Local women near Nampula, Mozambique

Nairucu Mountains near Nampula, Mozambique

Empty beaches near Quelimane, Mozambique

For the past ten years, I have completed numerous volunteer assignments for the International Executive Service Corps (IESC) working with small business owners in the Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Zambia and Mozambique. These projects included business management training, using simplified versions of the Excel models I had on developed for business clients in teh USA..

It was not until my most recent assignment in Mozambique, which encompassed a five-module training program for World Vision, that I truly realized the impact and benefit of such business management training. I had been asked by IESC to conduct the first of five seminars for two groups of small contractors. My experience in developing countries had taught me that a seminar approach does not have a lasting impact and I elected to use the allocated time to train the participants in the use of computers and Excel in addition to covering the program requirements for training in business planning, financial and asset management, marketing and bidding. The participants responded very positively and I was asked to continue the program and used the next four sessions to reinforce the use of the program through group, as well as individual training. This approach allowed the participants to modify the program modules to fit their individual needs, and to progress at their own speed.

 At the end of the fifth training session, participants who at the start of the program sixteen months earlier, did not know how to turn on a computer, now had new laptops and had become quite familiar with Excel commands and data input. They had build their second business plan and had accumulated two years worth of operational data. They were able to analyze the data and had progressed to implementing the project cost controls.