After months of planning, weeks of preparation, and five days of intensive training from 8am to 5pm, there is no doubt: stress and excitement is at an all time high for the six members of Team Nairobi. Robert Freele, Andrea Leung, Tom Collins, Adam Levine, Marc Sobrano and Eric Richmond are all current HBA students who are united by one thing: their decision to go beyond their peers standard summer work plans, and pursue a once in a lifetime experience educating local business students in Kenya.
The past week has been filled with each team member presenting cases in front of the class, receiving training on the local culture and analyzing how to provide the best case-learning experience for their students. The location team is split into two teaching-teams, who each have responsibility for presenting in front of 50 students. HBAs also have the opportunity to publish a case for Ivey (written on a local Nairobian business) and to conduct interviews with numerous entrepreneurs in the informal sector. This sector provides jobs to hundreds of thousands of Kenyan nationals, and will contribute to the novel research coordinated by Ivey professors Oana Branzei and Nicole Haggerty. It offers a chance for business leaders to significantly improve their understanding of how people start, operate and grow their businesses in this environment.
Nairobi, popularly known as the “Green City in the Sun”, is the capital and largest city in Kenya, boasting a population of almost 3.2 Million inhabitants. The economy is fueled by a broad range of sectors from tourism to financial services to a diversified industrial core responsible for producing food, beer, vehicles, soaps, construction material, engineering, textiles, and chemicals.
May is one of the wettest months of the year in Nairobi, with an average of 17 ‘wet days’ and almost 160 mm of rainfall. With average highs and lows of 22 and 13 degrees Celsius respectively, the team is preparing for a hot, humid month ahead, but they cannot wait to get started!