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Here are the resources from the third workshop:
The Entrepreneurial Time System
If you have any questions about how to use these worksheets, don't hesitate to contact us.
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This was an exciting week to be hosting the third workshop in the 2010 Bigger Future series. Monday was Election Day in Rwanda. The polls were orderly and the voting was peaceful, and when all the results were in, President Kagame received an overwhelming mandate to continue to lead Rwanda. After most of the country was up late to follow the election coverage and the celebration at the National Stadium, it was a relief to learn that Tuesday was declared a national holiday.
It was on the heals of these historic events that we gathered for an informal reception Tuesday night and held the third workshop on Wednesday at the Laico Hotel.
After an encouraging Positive Focus exercise, we launched right into the Experience Transformer tool. 
We talked about how in life all our experiences can be catalogued as things that "work" and things that "don't work." We are happy when life is full of experiences that work, or in other words, that meet our expectations, and we are frustrated, depressed, or even angry when our life doesn't work, or our experiences don't meet our expectations. Most people don't take the time to reflect on the reasons behind either scenario, and therefore their learning is much smaller than their experience. Our goal as entrepreneurs is to make our learning bigger than our experience. The Experience Transformer helps us do just that, leading to an understanding of "what we would differently if we knew then what we know now."
We learned the definition of a "brand" and a process to build a strong brand to enable Rwandan companies to compete in the new 140 million person East African Community. We used a framework that helped us discover what we are most passionate about, where we can be the "only" company, and where the "market pull" exists. Out work culminated in everyone working on their first fdraft of a position statement for their business. This work is not for the faint of heart!
After lunch we learned about how important it is for the entrepreneur to be disciplined in the use of time. An approach that has been very effective is called the Entrepreneurial Time System (ETS). The ETS divides the 365 days a year into Free Days, Focus Days, and Buffer Days. If we thought coming up with a position statement was hard, thinking about actually taking Free Days (24 hours away from the business) is even more difficult!
After updating our 3-Year Planner, we had a business practicum on a proven approach to managing employees, from hiring to professional development and performance measurement, to when you might have to terminate an employee.
We heard start-up stories from two entreprenuers (Pavel Patyuk from Deborah Log Homes and Fabrice Shema from SOGEM), resource opportunities from GenerationRwanda and Women for Women, and the SME Toolkit from the IFC and Maxinet/CBS.
It was a full day!
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Download this Mid-Quarter Energy Booster and do a mid-quarter check-in.
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Here are downloadable versions of the frameworks and presentations from the second workshop:
Practical Financial View of Your Business
If you have any questions about how to use these worksheets, don't hesitate to contact us.
GRDP Blog
It was a successful week in Rwanda of informal networking, one-on-one coaching, and a full-day workshop for the many entrepreneurs involved with GRDP's Creating A Bigger Future program.
Networking
On Tuesday night, 
many of us gathered at the Laico Hotel for coffee and snacks to get caught up with each other in an informal setting. It didn't take long for the conversations to turn to business and innovation and how to take advantage of the many growth opportunities in Rwanda. The discussion continued over dinner as a few of us migrated outside to the patio and a delicious buffet dinner.
Positive Focus
As usual, I began with the Positive Focus, an excellent tool for setting a healthy perspective for the day. Everyone took ten minutes to reflect on and write down the five most important personal and professional accomplishments since our last workshop. 
Then we broke up into small groups of 3-4 to share our accomplishments. This is always the inflection point early in the day when the mood in the room turns from anticipation to excitement. There is a palatable rise in energy as reports of positive achievements bounce around the room. It's a healthy discipline to take time to pause and reflect on all the good things that have happened in the past quarter.
After we do the Positive Focus, we go around the room and reintroduce ourselves along with mentioning one or two of our achievements. 
I take the opportunity to update everyone on GRDP and remind the group about the importance of the entrepreneur in Rwanda as an agent of change and growth.
DSQ, DOS, and Three Year Planner
After refreshing our DSQ (Dan Sullivan: "If we were meeting here three years from today, looking back over those three years, what has to have happened during that period for you to feel happy about your progress?") and our DOS (Dangers, Opportunities, and Strengths) worksheets to reflect any changes in the last 90 days, we turned to our Three Year Planner to review our progress to date. One of the most important aspects of this program is our accountability to each other to do quarterly reviews of our progress. 
