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By Hedwig Siewertsen
New Plans

In 2012, d.o.b will harvest what it sowed in the previous year. Which is to say that the extensive market research conducted in 2011 will lead us to make new investments this year.
Apart from this, the ongoing search for new companies will simply continue.

Review of 2011

What came of our resolutions for 2011: greater focus, greater simplicity and more Africa?

Greater focus was aimed at making a choice: deciding which regions and sectors to focus on (in addition to the portfolio of 5 million euros we have to manage).
Greater simplicity was aimed at simplifying the criteria and searching for companies via shorter lines.
And finally, more Africa: this goal was based on our wish to work more with African entrepreneurs and partners.

Plan of Approach and Market Research

Where did our plans for 2011 take us?

We sharpened the focus on geographic areas and particular sectors.
And sharpening our criteria led us to define a clear-cut impact.
We also chose an approach whereby we, the d.o.b team, make our own search for companies.
All of these elements were put into a business plan for the coming 5 years.
We then launched the market research to aid our search for partners and entrepreneurs.

 Results

The market research produced the following results:

• more than 100 entrepreneurs and 20 partners in East Africa know who we are, what we do and what we want to achieve;
• we have made a selection of suitable entrepreneurs and partners;
• we have visited those entrepreneurs that show great promise several times; we have been to the region 13 times and we have reached agreements.

Ambition for 2012

I hope it becomes clear to us this year how we can contribute more to improving and helping these companies to grow. Will this require technological know-how on our part? The deployment of management experience? Our access to markets? The answers to these questions must be clear by the time we come to the point of making investments.

Finally, we will continue our ongoing search for new, promising companies.

Hedwig Siewertsen,
director of d.o.b foundation