Well, I had stopped at Wonder Welders, was impressed with their art and their work, but not their welding. In fact, I had looked at welding all over Tanzania and it was often very poorly done, including on the few locally made bicycles. I asked Elly Kay, the director at Wonder Welders if she had further ideas about where I might find good welders. She said sure, right down the street, just go and ask for “fundi Peter”. ‘Fundi’ is the universal Swahili term for ‘technician’. It can apply from everything from a traffic cop, to a cell phone seller, to a welder.
So I went looking for fundi Peter. This street specialized in a variety of construction related trades. The one that broke my heart were men, many women and a few children breaking stones down into gravel. Piece by piece. Some with hammers. Some with bigger stones. They sat in the gravel and pounded the rocks between their legs without masks or gloves. I wasn’t able to get a good picture because taking pictures of people needs to be done with permission. But you can get the idea in the picture below.
I found fundi Peter. His carpentry and welding shop provides a variety of goods from bed frames to cabinets to metal trusses. (See a picture of his shop below)
The welding was great. It turns out that Peter has a ten year history of teaching welding at a vocational school called Don Bosco, right around the corner.Not only had I found a welder, I found one that could keep a factory stocked with quality welders who knew what they were doing.
I talked to Peter and another partner that was there. Since then I’ve had two meetings with them; there are four partners in all, with Peter as the chairman. Our discussions have been very interesting.
When Cheetah invests in an entrepreneur, we need their all. Starting small businesses is very difficult work. Even in the USA, according to the SBA, about 80% don’t survive the 10 years, with 25% failing in the first year. So we need our entrepreneurial partners to be fully interested in making a success. To make sure of this we apply several methods but the two most important is to make sure they are focused on the business and that they provide part of the investment.
Providing part of the investment is not so much about how much money they are contributing, but that they are putting themselves meaningfully at risk. Cheetah won’t take a risk if they won’t. This keeps incentives aligned for success. Sometimes the risk is less about money than other things, like leaving a good job, committing resources, or pledging other assets.
One of the problems with this group of entrepreneurs is that they wanted to keep their existing business going along with joining the bicycle factory. They have a reasonable perspective: they want something to come back to in the event of failure and they want to make more money on the side. But it probably dooms the bicycle factory. The core work force cannot have another major project going on the side.
So I told them the story of the Spanish explorer, Hernando Cortez seeking to conquer Mexico. His problem: his men thought maybe they should return to the comfortable home in Cuba instead. When he landed in the Americas he told his troops to burn the boats. There was no going back. They were going to find a way forward.
“Burn the boats!” This has become part of every conversation with this group of entrepreneurs. They got it. So have I. Now we need the help of hundreds people like you to find the way forward.
Since Don Bosco was right around the corner, I left fundi Peter and his partners and went straight there for a reference. I got a very good reference from the headmaster. I think we’ve found the start for a bicycle factory operations department!
To continue the story of the bicycle factory go here: http://cheetahdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/friday-find-don-bosco.html
Here’s a picture of Peter (left) and one of his partners, Geofrey.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment