The 2nd of April, The BIG day

Home in Copenhagen, the Easter break is at its highest. However, to us in Kampala this is the big day. People showed up in their finest clothing, ready to seize the final day of group work between the MUBS and the CBS students and to learn about the results of the projects that had cost us all hard work and sweat, but most importantly, that gave us joy and learning. MUBS provided lunch: Matoke, rice, chapatti, spinach, groundnut source, some meat, and a nice cold beverage against the heat. 

Thursday in the night, we had a good-bye dinner. Despite the fact that many of the MUBS students normally had classes in the night, most of them managed to show up for this last dinner, which completed the evening. An excellent ending to some extraordinary weeks.   

Team and Project Introduction - Microfinance

Our group consists of four students: Azizi (Uganda), Vincent (Uganda), Marie (Denmark) and Solveig (Germany). Our overall topic is “Private Sector Development and the Influence of Microfinance”. The private sector is seen as the engine of growth of the Ugandan economy and a central pillar for increasing income, creating employment and, consequently, reducing poverty on a sustainable basis. Microfinance is the provision of financial services to small enterprises. It is seen as a possibility to reduce poverty and it can be found widely in Uganda. The most common financial instrument is microcredit or micro lending.

However, only a few microenterprises experience sustained growth, while the majority grows only a little or maintains their operations at a constant level. The success of a microfinance program in terms of outreach, financial sustainability and/or socio-economic impact, depends on an interaction between the characteristics of the program itself, both its design and the way it is managed and the context in which the program is implemented. We are specifically interested in how far, training provided by the Microfinance Institution (MFI), has a positive impact on the survival of microenterprises. We have been conducting in-depth interviews at the Nakawa Market in the centre of Kampala. We have been talking to various entrepreneurs as well as to MFIs, in order to approach our research question: “To what extent are training programs provided by microfinance institutions perceived as beneficial to their clients?”

March 21th - Trip to Jinja

On Saturday 21^st all the CBS students and a big part of the MUBS group joined for a trip to Jinja. During the two hours drive we could see the Mabira forest, tea fields, sugarcane plantations and different roadside business set ups. In Jinja, we visited Kakira sugar factory where we heard a presentation about the company and made a tour in the facilities that gave us insights of how sugar is processed. Afterwards, we visited the source of the river Nile where we made a boat ride and enjoyed the peaceful and relaxing atmosphere at the Nile.

March 20th - First Research Interview of the Dream Team

On this Friday, the dream team, analyzing Corporate Entrepreneurship in Uganda, had its first research interview with David Mukholi, a managing editor at The Vision Group, Uganda’s biggest Media house. The interview definitely met our expectations. It was fun filled and David provided all the information we needed to cover our questions. With Frank Kabushenga organizing the meeting, we were warmly welcomed and felt at home. David broke it down by answering questions on New Vision’s background and the different innovations that have taken place in the company. David gave us a tour within the different departments to have a practical feel of how the company operates.

In the evening, many CBS as well as MUBS students gathered in order to enjoy Kampala’s nightlife together. The MUBS students suggested Legends, a bar with an ample open-air area and local music. Meeting up in a more casual atmosphere, outside university gave us the chance to get to know each other better and to explore local culture.

Saturday, March 28th - Relaxing and Getting Inspired in Entebbe

On Saturday, we headed off to Entebbe with 14 people. It started quite cozy, all in one of the big Taxis (Matatus). We enjoyed some relaxing hours at the beach, watching the Lake Viktoria and then went to the Wildlife Park. Some touched the elephant Charlie and others got frightened by the big python snake. The last hours before heading home were spent in a nice Indian Restaurant with a beautiful view at sports beach. 

