Getting My Routine Down

I decided to take the opportunity to work at PharmaSecure in Gurgaon, India for a number of reasons.  The first reason is that I am very interested in the work that PharmaSecure is doing.  The company allows for drug consumers in India to verify whether medicines that they purchase are authentic via text message – more on this later.  The second reason is that I’ve never travelled to the eastern hemisphere – enough said!  And the third reason is to challenge myself –that’s right.  Not since when I moved from Puerto Rico to the U.S. some 20 years ago have I lived in a place where I’m unfamiliar with the language, am still learning about the culture, and stick out like a sore thumb.

People that know me best would say that I’m a regimented person.  I personally think that developing a routine is a great way to get acclimated to new environments.  So here’s what I’ve been doing for the past two weeks to get used to India.

I start every morning with a workout.  One of my goals this summer is to shed all the weight I put on during the school year so this workout is a must.  In addition, Shaun-T and his crew of fitness freaks shame me into continuing this routine since I can never keep up with them.  They’re great motivators–try it everybody.

After the workout, I leave the guesthouse (pictured above) and walk down the street to the metro.  I lucked out that I live ~ 5 mins walking distance from the metro station.

On my way to the metro I tend to pass one or two of these fruit vendors.  I typically buy something to snack on throughout the day.  In addition, one of these fruit vendors likes to sing in the morning which puts me in a great mood.

On to the metro…

The Delhi Metro system is comprised of six lines with 142 stations and a total length of ~117 miles.  This metro is one of five metro systems in the entire world that operates at a profit without subsidies.  As someone who depends on the metro to get around, I have to say the Delhi metro is both convenient and impressive.  You can pretty much get anywhere in Delhi by way of metro + rickshaw–malls, work, tourist spots, etc.  Also, the trains come every 2-5 minutes.  The best part is that it only costs me ~40 rupees or around 70 cents round trip.

I typically try to get to the metro before 8 am.  If I do that, the ride to work is pleasant.  However, if I show up anytime on or after ~8:30 am, my ability to squeeze myself into the train is tested over and over again until I finally make it on to a train. 

Here’s a look at Gurgaon.  The city is the second largest city in the state of Haryana.  Many multinational companies such as Google, Microsoft, Siemens, Yahoo and Oracle among others have offices in Gurgaon.  PharmaSecure’s office is located at the City Court building –that beautiful building next to the clock tower (center-left in the above picture).

 At PharmaSecure, I’m currently working with the sales and marketing group.  One of my current goals is to develop a system for the company to assess potential customers.  I’ll definitely elaborate more on this in one of my future posts.

 After work, I stop by my neighborhood market to pick up some food for the next day.  I enjoy the convenience of having this type of market nearby.  They also don’t have as much variety as the markets that I’m used to going to so I've turned into somewhat of a minimalist.

After making a quick stop at home, I usually link up with a rickshaw in order to head “downtown” to Hauz Khas Village.  One note about negotiating with rickshaw drivers, always aim for a lower price and be willing to walk away; they’ll still win the negotiation ;-).

At Hauz Khas Village, I typically meet up with whoever is hungry for dinner.  Here’s a pic of a group of us WDI Fellows at Yeti.

On the weekends, I either spend time checking out the sites in or outside of Delhi or hang out somewhere that has AC.  Here’s me with some of the new Ross admits at Ambiance Mall in Gurgaon.

There’s my routine everybody.  Some days I do more, some days I do less. 

Muraho Rwanda!

Murakaza neza! - Welcome to my blog, where I will be updating with news from my project here in Ruli, Rwanda. Like most of my WDI colleagues, I'll be working on a project in the field for the next 12 weeks. In my case, I'll be working with a district hospital and network of health centers to try to understand the complex chain of information flowing between clinicians and administrators and between different levels of the Rwandan health care system.

But first, a little background. I'm working with The Ihangane Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to making sustainable improvements in the lives of Rwandans through community-based projects in nutrition, sustainable energy, economic development, and patient-centered health care. As part of its continuing mission, in March and April of 2012, The Ihangane Project sponsored a team of students from the Ross School of Business to study ways to improve the flow and usage of data at Ruli District Hospital.

This summer, I will be building upon the base of analysis they have provided, and extending the scope to consider the flow of information and patients in the larger context of the hospital and a number of its affiliated health centers in the surrounding villages. In understanding the “big picture”, we will be able to characterize specific processes – the path of diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, or malnutrition, for example – and will be able to make recommendations and implement improvements that are congruent with and sustainable within the existing health care system.

