Friday, January 9, 2009

Jan 7

These past few months have been an evolution. Upon becoming more organized and efficient, the shop then progressed into a stage of consistent functioning, which for me is a welcome success – building patterns of operations that work. The mechanics are building bikes, communicating well with each other, playing a greater role in deciding which bikes to build and keeping the storage space organized, communicating workshop needs to and sharing strategy with the sales staff, who are gaining a more active vision of the business future and what needs to happen for this future to happen, beginning to bear more responsibility for business finances and daily operations, communicating well with customers, and gaining a greater confidence in asserting prices based on market values.

Both mechanic and sales staff are exhibiting a more apparent group identity. Developing a powerful group identity is actually one of my greatest challenges, because its not something that I can control. It is however something that I deem critical to the sustainability potential of the business. If the workers identify their own selves with the business, they will fight to protect it, work to nourish it, and ultimately bear the responsibility for its success – financial, personal, social. The project matched their needs and corresponded with their aspirations enough for them to willingly, voluntarily commit themselves, identify themselves with this organization. Its my job to be vigilant and adapt the project to the workers wherever possible out of total respect for them, to make it something that works for them, but to also constantly challenge them to work harder, think more critically and creatively, and to become better at what they are doing. Challenging them in this way doesn’t always make me their best friend, and that’s fine for me, because its not my job to be their best friend, but to give them the tools to make this business work, preparing them to run it themselves. I hope they will thank me later.

Since the end of November, the business has done fairly well, though had not made as much profit as intended. Customers are buying bikes but not as fast as we would like. There are a number of reasons for this. The workshop is in a relatively obscure location and there is no substantial signage directing customers. Bicycles are displayed on the roadside, and this is what draws the customers we do get, but we can definitely increase the visibility of the bicycles and the business in general. We will occupy the streetside store next week, and this will allow us to pack bikes along the main road, and also put a bright and beautiful signboard visible to all who pass, which would amount to many thousands of people a day. With the next container coming up to Koforidua in about a week, and already a large number of people laying in wait to place their order on bikes, I think that the finances are going to look pretty nice in about a month. Costs related to clearing this next container are going to exhaust the business coffers, but this money will be replaced quickly enough. I’m now working with the sales staff to project a budget on the next few months to prepare and plan for a few huge payments that must be made. One is the down-payment on the front store, two is critical workshop developments (wheel-hanging structure), basic office developments and good signs, three is the payback of the EEFSA contribution. The business also has to save some money down for clearing costs on the next container in spring as well as securing an additional storage space, which could either be in the form of land combined with one or two 40 ft shipping containers, or another rented warehouse space.

The holidays went well for us. We had a few days off, which helped us all to get fresh. I had a raging new years eve party for the workers and friends, but everyone pretty much left by 9:30. And I slept by 10. But it was still fun. Great food, good vibes, a celebration of each other. I laid low and strategized during my vacation. I considered all that needs to be accomplished for this business to be self-sufficient with high sustainability potential by the time I leave which will be in less than 5 months. I also considered the system of governing the business, and I realized that if I’m going to prepare the workers to take responsibility, I need to give them responsibility, if I’m going to prepare them to manage the business, I’ve got to let them manage it, if I’m going to prepare them to make decisions, I must give them the authority to decide. Back to work on the 5th, with a meeting that for me was a milestone. I proposed a collective model of business governance, where each worker has one vote. Since the workers have gotten into the habit of referring to me as their boss, I wanted to clarify our relationships, and to take direct action to begin to establish collective governance, which will decrease my power as decision-maker and will likewise increase their power in this respect. This will not change the role that I play as shop manager and trainer. I will still maintain this authority, but will be accountable to the collective and the decisions made therein. I believe this is the right time for this shift. The workers are ready for more responsibility.

We’ve got a small business administration and accounting training with the government agency NBSSI on January 26th through the 30th. This is really exciting for us because up until this point, we’ve been improvising, which is working, but we know we can be better organized and more systematic with accounting. This training is going to build the skills of Maud and Torsutsey, who are already brilliant people, and is going to make them feel major accomplishment and take ownership over the business admin and accounts. This training is going to give them the chance to feel confident in what they know, and will help them to bear the responsibility and challenge this independent business poses.

I’ve also got more formal training for the mechanics planned this February, which will include exams, yep, the dreaded exams. I’m going to work solely with them for a full day out of the week, give them a reference sheet with the information I presented, and then a written exam as well as practical exam. We’ll do this four weeks in a row, and then have the final exam comprising all that was learned. I’ll follow-up with each mechanic on a continuous basis as they build bikes and offer them constructive criticism. I believe that these formal training sessions will round out the training, and strengthen the core systems and knowledge to run the workshop without my presence. Though for the remainder of my time with the shop, I will find continuous opportunities for formal or informal training. Every bike is a new opportunity.

One area that I’m working on is criticism. At this point, every worker can take constructive criticism from me positively, but this is not the case with each other. There is a pride that the workers have, and certain boundaries they uphold, and when criticism among the workers occurs it is usually in the form of humor. It seems that any direct criticism is often taken personally with potentially negative reactions. I think that this is normal considering the circumstances and the cultural difference in expression. Everyone is still learning, and defends their skill level. Within a hierarchy, this skill level would differentiate those with more or less status and power. I’m hoping to counter this defensiveness by building a strong sense of equality as well as an embracing of the diverse skills of the workers in the collective. A self-sufficient community is a cooperation of diversity. I believe that we can train ourselves in the business to recognize this in each other, and also to learn to rigorously criticize while accepting criticism. This radical openness can build the trust and solidarity needed for the effective collective governance of the business.

I’m in Accra now. I found out today that the container is in the port as of today. This gives us one week to clear it without paying port penalties. The last time the port penalties amounted to about 20 GHC a day which is around $16. We are in an interesting situation now, weighing the financial pros and cons of clearing the container without a formal exemption letter from the Ministries. It is definitely advised that we get this letter because it gives us much credibility with customs in the port and I’m sure expedites that process with minimal fees and duties. The question now: is it gonna be financially beneficial to wait for the letter and pay the penalties, or just to go to the port, pay the fees and duties related to the goods, and avoid the penalties entirely. This decision definitely requires an estimate on the amount of time its gonna take to get this letter. Due to the holidays and the elections, it took two weeks to get the letter from the first ministry office. Three more to go. I’m estimating 6-8 working days starting tomorrow. I’ll do a bit more research and then the math over the next couple days…

The elections were incredibly smooth – NDC the victor by an incredibly narrow margin of about 1% of the popular vote. Its wild though, building up to the election, there were young people marching the streets dancing, shouting, having such explosive energy that its sometimes intimidating, and on the day the first vote was counted with NDC having over 50%, I witnessed NPP youth and NDC youth marching on opposing sides of the street celebrating their respective parties. Zero aggression toward the other. It was shocking and awesome. The same energy, dancing, shouting, a celebration of democracy. There is an undercurrent value of peaceful politics that is incredibly strong here.

I posted a few more pics to the flickr website- http://www.flickr.com/photos/bnbghana/

Peace y’all

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