Babson takes competitive spirit to Ghana

By Katie Trant

SEKONDI, Ghana — More than 2,500 people waited in suspense for Babson College Dean Dennis Hanno to announce the champion of the Babson Cup. There were 20 qualified business plans and hundreds of eager high school students, but only one winner could prevail in the end.

Saturday marked Babson’s third annual business plan competition held at the Assemblies of God church in Sekondi, Ghana. Ten days ago, I embarked on a journey to Ghana’s central and western region with 45 fellow members of the Babson community. Our mission was to share our knowledge of entrepreneurship and to provide those we mentored with the tools and resources necessary to start their own businesses. Most importantly, we challenged those we worked with to recognize the possibilities in their communitities.

Upon arriving in Ghana, our group was instantly welcomed by the inviting culture. I spent my first day in Accra working with an intelligent group of students from Ashesi University with whom I will be collaborating to start a microfund for their student entrepreneurs. For the duration of our trip, we were hosted at the Assemblies of God church in Sekondi. Dean Hanno, the director of the business plan program, has had a longstanding relationship with Reverend Andoh, the pastor of the church.

Throughout the school week, we worked with high school students and members of various churches. I was very fortunate to travel to Cape Coast with my partner, Carolyn Cesario, for five days and teach entrepreneurship to a classroom of more than 50 students. As the week unfolded, the students began to catch on to the business concepts we were teaching. With a strong passion to learn, the group amazed me when they completed their final presentations on Friday morning. These students had never heard of the term entrepreneurship, and after only 10 hours of instruction, each of the eight groups in the class had completed a business plan. Their ideas were creative, inspiring, and most importantly, feasible for these high school students to start after we leave Ghana. The winning idea from my school was to write and produce short stories. This would help address the problem of illiteracy in the Ghanaian community. The students realized that reading materials were not easily accessible, and more importantly they were very expensive. By writing the stories themselves and printing them on only one sheet of paper, they would be able to provide stories for a low cost. I was proud of my entire class for the work that they completed, and waited in anticipation for the competition on Saturday.
Peter Hoffman photo

The Fijai team won the Babson Cup with its business plan — making low-cost soap.
The business plan competition was scheduled to start at 3 o’clock on Saturday afternoon. The high schools and eager supporters began to arrive hours before. As my group huddled together to put the finishing touches on its presentation, I could not help but be overwhelmed by the excitement in the church. Each group was given five minutes to present its business plan, and as the competition progressed there were many innovative business ideas. In the end, three teams stood above the rest. Placing third was Cape Coast Tech with the idea to use bambook trash containers for sustainable waste collection. Archbishop Porter ranked second with the plan to create compost soil and resell the compost in old water sachet bags with growing plants. The deserving winner of the Babson Cup was a team that had competed in the competition in the past two years without ever placing — the Fijai team. This team developed the most concrete and feasible idea, which was to produce soap at a very low cost as compared with its competitors, making it accessible to those who could not afford this product normally. The Fijai team even brought sample products to the competiton to show the judges. All in all, the business plan competition was a great success in the central and western regions. Hopefully, one day this competition will be a national event.

This was the most rewarding and humbling experience of my life. Not only did we travel to Ghana and learn more about the country, we were truly integrated into the culture by having the opportunity to teach and share the knowledge we have learned at Babson.

To learn how you can blog for Passport, e-mail Lydia Rebac at lrebac@globe.com