two volunteers. We selected 3 finalists. I conducted two virtual interviews with each of the 3. We were faced with a problem that our desired compensation range was far below the market's expectation. We were faced with a situation where after all this effort, might not have an acceptable candidate. 

However, our number one choice showed a real desire to find a way to bridge the gap between her requirements and our capabilities. She suggested that we hire her on a part-time basis for three months at a a fraction of her compensation expectation so we could mutually prove to ourselves this was a good match. I was quite pleased to have this option and we accepted. 

She will be starting this Monday. I am on my way back home. I will be back in Ghana in 7 weeks. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the element needed to take our quality, and productivity to the level necessary that we can safely expand.

But Wait! If You Act Now There's More!

Thought we were done with the Ghanaian hospital system? Well, there was one more thing we had to do once our Participant was released and I had an inkling it might be a reprise of our prior frustrations. 

 I had stopped our story because we were just so glad to have her out of the hospital. But checking out was not a simple process. You had to get a person from the Ward to go get your bill. Then you had to pay your bill. But no, we put a deposit down and the bill was for less than the deposit. The folks at Bill Pay said they had no record of the deposit. Go back to the Ward and get the deposit receipts. Done. Go back to Bill Pay. Nope. Go to Billing itself. They run a bunch of statements. Stamp them all and say we don't get copies. Plus we can't get the refund on Saturday. We have to come on Monday when the full staff is in and they can process it. But they do give us something and tell us to go back to the Ward so we can finally get our Participant out.

Monday comes and my driver, Frimpong, and I are back at the hospital. I had this feeling (cue the ominous music) that we were not just going to waltz in and get the refund. I mean how complicated could it be. They give us the statement that shows we paid in more than we owed, we go to the Bill Pay and we get our money back. 

Not quite.

The first part went as thought. BUT, then we were told we had to bring the papers to the Ward to have it verified. Done? No. You have to go to a different office and have all the papers copied (just a window in the wall to the office with a crowd of people around it all needing copies). Then you go back to the Ward. Each time you go to the Ward, I should mention, you have to find this one particular person, who I might say doesn't particularly like to be found (honestly, I think he has a crap load of stuff he is in charge of). But having Frimpong made it easier. 

Now having gotten our Ward certified set of papers, we go to the Bill Pay office and get our money.

Right?

Wrong.

We have to find some hospital-wide finance office way, way in the back of the facility. This requires wandering around, asking numerous people and finally finding the office. Frimpong by now has determined that I am pretty much a worthless Obroni (White Guy). He plops me down in a chair and waits until it is his turn. Shows all the papers. Papers are in order.

We get our money.

No.

We are told that the money won't be ready until 2 hours from now. I have to get to my business meetings. Frimpong says he will come back. When he picks me up in the evening, he tells me he had to wait another THREE HOURS before they finally made the pay out. 

In fairness I know plenty of horror stories of people dealing with our own American medical and medical insurance system. I am not sure this is so much worse. It is just very different.

 

Hospitalization Update

 We got our young Participant out today. She's tired (right, hospitals are the worst places to rest). But she seems to have recovered fine so we are all very happy. And for you Americans, you know that wages in Ghana are about a 10th of what a similar position would pay in the U.S. The same is true for many costs. Four days in the hospital, all tests done etc, medications, all those incidentals I discussed...$400.