Another weekend on the farm …

Just had another fantastic weekend on the farm with the family I’m consulting to. Well, kind of. Between Friday and Sunday night, we did well over of TWENTY HOURS of work – pretty astonishing stuff. But, the presentation to investors is looking good, and I have a pretty good grapple on the business, how it’s going to make millions and employ literally hundreds upon hundreds of farmers and workers, and improve seed production …

… luckily there was still time for fun (and Mozambique’s impressive satellite TV collection – ah, American sitcom reruns – and ‘The Block’).

We spent most of Saturday in the yard formulating the business plan for our seed company. What better way to formulate a business plan than over food (certainly how I like to do consulting!). The South Africans have something that looks a lot like a BBQ but they call it a ‘braai’. My attitude is, if the food tastes good, they can call it what they like! And it was good!


One of the things I love about being in central Mozambique are the astonishing sunsets … like this, every day (except when it’s pouring!)


Bernard and Brenda have two adorable kids, who I really enjoyed hanging out with. The older one, Janae (aged 7), loved colouring in and drawing pictures. Apart from a LOT of powerpoint, there was a lot of colouring in. But at least she liked it …

(I didn’t draw this myself, honest)

The younger one, Lienke (these are Afrikaans names) is a bundle of energy. One of my favourite memories of the place was jumping on the trampoline on a cloudness night with both of the girls. Not only dangerous – but more exercise than I’m used to …


Lastly, we had time to explore the local area – on quad bike! And if you think that this bike looks too small – you’re probably right. The maximum weight allowed was 37 kilos – which I think is less than my total consumption of food in the 2 and a half weeks I’ve been here …


God bless
John

'What really matters to you, and why?’

Where am I now?
Am sitting here in our Chomoio warehouse office, in the middle of an unbelievably strong shower (you wouldn’t believe it! hence the word I guess), having just flown back from an exhausting two days in Maputo. We interviewed 13 people: everyone from the director of agriculture, economists at World Vision, numerous other NGOs (non-government organizations), scientists at the seed institute and ministry of agriculture, agents for our competitors, agricultural consultants (my competition!) … people who knew all about seeds! It was exhausting, but we got heaps of great data (a consultants’ dream!) and made lots of good contacts.

The great thing about being in a place like Mozambique – even though people are always late to things (frustrating for choleric personalities like me!), is that no one seems particularly booked up – a lot of our great interviews came by just “dropping in” to people’s offices after speaking to someone who recommended them. It would never happen in Sydney …

We had two hours on a bumpy propeller plane there and back (the same one I took before). I find I do a lot of my good thinking on planes. On these flights, there was no food (or flight attendants for that matter!) so there was lots of time to think.

Think about it!
The question ‘What really matters to you, and why?’ is a 7 page essay question I had to answer as part of my post-graduate studies applications. I had answered the question about a month ago, but, having met lots of cool and interesting people who’ve done cool and interesting things, the questions dawned on me again, as I began to think about the future. In particular, what work should I be doing over the next few years? Should I study again? Work overseas? Take up professional dancing? As I reflected on the people I’d met and stories they’d shared, I wrote this journal entry …

“My walk with God is far more important than anything. However, having a great family is a close second … when I speak to people who I’ve met here who are divorced or don’t like their marriage, I hate to say it, but it’s almost as if everything else they’ve achieved is much less important. And when I think about “would I rather have a high impact ministry or successful career and be in an unhappy marriage” or “average work but be in a great marriage and loving my kids” it’s a no-brainer, really …”

You might be thinking this is nothing revolutionary, and in some ways, it isn’t. However, when I analysed (and no, I didn’t draw a graph … though there’s one just round the corner, I’m sure) how much energy I was pouring into thinking about present and future career and how I can excel and have impact versus energy poured into my current family and thinking about how I can be an excellent family member, the contrast amazed me: the vast majority of my thinking and doing time was being spent on something which, in the end, was well down the list of ‘what really matters to me’ …

Anyway, I’ll keep reflecting! I have a weekend on the farm (hello sorghum and goodbye internet!) …

Blessings
john

A “hidden photo” taken in stealth with my digital camera in our competitor’s stores …! (ah, the life of a consultant)

'Mozambique, the darling of the donor community'

It is a little confronting being on the other side.

