The BMBA 2015 cohort just returned from its third and last trip, this time from Johannesburg, South Africa. What a surprise and adventure that place has been.
Though the group prepped with as much historical and contextual information we could get about the place prior to leaving, I think it’s safe to say everyone was surprised at how much we were discovering about the place on a daily basis. From food adventures like eating antelopes, crocodiles, zebras, warthogs and sheep’s brains to safari adventures spotting giraffes, elephants and hippopotamuses, every day of the two week trip was packed with some new experience for the cohort.
More than that however, the experience everyone will really be taking home with them would have to be the immersion we got in the townships hand in hand with the ridiculously amazing education (and again, food) we got from the partner university we were working with there, the Gordon Institute of Business School. The two-week trip gave good balance of theory by working with the industry professors at GIBS and of practical application by having us work with entrepreneurs within the townships.
Though we all left hoping we created relevant enough development plans for our respective entrepreneurs, we were nevertheless the ones awed at how they’ve managed to create opportunities for themselves in environments without the infrastructure that we take for granted. South Africa is a fast and growing economy that is not without its challenges, but is definitely intelligent and proactive about how they try and maximize these opportunities for the sake of all. Theirs is a beautiful country and people that a lot of the members of the cohort fell in love with and I wouldn’t be surprised if we all found ourselves back there in one way or another sometime in the future.
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