Our mission in Morocco to help business grow has progressed substantially. We’ve started to put pen to paper, identifying the story that we want to tell and the supporting facts that back the findings we’ve found. This is a bit different than what I consider a normal engagement in my day to day job. In meeting with our host organization, they aren’t looking for the three to five things they need to change to improve, they are looking for as many insights as we can reasonable provide, as many actions, tactical to strategic, small to large, that can help them.

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Ana, Ajay and I have discussed this amongst ourselves and with our hosts – this could easily be a three to five month project and what we are trying to do is provide as much depth as we can given the amount of time we have to spend on this project. This is a true time boxed analysis. There is a finite period of time in which we must start and complete the work, there is no wiggle room, so the stress and anxiety can get high. Luckily, Ajay, Ana and I can be open and honest with our feelings and ensure we’re understanding what the others’ concerns are. Any disagreements on project strategy or outcomes can be discussed to ensure we continue moving forward.

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This paid dividends on Thursday, our team had taken a consultative approach with our analysis and learning and we were starting to see where we were going – the President of our host organization is an elected position and is frequently traveling internationally representing Moroccan business. As chance would have it we were coming back from a fruitful discussion after a rfissa (more on that below), we were waiting for the elevator and as it opened the CEO and President were stepping out. The CEO introduced us and we were able to give our elevator pitch right by the elevator on our missions, preliminary findings as well as exchanging some niceties. We prepped for this, but it rarely happens that it comes to fruition. It energized the rest of the day and the next as we put our recommendations together.

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I haven’t mentioned my other sight seeing, stress reducing activity – running. We’ve created a running/walking group. At 6:30 a.m., the runners, me included, run a random route of 7 – 9 kilometers through Casablanca, while the walkers tend to leave at 7:00. We burn some energy, get to see different areas of the city and de-stress. I’ve been working out, but running hasn’t been a part of the strategy – my teammate, Ana Quigley, has run SIX marathons and she’s been incredibly helpful and patient as we’ve been getting our running legs going. A typical run will have a Brazilian, a couple Australians, an Irishwoman, and an American or two.

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We’ve been working at night as well and have a fairly well defined story line which culminated in an informal readout with the host organization on Friday, April 20. It was a great way to close the 2nd week of our Corporate Service Corp assignment. By presenting the insights that we identified our recommendations were virtually self-evident and our hosts nodding and confirming that they understood and agreed were great to see and hear.

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I would be remiss not to mention our assistant Rim Youssefi, she has been an invaluable part of our team, translating documents from French to English, translating interviews when they need to conducted in French. She has helped us understand subtle, cultural cues we may not pick up on and generally helps wherever she can.

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And speaking of helping – she helped our bonds grow stronger through food with rfissa. A very popular dish in Morocco which is also served at celebrations. It’s usually served with chicken, lentils, fenugreek seeds, msemmen (which is like a cross between naan and a flour tortilla) and a spice mix called rass el hanout, used similarly to garam masala in Indian cuisine. Like most Moroccan food – delicious. There’s a restaurant 50 steps from our office that serves it every Thursday and so we went. She stepped away to go to the bathroom and secretly paid for our meals – a kind gesture and an indication of our growing relationship as partners in this project.

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Ajay helped unite us through food as well, taking us to Bombay Palace, a great Indian restaurant owned by an Indian expatriate now living in Morocco. I’m only vaguely familiar with Indian food and Ajay gave us a crash course in proper naan, papadum, samosas, kebabs and curries. It was great and now we’re just looking for a Spanish restaurant since Ana is originally from Spain. We’ve already found a Mexican place with great tacos that delivers to the hotel!!

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With no host events on the weekend, we booked a trip to Marrakech for the weekend. As Marrakech is closer to Casablanca than Fez, we were able to leave Friday afternoon and return on Sunday. This time, instead of staying at a riad in the famous Marrakech medina, we stayed at a complex on the edge of the city.

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The next blog post will be more of personal one as it’s a weekend trip, but I wanted to share some pics of the grounds where we’re staying, some of the cats there (Moroccans have a deep respect for cats, much of it owing to Islam) and a hedgehog wandering the grounds. I honestly didn’t know where hedgehogs come from so to see one in the ‘wild of a parking lot’ was really cool!!

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Please check out the pictures from these past few days below and leave comments – more to come.