Friday, March 27th - Another Day in the Field

Today was a great day for our project. We (Patrick, Innocent and Sven Benjamin) met at 9 am at MUBS Annex Campus and gathered in order to decide on how to make the most out of the day. We knew that we needed to be at Makere University at 2 pm to speak with an interesting entrepreneur but the rest of the day was yet unplanned. We decided to crash some "gates" and visited a startup incubator to find out if we could get some quality interviews. We went to Angels HUB and had a nice talk with a 23 old entrepreneur who is facilitating sales between individuals via a mobile app. It was quite impressive how he programmed his app and already had some good traffic on it. We then got surprisingly a skype call with one of our favorite entrepreneurs who created tech4farmers. It is a website and mobile application for farmers so that they can find out about market prices and already put out their offers instead of going to market and maybe wait all day until someone bites the hook. At 2 pm finally we talked to Matibabu, an innovative startup that uses a smartphone extension to carry out malaria tests. Quite impressive what these entrepreneurs are doing.

16th of March - The first day!

The first day! 

First time tea break, which in Uganda is not an afternoon tea, but a morning tea at 11am with fried donuts (which in Uganda are not round but sticks) and samosa’s, delicious Indian style fried vegetable triangles and of course tea. 

As if that did not fill us up… 1pm lunchtime: First time Ugandan traditional meal, and definitely not the last time! We were introduced to the typical lunchtime dish which is a composition of carbs: Matoke (plantane mash), steam cooked Irish potato (which at home we just call ‘potato‘), brown beans, rice, ground nut sauce (which we could call ‘peanut’ sauce) and greens. Fun fact: In Uganda the yearly consumption of Matoke is 172 kilo’s per person. Which makes you think, because eating half a kilo a day of plantane mash is quite an achievement. 

Svenja’s birthday. Yes, straight on the first day we celebrated the first birthday. Secretly, Nina and Pernille organized a cake for Svenja (picked up on their first boda boda ride). The cake turned out to be a true white iced wedding cake. Missing bride and groom, but not less delicious.  

As you can read, the first day was a lot about first time food. In the morning, we had a long round of introductions of CBS and MUBS professors. We met our research teams for the first time and went straight to the point: what challenges to expect when working together? Stereotypes and challenges of intercultural group work were written down to ensure that we were not going to make those same mistakes (which obviously are going to be made). Probably this is just an ex ante reminder of the inevitable ¨I told you so¨ by professors.

To round up the last 1^st timers: as the evening before we had our 1^st 2 hour wait for food (which turned out to be long, but not exceptional in Ugandan restaurants) and our 1^st salsa dance class in a Jazz club in the middle of Africa. - Which does sound like a random combination BUT, for some reason did do the trick and lured the CBS girls to the dance floor. -This night most took a safe bet and decided to go for a quick meal and straight to our 1^st night out at club Liquid. Not so local, but not less fun. The heat of the day had made place for a cold breeze. We danced away, but as this was just the 1^st night, it ended nice and early, saving our energy for the days to come. 

All in all, it the 1^st day was full of 1^st and left us hungry for 2^nds, keep posted for more!

Weekend update

On Saturday, a big group of students got crammed in to a "matatu" (a local taxi, hop on hop off service, with room for many people) and went to Entebbe. This is a city outside Kampala that hosts the airport and is located beautifully next to Lake Victoria. 

First we spent some time at the beach, followed by a short "boda boda" ride to Entebbe Wildlife Education Center (check it out: http://www.uweczoo.org/) and saw many many different animals. Among them the elephant Charles, wild monkeys running around, giraffes, zebras, peacocks, chimps, snakes, you name it. 

We ended the trip by having a nice dinner at a big restaurant, with the view of Lake Victoria (unfortunately too dark to see anything), and then we took taxi home. 

A great Saturday, for sure, just check out the following pictures: 

Matatu-selfie

 

Lake Victoria view #1

 Lake Victoria view #2

 Charles, the elephant

 An elegant giraffe

 

 A very proud peacock

 A relaxed monkey

 

Lake Victoria view #4

 

Beautiful lions

 Rhino

Another Matatu selfie :)

Team and Project Introductions - Microfinance

Hi, we are Norman & Lindah from Makerere University Business School and Philip & Dina from Copenhagen Business School. Currently we are working on a joint research project in Kampala. Our research project is on the topic of microfinance; in particular we focus on the reasons for high default rates in in small-scale business loans in Uganda and how they can be avoided. Therefore, we have decided to conduct qualitative interviews with several lenders of microfinance loans from different financial institutions ranging from large commercial banks to small non-regulated institutions. During our first days we found out how important getting access to networks in Uganda is and that a maximum of 15 minutes scheduled for an interview can easily lead to a lively discussion over many hours. We also had the opportunity to talk to several members of a Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) whose meeting took place in the middle of a busy local market. Yet, surprisingly this turned out to be an interesting informal concept of lending and borrowing money to one another. A methodology with one of the lowest default rates in the microfinance industry that helps to empower poor people.

