Guest Blogger: M-Profesa

 This month, I interviewed Eric Kuto and Josphat Magutt, creators of M-Profesa. M-Profesa is a web platform that allows Kenyan students to customize their learning experience. The tool focuses in particular on exam preparation for secondary school students. Here are a few excerpts from the interview: 

What Inspired You to Create M-Profesa?
"The Internet has profoundly changed the way we learn, communicate, entertain ourselves and do our work. Arguably, its role as a democratizing force and the generally lower cost (of accessibility) have been major factors in boosting its popularity. As such, the Internet will most likely continue to influence political, social and economic life in Kenya just as it has in other countries.
 
Education however, is the one key area in which the Internet’s full potential has not yet been realized, especially in our part of the world. Relative to the developed world, cost and accessibility issues are much more important in determining the extent to which the Internet changes the lives of people, as are computer literacy, availability of sufficient technical expertise, and cultural bias towards or against electronic technologies.

Having gone through the Kenyan school system, and experiencing the inherent challenges, we concluded that existing technologies (particularly web and mobile) could help lessen some of the problems that we had faced: 

- A shortage of books could be alleviated by availing the vast amounts of knowledge online
- A web application could reach many more students than a single teacher could
- The web could provide additional ways of relaying educational content 
- Learning could be made adaptable to the student’s personal needs.
 
We'd really like to give current students the tools necessary to mitigate the challenges we faced as high school students."

What's Your Vision for M-Profesa?

  

Despite all of its [sometimes overwhelming] advantages, technology, I believe, cannot and should not overrun human to human interactions. For me, the ideal M-Profesa will not replace the teacher; instead it will complement the efforts of the teacher.

As we stated earlier, the Internet is a great democratizing tool. Democratizing in the essential socio-political sense. Think of ideas like equality, openness, freedom of expression, collaboration, justice and fairness. Well, that is not quite true [yet], at least in Kenya. Let’s consider equality for now. We do not have universal (i.e, equal) access to these technologies for a number of reasons, but cost being on top. Socio-economic disparity in Kenya is quite astonishing, and to say that the Internet will rectify that situation would not be quite accurate, at least as things stand. But things can change, a little at a time, starting with education.


In addition  to supplementing classroom education, we hope that M-Profesa will contribute towards progress in these areas.

Ultimately, we envision a learning platform where students and teachers can interact freely (free as in “free speech”, not necessarily “free beer”) and openly. A much higher (perhaps loftier) goal would be to introduce and lead discourse on the goals of public education and the direction that Kenyan school curriculum should take."


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Can Socially Responsible Businesses Replace Aid?

Over the last few years there has been a trend amongst entrepreneurs to not just start businesses, but also positively impact society. There are businesses which fund education, microfinance initiatives, disease and poverty eradication among others. Can and should these types of businesses replace traditional aid? Share your thoughts!!

 


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Building A Culturally Smart Business

Building a successful business requires that you:

 Identify what customers want

Create a clear strategy explaining how you’ll provide it

Develop a strong set of numbers to explain why your idea makes sense

But unless your business is “culturally smart”, your efforts may go to waste. A “culturally smart” business is one that is aware of and actively making efforts towards, adapting to the culture of the environment in which it operates.  What does this mean for African entrepreneurs? It means that an approach which is successful in the West, might not work as well here.    

Let’s take look at marketing for example. Traditional Western advertising focuses on TV, Radio, Billboards and the Web. While these forms of outreach can create some measure of success, it’s also important to think about how African s learn. Our society is one that is close knit and as a result many of our interactions, whether business or personal, are based on referral. Friends and family tell you about something or someone and this becomes the standard against which you make decisions. Our reliance on referrals also implies that we highly value personalized services. If we patronize your business and you don’t make an effort to remember our name and greet us, we’re not coming back.

