The Apprentice Comes to Rwanda

[See newly uploaded video below!]

by Gale Wiley

Well, today (Monday) was the first day of what will be five incredibly busy days for our four MBA teams, each one trying to figure out ways to commercialize its Rice bio-med product in Rwanda.

We began at King Faisal Hospital, the national hospital of Rwanda. We were briefed on how the government makes its buying decisions, how very little is actually manufactured in Rwanda, how distribution to the countryside is a major problem, how building infrastructure (roads, internet, water, electricity) is a top priority in Rwanda's plan to grow the country's economy.

The students toured the hospital and made product pitches to top medical officials.

In the afternoon teams were given free rein to pursue leads, conduct interviews, and find suppliers.

We draw a crowd

I followed the incubator team who decided they needed to build a life-sized model of their product using Rwandan supplies and labor.

Our driver took us to the furniture district where the team located a cooperative that produces bed frames, clothes closets, trunks, and caskets.

Within minutes after we pulled up next to the co-op, scores of Rwandans closed around us, me with my camera videotaping the incubator team as they worked through specifications for the incubator with Rwandan craftsmen.



I felt like a cameraman for the Rwandan version of The Apprentice.

Tomorrow some of the teams venture out to the countryside to visit district hospitals, a key market for the backpack, the incubator, the dosing device, and the protein supplement.