The Three Year Planner requires us to report our progress by quarter and the percentage completion we've made towards our goals. We spent time updating our Planners, including adding new goals as necessary. Then we broke back into small groups to review our progress with each other and brainstorm ways to move forward. It was exciting to see the progress that so many entrepreneurs had made even since January!
The Gap
Every entrepreneur faces points in time when reality doesn't meet up with the aspirations of our the "Ideal." Fortunately, there is a way to train the brain to avoid the guilt and discouragement that can come when this happens.
I used the metaphor of the horizon as an example of a "mental construct" that is real in our minds, but that is impossible to every actually reach; the horizon keeps moving out away from us as we try to get closer.
In the same way, our "Ideal" for what we want to accomplish is a mental construct, and there will always be a difference between that picture in our minds and our actual achievements. This is what we call The Gap. 
How do we manage with the frustration of not reaching our Ideal? Instead of measuring our progress against where we want to eventually go, the trick is to turn around and measure our progress by how far we've actually come. It is usually much more significant that we thought, and this realization gives us encouragement and confidence that we are making progress.
The Strategy Circle
As entrepreneurs, according to Dan Sulivan, each of us has three brain abilities:
1. Vision - the ability to see future possibilities
2. Opposition - the ability to see all the possible obstacles to achieving our vision
3. Transformation - the ability to transform those obstacles into strategies for achievement
To help make Transformation part of our entrepreneur skill set, I introduced The Strategy Circle®. This is a powerful tool for isolating all the potential obstacles to a goal, and then identifying specific strategies for each obstacle.
As a practical application of the tool, everyone chose one of their goals from their Three Year Planner. By listing all the possible obstacles to this goal and then identifying specific strategies to attack and remove each obstacle, we were able to develop practical plans for implementing our goals. Everyone took 15 minutes to work through his or her own Strategy Circle, and then we used the small groups to share and brainstorm each person's plan.
By the end of the morning, we had updated our Three Year Plans, 
determined which goals were on track, gained confidence in how far we had already come, and then practiced using The Strategy Circle®, a powerful tool for putting together a practical plan to address our goals for the next quarter.
We had a wonderful buffet networking lunch at the Laico Hotel, and then returned to the conference room for the afternoon sessions.
Leadership and Impact
David Helmer, a board member of GRDP as well as an entrepreneur and CEO of Helmer, Inc., a medical supply manufacturer, was up first with a presentation called Leading for Impact. 
He discussed the differences between a manager and a leader. David spoke about the importance of healthy leaders, the value of purpose in the lives of employees, and concluded with a practical nine-step process for implementing servant leadership.
A Practical Financial View of Your Business
Bruce King, CEO/COO of Helmer, Inc., bridged the important aspects of planning and execution from an operations perspective. He demonstrated how important it is in planning to move from the 30,000 foot perspective down into the weeds to better understand from a customer perspective what the priorities of the business need to be. In his presentation, A Practical Financial View of Your Business, he gave very practical advice on building a financial "dashboard" of key business metrics, and showed how financial reporting that help an entrepreneur make fact-based decisions about growth and investment.
We wrapped up promptly at 5pm, and many members signed up for individual one-on-one consultations the next morning. All in all, it was another full workshop packed with both strategic planning and practical business concepts.
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Here are downloadable versions of the frameworks and presentations from the first workshop:
Sustainable Social Enterprises
If you have any questions about how to use these worksheets, don't hesitate to contact us.
GRDP Blog
It was another sunny day in Kigali as 42 entrepreneurs gathered at the Sportsview Hotel for the first in a series of workshops called Creating a Bigger Future, facilitated by David Ormesher, chairman of GRDP. 
We began our session with a Positive Focus. The Positive Focus is an exercise that captures your five most important personal and professional accomplishments over the past three months, and it will be a regular part of each workshop throughout 2010.
I would also suggest that you do your own Positive Focus on a monthly basis. Set aside 30 minutes on a Monday morning to note your top accomplishments over the previous month. Reflect on why these achievements are important, and then brainstorm ways that you might be able to make further progress. Finally, and this is an important part of prioritizing your time, think about what should be your first action step in building on your accomplishments.
Goal setting is an important but often overlooked part of entrepreneurial planning. A valuable tool to help us focus our attention on the future is the Dan Sullivan Question, "If we were meeting here three years from today, looking back over those three years, what has to have happened during that period for you to feel happy about your progress?" I would encourage you to use this question with your family, co-workers, business partners, and clients. It is a powerful tool for helping someone understand and articulate the heart of their personal vision.
