December 11, 2008

South African entrepreneur Nontwenhle Mchunu has lofty expectations to expand and develop her chocolate-making company Ezulwini Chocolat (which translates as "Heavenly Chocolate"). Mchunu comes from KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. She certainly does not have access to the kinds of financing and other resources available to most entrepreneurs in Europe or North America. However, since founding her company in 2002, she has demonstrated – time and time again – her passion, ambition and perseverance – qualities also found in the most famous serial entrepreneurs.

The Evian Group at IMD recently held its Fourth Garnet Capacity Building Workshop focused on inclusive growth by working with young entrepreneurs such as Mchunu to find solutions to immediate problems through intensive consulting sessions. Research Associate Albert André Diversé facilitated the last day of the workshop entitled The Challenges of Youth in the 21st Century: Africa - Creating Opportunities through Entrepreneurship & Education at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business.

As part of the workshop, participants associated with the Evian Group at IMD and Mthente Research and Consulting Services, the local partner based in Cape Town, worked in groups with Mchunu and three other promising entrepreneurs. During the day-long workshop, groups analyzed each respective entrepreneur’s business plan in a collective and interactive brainstorming session. The group participants represented a range of backgrounds, including successful entrepreneurs. The creative and constructive feedback garnered was invaluable, as was the confidence the entrepreneurs gained throughout the course of the day.

“I want express my gratitude for their amazing contribution in entrepreneurship and education development,” Mchunu said. “It was humbling to see so many people from different parts of the world come together to discuss change. Although I hoped more governments were listening, I believe we all have the ability to drive change. The workshop left a significant brick contributing to the construction of my dream.”

This workshop was held within the scheme of the European network of Excellence on Global Governance, Regionalisation & Regulation: the case of the EU - known under the acronym of Garnet.

“The theme of the workshop reflects the urgent need not only to promote but to mainstream innovative means for youth integration and inclusion in the active economy in every way possible,” stated Jean-Pierre Lehmann, IMD Professor of International Political Economy and Founder of the Evian Group. “This is not only true of South Africa and the region, it is true of a number of other places confronted with demographic challenges where current growth and development models are being questioned. The current crisis makes this imperative all the more urgent!”

The workshop also enabled IMD to put its research know-how into practice.

IMD will continue its focus on inclusive growth as part of its Responsible Leadership Summit, which will be held from February 1-3, 2009. This IMD event will feature IMD Faculty together with guest speakers such as Mrs Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Wendy Luhabe, Chair of the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa, CEO of Wiphold and Chancellor of Johannesburg University. The summit will focus on responsible leadership at the individual, corporate and global level.