Nothing beats face-to-face communication

Today was one of those days that reinforces what you “know” anecdotally, but it strikes you in a shocking way even when it happens. Overall, we had a very good and a very productive day. Our whole team (8 IBMers plus CDC partners) met with all of our clients to review and revise scopes of work, then present our work plan to the entire extended team.

Barbara, the Ghana focal point for CDC (cdc.org) is an amazing woman. I already told you she is beautiful, warm, friendly, and helpful. But she is also savvy! She is intelligent (asking lots of good questions and offering great business ideas), and very considerate with people while keeping a group on task. I am very impressed with her and I know I can learn a lot from her, both personally and professionally. She has done a great job organizing the information we have received over the last few days, so it builds in a logical way rather than overwhelming us.

Five members of our team are assigned to various projects within the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ghanachamber.org). We learned more details about the projects today: a business incubator, a (virtual and physical) knowledge center, a website redesign, and a strategic plan for GNCCI. They have some great plans and I am looking forward to seeing it work.

The other three of us are assigned to the Association of Ghana Industries (agighana.org), so Seth (Head of their Business Development Unit) shared AGI’s founding (by a woman more than 50 years ago) and history, as well as their vision and mission today. Finally, he highlighted their focus areas and current projects, helping us understand how IBM (and the previous IBM Corporate Service Corps teams) fits into the picture.

Next, we heard from our two clients: Multiwall Paper Sack and West West Agroprocessing. Multiwall is over 30 years old, and they manufacture paper sacks for cement and cocoa processing facilities. West West is a start-up, and they manufacture pepper paste and mashed peppers for cooking. The consulting assignment for West West is challenging yet straightforward:
- Study the current operations of the company
- Identify key areas of strength and weaknesses
- Develop a supply chain for reliable supply of raw materials
- Advise on market sources and potential market strategy
- Advise on appropriate packaging strategy

Multiwall is going to be the wild horse for us, and I am betting that she wins. We probably received ~10 pages of information on Multiwall before we arrived, and we assembled a basic outline of what our approach would be. We planned to share that information with the client today, make some adjustments, and gain their buy-in to a revised Statement of Work and our approach via a work plan. As Multiwall presented to the entire extended team, we learned more about their history, process, supply chain, customers, costs, and all of the “normal” factors that you would expect given the statement of work that we received (you might recall that they requested a “a complete diagnostics of the entire business and help determine the possible options and recommend the way forward”). We asked a lot of questions that we thought were insightful and would help us so we could revise the SOW this afternoon.

After a delicious lunch of spicy barracuda (I think it is the best fish I have ever had, and I wasn’t the only one who commented all afternoon about how delicious it was), we broke into smaller teams to revise our work plans and prepare to present them to the entire team at the end of the day. During what was supposed to be a 30-minute discussion to essentially validate our assumptions and agree on a plan, we asked a lot of relational and political questions (the kind you can’t ask over email or over the phone, the kind where you need to be able to view the other people’s body language and listen carefully to their tone). Without giving away all the juicy details, I’ll just say that we quickly learned that NONE of the issues that had been previously surfaced or discussed were the real issue that needs to be immediately addressed. So we threw out the work plan entirely, revised the three key objectives, and placed a financial restructuring goal at the top of the list with a very short timeframe. Yes, we know that is a lofty goal, but it’s critical.

Starting tomorrow morning, Ananda, Rosa, and I are setting out to work on something that we never could have expected or anticipated. The good news is that they both have strong finance backgrounds, and Ananda keeps telling me that my sales skills will be critical as we go to bat with the banks on Multiwall’s behalf. Please wish us luck (and pray for a miracle, seriously) as we embark on this project. It’s much more tangible and exciting than I think any of us expected, and yet significantly more “hangs in the balance” for us than we might have imagined.

So, back to my original point: we all “know” how important in-person meetings are when you kick off a project, even if the team will function virtually. But even in this day of amazing technology, NOTHING can take the place of eye-to-eye, face-to-face, in-person meetings. We could have spent a month working on all the wrong things if we had just operated based on email and phone correspondence. And instead, we’re lucky enough to be here in Takoradi, and Kojo is picking us up at the hotel tomorrow to start this adventure.

P.S. I was already enamored with our hosts, and I am growing more enamored every day. The hotel staff is so gracious! This evening I asked what time the stores closed (so I can buy some hangers, candles, matches, essential oil, and a few other items), and then ended up deciding that I can buy those items on my lunch break tomorrow when I am working near the stores. This evening, as I started to type my blog after dinner (carrot soup and the kenkey that Carolyn despised), Nana knocked on my door to bring me candles and delicious essential oil, which is now burning in my room making it smell like heaven. Charles, Nana, Helena, Samson, Kobina, Solomon, and the rest of the staff are truly making me feel at home, and I am so happy to be here with their warm smiles and friendliness! Can it get any better?