Between 15th and 21st May 2022, we hosted 105 Executive MBA Students from the IESE Business School in Spain for the Doing Business in Africa Programme. The Programme is designed by SBS in partnership with IESE Business School. The visiting students were pulled from four IESE Business School Campuses: Barcelona, Madrid, Sao Paulo, and Munich.
The Programme is part of the overseas Module for the Executive MBA students. It aims to give the students an understanding of the multi-varied African context and from the 15 countries where the IESE students hail from. The week-long Programme included class sessions with Faculty members from both Schools, local visits, and company visits. .
The Doing Business in Africa Programme also aims to expose the IESE Executive MBA students to business operations in Africa and by extension, doing business the African way. It gives MBA students from both Schools a chance to interact and understand the different aspects of business in the continent through case studies and experiential learning.
The class sessions kicked-off on Monday with Dr. George Njenga, the SBS Founding Dean, taking the students through a session on the African way of doing business and the opportunities and challenges the continent presents to business leaders.
On top of the class sessions, the students got an opportunity to interact with the MBA for Executives students from SBS during the negotiation exercise and the executive challenge. The negotiation exercise aimed to improve the students’ ability to negotiate in competitive and collaborative teams as well as give them an opportunity to increase their practical level of awareness of the negotiation process in a multi-cultural context. The African executive challenge, on the other hand, gave the students from both institutions an opportunity to have face-to-face discussions on specific business challenges faced in a multi-varied African context and from the 15 countries the students came from.
For their local company visits, the students got to experience the different local industries in the country when they visited Bamburi Cement, Isuzu East Africa and Fairview Coffee Estate.
During their local visits, the students visited the Kibera Town Center, an initiative of the Human needs Project that aims to empower residents of the Kibera slums by bringing essential services closer to them. The Center first opened its doors in Kibera in July 2014. They also visited the New Horizon Secondary School, one of the schools Strathmore University Supports through the Macheo Program. The Macheo Program organizes after-school as well as holiday programs which provide academic tutoring, personal mentoring, and character development for High School students. Macheo has four core aims; to reduce secondary school dropout cases, to improve the academic performance of the secondary students in the program, to ensure the transition of the students to the next class in high school, and to achieve secondary school graduation into university/college/vocational school or talent school and character education.
The visit culminated in a visit to the Van der berg Flower farm in Naivasha.
About the MBA for Executives Programme
Our MBA for Executives Programme is best suited for individuals with at least 2 years of managerial experience and are looking to broaden their knowledge and expertise. This Programme helps them develop their talent and harness competencies necessary for the next level by unlocking their inner potential to discover new horizons. We offer two modes of learning for the MBA for Executives Programme: Evening and Modular. Learn about the MBA for Executives Programme here.
Article by Juliet Hinga
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