Team and Project Introductions – Social Entrepreneurship

We are a team of four people. William and Marvin from Makerere University Business School and Xin Yi and Nicolas from Copenhagen Business School. We are doing research on social entrepreneurship in Kampala. Instead of delving into the question of whether the tangible outcome of these social enterprises have been a success, the focus of our project revolves around the differences and similarities on the actual processes used to create social value of the individuals and the organizations that contribute to do so. This has allowed to study whether and how learning takes place in the process, and to find out how social entrepreneurs detect and manage problems and errors and whether they learn from those failures and change their behavior accordingly. 

The people we have interviewed have been very inspiring and the teamwork process has been all the way through a very fun(!) and interesting experience so far.

Cultural evening!

On Wednesday evening we went to Ndere Culture Center in central Kampala, and cultural it was! It was a perfectly warm evening and we were sitting outside, eating a buffet with Ugandan food and watching some amazing performances. We saw local dances from North, West and Central Uganda and even Rwanda AND Burundi!

The MC (Master of Ceremony/host) of the evening was a very funny guy, and in the end we were all dancing in a African dance-circle on stage. We are not exaggerating...

Here comes a few pictures...

 

Team and Project Introduction - Young Entrepreneurship

The Role of Social Capital among Young Entrepreneurs

Our team consists of Ameria and Esau from Makere University Business School and Pia and Lea from Copenhagen Business School.

We are doing field work related to the theory of social capital among young entrepreneurs in the Nakawa market in Kampala. Thereby we are analyzing the influence social networks can have on different resources, such as capital/financing, contacts to customers and suppliers and business related skills and knowledge by using qualitative (focus group discussion and in-depth interviews) and quantitative research methods. Due to the lack of formal institutions, which help young entrepreneurs to attain access to these resources, the social networks are of major importance for the business success of young entrepreneurs. 

Some pictures..

 

Another day at the Bugolobi market

 

"Seeking knowledge to serve" - in front of MUBS main campus

 

Scenery from the bus - on our way to Jinja

 

View from MUBS main campus

 

"Stranded" on our way home from Jinja.. Waiting for a bus

Team and Project Introductions - Private Sector Initiative

Our group is comprised of four people; Hedda and Mariann from Copenhagen Business School and Ester and Fredrick from Makerere University Business School. We are working with the theme “Private sector initiatives.” 
 
We are interested in the fact that Ugandan private started businesses, especially the Micro-enterprises consisting of 1-5 people, die before they celebrate their first birthday. This is a severe hindrance to the growth of the Ugandan economy, as much of the economy consist of microenterprises/SMEs (small/medium enterprises). 

Our study is thus focused on whether the micro enterprise owners find the use of social networks in the growth of their businesses important. Our research question is the following: “How has social networks contributed to the growth of the Ugandan Micro-Enterprises?; Case of restaurant owners in Bugolobi Market”. So far we have done 30 quantitative interviews, and 4 qualitative interviews. We are excited about what we will find, and thankful that so many people have been open to be interviewed by us. We have also learned a lot about female entrepreneurship as 90% of the people we have interviewed are women. 

Other than that, we have a pretty awesome team spirit (for real), and enjoy each others company a lot. Just look at us: 

Team and Project Introductions - Social Entrepreneurship

We are Ivaney and Esther from Makerere University Business School and Anne and Sigrid from Copenhagen Business School. We are doing research on social entrepreneurship in Kampala. There is no general agreement among scholars on how to define concept of social entrepreneurship; some even question if it is a distinct concept in itself. Social entrepreneurship can be anything from a non-profit organization using a business model with income generation as a means to a social goal, to a for-profit business with CSR activities on the side. In our study, we are exploring how Ugandan social entrepreneurs fit into the structures described in the literature. 

