FINAL EESA POST: Days 37 - 42

7-14-13

            Some might think that we should get weekends off and have a little time to breathe during this hellish week, but that would be unreasonable. We even had our final lecture yesterday, which was a Saturday, and today is Sunday and I plan to be working all day yet again. Its almost second nature to be working so hard at this point. I honestly have stopped thinking about breaks as an option because there simply isn’t enough time. We turn in our final report for Silulo tomorrow and we have to finish it up as soon as possible so we can focus on Monwood. We don't have to turn in that report until Wednesday which is great but it is very soon, especially with the social impact setbacks being that the primary school was closed all of last week. The report for Silulo is shaping up to be a long one, over 140 pages. It’s kind of weird that this report is going to very different than everyone else’s. Our deliverable write ups are very short since three out of four required no implementation other than providing documents that we wrote for Silulo to Luvuyo but our appendix is massive because that's where we put all of those documents. It is common for the reports to be the other way around meaning the write-ups are long and the appendix is short. I assume the Monwood report will be a little more normal but not entirely since that business is slightly developed as well. I wish we did have more to implement with Silulo since that is the best part of this program and we didn't really implement much. We did implement the social impact survey which was very exciting but that was pretty much all we implemented. Everything else we did for Luvuyo was create writing documents for them to utilize in the future, which is incredibly valuable help but not as exciting for us. Maybe that's a little selfish of me to say but this program is a two way street and not a something we do for the clients to receive nothing in return.

7-15-13

            I feel like an enormous weight has just lifted off of my shoulders and yet there is one more weight left. Today we handed in our final consulting report for Silulo Technologies. This felt like my baby, per se, but obviously the work was not all mine. Maybe just because I compile and format everything and make it look proper it feels more mine. I’m sure everyone else on my team feels it is as much his or hers as I feel it is mine. We have worked tirelessly to research and create critical documents so that Silulo can move forward at a quicker and more efficient pace. This report is 141 pages in full and that's pretty crazy because I’ve never submitted anything over 50 pages. Consulting reports are no joke. Some may say we had a dream client with a not so dreamy business but looking at this report makes me realize how much I have learned during my stay here. It doesn't matter who your client is as long as they need help and you have the ability to provide it. We may have thought we didn't have this ability but we definitely did. Or at least we do now. The goal of this engagement was to help our client and let him teach us and that is exactly what happened. Even though we didn't create a new operations model and generate a new marketing strategy, we helped in other, more creative ways and for that I am grateful. I look back now and cherish the difference of our client. I appreciate that we had a different experience than every other team because they will never understand what we went through. Then again, I will never understand what they went through but that's the excitement about this program. Every team has different challenges they need to overcome and they all do. Failure is most definitely not option when dealing with people’s lives. We are directly affecting our client’s lives and that is not something to mess around with.

7-16-13

            We are officially done with Silulo Technologies and Luvuyo Rani. Well, at least we are done with him on a professional level, which pleases me. I think I’m ready to be a student again. We had our final meeting with Luvuyo today in which we went over the four final deliverables and explained them in detail. We answered all of his questions and it went very smoothly. We then had him sign the engagement-closing letter and gave him the invitation to the closing banquet on Friday night. He’s obviously been through this process before so he understands the deal. What stood out in my mind about our meeting was that after we had finished working we were just sitting and talking with him. He was telling us about the impact that the help we have given him will have in the future. He went through all of our deliverables and explains how he has used them in some cases or will use them in the future. He has already used the funding presentation and he will continue to use it whenever he has a funding presentation to give in the future. He will also submit the due diligence that we provided as soon as possible. He will be able to use this document in the future as well pending some minor changes. With the franchise model he plans to input our write up directly into his complete franchise model once it is fully developed. And with regards to the social impact, Luvuyo plans to use this information to adjust his marketing strategies and acquire funding.

When the client tells you that he plans on using every deliverable that you have provided and not just one or two, I think you can call that a successful engagement. It just goes to show that all of our hard work on this deliverable was not for nothing. We did it for a purpose, that being to help people, not just Luvuyo but all of his customers as well. We created part of the franchise model that could be used to train thousands of people in the future. We didn't work our butts off for one person. We did it for thousands and potentially hundreds of thousands. That may seem a little drastic but indirectly we will have helped that many people in the future. Luvuyo is not putting this document of a hidden shelf somewhere and he’s not throwing it away. He is using it and will continue to do so. Now, I mentioned that were not done with him quite yet and that is because he is taking our team out to dinner on Thursday night. Id call that a pretty good thank you for the work we’ve done. I guess that's one of the benefits of having a more developed that I have been complaining about recently. We will also see Luvuyo again at the closing function, which I am very excited for.

7-17-13

            We just turned in the final consulting report for our second client at 102 pages. That means that this week my team and I have handed in 243 pages worth of quality material making this the most amount of work I have ever done in my entire life. It’s a pretty crazy accomplishment that I feel pretty proud with. The only thing is that I don't feel as excited as I thought I would, which is very frustrating. I expected to hand in the reports and immediately feel completely stress free, but I guess it takes time for the excitement to set in. Maybe tomorrow or the next day I’ll feel happier than I do now. Even at the waterfront as we celebrated I still didn't feel like there was an occasion worth celebrating. I know there was because I am confident in the quality of the reports, and I know that we have all worked very hard on them but it just doesn't feel like we should have celebrated anything. Another theory is that I still have to complete this journal through Friday so that could be hindering the experience, but I don't know.

            Nonetheless, I celebrated an average feeling night and still managed to have a lot of fun. We ate dinner on the waterfront and then went bar hopping for a little bit and then wound up at the Grand West Casino. This place was awesome. It is pretty much a Las Vegas hotel in the middle of the suburbs of Cape Town. Sort of an interesting concept but it managed to entertain just as much as the MGM did on my 21^st birthday. Well, not quite… I lost about 20 dollars but my friend ended up winning 400 dollars off of a 5-dollar bet playing roulette, which is crazy. He placed his chip on 31 black and it hit! He then left his chip on 31 black and it hit again! That I have never seen and I’m sure will never see again. Needless to say it was a pretty crazy night and even though something felt off, we all managed to have a great time.

7-18-13

            Today the three teammates that did not attend our exit meeting with Luvuyo had their exit meeting with Pumeza. I didn't go since I went to the meeting with Silulo, but those who did go said it went great, and Pumeza was very excited about the deliverables but was sad to see the program end. I haven’t seen her in a while so I am very excited to see her on Friday at the closing ceremony. We also conducted an interview with a woman who is a potential member for the board of advisors for Monwood. Her name is Gail Moyes and she has been helping Pumeza for years. The interview was awesome and we will be sending her the letter of appointment shortly. This is a big step in finalizing the board because once we have a leading member, that member can complete the formation of the board. She is very excited about working on the board and already has some great ideas to improve the business. This is something that will help Pumeza with her business for years to come, and in that, we have created a lasting impact on Monwood Playgroup. The final big thing of the day was going out for dinner with Luvuyo as a thank you to our team. He is such a great and inspiring man and one day I hope to have the drive in life as he does. Dinner was delicious and we all had such a fun time together. I really hope to keep in contact with Luvuyo to see how the business progresses in the future because I know it’s going to be huge. I’d say this has been one of the best EESAY days yet since it was one of the first days I actually got to relax in a while. At times I felt like I was drowning during the last two weeks but now I can finally take a load off and just breathe.

7-19-13

            DONE, KAPUT, FINITO. Signing off. Over and out.