Recipe for a successful Kick-off 2015

Last Friday the official Kick-off of the New Business Challenge (NBC) 2015 took place simultaneously in The Hague and Accra. In this blog we share our recipe with you.

Ingredients

• 60 pre-selected candidates in The Netherlands
• 40 pre-selected candidates in Ghana
• 2 coaches in both countries
• 3 participants from last year in both countries
• 10 company representatives from 5 companies in both countries
• 1 confetti canon
• Big dose of enthousiasm

Directions

Mix everything in one day and add some occasional spices.

Jeroen Roodenburg, ‎Ambassador Private Sector & International Cooperation officially opened the Kick-off in The Hague with confetti and some last advice: ‘Do you have ambition? Keep trying to get where you want to be’.

Two hours later (because of the time difference), also the Ghanaian pre-selected candidates gathered in Accra. During a live Skype connection, the Dutch and Ghanaians candidates already got the chance to see each other and have a little chat. Hereafter everyone could start the hard work where three things were essential: Duo formation; Learning on Intercultural collaboration and understanding the business case. In Ghana Samuel Waterberg, entrepreneur and board member of GNBCC with a Dutch and Ghanaian background, gave candidates some insights in important aspects of intercultural communication. Waterberg explained for example that in the Netherlands business culture is quite informal compared to Ghana. You don’t call your boss your boss, but rather your colleague, and you call him/her by his/her first name: ‘In the Netherlands only dogs have a boss’. During lunch time, a Dutch boss lines up in the queue in the cafeteria, just like everyone else in the company. In Ghana the boss has his lunch brought to him/her. These are things candidates have to be aware of when working together during the challenge and approaching companies.

With this information in mind, all company representatives explained their business case, after which also individual appointments could be made to ask for more input. This information all had to be turned into a business idea suited to the Ghanaian market. Therefore participants also used the knowledge of participants of last year who shared their experience. The biggest challenge that candidates had was not to come up with a good idea, but to focus on one good idea. As one of the participants said: ‘I am so enthusiastic I want to present and research ten ideas for the company in Ghana’.

Nutrition

At the end of the day the mixing of all ingredients resulted in 6 pitches in each country on the business of every company. Participants presented their business idea, their qualities and the reason why companies should take them to participate in the study trip to The Hague and Accra.

Hereafter it became a challenge for the company representatives as they had to make a decision on the final selection. Marten Susebeek from Susteq: ‘I was very impressed with the high quality of the presentations of the candidates. This made it a difficult task to select’. Some company representatives have thought about it all weekend long, but now all participants have been selected and informed, in total 20 from Ghana and 20 from The Netherlands will participate in the New Business Challenge Ghana 2015. This week, duos from both countries will be linked to each other to form mixed teams. In the next couple of weeks, they can get to know each other online and work towards the Preparation workshop at July 9^th (Ghana) and 10^th (Netherlands).

Check the movie and pictures of the Kick-off day here and at our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NBCGhana2015.