I've been on the ground for about two weeks now, and have gotten off to a great start on the project. At the same time, I've also experienced a warm initiation into Rwandan culture. Everyone has been remarkably welcoming; the faces in Ruli are always friendly and everyone makes time to stop and chat. My skills in the native language, Kinyarwanda, are rapidly improving from dozens of these informal lessons each day. From sampling brochette, (the delicious local goat kebabs), to participating in 5-hour-long church services (at least 3 hours of which seem to be devoted to dancing), I'm learning a lot about how this community works and what makes it special. I already know that this will be a great summer living in Ruli, learning, and working for better delivery of health care in this amazing part of the world. I'll be posting here with updates and insights through the rest of the project, but for now, murabeho – goodbye until next time!

The Life Bangalorian (Part 2)

Bangalore is a construction project en masse. Everywhere you go everything is being built. Homes are slowly rising from empty fields, sidewalks appear or disappear, and streets are in various states of disrepair. It feels like a new city is perpetually being born.

In large part it feels that way because a new city is perpetually being born. In 2000, Bangalore had about 5 million residents. Today it has just fewer than 10 million. That’s a 200% growth rate. By comparison, New York’s growth rate in the same period was 3%. Los Angeles grew less than 3%. Bangalore, and by extension India, is growing very, very fast.

With growth comes growing pains and Bangalore is no exception. As my last post highlighted, traffic is ever present and follows no particular rules. Cows roam the streets. Stray dogs liter the city, sleeping during the day and prowling their territory at night. Trash clogs the rivers, sewers, and sidewalks. Shantytowns fill undeveloped pockets. Homes consisting of nothing more than straw, a tarp, and gravel line some avenues. People are everywhere. Traffic noise, especially honking, provides the city its incessant soundtrack. Auto rickshaws vie for space with trucks, cars, bicycles, pedestrians, and each other. Stores are crammed into every available building space. Smog fills the air (and everyone’s lungs). The power cuts out multiple times a day (thankfully we have back up power). Street vendors hock their wares day and night asking 15 Rupees (10 for locals) for everything from coconuts to mangos to chai to roasted corn. If Charles Dickens were alive today, I firmly believe that India would be his setting of choice.

Despite these growing pains, the city is infused with excitement and a sense that it is going somewhere. Banglore has become the Silicon Valley of India. The IT industry is very strong here and you can’t throw a stone without hitting another start-up. Every professional I meet wants to discuss the latest and greatest idea. Based on the number of lavish hotels, nice cars, and sprawling new homes I see it would appear that wealth is on the rise. India is trying some creative ways to manage this growth. Indeed, the Western world has a few things it could learn which I will highlight in a post later this summer.

This eclectic mix of constant rebirth and excitement is enhanced by India’s deep sense of culture and tradition. Hindu temples and Muslim mosques dot the landscape. Hindu gods are woven into advertisements, signs, and statues around the city. Some women wear traditional Saris, while others adopt more modern threads. And the food (the food!) varies by region, culture, and history. You haven’t experienced Indian food until you’ve supped on Chicken Biryani (spicy chicken cooked with rice) with your hands, dined on a Masala Dosa with curry and chutney (again with your hands), or savored every last drop of Gulab Jamun (slightly fried dough soaked in sugar). It takes every ounce of will power I have to resist having a mango lassi (a mango yogurt drink) each day.

Life here isn’t always easy – even the locals say so – but it’s definitely interesting. I have a feeling that when it comes time to leave in seven short weeks it will be difficult to say goodbye.

Next Post: Oh the places you’ll go: Mysore, the Taj Mahal, and Mumbai

Elmina and Cape Coast Castles

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana and see two historic castles, Elmina and Cape Coast Castles, there.

The oldest castle, Elmina Castle, was built in the mid 1400s by the Portuguese. This fortification, which served as a trading post, is considered to be the first European building in sub-Saharan Africa. The Portuguese were so successful in trading goods, such as gold and timber (two of Ghana’s core exports to this day), that other European countries were enticed to also build trading posts along the “Gold Coast” of Ghana as well.

The other castle we visited, Cape Coast Castle, was originally built in 1653 by the Swedish to trade gold and timber (two of Ghana’s core exports to this day). About a decade later, the English conquered the fortification.