One of the biggest challenges that every entrepreneur faces is the inability to focus on the most important priorities. We all face many challenges and distractions every day. We are interrupted by our cell phone, an employee drops by our office with a problem, or we are overwhelmed by multiple deadlines. We are victims of the "tyranny of the urgent." To help us pick the most critical Dangers to overcome, the most exciting Opportunities to capture, and the most important Strengths to maximize, we used the DOS Worksheet. The final three priorities in each section should help you decide which projects will be the most effective in reaching your goals.
After identifying our goals and priorities through the Dan Sullivan Question and the DOS Worksheet, we began pulling on this data together into a 3 Year Planner. 
This enabled us to get very specific with our goals, commit to deadlines, and imagine what the final result will look like if we are successful. The worksheet also requires that we break these long-term goals into quarterly projects that we can focus on and monitor. When we gather together on April 28 at the next workshop, we will review our long-term goals and quarterly projects. This will help keep us accountable to ourselves and to each other.
Our guest business experts from The Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business used the afternoon session to challenge us on our ability to delegate and our understanding of business models for the Bottom of the Pyramid economies.
Oksana Carlson's presentation How to Delegate Effectively offered the benefits of delegation, and then she tested us. There were a few surprises as we realized how many of us aren't very good delegators!
Dr. Dipankar Chakravarti, Professor of Marketing and Vice-Dean, presented Sustainable Social Enterprise, a very compelling argument for how to create business models and innovative product offerings that can be successful in low-income economies.
GRDP Blog
Welcome to the Creating a Bigger Future member website. Throughout 2010 we will be posting business tools, workshops handouts, and other articles and information that should help you as you put your 2010 business plan into action.
Please note that these documents are copyright-protected and are for your use only and not for distribution or sale.
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It's an exciting time to be an entrepreneur in Rwanda! Follow along as we track the progress of many of Rwanda's most promising innovators and visionaries.
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A unique business growth workshop program designed exclusively for entrepreneurs.
The program is based on business principles that have been used by more than 13,000 entrepreneurs over the past 30 years. The program is taught by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.
Participants join a network of international and Rwandese business leaders focused on strategies for growth. Rwandese entrepreneurs develop a three-year business plan with 90-day goals to help them turn their vision into reality. Once a quarter, the workshop reconvenes and together we review the results and set new goals for the next 90 days.
Workshop content incudes:
- leadership training
- business planning
- marketing
- financial management
- organizational structure
- human resources
- operations
-
faith-based policies and practices
The dates for the workshops in 2010 are:
January 27
April 28
August 11
November 10
For more information on Creating a Bigger Future, please contact us.
Click here to download an Application to join the program.
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GRDP specializes in helping entrepreneurs develop new markets, forge business partnerships, and access investment funding to grow their companies. GRDP's business development services are based on a methodological approach that can be customized to our entrepreneur’s needs and can include:
- Developing short-term and long-term funding and corporate development strategies
- Evaluating organizational capacity
- Identifying potential market expansion opportunities
- Collaborating with donor, venture capital, and humanitarian agencies
- Conducting needs assessments
- Preparing prospectus
- Budgeting
- Managing funding relationships
- Monitoring, reporting, and evaluating investments and partnership relationships
To find out more about GRDP's business development services, please contact us.
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SEP membership expectations include a commitment to the following:
Program Commitment
SEP Fellows make a twelve-month commitment to participation in the program.
Assessment Trip
SEP Fellows will participate in a five-day assessment and immersion trip designed to introduce them to the history, needs, and opportunities of Rwanda and to facilitate introductions to entrepreneurs looking to build a mentor relationship.
International Training Seminars
Ideally, SEP members will be able to travel to Rwanda at least once again to participate in quarterly entrepreneur training seminars. SEP Fellows will assist in conducting seminar training for entrepreneurs to provide critical skills training in the areas of leadership, strategic planning, sales and marketing, finance, product development, project management, logistics, funding development and investor relations, and talent management.
Mentor Relationship
Each SEP Fellow will be paired with a Rwandan entrepreneur to provide individual leadership coaching and mentoring via email, Skype, and conference calls.
SEP Meetings
SEP members will participate in regular SEP Team meetings for member development, skills training, collaboration, brainstorming, and support.
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If you are an experienced entrepreneur that shares the vision of GRDP's Social Entrepreneurship Program, we would like to meet you.
For more information, please contact us.
