18 Mar 2015

Kelley School of business team will this week interact and inspire yet another set of five Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) clients who represent various sectors of the economy. 

The LEA chief executive officer, Dr Tebogo Matome, said on its third year running, the global business enterprise (GLOBASE) programme has benefited 15 LEA assisted entrepreneurs to start and grow their business. 

Dr Matome said the beneficiaries for the 2013 and 2014 programme were progressing well, adding that “LEA continues to nature them to ensure sustained growth,” he said. 

LEA in collaboration with Kelley School of business continues to benefit small and medium micro enterprises to grow their business into competitive and sustainable entities to diversify the economy of Botswana through the GLOBASE programme.

GLOBASE is a graduate programme designed and implemented by Kelley School of business at the Indiana University for post graduate business students.  Dr Matome further said he was confident that even the 2015 beneficiaries would leverage this weeks planned activities for the future success of the enterprises.

For his part, Professor Fred Schlegel of Indiana University said there were business opportunities and endless business possibilities in the country, and the challenges were small compared to the opportunities.He said this partnership was something that provided success to the business, where entrepreneurs learnt new ways of doing operations, solving problems and grabbing opportunities.

Prof Schlegel further said students were bringing something to strengthen Botswana business, as well as learning much from Botswana. 

“Every time I have ever done a consulting project with the students in a country, they have learned about doing business in a different place,” he said. 

One of the five beneficiaries of the GLOBASE programme who travelled to Indiana, Ms Chawada Machacha-Kebonang said she learnt that the entrepreneur was fully responsible for the success or failure of the business.

Ms Kebonang said she took full advantage of the meeting in Indiana as she was offered six consultants of MBA students to help make something out of her business.  “It is difficult and expensive to get a consultant to come in and commit time and resources into helping you make something out of your business,” she said. 

Ms Kebonang further said doing business in Botswana was challenging although there were a lot of opportunities. “We have challenges with clients who don’t want to pay as much as they should,” she said.

She also cited the unwillingness of financial institutions to support small businesses as some of the challenges. The GLOBASE programme could be expanded to include more than five people, she added.

In his closing remarks, deputy chief executive officer, Client Services Mr Cosmas Moapare encouraged this year’s five selected LEA beneficiaries to take advantage of the opportunity.  “Learn as much as possible and use the knowledge to advance your businesses to greater heights,” he said. ENDS