I guess when I see the ads on TV for World Vision and all those kinds of things, I kind of think of the people in third world countries like Mozambique to be nice, humble people who are poor but entirely benevolent.

The truth is, they're not. And I don't know to what extent this covers the population (I know it certainly covers many in positions of power and influence!), but my experience so far is that they are just as self-interested as pretty much the rest of the world, taking handouts when they can and not necessarily using it for the purposes intended.

As many of you would know, I'm writing the business plan for this seed company for the moment. We're trying to test the market for high quality seed (rather than low quality, recycled seed they've been using all this time). Using this maize seed would actually make incredible inroads on poverty - for a fraction more cost (one US dollar a kilo, 25 kgs to plant an entire hectare of maize) they would produce SIX TIMES the amount of maize (3 tons instead of 500kg) in quicker time, with a much-needed high protein element.

I was talking over this idea with an Argentinian entrepreneur who laughed at the idea. "But why do you think it's a bad idea?", I retorted (In my head I was asking, can't everyone see the effect on malnutrition and food this would have? Not to mention the individual farmer's profit!).

"High quality seed?", he said in his European accent. "You have one problem. Why would someone who's never paid for maize seed in his life start paying for it now?"

He had a good point. (I had to admit to myself, I'm not intending to start paying for MP3s anytime in the near future.)

I visited a near-defunct seed factory today which absorbed 50 million British pounds of foreign aid and donor funding. Two of the other factories opened with the money have now closed, without a trace of the money (this one is closing in a few months). Over the 10 years, one of the factories barely produced 400 tonnes worth of seed - which is not much considering the factories had a normal capcity of 5 tonnes per hour - that is, 50 working days' production (or less than 17 days at non-stop capacity). What an incredible waste of donor money!

But I can see why, just by stepping into their shoes. If someone just keeps giving me things for free, and giving, and giving, why wouldn't I just slacken off and take it! If I stopped taking the money and spending it, they would stop giving, wouldn't they ...?

Blessings
John (back in Maputo for a 2 day business trip)


A typical roadside store in Mozambique ... these are everywhere, and sell items ridiculously cheap (but when you consider 67% of the population live on less than 40c a day, that's not surprising...)
Source: some document some guy from the government gave me today

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go ...

Hey hey everyone,

Well, it's been flat out at the moment. It's been back to good ol' powerpoint presentations and excel models and expert interviews ... though phone calls are very expensive here - something we take for granted back home. Even accessing the internet for an hour - the local call cost plus cost per minute over dialup - was well over $10 an hour. Yikes!

One thing about working with people who own their own business is how work/non-work lines are blurred. We're flying back to Maputo to speak to some experts tomorrow and then we're working all weekend - I'm even staying on their farm so we can crunch round the clock ...! But, despite my complaining, this is an excellent experience of what it's like to be an entrepreneur, of seeing how people with natural business intuition (and not necessarily classical business trianing) make decisions and just get stuff done (quite different to the middle management corporate world I'm used to). It actually gives me ideas about starting my own business one day (I'm presently deciding between yet another Asian karaoke parlour or a breakdancing coaching academy ... just kidding. It's definitely gonna be karaoke).

