By Khosi Phasha
Marketing Director of Khavho Travel & Tourism
Since 2012 nearly 710 London Business school MBA Students have transformed 134 micro entrepreneurs in Alexandra Township located in Gauteng province, Johannesburg, the oldest township in South Africa.
Khavho Travel Tourism, Reciprocity together with London Business School (LBS) held a successful event whereby 710 MBA students from LBS came to Alexandra Township , Johannesburg from the 24th of October – 28th of October 2022.
In virtually all emerging markets, micro businesses defines as businesses with five or less employees.
Their predominance can in part be explained by the relative lack of formal sector jobs available to the working poor.
Micro businesses have the potential to add value to a country’s economy by creating job opportunities, enhancing income, strengthening purchasing power and serving customer needs.
The Objective of this Global Experience, is divided into two:
*1. For Entrepreneurs_*
Understanding business dynamics from a global perspective or stand overview in terms of maximising performance in all areas of the business.
2. *For The Students*_
Understanding the businesses in low income communities and finding out what makes them different to the global market.
Township businesses are contributing more than 70% of the economy of South Africa. Therefore, how do those micro businesses contribute to the South African economy and how do business owners conduct their businesses which is evident as the size of South Africa’s informal economy is estimated to be 28.8% representing approximately $325 billion at GDP PPP levels?
However, on a social perspective, it is important to exchange cultural differences and similarities as students are from all over the world.
The Johannesburg Global Experience program involves 16 entrepreneurs or business owners from Alexandra, 16 experienced navigators who reside locally. Through this system, we opt to maximise the value that has to be brought to Alexandra as a whole.
3. * How does the program happen? Firstly, Khavho Tours identifies navigators, then the entrepreneurs are identified towards end of September, whereby they’re interviewed by us along with Reciprocity.
The MBA students are expected to be in South Africa by Saturday. On Sunday, navigators are briefed before everything starts by Khavho, Reciprocity and LBS Team.
On Monday, the work starts and students meet the navigators first and then meet their entrepreneur whom we regard as the client.
From Monday to Thursday, students spend 2 to 3 hours with the business owners. On Thursday, firstly, we had the Alumni entrepreneurs who worked with the London Business School to help with what the previous students recommended and whether they worked or not and how the students contributed to the lives of the entrepreneurs and their businesses.
Secondly, we had corporate visits from First National Bank, Kelloggs and Danone where we engaged with the large sized businesses to understand their understanding of the Townships Economy and how their products and services benefit businesses owners in low income communities such as Alexandra.
Our stakeholders include Maloke Jazz Club run by Ntate Maloke who is our hospitality and venue host. Secondly, Alex Sankopano at 12, the exhibitors at the Alexandra Heritage Community Centre, a local photographer, Snepe Pictures and Motion – run by Timothy Bembele, a volunteer patrollers born and bred in Alexandra.
The London Business School Global Experience, contributed about R300k that week.
The initiative was successful and productive. However, it was sad when the MBA students had to leave Alexandra, because connections were made and people from Alexandra welcomed the students with open hands and made them comfortable.
A member of Alex FM, attended the closing event on Friday, at Gordon Institute of Business Science, for awarding of Acknowledgement Certificates to entrepreneurs and navigators.