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Rwandan Entrepreneur Criteria
Potential Rwandan entrepreneur partners will be identified and selected based on the following criteria:
- Small or medium-size businesses with a current product or service line, existing customers, and a business track record of at least 12 months
- Strong leadership capacity and a desire to grow
- Recognized by peers as a high-potential entrepreneur
- Recommended by government leadership as a respected community leader
Partner Commitment
Entrepreneur expectations and commitments include:
- Minimum of 12-month commitment to the SEP program and mentorship
- Actively participate in quarterly training seminars
- Commitment to evaluating and implementing appropriate recommendations and programs to increase their professionalism and effectiveness
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The SEP strategy is to invite qualified business executives to join small teams that will:
- focus on one country and the high-potential entrepreneurs within that country
- commit to mentoring an entrepreneur
- meet regularly with US-based team members for education and mutual support
SEP Teams will leverage private, corporate, and public resources through a hands-on Value Delivery Model to provide leadership and skills training to entrepreneurial business leadership. The Value Delivery Model will include:
- needs assessments
- training seminars
- mentoring
- regular SEP team meetings
SEP Team success will be measured by the following criteria:
- Measurable improvements in professional, managerial, and technical skills based on assessment data
- Growth in key business performance indicators
- Number of high-potential national leaders identified and trained
- Level of government and private investment in the entrepreneurial businesses participating in the SEP program
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Employment
Thank you for your interest in working with GRDP.
Job Opportunity: GRDP Rwanda Program Coordinator
We are looking for a part-time Program Coordinator to help organize workshops and events in Kigali including business presentations, quarterly workshops, and meet-and-greet events. Additionally, this person will be responsible for organizing in-country travel, hotel, and coordinating business accommodations for visiting international business owners.
The Program Coordinator position is key to the success of the mission of GRDP. This person must be able to work independently, be able to predict and communicate challenges, negotiate rates and prices, meet with Rwandan entrepreneurs, and manage the day-to-day operations of GRDP in Kigali. This person must be a good communicator both in-person and using the Internet.
This is a part-time position, starting at 80 hours/month with the potential for growth to full-time. This position will report directly to the GRDP leadership in the United States. The start date for the position is January 2, 2010.
The person that meets the challenges of working with U.S. and Rwandan entrepreneurs with hard work will be making an important impact on the growth of Rwanda.
The ideal candidate will have the following experience:
· Fluent in English and Kinyarwanda
· Strong writing and communication skills
· Strong computer skills including email, Skype, and Microsoft Word
· Strong administrative skills
· Minimum 2 years experience in a sales or customer service position
· Experience in the travel or hotel industry would be preferred
Please send a cover letter, resume or CV, and any supporting information to us via email.
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GRDP was established in 2006 as a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. Founded on Christian principles, GRDP was launched by a team of development specialists and entrepreneurs who saw the need to build bridges between business leaders in the U.S. and emerging leaders in the developing world.
GRDP's headquarters in Chicago, IL:
GRDP
212 West Superior Street, Suite 300
Chicago, IL, 60610-3557
+1 312 640 3701
+1 312 640 3750 (fax)
GRDP in Kigali, Rwanda:
GRDP - Bigger Future Ltd.
Cyusa Leandre
cyusa@grdpartners.org
GRDP Blog
GRDP is working with over 40 entrepreneurs in Rwanda. They represent many business sectors within Rwanda, including energy, agriculture, transportation, architecture, health, tourism, construction, consulting, publishing, building supplies, manufacturing, handicrafts, services, food, legal, and hospitality. Here are a few profiles of the entrepreneurs that are creating a bigger future for themselves and Rwanda!
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Services
GRDP offers both North American and Rwandese entrepreneurs a comprehensive set of services tailored to their unique needs and designed to fill critical gaps and build internal capacities. By recruiting a talented and experienced network of U.S. social entrepreneurs, GRDP is able to provide access to insights on business growth, one-on-one mentoring, leadership training, and skill-based workshops.
Services include:
Creating a Bigger Future
GRDP offers a entrepreneur workshop program called Creating a Bigger Future. This program meets quarterly in Kigali and offers world-class business planning and growth tools designed exclusively for entrepreneurs. The program uses proven business concepts and tools used by over 13,000 entrepreneurs in 13 countries over the past 30 years. If you are a Rwandese entrepreneur and you are looking to take your business to the next level of success, we invite you to fill out an application and fax or email it to GRDP.
Click here for more information on Creating on Bigger Future.
