Innovation in Emerging Markets: A Tuck Expedition to Kenya

GIX is an experiential learning course that gives students the chance to travel around the world to experience how business is done in other countries. Having international experience is crucial in today’s world, when business leaders must collaborate across borders, says Lisa Miller, executive director of the Bakala TuckGO program. 

Tuck clinical professor Ramon Lecuona, who helped launch this groundbreaking expedition in Kenya, said the program was designed to teach students about ecosystem strategies in the context of emerging markets by leveraging Tuck professor Ron Adner’s Wide Lens Ecosystem framework, which holds that the success of innovation doesn’t operate in a vacuum—it actually depends on other moving pieces in a much larger ecosystem that need to be considered as well. 

 “If you think about the continent of Africa as a whole, it’s the last part of the world that has not seen the type of growth that you would expect to see, given the endowments of the region, particularly its amazing demographics. Kenya was the ideal setting for us,” says Lecuona. “It allowed us to get the most mileage out of Ron Adner’s ecosystem strategies framework while giving students the chance to witness trends that will be highly important in the future.” 

In the first phase of the project, which began this past March, 24 MBA students split off into four groups to lead consulting projects for their clients—four venture-backed companies comprising Hello Tractor, Jumba, Copia, and Craydel. During the process, students interviewed stakeholders including customers, suppliers, and competitors. The team for Jumba, for example, spent their time in industrial areas around Nairobi talking to the owners of small hardware shops and large-scale manufacturers of construction material. 

Clients selected for the project fit two important criteria: First, they were startups that were in the process of crafting their business strategies. And second, they were solving important problems, such as improving access to housing, food, and education. This combination aligns with Tuck’s mission to better the world of business. The companies reach spanned well across Kenya’s rural and urban areas, and more broadly across East Africa.

“We wanted companies that are solving not only meaningful business problems, but problems that are socially important,” says Lecuona. Hello, Tractor, for example, can be likened to “the Uber of tractors.” Most farmers in Kenya don’t have access to mechanization, which constrains their productivity, but by lifting that constraint, farmers can be more productive and make more money.  

“For a population that largely lives in rural areas, this means cheaper and better food for everyone, so that's very impactful,” Lecuona says. “Our students and participants aren’t just going to Kenya to extract knowledge and learnings, but we’re giving back the best thing that we have to give, which is business experience and knowledge.”

Carson Marsh T’24—an investment banking associate at J.P. Morgan with an interest in real estate—chose to work with Jumba and said the experience gave him the chance to practice creative problem-solving.  

“My experience with Jumba showed me the number of complexities that companies operating in Kenya have to consider relative to the companies that I have worked for back home,” Marsh says. “For instance, considering a logistics e-commerce company in the U.S., we take distribution networks and roads for granted, but in Kenya, there are regions where these are still in development. The question is more like: How do they provide last-mile distribution when they do not have the necessary infrastructure in place?” 

Marsh also noted that Kenya could be one of the biggest areas for growth over the next several decades. “From an investment opportunity perspective, Kenya has striking similarities to China and India 20 years ago. I think Kenya is definitely well positioned, given the tech aspect, to be very prominent,” he says. 

After the MBA students finished their work, each project was passed to a second team comprised of 40 senior executives who were participating in Tuck Executive Education’s Global Leadership Program. These executives, informed by the MBA students’ projects, arrived in Kenya in May to work alongside CEOs and their teams. On Copia’s team, for example, a team of Colgate executives traveled to rural areas in Naivasha to interview Copia’s customers and the storeowners who serve as the rural distribution company’s agents. When they finished doing their research, executives spent half a day giving feedback to the entrepreneurs. 

Mariko Fujita, CFO of LIXIL Corp., said that her LIXIL team took a hands-on approach to identify areas for Jumba’s strategic growth. They engaged with Jumba’s customers and business partners, and conducted comprehensive site visits. She was especially impressed with the work that the Tuck MBA students did in the first phase of the project. 

“The Tuck MBA students excelled in their preparatory work, setting a solid foundation for our interviews and site visits,” Fujita says. “Their behind-the-scenes efforts were vital, ensuring that we could hit the ground running upon arrival. I deeply appreciate their detailed coordination, which was pivotal to the tangible progress we experienced on site.”

Fujita—who recently took on the CFO role at LIXIL—said that the experience was timely and relevant to her professionally.

“Understanding concepts and theories in a classroom is one thing—applying them in the field is quite another, and this hands-on experience has significantly enhanced my understanding and skills,” she said. “The Tuck Global Leadership program has been a transformative experience, sharpening my strategic business perspective and enhancing my financial acumen.”

In addition, the program included a “Tuck Pitch Competition,” co-organized with Antler, a global incubator, where MBA students and executives gave feedback to 12 startups aiming to solve some of Africa’s biggest problems. Doing so gave participants a peek inside high-potential Kenyan ventures and an opportunity to put into practice what they learned in the Tuck classroom. The companies also participated in a faculty-led strategy workshop to gain knowledge to improve their pitch.

Participants and students also had the chance to meet influential leaders in the region to develop contextual knowledge about Kenya and Africa. They met with Meg Whitman, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya and former CEO of eBay, correspondents for The New York Times and The Guardian, visited Fairview Estate, a coffee farm led by Dartmouth alumnus Michael Warui D’89, and immersed themselves in the culture while on a safari in Nairobi National Park. 

Thamires Mouta T’25—a second year MBA student with a background in financial services—traveled to Kenya alongside a group of Colgate executives who were partnered with Copia. Mouta had a seat at the table with the Colgate executives, contributing to the discussions on Copia, an experience she found invaluable.

“Being in strategy sessions with seasoned executives gave me insight into how they approach complex business problems,” she said. “We tackled issues like last-mile delivery in areas with limited infrastructure, and I saw firsthand how the strategy frameworks that I learned at Tuck can be applied to analyze Copia’s ecosystem.” Mouta emphasized the added value of working in Africa, calling it a “life-changing” opportunity that deepened her interest in emerging market strategies.

“During a site visit to one of Copia’s agents, our van had to stop for a giraffe crossing the road,” Mouta recalled. “It was a vivid reminder of how businesses here need to be adaptable and respect the local environment. This experience has definitely shaped my perspective on innovation in emerging markets.”

Today’s business leaders need both a strong framework and global experience when doing business—educational innovations such as the Tuck Executive Education and Global Insight Expeditions partnership help make that possible, Lecuona says. “If you go back a hundred years, business schools were founded with a very practical purpose—to train students to be good managers—in today’s world, this means combining the rigor of the classroom with applied learning experiences around the globe is just as important,” he says. “A good framework is not specific to an industry or to a company, which is why we wanted students to see how the same sort of issues manifest in different industries in different settings—rural and urban. This new way of learning combines the best of both worlds, which is the rigor of academic frameworks and hands-on, real-world opportunity, all while bettering the world through business.”