Working girl…mostly (think Mary Tyler Moore but in Mombasa)

I’m back in action writing. Do try to contain your excitement. This will likely be a short one (by my standards). I wanted to give you faithful readers some information on the organization and project I am working on for the next month before I get extra busy. I am in Kellogg Corps – a program that partners Kellogg students with international organizations to complete consulting projects on a volunteer basis the summer after they graduate (which I did manage officially on June 19).

The organization: GSE Ecotours (www.gse-ecotours.com) was formed in 2006 by a young Kenyan woman (Jackie Kariithi) with a masters degree in environmental studies, and a passion for local development in her country. GSE partners with local Kenyan communities to offer a responsible tourism alternative to mass packaged vacations. These customized vacations are unique, because the traveler has an opportunity to reside with a host family in a rural village community for three to fourteen days as a guest rather than a tourist, and the visitors are able to forge lasting relationships with their hosts, often continuing after they leave the village. GSE works with eight different cultural ethnic groups throughout various regions of Kenya. Each community has its own unique identity, character, and culture. Travelers engage in singing and dancing, meal preparations, community projects, language lessons, handicrafts, and harvesting with the local communities.

The project: We are tasked with assessing the USA market, including opportunities with college travel groups, and creating an integrated marketing plan with the goal of increasing awareness and attracting more US business.

The team: As I have briefly mentioned before Maki and Liz from Kellogg will also be working on the GSE project in Kenya with me. This is FANTASTIC, because Liz can produce the coolest videos you have seen, and she has some McKinsey consulting experience (although we will be competitors in the consulting world I can let it slide for now ;)). Maki is from Tokyo and will be headed back there after Kenya. She is brilliant at researching and makes even the dullest business information look fancy and fun in powerpoint. I need to learn from both of them while I have the chance!

The plan: We are performing market research to better understand the US target market and school markets as well as competitive research to determine points of differentiation and pricing possibilities. We will also be interviewing the GSE team and experiencing their product next week first-hand as we head to a local village and engage in the cultural activities! I could not be more excited to go meet local Kenyans and to learn from them. I am also ready to get some work done as we help with daily chores and work on a larger community project. Hopefully I can do a better job than when I laid some bricks in Paraguay while visiting my friend Katie in the Peace Corps. Right after I put the bricks down some local guys re-did it…that hurts the ego. I guess my dreams of being a brick layer ended that day.

Finally, we will be providing GSE with actual marketing materials (such as press releases, marketing and bio videos, and website improvements) as well as contacts to leverage in the US travel and school markets. I have already enjoyed meeting with Jackie of GSE and drafting press releases about the travel offering and creating a nerdy health and safety write up (yea risk management!).

I will add some pictures after the village homestay as well as some quality stories, because let’s be honest me farming or building a community project has to generate worthy material. I hope you are all well. Stay in touch! Until next time…Sarah.