Oh well, at least there will be fresh bacon ... =)


Blessings
john

My very first electrical storm

I’m sitting outside here on the balcony of the house I’m staying in (ah … the joys of laptops), watching my first electrical storm (as a result, the power in the house is continually stopping and starting). It is AMAZING … I have never seen anything quite like it. For the uninitiated, it is lightning that lights up the night sky – but, unlike the storms I’m used to at home, it just keeps going, flashing every few seconds, over and over again, a bit like a strobe light at a dance party. Actually, the accompanying nature noises around me – buzzing birds and random insects – actually do sound like a funky new techno song … I can therefore declare this the best value dance party I’ve ever been to! (excluding airfare calculations …)

This current storm has gone on for over an hour! I tried to take a video of the non-stop lightning but the camera only picked up the strongest bursts of light. So here’s a screen shot, to give you some idea of how the night sky looks every few seconds.



For the complete experience, put on a techno song with cicada and bird noises, turn off the lights in your room, stare at the picture and blink your eyes furiously … =)

… What a buzz (sorry, the lightning gag should be no shock to you guys!).
john

ps If any you actually try the ‘complete experience’, please let me know (so I can pray for you!)

Adventures in Mozambican food

… Had a relaxing weekend: driving around, eating, watching the cricket (the sports coverage on Mozambique pay-TV is astonishing, with no fewer than 8 dedicated sports channels!?) and taking it easy.

Fun agricultural fact for the day: the faming conditions in Mozambique are very, very good for growing lots of things – I’ve seen maize, tobacco galore (tobacco grown here actually appears in Australian cigarettes – though the farmers don’t see much of that profit, and actually lose money to the multinational producers), and farms that produce more seeds (kind of a ‘farm farm’ if you think about it). But what grows the best is fresh fruit.

One of the great things about knowing lots of farmers and fruit consultants is getting LOTS of FREE FRUIT. So, yesterday, we went for a drive, visited this giant dam (see background), and completely stuffed ourselves with pineapples, mangoes and bananas …



… We then polished off a number of slabs of pork, complemented by this really nice Mozambique-type crème caramel thing. Basically it’s egg, flour and custard – fried to a soft consistency – then, for good measure, soaked in a pool of treacle. Mmm … fattening.



For dinner, we had a whole lot calamari, followed by some large steaks. And we finished it off with the traditional dessert favourite – Portuguese egg tarts …



I’ve REALLY gotta do some exercise. And quickly!

Blessings
John

At last! A night on a farm …

After almost a week of relative ex-pat luxury, I decided to stay on the farm for a night, with the owners of the company I’m consulting to. Whilst they’re also ex-pats, farmers in Mozambique are really struggling (many are getting economically ‘done over’ by the tobacco companies) and certainly are not living like the ex-pats I’ve met so far. These guys have a 120 hectare property 30 minutes out of Chomoio. What I love about these places is the night sky – with no city for hundreds of miles, it is amazing on a clear night (okay, I tried to take a picture but the flash wasn’t strong enough …!). And, assuming you avoid the animals and fertilizer (and the wind's not blowing the wrong way!), the fresh natural smell is great.

Their farm is right next to the river and this gorgeous, huge weird rock mountain thing:


There are all the animals you’d expect to have on a farm …


Including pet dogs and their favourite animal to hunt, mice!


The morning sun is so strong you can’t look at it (unless you’re a camera) …


… But the flora is beautiful in the morning


Whilst there’s no internet or mobile reception, they do have satellite TV …


It was fantastic! I’ll be back … well, after a few more nights at the bed and breakfast!

Blessings
John

Today, I learned how to drive manual

It had been a long day. Having gotten up before 6am (ugh!), and having spent 7 hours with a bunch of international fresh fruit and flower consultants from around the world driving to see a mango farm for 1 hour (that maths didn’t quite work out), I was looking to get back to Chomoio and have some quiet time.

Unfortunately, the fruit and flower consultant-type-guys wanted to go and see, well, you guessed it, more fresh fruit and flowers. One of them had an idea – they would each pack into two 4WDs (there were ten of them) and I could drive the small Fiat hatchback back to Chomoio. The owner would then pick it up later.

I was a bit skeptical. I’m not the world’s greatest driver (as many of you would know!) in my own car, let alone a foreign car in a foreign country (though at least they drive on the left hand side of the road, and traffic – not to mention traffic lights – are non-existent). But hey, I thought, I’m a silver licenced driver back in Australia - and it’s not that far – only 10 minutes or so.

What could possibly go wrong?

So I put my things in the car, grabbed the keys, and waved goodbye to everyone as they drove off. I was really looking forward to getting back to Chomoio. I opened the door, sat down, put the keys in the ignition, and started the car.

Well, I tried to.

Why isn’t this working? I thought. Then I looked down to my left.

Oh crap.

It was a manual car.

[I have driven a manual car once – back in 1999, when I was learning how to drive – and only because my driving instructor, Mr Tomah, gave me a free lesson in a manual after reaching some 35 lessons in an automatic. Oh, I’ve driven manual in some video games as well. On neither of these occasions have I driven particularly well, often stalling the car (even in the video games!).]

I began to panic. I ran out onto the street to wave my compatriots down. Dang, they were out of sight. I grabbed my mobile phone. Unfortunately, I had none of their numbers. Could I phone a friend who could drive manual to come and rescue me? Unfortunately, no friends (in Mozambique anyway!).

The voice of Ed Chan then began to ring in my head. It’s easy to drive a manual, I remember him saying. You could drive manual one handed! I began to analyse the differences between manual and automatic. There’s just an extra pedal, I thought. Oh, and that stick thing.

It was there and then that I decided I was going to drive that manual car home.

It took me a good five minutes to start the car, after realizing you need to hold the clutch down to do so. It took me another five minutes to progress about 20 metres, having realized that, to change gears, you need to push the clutch down the whole way, not just tap it. (Luckily for my pride those roads were almost completely deserted of spectators at the time).

However, ten minutes into this experiment, I was in. I was actually driving a manual car! If only Mr Tomah could see me now. I was starting to get so confident, I went up to fourth gear, then practiced shifting down to second gear quickly (which stalled the car again, but I was unshaken). I even managed to make a right hand turn onto the main road without stalling the car! Schumacher, here I come!

However, my elation at my unexpectedly good motor skills was soon to be quashed by what I was to see next.

A police check.

[Reason for concern: The Mozambican police are famous for bribery and corruption. In order to attract bribes from non-locals, they will stop you for no reason, inspect your car for any defects or non-licensed parts (they even make you register car radios here, in order to increase their customs duty, as they have no income tax), then ‘encourage’ you to bribe them. That worried me for a few reasons. Firstly, this was someone else’s rental car, and I had none of their papers. Secondly, I don’t like having to give up money for any reason, let alone bribery. Finally, I still don’t know any Portuguese word except ‘chicken’ (which I’ve used on a number of occasions now), so, even if they were encouraging me to bribe them, I wouldn’t understand them at all.]

Oh dear.

Luckily for me, they just asked ‘okay?’ and told me to drive off – they just wanted to check I was okay. (The word about Asian driving skills must have stretched to all parts of the globe!)

Unfortunately, by that point in time, I had forgotten how to start the car again, and stalled it twice – in front of the two police officers, nearly taking out some kids. However, third time lucky – and I drove away before they were able to check if I was ‘okay’ again.

Amazingly, I negotiated a roundabout, a dirt road with potholes, a few more right hand turns, along with overshooting my destination twice (resulting in some unnecessary 7 to 8 point u-turns as I had to turn the car around) … all without damaging the car (except the clutch, which is probably kaput by now). I even parked it in a garage! (Admittedly, it was an empty double garage, and a maid had to help me, but that still counts in my books.) In truly fitting style, I parked it by stalling it for the fifteenth time, forgetting to put the park brake on until it had started to roll back a bit.

And so, I can add “driving a manual car on non-crowded streets” to my list of skills (Which presently include “Dance dance revolutionary” and “SingStar extraordinaire”). God was really watching over me that day (as He does every day), and I don’t think I would try it again – though I HAVE to learn manual driving properly when I return.

