GBM Blog

McKinsey Workshop on a Social Business Future for The Green Belt Movement

December 16, 2013 - 05:35PM
Published by GBM- Kenya

McKinsey Workshop on a Social Business Future for The Green Belt Movement 

This November bore a fruitful collaboration: We were honored to host a team of management consultants from McKinsey Germany and a group of dedicated students for a workshop at the Green Belt Movement (GBM) Langata Training Center. Their aim was to develop a viable social business plan for Green Belt Safaris (GBS), a sister organization of GBM offering community visits and tree-planting activities to eco-minded tourists. In close cooperation with our staff and board, our guests helped us lay the cornerstone for a business that shall benefit our communities and our organization. 

A member of the McKinsey group planting trees together with the community members and discussing the social, economic and environmental impact of GBM and GBS with them.

The workshop lasted six days, full of productive work, but also ripe with powerful experiences for everyone involved: In an inauguratory session on the first day we all jointly remembered the legacy of Prof. Wangari Maathai and - with her spirit in mind - defined goals and a mission statement for Green Belt Safaris. On the second day our guests had the opportunity to visit the Kandara Community Network, (Muranga Constituency) in Central Kenya for a field trip. Here they experienced first-hand how joyful and inspirational an exchange with local Kenyans can be for guests from abroad. The group enjoyed planting trees together with the community members and discussing the social, economic and environmental impact of GBM and GBS with them. On the third day, we jointly participated in a Social Business Panel Discussion in Nairobi’s Growth Hub to exchange ideas and experiences with other Kenyan social business practitioners. After two days of concentrated working in joint functional teams with focus on marketing, operations and finance, the McKinsey visit ended with a concluding session on the results of their analysis and a farewell barbecue. Our work on Green Belt Safaris, however, has only just begun and we look forward to the challenge of putting the business plan into practice.

 

GBM would like to thank the McKinsey team and the students for their invaluable support provided to the Green Belt Movement