Office Musings

It’s only natural when you place a bunch of consultants in a room, they try to fix, well, everything. Even in Africa.

Restaurants here are few and largely inefficient. Magic math occurs with the bill often, as the initial order that was hand-written seems to disappear when it comes time to pay. Occasionally we are overcharged – and we have to correct the bill to reflect the pricing stated on the menu. However, sometimes, restaurants under-charge and on more than one occasion we correct them in the moral right. When either of these over or under charging incidents occurs, a substantial conversation of efficiency opportunities or money management solutions erupts from our group of traveling nerds. That said, it would take a little effort mostly in implementing technology to make a big difference here – a statement perhaps for all of Africa – but it could start easiest at restaurants.

Paul, another consultant, observed how close the sisal plant is genetically to the agave plant. To be clear, there’s currently no agave in Tanzania right now. The only alcohols are beers (Kili and Ndouvu as the leading favorites) and, of course, Kanyagi cheap gin. He’s only half-kidding when he says he wants TechnoServe to explore launching a “Tanzania Tequila” industry. He says it could re-energize the northeast corner of the country.

I, on the other hand, was offering to start the first TechnServe office in Afghanistan. A topic often in the news is what to do with the poppy trade in Afghanistan. While there are proposed theories to pay farmers NOT to plant (bad idea) or to switch to other cash-generating crops, a group discussion pinpointed that farmers should not switch production, they should switch buyers (ie, no more drug lords). We had a 20-minute discussion (in the horticulture war room, no less) on the potential for Poppies for Peace, a for-profit social enterprise to be launched in the Swat Valley. It would be a muffin manufacturer – essentially taking some of the land with poppies and plant wheat and maize (baking inputs), then use the poppies already there. Al, Caris and I explored the space of rational and irrational ideas to determine what it would take to make this happen. Muffin Tops Against Terrorism was Al’s winning suggestion for naming rites. Satirical kidding aside, there is a huge opportunity for agri-business in these parts of the world that need an economic development vehicle to get out of their current situation.

Caris might remain in Dar to launch the first cake company. We had, by and large, given up on finding good baked goods in Dar. (Exception: Melting lava cake at Zuane) However, at a girls dinner last weekend, enough was enough – a group of four purchased a box of Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake mix. This box of cake mix would cost about $3 in the US. The box itself was marked as 2 pounds – almost $5 if in merry England. However, in Dar? We surrendered $8. Yes, $8 for a box of cake mix. And, I’d do it again. After the successful baking of this cake, we discussed the margins of selling it by the slice at Epi D’Or, the closest thing on the Peninsula to a bakery/coffee shop. Margins were ostensibly at 80% --- so, Cakes by Caris was created.