Both of these castles were later used as hubs for slave trading during the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Although different European countries controlled each, the dungeons, in which the Africans were held, are very similar. The dungeons are underground stone holding cells where up to 1,000 men and women were held. There were separate cells for men and women, but identical in structure. The rooms had one, maybe two, very small windows at the top that served as the only light and fresh air. I was in a group of about 30 people going on a tour of the castle and I felt claustrophobic and hot – I can’t even imagine 1,000 people in there. They must have been shoulder to shoulder!

The Africans were kept in these dungeons for up to 2 weeks with one to two meals a day (just to keep them alive). They were never permitted to leave the dungeon, so they were forced to go to the bathroom on the floor where they sat and slept. The waste built up so much that it turned to about 2 feet of hard “stone” on the floor of the dungeons.

When the ships arrived to collect the Africans and take them to the Americas to be sold as slaves, they would be filed out individually and evaluated to determine if they were healthy enough for the journey. The weak or sick ones were placed in a separate cell and not permitted to board the ship. They were left there to die.

 

Seeing these castles was extremely eye opening and emotional. There were many flower arrangements and other sentiments left in the cells, as descendants of these Africans come back to remember their ancestors. I am glad they keep these castles open and available for people to see so that we can remember the past and those that suffered.

Banking Liquid Gold

Passionate.  That’s how I would describe the folks that I met at PATH’s headquarters in Seattle.  Perhaps it’s because I arrived the week of the Breakfast for Global Health, PATH’s largest local annual fundraiser, and everyone had their stories rehearsed.  But I don’t think so.  The passion with which people spoke about their projects was palpable.  Number of lives improved.  Number of lives saved!

It is with this enthusiasm that I am diving into my project on milk banking.  What is a milk bank, you ask?  It’s like a blood bank, but for breast milk.  It is a facility that processes milk donated by mothers with excess milk to be used by an infant in need, often in the Neonatal ICU.  Weird, you say?  Well, it’s really wet nursing taken to the next level and that is a practice that many of our ancestors employed.  Modern-day milk banks screen donors for things like disease, lifestyle habits, and medications; pasteurizes the milk to kill viruses (including HIV) while keeping the beneficial parts of the breast milk mostly intact; and tests for any bacterial growth. 

Why all this hoopla over breast milk?  If you guessed that as part of the evolution process, a mother’s milk has evolved to provide many things that her baby needs nutritionally and immunologically, then you’re right!  In fact, it has been shown that infants who are not breastfed have a 6 fold greater risk of dying from infectious diseases in the first 2 months of life than those who are breastfed (WHO Collaborative Study Team, Lancet, 2000).  6 fold!!  To put it in business terms, Brazil estimates that it saves US$540 million each year, mostly due to reduced medical costs.  It's no wonder that it has been termed "liquid gold" by some.  Sadly, due to the marketing efforts of formula giants like Nestle, infant formula has replaced breast milk in many places since it is viewed as an aspirational product that is better than or at least equal to breast milk. 

Back to milk banks – who do they help?  Sometimes, momma can’t feed baby, at least not just yet.  In premature births, a mother sometimes has trouble starting lactation.  It can also help those who are low-birth weight, severely malnourished, orphaned, born to HIV positive mothers or mothers who are otherwise not able to breast feed.  As you can imagine, the number of babies that fall into this category can be quite high in developing countries.

Thus, this summer I’ll be conducting an in-depth country assessment of the market opportunity for milk banking in India and to identify areas in which PATH can accelerate the expansion and adoption of human milk banks.  In India, WHO estimates 48 out of every 1000 babies born die within their first year of birth.  India also reports a high percentage of babies with low-birth weight, low weight-to-height and low height-to-age ratios.  I look forward to trapezing all over the country to learn more about milk banks as well as the culture, and at the end hopefully be able to bring insights and innovation to milk banking!  Lives saved!  (and because I am in business school) Costs avoided!

First month!

Namaste! Time sure does fly. It's surprising that one month has passed already.

