Tags: GAP 2016
We are now in day five of being on site with Barclays Bank for continued work on Project Firefly in Gaborone, Botswana. The week has gone by very fast at times, with lots of information being gathered through meetings with many of our new colleagues at the bank. We are on track with our timeline, and our client is content with our progress thus far.
We have learned a lot in our first week doing marketing research in the UK. We knew going into our project that consumer preferences would be different from what we are used to in the US, but the amount of nuance has been surprising. We are doing our best to understand not only what UK consumers are saying about their buying preferences, but also how they are saying it. The expression “two countries separated by a common language” makes a lot more sense on this side of the pond.
Project Blog
Week two:
After returning from our Marsabit service trip, we started our work at the Partners For Care House located in Nairobi. At the end of the week, we had three main accomplishments: sewing the first packs, a model to determine government health expenses and an analysis of the current health system. And, we set the goals for our third and final week of our GAP project.
From a business perspective, there are a few things that I learned about the culture of China that I would not have immediately expected, as well as some things that really made the China portion of our project much easier. To begin, similar to most everywhere else in the world, much of the business that is conducted is extremely relational. This means that it would take multiple sit-downs with potential distributors and partners to really work out whether a deal could be done for the long-term. Why?
Last weekend, we went to Zanzibar, and where we snorkeled, played beach volleyball, learned some Kiswahili, among other things. It was relaxing and a nice break from our work. We also visited the historic Stone Town and drove around the city soaking in all the beauty.