God bless
John

A picture of a victorious me and the car (the smashed up front panels were caused by someone else, honest!)

My project in Chomoio: and when it rains, it pours

Well, it’s been about 55 hours in Chomoio so far, and it’s been really good - even though it’s been bucketing down at night (some 130 mm in 2 days! Along with accompanying friendly frogs). I’ve been working on my project for two and a half days now, and it is going really well –the South Africans I’m working with have really taken to the McKinsey issue tree (and haven’t we all!)! And we are all getting excited about the possibilities for the future … even though our ‘office’ is located in a seed and farming chemicals warehouse … (there it is, just behind the white bags of fertilizer!)



I have met plenty of interesting people here. I’ve visited farmers and plantation managers with literally thousands of hectares of crops and trees, spoken to a number of local seed sellers, had breakfast and dinner with aid workers and tobacco sellers (this is where Australian cigarettes are grown!), heard a Zimbabwean farmer’s story about how he had to run with his family and vehicles after being attacked by “freedom fighters”.

As for Chomoio itself, the one thing that has struck me is how many people there are on the streets, particularly at night. The paved roads (and many of the dirt ones) are like Pitt Street at nights – hundreds and thousands of people walking, listening to music, playing games

However, things don’t always go to plan in Chomoio …

… though trucks and vans are typically stacked with people, not just agriculture!



God bless,
John

ps on a brief aside: here’s our 16-seater plane from Maputo to Chomoio … for a scary moment before take off I thought I was claustrophobic!

The life of an ex-patriate …

Am currently sitting at Maputo Airport, ready to fly to Chomoio, my home for the next 3 weeks. Before I do so, let me recount my experiences from the weekend …

… Yesterday I went to my first ex-patriate (‘ex-pat’ – that is, those people living in a foreign country for work reasons) party. It was lots of fun. There were about ten of us there, most hailing from the US or UK, working for the government (in diplomacy or trade) or NGOs (non-government organizations, like Technoserve). The home we were at was huge – about as big as my old house – complete with a pool and BBQ (mmm…chicken). We spent a very long lunch talking US politics, what each of us were doing in Mozambique, ex-pat politics and happenings, then the “Scotch Whiskey adjective game”, which involved tasting 4 different kinds of 12 to 15 year old scotch, trying to describe its look/nose/flavour/finish in 12 adjectives, and matching it up with the description in this guidebook someone had. An expensive, but fun game, even for people like me who only drank a thimble-full of each (honest!).

I am full of admiration for these people. Pretty much all of them were doing some pretty impactful things – trying to cancel foreign debt, working with Mozambican companies and encouraging them to grow, fighting the HIV epidemic. It must be tough living away from home for many years (could I do it? I don’t know), but having an ‘ex-pat community’ must kind of make up for it. In fact, most of them really reveled in it – how many other jobs will pay you to travel exotic countries, do weekend safaris and complete high impact work?

On the other hand, I kind of struggle with the very uneven distribution of wealth between expats and citizens; the very problem many of us expats (I’ll count myself a temporary member of the club!) are attempting to address.

Honestly, for my time in Maputo, I have felt a little like a British imperialist – having breakfast (unlimited bacon and eggs! And fruit! And cake!) served to me by Mozambicans in native dress on ornate tablecloths and fine china; going to a great party where, between the 10 of us, we consumed food and drink easily worth the Mozambican GDP per capita many times over, being driven everywhere by chaffeurs and taxis, living in air conditioned apartments with cable TV (though I hear Chomoio is quite different!). Mind you, I can’t propose an alternative, but something about it doesn’t seem quite fair.