Here’s a quick rundown on what’s happened since my last post 

Life in India:

• Being in a new place can be intimidating at first, but once you become familiar with your surroundings and know the how-to's, the "scary" place becomes home. I do admit that I'm thankful that most people understand and speak English here :) 
• It takes about a week or two to overcome the jetlag, situate yourself, be confident and know where you're going, and even start to do what the locals do
• Sunscreen is a MUST
• Delhi belly: 1 Jen: 0

Internship with Start Up!:

• Client project: According to the latest Intellecap Study of India's Social Enterprise Landscape, the education sector in India faces "a huge gap between the supply and demand of quality education for India’s youth, and the nation’s continued growth depends in large part upon filling this chasm."  I'm working with a Delhi-based not-for-profit organization that strives to enhance the quality of educational curriculum through heritage walks. The organization conducts study tours and walks through monuments and other hubs of Delhi’s culture and history in order for children to experience live heritage education. The walks are meant to be interactive, using storytelling and other materials, to inform children about their city in a creative and interactive manner. They've walked several hundreds of children from more than 45 schools in Delhi and is today a sustainable organization. In the remaining two months, I’ll be conducting a market assessment (interviewing key stakeholders and competitors) and working closely with the entrepreneur to develop an operational plan, business plan and financial model in order to scale the organization over the next three years, and hopefully lessen that gap between supply and demand of quality education.   
• Two new interns from other graduate schools in the US have joined me here. We will also be joining forces to work on an internal project together.
• Note: For those of you who read my previous post, I had talked about advising an organization focused on women empowerment. That project didn't pan out, however when working in the social sector, flexibility is KEY.

Excursions: India is a country rich with culture and history. Every part of this nation is unique in some way be it food, entertainment, dress, infrastructure, language, and historical sights.

• Delhi: Red Fort, India Gate, National Museum



View of Udaipur from City Palace



Samosa

• Udaipur: Udaipur, known as the City of Lakes, is a 10 - 12 hour bus/train ride away from Delhi. Another Start Up! intern and I decided to make this trip in a day. We left work early on Friday afternoon to catch a bus that departed at 4:30 PM and arrived in Udaipur the following morning at 6:30 AM. Upon arrival, I was able to compare Delhi to Udaipur -  different colored auto rickshaws and the prevalence of stray dogs and cows in Udaipur. We took the auto rickshaw to the area surrounding the City Palace. Since the Palace wasn't open before 10 AM in India, we had some time to kill so we walked around the areas, started our “window shopping” and even had the courage to try some samosas from a street vendor. 

• Agra: Went to see the magnificent Taj Mahal this past weekend with other WDI Fellows in India. We wore our WDI shirts and posed for the camera in hopes that our photo will make it into a newsletter ;)   

Impact Investing: Crazy or Not?

My name is Patrick Huang and I am a WDI Fellow interning for Village Capital in Mumbai, India for the summer. A relatively young organization in the impact investing industry, Village Capital supports growing social entrepreneurs around the world. Before I get into the amazing work that Village Capital does, I wanted to share what I learned about the industry after attending the Impact Investing in Action conference in Atlanta and the Frontier Market Scouts training program in California.

For those unfamiliar with social enterprises and impact investing, I am defining a "social enterprise" as a for-profit enterprise seeking to achieve returns beyond financial such as positive social and environmental impact while "impact investing" as an industry seeking to finance these social enterprise through debt (loans), equity (ownership), and anything in between. Traditionally, non-profits have pursued social and environmental impact while corporations have focused on financial returns. With social entrepreneurship officially recognized by Bill Drayton from Ashoka, more market-based (see: revenue generation) approaches have flourished partly in response to the unsustainable, grant-funded programs that address poverty. Although this shift may sound appealing, the challenges for social entrepreneurs are staggering.

First, most Base ofthe Pyramid business models generate lower margins and take longer to reach scale, i.e. impact thousands - much less millions - of people. Simply stripping down a product offered in the developed world and selling this in developing countries has proven to be ineffective.  Just like those in developed markets, BoP business models require multiple iterations to refine the product or service for customers' needs.

For entrepreneurs, the nascent impact investing ecosystem offers little support for the more than 85% of start-ups that fail. First off, social entrepreneurs - whether they identify themselves as such - have difficulty finding financing. On one end of the spectrum, traditional investors typically expect a much higher return while non-profit foundations (with a few exceptions like Calvert Foundation) are usually wary of giving grants to for-profit entities. For example, a speaker during the conference mentioned the disconnect between a philanthropic heart and an investor mind: when considering funding to a social enterprise, his board was more willing to give $50K in grants with no opportunity for return rather than a $50K convertible note (essentially debt with the option to convert to part ownership of a start-up) with 2% interest. In addition, social entrepreneurs oftentimes don't even know what a "social enterprise" is or wouldn't naturally associate themselves as such leading to a sense of isolation with little support.

