ESMT Responsible Leaders Fellowship Program: A motivation letter by Javier Guzmán de Baya

My name is Javier Guzmán de Baya, an ESMT MBA graduated in 2013. Through this letter, I would like to explain the reasons and motivations for my decision to be part of the RLF; fellowship program between ESMT and Tsiba. Besides, I would like to describe the different programs and activities in which I am involved.

Firstly, I will explain how I got involved in the ESMT fellowship program; when Professor Dr. Wulff Plinke, ESMT Founding Dean, explained the fellowship program to our MBA class last year, I got immediately excited about the idea of participating on that. The possibility for me to work again in the social field, especially on the appealing project at Tsiba, where I could apply the knowledge and experience accumulated in my career, and also where I would like to keep developing my professional career, was an irresistible opportunity that I could not miss.

I am an economist with a second bachelor’s degree in Marketing Business and Market Research with a background in Multilateral Financial Institutions, International Trade and Investment, Public Administrations, and Regional Cooperation for Development. My work experience at the Trade Promotion Agency of Andalusia (EXTENDA), and also my experience as an EU Project Technical Expert in Spain focused on Regional Development and Cooperation Program in Latin America are especially helpful for me when carrying out my activities at TSiBA in South Africa.

My motivations are exclusively related to my passions. I am especially passionate about working on projects related to Social Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability Projects as well as for projects within Corporate Social Responsibility or Public Institutions. My special sensitivity when working with local communities; my experience with project approach and assessment when looking for solutions, and my passion when achieving goals together with people, make me really interested in keeping working in the social field. I would be very enthusiastic about having the possibility to apply all of that to future similar projects.

Following, I would like to introduce TSiBA Education in order to have a better understanding of my activities in this Institution:

TSiBA Education is a non-profit private higher education institution based in South Africa, for disadvantaged students who would not otherwise be able to afford a university education.

Tsiba, apart from its academic vision with more than 500 students, provides different entrepreneurial services to an important number of local enterprises; TSiBA Ignition Centre is a hub dedicated to extending TSiBA’s mission of “Igniting Opportunity” to reach beyond our students into the communities that they come from. Most of the projects are focused on Enterprise Development, Community Training, and Leadership Development.

I started working at TSiBAÂ in January, where I was assigned to the Ignition Center (Business Incubator and Social Entrepreneurship) due to my professional background, but the lack of human and financial resources has caused me am also be involved in the academic side of the Institution by lecturing different courses, what it is also being an amazing experience for me.

Description of activities

The TSiBA Ignition Center, with the purpose to offer its services, is permanently searching for enterprises, most of them just survival businesses, in the community. We are permanently tracing new potential beneficiaries. It means that we make interviews, create business profiles, classify, and based on their needs and challenges assign these enterprises to the appropriate program.

As an NGO, TSiBA can implement its programs basically through sponsorship agreements. One example is the program that we are running with Sanlam, one of the biggest Insurance Companies in South Africa. In this program, we offer training, individual mentorship, and a professional network, to the enterprises that we previously selected for participating in the program. Sanlam is not only interested in sponsoring this program because of its Corporate Social Responsibility but also because the participant enterprises in the program will be included in Sanlam’s supply chain program and generate synergies with other companies that already operated with Sanlam and other clients.

We are running similar programs to the one described with Sanlam, in which local institutions and corporates support different programs that offer individual mentorship and training to our enterprises.

What is very unique at Tsiba, is the extremely close relationship of the students with the community and especially with the businesses that operate in the community. Most of our enterprises know from TSiBA through our students. After this first contact, enterprises come to the Ignition Center where we explain to them our activities and different support tools.

In line with that, we are also running a program in collaboration with Northeastern University’s Social Enterprise Institute. In this program around 50 American students together with TSiBA students will support local enterprises by providing managerial support according to their challenges and needs. For this program, what we do first contact our enterprises, we interview them and create a business profile in which we highlight their main needs and challenges. After that, we allocate students with skills and profiles that can be helpful for overcoming the challenges of the businesses participating in the program.

On the academic side, I am lecturing last year’s students. The course is called innovation and we are implementing a very practical program that encourages the students to create their own businesses. At the end of the program, they have to generate income with their businesses. Here, there is also an important field to come up with new collaborations and ways of implementing the program: Business incubator, social entrepreneurship, and allocation of our students to corporates for consulting projects.

I am also mentoring students for the Entrepreneurship Course. Professor Dr, Plinke had the opportunity to attend one of my sessions during his visit to the TSiBA Campus.

The final purpose of this document is to raise awareness of the multiple collaboration possibilities that can be developed in South Africa and especially related to Social Entrepreneurship and CSR. The social impact of the activities carried out by institutions such as TSiBA is impressive but can be multiplied with additional support, especially from the corporate world. There are many different ways to collaborate and develop new potential programs in South Africa.

As I explained at the beginning of this document, I am really interested in continuing working in the social field, especially in Social Entrepreneurship. During my experience at Tsiba, different ideas and possibilities for future collaboration programs are arising. I would love to share them with you if you are interested.

I am totally convinced that Social Entrepreneurship is a powerful way to alleviate poverty in the developing world.