Launching a New Networking Event in Rwanda

It seemed an idea whose time had come. From what we can tell, if Rwanda fails to reach its ambitious development goals it will not be for a lack of vision, hard work, international goodwill or even a lack of finances. The chief barrier that public and private organizations here must overcome is a lack of management capacity. While Karisimbi Partners continues to assist a handful of companies in this regard, this pervasive challenge seems to require efforts on an entirely different scale. With the prompting and encouragement of the US Ambassador to Rwanda, Stuart Symington, Thursday marked the day we began to tackle this issue with the creation of a monthly networking event we’ve called the Management Exchange Roundtable.

While the result was uncertain, the recipe was simple: gather a dozen business managers, mix them in the same room with a dozen business support organizations (NGO’s, Government agencies, etc.), place a compelling talk from an insightful person in the middle, and sprinkle food and drink around the edges. While private sector networking events are a common occurrence in other countries we’ve lived, they are still new here. The hope was that creating such a forum could identify management needs, offer management support services and have some success in connecting people and solutions that would not have met otherwise. This initial event was immensely boosted by our adviser and friend Eric Kakou, Managing Director of On the Frontier (OTF), speaking on “The Leadership Gap: The Case of Customer Service”. The research and thought-provoking ideas presented during Eric’s discussion were illustrated by Emmanuel Murekezi, Operations Manager for perhaps the best-known restaurant in Rwanda: Bourbon Coffee. Now our challenge will be to improve on this event with future events!

To leave you with a small taste of what resulted from this recipe, one of the recurring themes expressed by those present was this: Customer service is not only an issue for the person facing the customer. Customer service also involves shaping the expectations of the customer. Importantly, customer service is a mindset, or attitude, that must also permeate the ownership and management of a given organization. An example was given of an owner that trained service personnel extensively, but seemed surprised when their training was not evident following months when the owner failed to pay salaries (an unfortunately common occurrence here). The good news: mindsets can change; the bad news: changing mindsets can be a long and difficult task that must affect everyone from the owner to the customer.

Onward and Upward,
-Carter