The challenges continue to the investor side. Investors in the US typically invest in multiple start-ups with the hope that one of them generates huge returns by going public or getting acquired by a larger company thereby returning around 100 times the initial investment. For impact investors, however, the return is usually closer to 1X the initial investment leading to a higher risk per investment. In addition, financing options are usually limited as debt is not as viable since the revenue generated by these enterprises is too low to pay for monthly interest payments. Furthermore, the economics of financing these deals are not as compelling as the transaction costs, e.g. due diligence , are just as high for a $300K deal compared to a $1-3M deal.

Despite these challenges, hope prevails; the impact investing industry has taken steps to address them such as GIIRS and IRIS's effort to standardize social metrics and B Corp's certification that allows for-profit enterprises to legally pursue returns beyond financial. In addition, the conference is a good example of industry leaders coming together to discuss these issues and how to overcome them. This conference also demonstrates one of the distinguishing factors for the impact investing industry: collaboration. Impact investors understand that addressing poverty alleviation is multi-faceted and complex; co-investment in enterprises has become common to share risk while validating deals.

Additional support, such as incubators (Hub Ventures) and accelerators, is also increasing especially for earlier-stage enterprises. Village Capital's unique accelerator programs brings cohorts of entrepreneurs together around the world. Besides providing training such as improving business models and learning how to think like investors, entrepreneurs conduct peer reviews to make themselves better. At the end, each entrepreneur ranks everyone (minus themselves, of course) and the top ranked receive funding. With pre-committed capital from investors, Village Capital changes the power dynamic altogether. With 14 programs worldwide, Village Capital continues to accelerate both the industry and entrepreneurs seeking to make a positive impact in the world.

To be fair, critics around impact investing present valid points. Despite these criticisms, impact investing is growing with large institutional support such as JP Morgan and Citibank and will continue to evolve. In my mind, the only question for me is whether I want to stay on the sidelines and wait to see what happens or join and contribute to the exciting and innovative approaches to address poverty. As a speaker during the conference aptly noted: "There are things that are crazy to do. There are things that you would be crazy not to do." Impact investing is one of those things that I would be crazy not to do.

Down and Dirty with Data in Asia - Part 1

So I've been in China for three weeks now and am finally beginning to settle in. I moved in to my flat last night in Shanghai and I no longer have to sleep on an air mattress in my friend's living room...meaning I can finally go to sleep when I want!

My summer internship is with a small charity called Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation (CWEF). They work in areas throughout China (Shanghai, Guangdong, and Yunnan provinces), Hong Kong, and Cambodia to help alleviate poverty through improved education, health, and service. In Shanghai they provide scholarships to the children of migrant workers so that they can attend middle or elementary school, and also to girls in Guangdong province for high school and university. In Yunnan they have a lot of health projects such as building latrines and wells, as well as training small children on how to wash their hands and brush their teeth. One of the largest projects in Cambodia is providing animals such as goats and pigs to widows so that they can begin to make a wage for their family. I've volunteered with CWEF in the past hosting large fundraising events in Shanghai, so I'm very, very happy to work with them again and use the skills I've learned at the School of Information to help them again.

My internship is to train all the staff in all the various offices on how to use their new online database, CiviCRM on the Wordpress platform. CiviCRM is an open source Constituency Relationship Management system designed specifically with non-profits in mind. With so many different projects in so many different areas, it's been hard for head office in Hong Kong to keep up-to-date on what's happening, and a lot of the regional offices feel like they don't have much connection with the work in other places. By implementing this system to easily share information, the organization can become more efficient and communicate their impact more readily. In addition, by collecting data on their projects on a regular basis, CWEF can analyze and visualize their impact in more interesting ways. In terms of consulting, I will be looking into their workflow and communication flows to determine areas of improvement, and will develop a how-to guide for hosting a fundraising event. I'll also be looking into how they can use their civiCRM to connect to their donors in more meaningful ways.