What does this mean for African entrepreneurs? You can still invest some resources in traditional advertising. After all, the African consumer is constantly evolving and with improved access to television and the internet, these forms of outreach are becoming more relevant. At the same time however, it is important to remember where you are and who you’re working with.  What’s the best way to reach African consumers?

Find out where your customers are and go meet them

Don’t just tell them how your product works, show them

 Let them know where they can find you if they have questions

Identify early adopters of your product and build a local network amongst them to establish credibility

Good Luck!

 


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Managing Talent The Right Way

Running your own business often involves a great deal of multitasking, particularly when you're on your own and don't have a team. You end up being your own accountant, secretary, PR manager and strategist.

At some point though, as your business and the number of clients you are serving grows, it may become necessary to expand your team. You can do this by outsourcing certain tasks to a third party contractor, or by hiring. In addition to choosing an individual with the right set of skills and cultural fit, it's also important to consider your responsibility to your employees. The best type of working relationship, is one in which all of the parties involved can achieve tangible benefits in a supportive environment. How does this apply to your relationship with your employees?

When Is It The Right Time To Put Up Your Defenses?

Being an entrepreneur comes with a number of challenges. You need to find funding, a market for your products, the right team and the right level of protection for your ideas. In some cases it is appropriate to consider your ideas to be worthy of a patent and fall under the protections of intellectual property. Increasingly though, as more and more small businesses are using collaboration as a way to grow, there is another defense that they’re bringing to the table: Non-disclosure Agreements (NDAs).

Our First Event!

A little over one week ago, we held the first installation of our monthly training series, The Business Deep Dive Series. These sessions are an opportunity to meet and interact with new and existing users, walk them through how Start Smart’s online bookkeeping portal works and also engage in discussion on relevant business issues. This session was held at the Vodafone Cafe on High Street in Accra and ran from 10:30-11:30 am, on Saturday April 6th.

The discussion topic was “The Power of a Strong Business Vision”, so we focused on what a vision is, what a good one sounds like and how business owners can hold themselves accountable to their vision.

Thanks to those who were able to attend and for those who weren’t, we look forward to seeing you at a future session!

Interested in attending future sessions or staying connected with us:

Learn more about the training series

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Visit us on the web: www.startsmartgh.com Send us an email: startsmart.info@gmail.com

House of Cramer

House of Cramer, is a fashion blog which was created by aspiring fashionistas Afua Rida and Supriya Wassiamal. The blog focuses on promoting fashion and culture in Africa. Recently, I had the opportunity to interact with the two and learn more about their initiative. 

What Inspired You To Create A Fashion Blog?

"We created the blog to highlight Ghana's unique contribution to and perspective on fashion in Africa. Most of the fashion blogs that are currently available are from Nigeria. While this is a large market with much to offer we thought, why not put our 2 cents in?"

Why Is Your Blog Unique And Why Should Africans Read It?

"The majority of West African fashion blogs focus on designer's seasonal collections and celebrity trends. But what about the ordinary African? Who is capturing how they're relating to contemporary fashion? Our blog tries to close this gap, by picking everyday items of clothing and accessories and showing people practical ways that they can be worn to enhance their look for every occasion. Through this we hope to communicate how fundamental fashion is to our culture and in the process, position ourselves as the kind of stylists that the Ghanaian fashion industry needs. The message that we're communicating though isn't just to show the outside world what African fashion is made of, it's for us Africans too. Fashion is a part of our culture and it's important for us to be able to make our contribution. Our blog achieves this by being relatable and true to our heritage. Africans are making their mark in the world of fashion, and we're here to stay!"

What Advice Do You Have For Those Interested In Fashion, Particularly In Africa? 

                            “Fashion fades, style is eternal”- Yves Saint Laurent.

"This is probably the single most important quote that can, and in our opinion, should sum up the fashion industry as a whole. The importance of being true to oneself cannot be stressed enough because fashion is, just as art is- an outward expression of oneself."

  

Thanks for your time ladies!!!!

Visit us on the web: www.startsmartgh.com Send us an email: startsmart.info@gmail.com