Blessings
John (the Asian-British Imperialist of sorts)

More photos from my weekend trip to Maputo (the capital) …

Overall, it reminded me a lot of Shanghai – except the streets were a lot less crowded here (very much so), not to mention substantially fewer Asians (I counted one, including me). Oh, and everyone carries stuff around on their heads. I would try to, but I’m not sure if it’s covered by travel insurance …

1. The market – looks very similar to a Chinese market! (with some obvious differences)


2. From the markets: some hot stuff!


3. Transportation by head is very common … these African women must have a pretty good sense of balance. I would've tried it, but I'm not sure if travel insurance covers it.


4. Women’s soccer is very big there. I sneaked into a game and there would’ve been thousands of people (mostly men!) cheering at the top of their voices …


5. Maputo streets – empty and dusty on a Saturday.


6. A dangerous theme park! (somewhat ironically entitled ‘Luna Park’). This place was absolutely deserted, except for a few kids, a ‘Street Fighter II: Champion Edition’ arcade game and a guy sleeping on a rusty ferris wheel … but at only 50c entry, how could I refuse?

The Best of the West

Spent today walking through the streets of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, soaking it all in and reflecting on life.

The vibe? Not much. Honestly, it felt like a bit of a ghost town today ... lots of big streets, but not many people there.

In fact, upon reflection, most of what I did see where actually reflections of the west ... such as:

1. Americanised Portuguese chicken!


2. Foosball tables?!


God bless,
john

Time, time and frustration ...

Well, I'm here; have been in Maputo (the capital of Mozambique) for about half a day. Not much has happened yet - I've spent most of the time sleeping - though, thanks to God's grace and a whole lot of grovelling, I managed to get an upgrade to business class for the 12.5 hour journey from Hong Kong to Johannesberg!

(Note to self: grovelling works)

Not much to report really, the weather is quite nice (quite hot, but not too humid). The thing that has struck me so far has been a different view on time. I had to get my visa at Maputo airport - having to wait 30 minutes for no good reason, the person doing it seemed to take his time walking back and forth to an office, chatting to people, while I stood there. Then I met the guy who came to pick me up, and we waited for our driver for another 30 minutes (who was coming in from 7km away?!). Then when I got to the office, ready to do a half day of work, there was nothing waiting for me - my next business meeting would be on Monday; it was at that stage Friday lunch. Inside my head I was asking, well, what do I do until then? (though quietly I was thankful for the time off!)

I'm sure grappling with this will be an ongoing theme!

Before I left, a friend photocopied for me a few pages from a book on Africa called The Shadow of the Sun - My African Life by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Here is a pertinent selection of what time looks like from an African point of view ...

"Time appears as a result of our actions, and vanishes when we neglect or ignore it ... It is a subservient, passive essence, and, most importantly, one dependent on man - the absolute opposite of time as it is understood in the European (or in this case, Asian-Australian!) worldview.

"In practical terms, this means that if you go to a village where a meeting is scheduled for the afternoon but find no one at the appointed spot, asking, "When will the meeting take place?" makes no sense. You know the answer: "It will take place when people come."

Apart from that, I don't think it's really hit me yet that I'm here - having a TV with CNN in my room hasn't helped. When it does hit me, of course, I'll let you know ...!

How to stretch a sunset ...

Am at Hong Kong airport at the moment in a 1 hour stopover inbetween my 9 hour Sydney-Hong Kong flight and my 12 hour Hong Kong-Johannesberg. At least 'A Shark's Tale' is on during this next leg ... I'm going to go and grovel for a business class upgrade methinks.

The great thing about afternoon flights that go west are ...
... They stretch out the sunset. My flight today left around 4:15pm Sydney time, and some 4 hours into the flight I'd just finished watching 'Wimbledon' (there weren't many alternatives, honest!) and was ready to write my journal, when I thought I'd get some fresh rays ...

I've just opened the window and been greeted by a gorgeous sunset, which then was covered by a cloud next time I looked. Grace revealed and grace removed? I don't think so. Somehow, it's all grace ... and even as I write this sentence the evening sky has been transformed into a set of that beautiful orange-purple-blue tinge ....

