Stanford Seed Graduate School of Business renews collaboration with AMI to support African entrepreneurs
The African Management Institute (AMI) and Seed, a Stanford Graduate School of Business project that works with entrepreneurs to help them create successful businesses that improve lives, have reaffirmed their partnership. The project, which spans the African continent and will now encompass francophone Africa, includes a new scholarship fund that Stanford has revealed.
With 88% of graduates attributing accelerated business growth to the program, AMI’s Aspire Business Growth Programme, which was launched in partnership with Stanford Seed in 2021, offers owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their senior teams with practical learning and training to fuel growth in their business.
Our ability to reach more SMEs in Africa has increased as a result of our partnership with AMI to provide the Aspire Business Growth Programme. Additionally, this collaboration has helped businesses get ready to enroll in Stanford Seed’s Transformation Program for seasoned CEOs and founders, according to Seed Executive Director Darius Teter. Evidence suggests that early-stage small firms require more specialized help. Through Aspire, we are able to support business owners at an earlier stage of their development thanks to the practical approach developed by AMI exclusively for African entrepreneurs.
Aspire is given virtually throughout a six-month learning journey and is targeted at business owners with yearly revenues of between $20,000 and $400,000 USD. Participating businesses join pan-African cohorts of 30 businesses. Through interactive seminars, online platform access, peer groups, and a live session led by Stanford Seed Graduate School of Business faculty, the program provides access to AMI’s useful business tools and services.
A small number of participants who run high-performing enterprises and successfully complete all program criteria are given access to Stanford Seed mentors.
According to Rebecca Harrison, CEO and Co-Founder of AMI, “Aspire builds on AMI’s business growth methodology and practical learning approach that has proved to help African firms grow and prosper.” Small-to-medium-sized firms (SMEs) who benefit from learnings focusing on five key pillars, including strategy and planning, customers and markets, finance and money, people and talent, and operations efficiency, are the target audience for the Aspire program.
The flagship program of Stanford Seed, the Seed Transformation Program (STP), received thousands of applications from well-established SMEs with annual revenues ranging from $300,000 to $15 million USD. However, the program only accepts a small number of applicants. Following a successful pilot, AMI and Seed have expanded the application process for the Aspire Business Growth Programme to firms throughout the continent. Originally offered as a substitute option for African businesses that do not match the minimal requirements. The program has attracted 130 businesses thus far, and 88% of participants who finish it credit it with their company’s expansion.
Our company was in a condition of stagnation in 2021; we were not expanding, and we were unsure of what to do. We were given a comprehensive view of the business through the Aspire program. The tools changed the game. Prior to Aspire, we frequently put off making decisions while managing the day-to-day operations of the company, but now we have a method for making both big and minor decisions and, more significantly, involving others in the decision-making process. Raphael Opiyo Obiero, the founder of Nawiri African Sprouts Ltd. and a participant in the Aspire Program, stated that “Our income has increased and our business continues to develop as a result of Aspire