Students collaborate on a creative project during a CLA training

My second week I had the chance to sit in on one of CWEF's programs, the Concordia Leadership Academy (CLA). This CLA training took place at Jinshan No. 3 Middle School, about an hour south of Shanghai, a city many migrant workers move to. The children of these migrant workers will most likely not continue on to high school, and so CLA is there to teach them some soft skills like teamwork, leadership, and communication, that will help them once they enter the workforce in a few years. From an American perspective, courses like this aren't that exciting, but this is actually quite unique in the context of the Chinese education system which focuses on memorization and passing exams. The teachers were all quite excited to be a part of it, and one told us that she noticed one student in particular made drastic improvements in expressing herself and sharing her ideas with the class after taking part in CLA.

Last week I went down to the CWEF headquarters in Hong Kong to meet with the director. It was great to have my hostel in the same building as the office, but that also meant that I was stuck in the center of Tsim Sha Tsui – one of the busiest and most crowded parts of the city state. I got to have lunch with an old friend, though, and got some great photos of the Hong Kong skyline during the daily light show.

Hong Kong island seen from Kowloon - Batman jumped off that tall building in the Dark Knight!

After my initial meeting with the director, I now have a plan now for developing strong lesson plans for training the staff on their CiviCRM. What's struck me so far as being the biggest challenge in training the staff has been determining protocols and procedures for the use of the CiviCRM. The director of service learning had a lot of questions for me about how they are supposed to use the database, and I realized that this is something I will have to work on very hard in concert with the director of CWEF.

I spent this last weekend in Shenzhen, which is only an hour away from Hong Kong in southern China. I stayed with my brother who is an English teacher there, and we had a couple interesting nights killing some of the largest cockroaches I've ever seen...that's a U.S. quarter next to that thing. These guys are crazy fast, and they fly. Eeeeek!

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If you'd like to know more about how non-profits can use data, check out DataKind, or the events page of the first annual A2 DataDive from this February.

The Life Bangalorian (part 1)

My first exposure to Bangalore was the taxi ride from the airport to my flat. Bleary-eyed after 36 hours of travel, I meandered up to an “airport approved” taxi service, told the driver where I wanted to go, and got in. What happened next was like combining the chase scene from FrenchConnection with the crazy boat scene from the original Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and sprinkling that with the animals from Dr. Doolittle. It got real crazy real quick.

It started off smooth enough. We pulled away from the curb and slowly picked up speed. Next thing I knew we were on the Indy 500 track from hell. Left. Right. Cross three lanes. Back over two. STOP! Go. Dodge the cab. Pass a scooter. Cut off a truck. Cut off a cab. Get cut off. Double cut. TRIPLE cut. HONK! Motorcycles whiz by. Honk! Faster and faster and faster. Honk honk honk! Around a corner. Under the bridge. SCREEEEEEEEEECH! Thankgoditisaredlight…

…I catch my breath. I realize I’m clutching the door handle with a strength that would make Hulk Hogan jealous. I unclench. That wasn’t so bad I say, lying to no one in particular. How much longer til we’re there? I ask. “An hour,” comes back the answer…

And we’re off! Speed bump. Down a ramp. Pothole. Around the bend. Pothole. COW! Slow down. Speed up. Another pothole. Faster. Honk! Speed up even more. Honk honk HONK!!! WATCHOUTFORTHESTRAYDOG!

Noticing that my face has gone from a healthy pink to a ghastly white, my cabbie tries to make small talk. “Where you from?” The states, I reply. “Where?” THE STATES! I shout, not because I’m upset, but because we’re about to hit a family of four nonchalantly driving on a moped. As we pass them, they look at me like I’m the crazy one. “How long you here?” he says as he takes his eyes of the road – HE. TAKES. HIS. EYES. OFF. THE. ROAD! – to dial a friend. Two months, I reply as I do that imaginary breaking thing your parents do when they think your going to hit something. “Nice.”

Around a bend. ANOTHER COW! Stray dog. Rickshaw. Honk! Stray dog. Honk Honk. Rickshaw. Vroom. Pow. Whiz. Scooter. Honk honk honk. HELP! Vroom. Truck. Cut off. HONK! Red light. Green Light. Go go go…

We arrive.

I pay the man 300 extra rupees (or was it more?) because what’s a few extra rupees when a man risks saves your life 1,000 times in an hour? They say that there are no atheists in foxholes. I think that also applies to passenger seats in Bangalore. After kissing the ground, I fumble with my key, enter my flat, find my room, sit down on my bed, and…

“Now what?” I ask myself. I had arrived and had a weekend filled with nothing to do…

Next Post: The Life Bangalorian (part 2)

Akwaaba!

