The LEADER Project provides current and aspiring entrepreneurs with the analytical tools, thought processes, and decision-making skills to tackle complex business challenges. LEADER instructors (Ivey HBA and MBA students and alumni) deliver a two-week intensive program of cases, lectures, and coaching. LEADER is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2022. As part of the celebration, David Guo, HBA ’22, wrote about his experience teaching in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In May 2022, I spent two weeks in the beautiful city of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina coaching budding entrepreneurs on business fundamentals using the Ivey case-method of teaching. As one of five instructors sent from Ivey to Sarajevo, I was able to build meaningful connections, help entrepreneurs develop frameworks for their businesses, and learn from a dynamic group of students about what it takes to be an entrepreneur and about the social and economic realities of conducting business in Bosnia. Ultimately, this experience facilitated my own growth as a leader. And while I hope to have passed forward lessons I learned as a student at Ivey, I left Sarajevo also feeling the impact that the students had on me.
How I joined LEADER
In my first year at Ivey Business School, I sought experiences that allowed me to both share what I’ve learned through my pre-Ivey program in international relations, and helped me to develop as a leader. The LEADER Project seemed like a perfect fit. Its mission statement, to encourage entrepreneurship in developing economies, resonated with me and I was also excited to become a “professor” for two weeks. I joined LEADER’s Logistics Committee, and in 2021, served as the site captain for the Nepal team. Although we couldn’t travel to Kathmandu that year, we ran a successful program over Zoom. I loved learning about the students’ business ideas during these two weeks! These ideas included a mountain trekking company, a scarf shop, and an avocado farm. Even though teaching on Zoom was a challenge, the experience was so overwhelmingly positive that I was more than excited to return with LEADER in 2022 to teach in-person.
Teaching in Bosnia
In my second year with LEADER, I was excited to actually stand in front of a classroom full of students. In Bosnia, I taught lectures on financial statements, communications, and leadership, while also facilitating the operations case Earth Buddy, which is also the first case that HBA1 students complete in Operations. I was very nervous and thought, What makes me qualified to teach financial statements to a group of adults? My nervousness faded away as I realized that my students were there because they were eager to learn and felt that what we had to say was valuable. We were fortunate to have a small enough group that I was also able to personally meet with students who struggled with concepts such as Cost of Goods Sold versus Operating Expenses. I realized how much I had learned during my time in university and was glad to now teach others.
After a few days of quantitative classes, I got to run a communications workshop (“yes!,” exclaimed Elena, a graphic designer who was unfamiliar with accounting principles but loved topics such as communications and leadership). My students played “slideshow karaoke” to get comfortable with public speaking. This was a throwback to my own orientation week at Ivey when students had to present the content on a PowerPoint slide without previous knowledge of what the slide would contain. Students also prepared their elevator pitches and presented them to the entire class. I was glad to see everybody being supportive of each other and encouraging the shy students to speak up, while also providing valuable feedback.
The last day of the program was the business pitch presentations and I was proud and happy to see the students applying the lessons that we had taught.
This was the perfect way to end my Ivey experience. I was grateful to be able to pass on the same lessons that I had learned during my two years at Ivey. I encourage all students coming into HBA1 to participate in The LEADER Project. I’d like to thank Restart.ba and Hub387 for hosting us in Sarajevo, as well as the students for welcoming me to their beautiful city and country and making this experience one I will never forget!