It went on and on and on, for about 2 hours, always changing. Sometimes I thought it was over and the sky had gone all grey, when suddenly a burst of orange would come out of nowhere. It was fantastic to watch this light show (and all for free!). The best thing was, I had my mp3 player on me too so it was all accompanied by 1980s love songs ...

An official welcome to my blog

Hey everyone,

well, if you're here, chances are that I've sent you a link to this blog, or you've been very bored on the internet and have "googled" your way here (if so, congrats!).

It's 48 hours until my flight (which involves a good 24 hours in the air and two mini-stopovers) and I really haven't thought much about the trip at all, I must say. Everything has been all a bit of a rush since before Christmas ... finishing up at McKinseys, doing applications for overseas universities, organising this trip, doing beach mission ... and of course, a rigorous social schedule! =)

It has been good to spend the last 5 or 6 days saying good bye to people and buying lots of things (my backpack is going to be very heavy) but quite frankly I'm now starting to itch to get on the plane, and get some kind of normality into my life - well, as much normality as possible in a third world country, travelling every few days, trying to avoid mosquitoes ...

Feel free to leave lots of comments (though if you have anything personal, email is probably a better option) as well as challenging questions - I'd love some provocative questions that I should be thinking through on my travels.

Blessings
john

What exactly am I doing there?

Just as an fyi - here's a copy of the job descriptions I have been given for the two projects I'll be working on, and a description of who Technoserve is etc etc. You can read up more about the company if you like at www.technoserve.org ...

God bless
john


COMPANY DESCRIPTION

TechnoServe is a non-profit business development organization focused on promoting rural economic growth in developing countries. Based in Norwalk, CT, TechnoServe has offices in 9 countries in Latin America and Africa. Since its founding in 1968, TechnoServe has successfully used a private enterprise approach to assist low income people in the developing world to build businesses that create income and economic growth for their families, their communities, and their countries.

TechnoServe has been operating in Mozambique since November 1997 when it received a $2.4 million grant from USAID to implement the Trade and Enterprise Development Program (TREND). Initially focusing on agribusiness opportunities (such as cashew, oil seed, pulses, and fruit), the organization is currently defining its strategy for developing new sectors in Mozambique – such as eco-tourism – and revitalizing existing sectors – such as wood products. TechnoServe Mozambique currently has three field offices (Lichinga in Niassa Province, Nampula in Nampula Province, and Chimoio in Manica Province) and services clients across several agribusiness sectors – confectionary nuts, high value horticulture, and field crops / animal feed / livestock – as well as non-agribusiness sectors, such as tourism and furniture.



DESCRIPTION OF POSITION 1 – BUSINESS ANALYST FOR NEW SEED INVESTMENT

In late 2003, TechnoServe Mozambique received funding from the IFC to assess the
potential for high value horticulture production in Mozambique’s Beira Corridor. As a
result of this study, TechnoServe is currently providing technical assistance to key clients in
vegetable, fruit, and floriculture production.

One of the needs for many of these clients is access to high quality seed. Qualita is a new
seed company recently created in Mozambique to produce top quality seed for export and
sales within Mozambique. The company’s founders are Bernard and Brenda Van Dyk,
who between them have over 20 years of experience in the seed and grain sectors in
Mozambique and South Africa. Presently, the company is negotiating with numerous seed
breeders such as INIA and CIMMYT for the multiplication, marketing and retail rights of
their genome. The company has secured horticultural seed that is expected to be sold to
central and northern Mozambique in March 2005.

The objective of this volunteer position is to create investor-ready business plan (which
includes a market assessment), financial model, and short investor presentation for
Qualita, which can be used by the client to raise additional capital.

PROJECT CONCEPT

Qualita is proposing to secure seed multiplication rights with existing seed genome
producing institutions. With these rights, Qualita will be able to contract out growers to
multiply the seed, which is then graded, packaged and marketed to farmers. The
profitability of this investment depends on efficient marketing and retailing in order to
ensure that the seed reaches the farmers. Qualita proposes to market seeds through field
days and retail seed through rural traders. Internationally, Qualita will export seed to
wholesalers and NGOs within the region.