So far we have talked to seven entrepreneurs, and although we are still discussing the extent to which some of them can be defined as social enterprises, we can all agree that they are undoubtedly inspiring people with impressive stories to tell. Among others, we have met Bwaise slum youth with a mission to transform their home community through singing, dancing and theater performances, and Benedicte, first ridiculed, but now famous throughout Uganda for founding a business making bags out of used straws and using the profits to finance her community NGO. We are looking forward to our last interviews in the field the coming days.

Team and Project Introductions - Female Entrepreneurs

Hi, we are Mercy and Geofrey from MUBS and Amanda and Svenja from CBS. Our research project focuses on female entrepreneurs from Kampala and on how they create a balance between their business life and their family life. Compared to countries in the global North, Uganda displays much higher rates of female entrepreneurship. However, these women still face a number of gender related barriers to engage in entrepreneurship and to grow their business while, on the other hand, they need to take care of their children and the household. So these women tend to struggle in finding their right balance in life.

There is indication that many women engage in entrepreneurship because of necessity but it also enables them to be more independent and responsible for their lives. Ugandan woman now receive increased attention from policy makers, the private sector and development organizations. The promotion of female entrepreneurship is often viewed as a key tool to poverty alleviation and women empowerment.

To find out more about their challenges, fears and also potential solutions and coping strategies we talk to women at the local market place in Kampala as well as to successful female entrepreneurs who are running small or medium sized enterprises. We examine the barriers as well as the opportunities, the role of social networks, the impact of the institutional environment and, most important, to which extent entrepreneurship leads to women empowerment. We are excited about what we’ll find out! :)

Team and Project Introductions - Corporate Entrepreneurship

We are Marianne and Samuel from Copenhagen Business School and Isaac and Robert from Makerere University Business School. Our group aka “the dreamteam” is researching Corporate Entrepreneurship in Uganda’s Print Media Sector. More specifically we are trying to find out why and how Uganda’s big media houses diversify and innovate by analyzing entrepreneurship within the New Vision Group, the main player in the industry, and Red Pepper another big competitor. Global trends as well as other internal and external forces are causing companies in this extremely dynamic industry to be innovative. Moreover, some socioeconomic facts are conditioning the entrepreneurial activities of the Media Houses in Uganda.

Team and Project Introductions - Youth Entrepreneurship

Our group consists of Maggie, Brenda and Kareem from MUBS and Pernille and Nina from CBS.  We are doing the project on youth entrepreneurship in the fashion industry. We are looking into the growth aspirations of the young entrepreneurs and the challenges they face. One of the big challenges is the Chinese competitors, which supplies cheaper mass produced clothes than the Ugandans can produce. Also the industry is extremely scattered, and the designers we talk to hardly even know each other exist.

Today, we interviewed the editor of Ugandas biggest fashion magasin “Flair” and she told us about how the fashion industry in Uganda has gone from literally nothing to an attractive industry in just 20 years. Over the last couple of days we have also interviewed five designers and some models. Some of the designers have big visions for Ugandas future. Today, we talked to an inspiring designer, who, besides running her business, had a big focus on empowering women through education.

Tomorrow we start out again with a number of interviews, so we hope that we will survive the drive there as Nina and Pernille are still getting used to the Uganda traffic rules.. or lack thereof :)

Team and Project Introductions - First up! - Entrepreneurship with Social Impact -

This is the team and project description from Benjamin (Sven), Innocent and Patrick:

The team is comprised of Patrick and Innocent from Makerere University Business School and Sven Benjamin from Copenhagen Business School. Our research is focused on entrepreneurs using mobile technology and create social impact on society. We look at social impact, as improvements in health, finance, security & education.

There is a hot debate whether information and communication technology (ICT) can contribute to social and economic development. We have been attracted by the topic as ICT and especially mobile technology has changed the lives of many people in the developing world.

In particular, we want to find out if and how mobile technology services are improving health, finance, security and education for the people in Uganda.

Welcome to the MUBS-CBS blog 2015!

The blog is now up and running. We have already been here for a week and we are excited for people to share their experiences so far! Stay tuned to both posts about the individual projects as well as posts about our days and experiences in amazing Uganda..