It has been 3 weeks since we left South Africa, but it feels like a few years had gone by. No doubt, time flies by quickly at IMD. It was an adventurous journey that has brought us new knowledge and new friends. We came to know South Africa as a country with many histories that continues to face many challenges, even after the apartheid ended. But her charms have remained through centuries.
We started our first day in South Africa meeting our client and host, Salome; a grandmother (we call her “Gogo”, meaning grandma) and a local entrepreneur, who owns a few guesthouses. She was warm, friendly, and passionate about what she is doing. However, the economic crisis has been affecting her business and she hoped that we could help to improve it. After visiting other competing guesthouses, we were convinced that her guesthouse has a lot of potential. So we recommended her a plan to attract tourists during weekends and public holidays.
To do that, we proposed to revamp their website and make videos of her guesthouse. However, spending this amount of money during the current economic crisis may simply not feasible. Therefore, we embarked on an ambitious plan to help her implement our recommendations. We formed a website and filmmaking team in which Misayo took on the role as the director, Naoto became our cameraman, Gerald as the graphics editor and Eugene was the script writer. Ben, our driver, became the presenter for our video. Together, we designed a new website and produced four videos. (Links to the website and videos can be found below)
We were pleasantly surprised to find out that our business skills and knowledge can be applied to small business in such a short period of time and make a difference. Till today, we still keep in touch and are glad to know that her business is doing well. On top of that, what started as a client relationship has developed into a life-long friendship.
You can find there website here and the Facebook page here.
Misayo, Eugene, Naoto and Gerald
(Any comments and feedback are welcome at Gerald.Lo@imd.ch)
Last day at the guesthouse with Naoto Tsushima (Japan), Eugene Cha (Korea), Salome Tshungu (owner), Cliff Tshungu (owner), Ben Ackermann (driver), Misayo Matsumoto (Japan) and Gerald Lo (Malaysia)
Day trip to a South African cultural village with Naoto Tsushima (Japan), Gerald Lo (Malaysia), Eugene Cha (Korea) and Misayo Matsumoto (Japan)
Naoto Tsushima (Japan) and Eugene Cha (Korea) filming at the guesthouse
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