Oxford MBAs Explore Business in Africa

WHY RWANDA’S STORY MATTERS 

The organizers also tapped Rwanda’s President Kagame as the keynote speaker and awarded him the inaugural Distinction of Honor for African Growth Award. The nation’s economic turnaround is the stuff of legend. Last year the country jumped seven spots on the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness index to number 63 out of a playing field of some 140 countries.  The International Monetary Fund predicted the economy will double within the next five year in its March 2013 report.

However, controversy has marred Rwanda’s success story.  Critics are quick to point out human rights abuses and large numbers of the population who remain in poverty. But this shouldn’t stop business leaders and MBAs from learning about the country and hearing from its leader, Leedom says. “What’s happening in Rwanda now is absolutely worth paying attention to,” she says. “It’s a fantastic story and it’s also a complicated story, and I really, really appreciate that there’s a place where we’re pushing ourselves to ask some of those frank questions about what does good growth look like, at what cost and also how can we keep ourselves accountable as businesspeople.”

RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT AND RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS 

Leedom says the conference doesn’t have a particular agenda.  Rather it seeks to push attendees and MBAs to think outside the box and also to grapple with new questions.  “We’re also asking each other to think about ways that development happens responsibly, that business happens responsibly,” she says.  “There is not one answer to that, but those are certainly questions what we’re asking.”

She’s adamant that the conference isn’t limited to experts.  Students with a keen interest in the continent and a desire to understand the future of business should check it out, she adds. “It has been really important for us to stress that yes, if you don’t know anything about Africa, this is exactly where you should be because chances are in the next 20 years of your career, you will have some cause or reason or opportunity to be interacting with business in Africa.”

OXFORD MBAS GO TO AFRICA 

So far MBAs seem to be getting the message. As part of Oxford’s required Strategic Consulting Project, students select a country where they will live and work for several months. Many are turning to Africa.  Some will jet off to Tanzania to work for Off-Grid Electric, a solar energy company, others to a mango farm in Kenya and still others to a business accelerator for youth in Rwanda. “We’re going to have little pockets of Oxford MBA students all over Africa  this summer,” Leedom says.

Leedom herself will join the Rwanda team.  She credits her initial interest in the continent to an African literature course she took as an undergraduate at Mary Washington College.  It wasn’t until years later, after blazing a career path in  the nonprofit sector, that she visited the continent whose literature captured her imagination and interest.

‘IT’S A PLACE THAT’S PRETTY HARD TO WALK AWAY FROM’ 

On a personal journey she traversed West Africa and then jumped over to Ethiopia where she met a Saïd alumna at TechnoServe, a nonprofit that promotes business solutions to poverty. “I had a conversation with the woman and asked her, ‘How did you get into this? How did you learn this? I totally want to be you,'” Leedom recalls. After finding out the woman had graduated from Saïd Business School, Leedom went to an internet cafe in Addis Ababa and started her application. She was accepted several months later.  “It was pretty fast, but it was one of those things where you have a conversation with the right person, who’s doing the work you want to be doing, and it was truly inspiring,” she says.

Leedom aims to return to the continent after graduating from Saïd in September to focus on social enterprise. She adds that the conference has been key in helping her put her newly acquired MBA skills to the test and  for establishing important connections on the continent. But most importantly it has helped her raise awareness among fellow MBAs about a continent ripe with opportunity.  Her message to fellow students? “There’s a lot of room to make a big impact, especially for people who are trying to launch their careers,” she says.  “For me, it’s a place that’s pretty hard to walk away from”

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