1. Brief description of project.
2. Sponsorship, management and technical assistance:
§ History, structure and business of sponsor(s), including financial information.
§ Proposed management arrangement(s) and names and curricula vitae of managers.
§ Description of technical arrangements and other external assistance (management, production, marketing, finance, etc.).
3. Market and sales:
§ Basic market orientation: local, national, regional, or export.
§ Projected production volumes, unit prices, sales objectives, and market share of proposed venture.
§ Potential users of products and distribution channels to be used. Present sources of supply for products.
§ Future competition and possibility that market may be satisfied by substitute products.
§ Tariff protection or import restrictions affecting products.
§ Critical factors that determine market potential.
4. Technical feasibility, manpower, raw material resources, and environment:
§ Brief description of seed production and replication process.
§ Comments on special technical complexities and need for know-how and special skills.
§ Possible suppliers of equipment.
§ Availability of manpower and of infrastructure facilities (transport and communications, power, water, etc.).
§ Breakdown of projected operating costs by major categories of expenditures.
§ Source, cost, and quality of raw material supply and relations with support industries.
§ Import restrictions on required raw materials.
§ Proposed location in relation to suppliers, markets, infrastructure and manpower.
§ Proposed size in comparison with other known seed companies.
§ Potential environmental issues and how these issues are addressed.
5. Investment requirements, project financing, and returns:
§ Estimate of total project cost, broken down into land, construction, installed equipment, and working capital, indicating foreign exchange component.
§ Proposed financial structure of venture, indicating expected sources and terms of equity and debt financing.
§ Type of financing (loan, equity, quasi-equity, a combination of financial products, etc.) and amount requested from each potential source
§ Projected financial statement, information on profitability, and return on investment.
§ Critical factors determining profitability.
6. Government support and regulations:
§ Project in context of government economic development and investment program.
§ Specific government incentives and support available to project.
§ Expected contribution of project to economic development.
§ Outline of government regulations on exchange controls and conditions of capital entry and repatriation.
7. Timetable envisaged for project preparation and completion.

JOB LENGTH

Approximately 3-4 weeks commencing Friday, January 14 2005.


DESCRIPTION OF POSITION 2 – ‘TECHNOSERVE WAY’ TRAINER

In 2003, TechnoServe Mozambique launched the TNS Way training module for its professional business advisor staff. The purpose of this training is to help advisors learn a hypothesis-driven approach to problem solving for their rural enterprise clients. The TNS Way is modeled on McKinsey & Company’s successful business case approach and introduces tools such as issue trees, financial modeling, and matrices to better enable our staff to serve our clients’ needs.

As part of this new training approach, TechnoServe now wants to introduce a new set of diagnostic tools to be used by our advisors to better understand the profit drivers of their client’s businesses.

The primary activities of this volunteer position are to lead the two-day training module for all six TechnoServe Mozambique business advisors during the week of February 7th and then spend 3-5 days with each business advisor, helping the advisor use the new diagnostic tools for one of their existing clients. Following this exercise, each business advisor should be able to:

§ Perform the diagnostic analysis for every new client
§ Perform the diagnostic analysis for existing clients who are not necessarily analyzing their businesses in this way

JOB LENGTH

Approximately 6 weeks based on the following schedule:

February 7 – 11: Lead training and work with Quality advisor in Maputo
February 14 – 18: Work with Agribusiness advisor in Lichinga
February 21 – 25: Work with Tourism advisor in Lichinga / Manda Widlerness
February 28 – March 4: Work with Cashew advisor in Nampula
March 7 – 11: Work with Timber advisor in Beira
March 14 – 18: Work with Horticulture advisor in Chimoio

Testing testing one, two, three ...

Just checking that this blog-type thing works.

If it does, thanks for reading! =)