Akwaaba means “Welcome” in Twi (one of the local languages in Ghana), and that’s been the theme of my first week here! I couldn’t feel more welcomed and supported here. From the hotel driver that picked me up at the airport last Sunday night, to the manager of my hotel, to my PATH Ghana team, to the new Ghanaian friends I have met so far – everyone just seems so happy and excited that I’m here, and that has really helped with the transition to a new culture and a new country!

I definitely hit the ground running! After two weeks in Seattle (to meet my US-based PATH team and other key stakeholders), I felt very equipped with the information and support I needed to get started right away when I got to Accra. 


This summer I will be developing a supply chain strategy for a medical device that treats women with uncontrollable postpartum hemorrhage, by controlling the bleeding, reversing the shock, and stabilizing the patient for safe transport to a comprehensive obstetric care facility. I will be interviewing stakeholders in the government, medical field, and private logistics network to understand not only the Ghanaian distribution landscape, but more broadly, the West, East, and Central African network. The device's benefits have been limited by its high cost of distribution and large minimum order quantity, so I hope my work will alleviate this barrier and enable broader distribution of the device in order to save more mothers' lives.


I have already met with many government officials (i.e. Ministry of Health, Central Medical Store, Food and Drug Board, Customs Agency) and ob/gyn physicians and midwives to understand the local distribution network, regulations, and informal policies for the introduction of a new medical device in Ghana. The openness and willingness to spend over an hour with me explaining the system has been astounding! I just can’t imagine this same level of availability and immediate trust back in the states!

Boiled peanuts

African Jazz Concert

Although I’ve only been here a week, I’ve taken the opportunity to see a lot of Accra already. I met a few ladies at my hotel, so I tagged along with them to Labadi Beach and to an African Jazz concert this past weekend. I’ve also tried a lot of local dishes and treats, and my favorites so far are the locally grown, boiled peanuts and fried plantains. There's a lot more places to visit and food to try over the next couple months!

                                           

                                                 Labadi Beach

Bangalore or Bust!

“Is he crazy?”

“Awesome!”

“That’s weird.”

“You’re going to have the best time of your life!”

I’ve received various reactions to taking a summer internship in India. Most people think of me as the clean tech guy looking for an internship at a pioneering start-up, so when they heard the word “India” they thought to themselves, “What’s that got to do with clean tech entrepreneurship?” It turns out a lot actually.

To understand how it fits into my master clean-tech plan, let’s take a step back for a second. Did you know that 1.6 billion people around the world don’t have access to electricity? That’s a hard number to wrap your mind around. That’s 21 times the population of the United States and is nearly 25% of the world’s population! And where is the largest population of people with out electricity? You guessed it: India. India is home to 400 million people (larger than the population of the United States) who rely on kerosene, firewood, and other unhealthy fuels for lighting, heating, and cooking. In fact, India’s unelectrified population spends $2.2 billion dollars a year on kerosene. In business, this is what we call a “market opportunity.”

One of the ways to serve this market is to sell renewable energy, usually in the form of a solar system for a house that comes with a solar panel, wiring, lights, and a phone charger. The key word here is “sell.” The old model of handing out aid just doesn’t work in this context. In order for the user to feel ownership over their energy they have to pay for it. The challenge is that most of the users who need these systems live on just a few dollars a day.

Enter Simpa Networks, an early-stage start-up that has invented a way for users to pay for their energy system through a pay-as-you-go model. After the system is installed, users pre-pay for the energy they will use. When the credits they have bought run out they buy more. If they don’t buy more, Simpa’s technology turns off the power. Over time their payments pay off the cost of the system and they take ownership of it. This innovative approach is a game changer and has received a lot of attention in the industry.

So, what do you get when you mix an innovative clean tech idea with a HUGE market and an early-stage start-up? You get an internship in India! Or at least I did thanks to Michigan’s Erb and William Davidson Institutes. Over the next 10 weeks I will analyze new markets in which Simpa can apply this concept. I’m based in Bangalore, but will likely make field visits to villages in the North. In between, I plan to travel around India as much as possible. This weekend I’m heading to Mysore and next weekend I’m visiting the Taj Mahal with five other Michigan students who are also spending the summer in India. It’s going to be a wild ride! I plan to use this blog to chronicle the adventure so check back periodically! Namaste!

My next post: Bangalore: The sights and sounds of the “Garden City.”