Type: Business, Operations, Marketing
Role: Somo Fellow
Venture: The Somo Project
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Deadline: July 14, 2019
About Somo
Somo is an entrepreneurship accelerator that works in low-income urban communities. We invest in community-led initiatives and provide the resources needed to help build sustainable enterprises. Our programs include long-term support in the form of training, tailored business advising, funding, and assistance with market access. We believe that people from low-income communities are best positioned to create change in their own communities — they understand the issues that their families and neighbors are dealing with, and are committed to finding workable solutions.
In partnership with The Somo Project, as a Fellow with Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB Canada), you will be placed with The Somo Project to work with their team in Kenya. Throughout your Fellowship with EWB, you will receive guidance, mentorship and financial support from the community in Canada and in East and West Africa.
About Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB)
EWB is a free-thinking charitable organization that brings people and ideas together to tackle the most crucial causes of poverty and inequality. We nurture talent and leadership, enable social entrepreneurship and advocate for policy innovations to cross-breed systems-changing innovations to ensure economic and public opportunity reaches everyone, including the most underserved and marginalized populations, especially women and girls.
Through our leadership curriculum and Fellowships Program, we offer experiential learning opportunities in Canada and sub-Saharan Africa to launch future shapers equipped to understand and re-engineer complex social systems. For more information, visit ewb.ca.
About You
We are a hands-on organization with many moving parts. The Somo Fellows Program seeks accomplished, driven individuals who will make substantive contributions to the organization. We currently seek Fellows to work in the following departments:
- Marketing and Communications – Create marketing material material and help grow reach of the organization.
- Sales – Help grow sales channels for Somo businesses.
- Branding – Product and Service Design of Somo businesses
- Operations – Help structure Somo operations as they scale
- Business Consultant – work directly with Somo enterprises on strategy, financial accounting and growth.
- Training/ Curriculum development – help develop new training techniques and curriculum for Somo’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp.
- Talent, Legal, Finance, IT + Administrative Services
Responsibilities
As a Fellow for Somo, your responsibilities will include:
- Working within the department to which you are assigned to help identify opportunities to drive the organization and Somo businesses forward and support growth opportunities and initiatives;
- Facilitating smooth running of the organization in the communities it serves;
- Assisting with the overall operations including carrying out general administrative tasks.
As a Somo fellow, you will work directly with entrepreneurs from low-income urban areas in Nairobi. We have found that our fellows provide invaluable experience, and this relationship is one of the primary reasons why our entrepreneurs are able to achieve great growth milestones for their enterprises.
Our fellows wear multiple hats, and you will find that actually, you will also fulfil some other important roles.
- Teacher: Teach a specific skill or knowledge (i.e. how to do a Profit & Loss using Excel);
- Consultant: Provide a diagnostic assessment and recommendation to address a specific issue pertaining to the business;
- Coach: Help an entrepreneur find their own solutions to achieve their goals and objectives.
Your role will never be to decide what is right for someone else — the community, the country, or the entrepreneur. You are, however, encouraged to share options and help the entrepreneur come to data-driven conclusions that are right for them.
The specific objectives for your engagement will be specified in your Scope of Work. These will be drafted and agreed upon in collaboration with Somo team, the entrepreneurs you work with, and you. However, below are some general examples of typical objectives for your advising project:
- Provide consistent and candid advice;
- Identify and capitalize on opportunities to increase profitability;
- Increase market access through sales and distribution strategies;
- Increase the impact of businesses by helping them to achieve their social impact goals;
- Analyze the entrepreneur’s business model to increase effectiveness and efficiencies;
- Develop a network of strategic partners;
- Help plan and implement strategies through transitional periods;
- Develop cash flow projections that can be used for budgeting and financing;
- Provide feedback for product improvement and marketing;
- Provide capacity building for the Somo team and implement lessons taught in Somo classes (both Entrepreneurship Bootcamp and Start-up series);
- Help Somo staff analyze the operations and programs;
- Source funding opportunities for the organization or Somo entrepreneurs.
Sound exciting? Here’s who we are looking for.
Skills & Qualifications
- Masters or Undergraduate Degree or Diploma in any relevant field;
- Strong problem-solving skills;
- Strong time management, organizational, and prioritization skills;
- Excellent communication skills on all levels;
- Relentless desire to improve yourself, your team, and your organization;
- A collaborative mentality;
- Awareness of cross-cultural communication and ability to maintain constructive relationships with diverse set of key stakeholders.
Application Inquiries
- For inquiries about the EWB Fellowship experience, please contact: fellowrecruitment@ewb.ca
- For inquiries about the role with The Somo Project, please contact: Amelia Phillips
Application Instructions
For further details, please refer to our website.
