ETHIOPIA & PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR
9194 OU18 - Ethiopia - Approval
I came back from Ethiopia in a high state of enthusiasm; with my life changed.
Once more I flew through the night. The low point of this was landing at Jeddah to refuel. Jeddah is on the Red Sea and as such is not just hot but humid. Even at midnight it was 100 degrees in temperature and 100 percent humidity. Hence, when they opened the aircraft door, it was like a steam bath rolled in, and we had to sit in that for an hour.
Back in the OBS, I persuaded everyone to support the project. This was not difficult task, since it was obvious that it was going to be a feather in the School's hat. Accordingly, I gathered together the group of chairs of the MBA who would have to support it, and explained the situation to them. I got unanimous support, and they were almost enthusiastic as I was; as indeed was Andrew.
With the aid of the admin people I then worked out the quote which I thought might get the business. As usual we put together what we thought was a realistic quote. Almost inevitably, as evidenced by previous quotes for similar business, this would have lost us a significant amount of money -- since you never think of all things that will need to be put into it. But we were desperate to get the business.
I then went down to a meeting with the Overseas Development Agency (ODA) on Victoria Street. They were going to be the funders for the project, although the initial approaches had been made by the British Council and they would supervise it.
I sat down with them and started to talk about our view of the possible approaches. The students in Ethiopia desperately wanted to study economics, since they thought Western economics had to be the answer to the Marxian economic theory they had been taught previously. I carefully explained to the ODA that the best antidote, and the best approach to their teaching, was to teach the MBA instead. Not least, they could obtain a master's degree for three credits where they would require seven credits to get a bachelors degree in the rest of the Open University. In this, at least, my suggestions carried the day.
I soon became aware, however, that there were two factions at this meeting. On one side of the table were the management of the OBA, who were not exactly against the project but were not enthusiasts. On the other side of the table, in effect, was just one person; who turned out to be the representative of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
I had my quotation available; not just to read out but as printed copies in the form of a handout for everyone. However, before I was able to present this, the ODA management baldly asked the FCO representative "Do we really have to do this?" The FCO representative simply said "Yes, it's in the national interest". At which point the ODA said "Okay. With that go-ahead let us put together the package".
I was astounded since, at this point, I hadn't even presented my quote. So, in my head, I frantically doubled every figure in the quote. I didn't give them copies of it. Instead, I read out all figures that were in it -- just doubling each of them. Thus, it became one of very few such OU ventures that actually did break even.
Back at the OU, however, the Vice-Chancellor was not so happy. He, quite correctly, pointed out that the project was totally outside the OU mainstream. It was not about distance teaching, such as that we normally did though there was a significant element of this, but it involved a considerable amount of face-to-face teaching by leading experts which was not playing to our strengths. Accordingly, he vetoed the whole project.
Rising to the challenge, I contacted the representative of the FCO who I had met at the previous meeting, and asked him to get his Permanent Secretary to lean on PC. Accordingly, the Permanent Secretary of the FCO contacted the Vice-Chancellor and discreetly persuaded him to change his opinion. It was reported, at that time, that the Vice-Chancellor said - about me - that "I will never speak to the guy again". In fact he did, and we became good colleagues. He even invited me to dinner, which was a sign that he saw me as an up-and-coming academic. Later on he also invited me into the DTI task force that he was involved in.
Thus was approval for Ethiopia project obtained.
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