Digital for Impact Week 9: Learning from within & The Grow Movement

Giri Kesavan (MBA2021)

Giri is the Co-President of The Tech & Media Club at London Business School. An MBA2021 student, he also chairs the degree & careers wide Technology Sector Steering Committee, working with the school, faculty, industry, alumni and Careers Centre on Technology education & careers. Giri works with The Wheeler Institute on content development, outreach and student-led collaborations. He is further involved with the school as an MBA Academic Representative and Peer Leader for Technology.

You can catch up on the Digital for Impact series from week one here.

As we enter the final weeks of the pilot experiential ‘Digital for Impact’ course, we’re making our final preparations to present to our clients! Putting together everything we have learned over the past few months, we’re finalising our recommendations, building a story and about to present to our small business partners across Africa.

One of the key themes that I’ve really enjoyed in this course is the ability to learn from others. Peer learning is a huge part of all LBS degree programmes, and through this course, I’ve been able to interact and learn from colleagues across not only the MBA, but our leadership programmes (LBS Sloan and EMBA) as well. Their perspectives have added in a new dimension to my own MBA studies, how I approached this course and how I think about Digital Consulting.

In our plenary session this week, as groups were preparing for their final presentations, we crowdsourced the key learnings and advice on how to articulate our final recommendations to the client. Indeed, how to present is as important as what to present!

  • Giving confidence: We talked about humble consulting earlier in the blog series and it’s important to ensure that the client feels confident and that we realise we’re there to help…and not dictate!
  • Practicality & Actionable: Recommendations should be practical and actionable. We all love a bit of blue-sky thinking – but the key for us here was to devise recommendations that our clients can practically implement with the resources and capabilities that they have at their disposal. Ultimately, this creates immediate impact.
  • Being visual: Creating an engaging ‘storyline’ that goes through the journey of the client, our own journey and what led us to the recommendations we make are key. Instead of throwing numbers at a page and seeing what sticks – it’s all about adding in key visuals that covey the message powerfully.

To close off the week, we had the opportunity to virtually meet Chris Coghlan, the founder of The Grow Movement. Chris talked about his journey and how he thought about technology as a means to mitigate poverty. In a moving story, we learned how Chris, along with Violet Busingye, setup the concept of Grow and started working with small businesses to create impact. It was great to hear directly from our own LBS alumni on their personal stories and how that’s influenced and impacted their professional career. Grow has been of immense help during our own consulting experience, giving us additional contacts and perspectives on our clients, connecting us with information and being a sounding board for support. Thank you to Chris & Violet!

Ok…back to finalising our presentation in prep for the final week!

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