Social Entrepreneurship Program (SEP)
GRDP's Social Entrepreneurship Program (SEP) matches successful North American entrepreneurs with emerging and high growth entrepreneurs in Rwanda.
This one-year fellowship is a unique program for a select group of North American entrepreneurs who are ready to apply their expertise and wisdom to the unique challenges of doing business in Rwanda, and for a select group of Rwandese entrepreneurs who are prepared to leverage the resources of this program to dramatically grow their business.
Opportunities include one-on-one coaching, quarterly business skills workshops, and direct investment. By leveraging their social and intellectual capital, our social entrepreneurs transfer important professional and leadership skills to the next generation of Rwandese business leaders.
Click here for more information on joining SEP.
Partners
GRDP builds creative partnerships with private businesses and corporations to deliver sustainable solutions to the world’s most complex economic and humanitarian challenges.
With our focus on cross-cultural relevancy, GRDP offers significant value to for-profit companies looking for ways to engage their firms and their leadership in social entrepreneurialism.
GRDP Blog
GRDP is looking for experienced entrepreneurs who desire a hands-on role in developing sustainable, business-oriented solutions in Rwanda. Doing business in Rwanda is not easy, long-distance communication can be challenging, and many companies in East Africa are under-capitalized, but for an enterprising entrepreneur, the opportunities are many.
Rwandan entrepreneurs know they have a unique chance to build a vibrant economy, and they are looking for fellow entrepreneurs who are willing to partner and share their experience and wisdom.
GRDP's Social Entrepreneurship Program (SEP) is a one-year fellowship designed to connect small groups of seasoned entrepreneurs directly with the leadership of high-potential small and medium-size businesses in Rwanda. Through formal and informal experiences, SEP Fellows will:
- Build the professional, managerial, and technical capacity of Rwandan entrepreneurs to more effectively build sustainable businesses
- Establish and equip a talent pool of Rwandan leaders and entrepreneurs committed to good governance and economic growth
- Provide unique and direct opportunities to transfer their skills and jointly create new market development opportunities that provide lasting growth
- Participate in a powerful experience platform to create their own vision for blending their entrepreneurial and humanitarian commitments
SEP Fellows participate in a week-long trip to Rwanda to engage with the entrepreneur community, contribute to workshop programs, and begin to build personal relationships with growth-oriented business owners. These immersion trips are all-inclusive, covering pre-trip orientation, airport transfer, in-country transportation and logistics, accommodations, and program facilitation.
If you are interested in exploring this opportunity, contact us for a brochure and application.
GRDP Blog
Rwandese entrepreneurs creating a bigger future
GRDP's international programs are led by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.
The best way to strengthen an emerging economy is to build the leadership of its most promising entrepreneurs. A vibrant, entrepreneurial sector is able to create jobs, underwrite the local tax base, and inspire a society to live up to its highest aspirations.
The most effective way to inspire and strengthen a high-potential entrepreneur is to introduce him or her to another successful entrepreneur. Stories and relationships beat classroom training every time. This is why we developed a social entrepreneurship program.
GRDP's Social Entrepreneurship Program matches successful U.S. entrepreneurs with emerging and high growth entrepreneurs in Rwanda. We offer a unique Fellowship Program for a select group of U.S. entrepreneurs who are ready to apply their expertise and wisdom to the unique challenges of doing business in Rwanda.
Our growing network of influential entrepreneurs become personally involved in the lives and businesses of Rwandan entrepreneurs. As a result, they have the satisfaction knowing that they are directly impacting the next generation of Rwandan leadership.
Rwanda is at a historic crossroads. Moving beyond tragedy, Rwanda is now an emerging economy on a rapid growth trajectory to become the first African country to move from poverty to middle income status in one generation. A sustainable economic growth model is a key driver of continued peace, reconciliation and civic renewal. Rwanda can become a model for the rest of the world.
We want you to be a part of that story.
GRDP Blog
The mission of GRDP is to inspire and strengthen promising entrepreneurs in emerging countries.
We help high-potential entrepreneurial leaders achieve growth by giving them direct access to experienced entrepreneurs in North America, enabling them to tap into world-class leadership, professional, technical, and financial resources.
Our current focus is to build creative partnerships between experienced entrepreneurs in the United States and established entrepreneurs in Rwanda.
GRDP offers a comprehensive set of services tailored to the unique needs of our U.S. and international entrepreneurs, including leadership development workshops, mentorship facilitation, and business development, enabling the transfer of important professional and leadership skills to the next generation of Rwandan business leaders.
