Tanzanian Lunch Meeting at a Greek Restaurant...Wait, What?
In true Fisher networking fashion, we landed a lunch meeting with a local water solutions manager - a tentative third degree connection to our group. Our first business meeting on Tanzanian soil went well, despite the distant network link and unavoidable jet lag. Vincent runs a drilling and construction company in Arusha, a former division of a company focused on bore holes for water wells. Drilling did not fit directly under our scope of work with GWI, but meeting with an industry expert, regardless of the role, proved interesting and provided a lot of background for our future interviews and village visits.
Throughout our coursework for GAP, we continually focused on the cultural differences between the U.S. and Tanzania, especially in terms of relationship-building and business etiquette. We knew we had to start slow, building trust and a relationship before we even thought about bringing up the business questions we had. Although Vincent attended university in Canada and had plenty of experience with Western business norms, we discussed his experiences, his company’s history and the family business with interest.
Truth be told, after the pleasantries had been exchanged and Vincent prompted us, we peppered him with questions. We thoughtfully and graciously paused during the actual meal – a Greek restaurant with some dynamite burgers (Vincent’s choice)! All too eager to get things going after 7-weeks of coursework, class and twice-a-week meetings, we hit the ground running and began gathering the information we so desperately wanted for our final report.
After the meeting, we were able to debrief and discuss some of our strong points – along with “areas for opportunity,” aka "weaknesses". Vincent’s Western education enabled us to conduct ourselves in a slightly varied, but typical manner. In hindsight, it was a great transition opportunity for our team. Rather than the immediate shock of a heavily traditional Tanzanian meeting, we had the luxury of a buffer meeting to smooth out the kinks.
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