Scaling Girls Technical Education (GTE): bringing coding skills to women in Tanzania Kelly Alexander Introduction You cannot be what you cannot see (Edelman, 2020). Daniel Mathu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of Girls Technical Education (GTE), took the stairs two at time, past a room filled with students, as he made his way up to his office. Situated in the upmarket area of Masaki, Tanzania, GTE A technology social enterprise (Alexander, 2019a) [1] is located in a converted house. GTE provided coding and information and communication technology (ICT) skills to students on both a fully paid and subsidised basis, and operated in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar (Tanzania, East Africa), as well as in Malawi (Southern Africa). GTE aimed to create the next generation of critical thinkers and problem-solvers in the technology space. In preparation for an upcoming board meeting in January 2020, Mathu reflected on his decision, that to attract the right kind of paying clientele, the social enterprise needed to be based close to affluent schools and families. Mathu studied at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and entered the corporate world where he first worked in a large international consulting firm, dealing with banking in South Africa. Mathu tapped on the desk, a bundle of energy, as he contemplated how GTE started in 2012: he moved back to Tanzania and found a female business partner and GTEs Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Elsie Julu, to work with him in achieving their shared dream of promoting the education of girls in technology and coding skills. After seven years at GTE, Mathu was now struggling to decide on the best way to scale. Scaling can be notoriously difficult for entrepreneurs, and scaling while delivering a social mission increases this complexity. GTEs growth thus far had primarily been driven by external circumstances responses to tension with partners; safety concerns and market demand; and the business model which had stemmed from Mathus shy personality. Currently, Mathu and Julu were preparing for discussions with the board regarding the best way for the organisation to scale or grow the footprint of their social enterprise either primarily within Tanzania and then Malawi, or further afield into neighbouring countries such as Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda (see Exhibit 1 for an overview of Tanzanias population and GDP growth). In January 2020, Mathu and Julu were in the final stages of discussions with funders who were pressuring GTE and the board to provide clear and strategic plans for scaling GTE to secure funding. Scaling requires that an organisation has the capacity to deliver, according to its stated mission (in terms of the management skills, human capital, financial resources and knowledge) to a larger customer set (Salter, 2016). There were a number of challenges they faced in their decision to scale, specifically relating to access to required skills, an enabling environment in which to operate in which technology skills Kelly Alexander is based at the Johannesburg Business School, University of Johannesburg CBE, Auckland Park, South Africa and School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Disclaimer. This case is written solely for educational purposes and is not intended to represent successful or unsuccessful managerial decision-making. The authors may have disguised names; financial and other recognisable information to protect confidentiality. DOI 10.1108/EEMCS-11-2019-0304 VOL. 10 NO. 4 2020, pp. 1-30, Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621 j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j PAGE 1 were valued and a supportive ecosystem in terms of infrastructure, competition and mission drift. The organisation was still reliant on some external funding support and could not afford to take a risk that could jeopardise the organisation as a whole and influence their ability to achieve their social mission, or the quality of the service they delivered. History of GTE As a social enterprise, GTE operates a dual organisational structure and thus operates as a hybrid organisation. Mathu considered GTEs dual for-profit and not-for-profit structure. In Tanzania, there was no single and specific legal form available for social enterprises to register, necessitating this dual structure. The for-profit engaged in consulting work in the technology space, to fund the training programmes run by the not-for-profit arm of the organisation. Yet, picking up a pencil with a large London Red Bus on the end, he was reminded that for him, the choice had been motivated by his reserved personality, making it difficult to ask for help. As a result, this approach was not a strategic choice, but based on his character, as he would rather have made his own money to fund the NGOs activities than seek funding and investors. The business remained 100% owned by Mathu. Hybrid organisations, such as GTE, aiming to deliver both social and financial value, and seeking financial sustainability largely independent of grants are globally increasing in popularity. Changing macro-economic circumstances are influencing thinking around the role of business and organisations in society. Increasingly, the notion that the business of business is business is changing, and there is a growing awareness of boundaries, constraints and the need to operate in harmony with society and nature, delivering value in society (Raworth, 2017). There are a range of business forms in existence that operate in this growing sphere of social value creating organisations (see Exhibit 2). These organisations seek to create social value and address challenges in society. Reflecting on how he decided to quit his job to create an organisation that taught IT and coding skills to boys and girls Mathu recalled his realisation that tech is an essential skill to have. And so GTE was born. Mathu saw that in South Africa, the level of skill in the banking sector was much higher than in his own country and so he decided to work to alleviate that gap. During the first pilot of this project, running in a poor area in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Mathu noticed that boys were excited by, and engaged with, the technology. On the other hand, he saw that girls thought that it would be boring and difficult, and were not interested in what was seen to be a boys thing. For Mathu, it was important to teach girls to create and not just consume tech, to take their learning a step further. This was a potentially challenging vision in an emerging market economy where traditional and paternalistic views about gender were prevalent. During an interview with a large funding organisation, Mathu commented that African womens roles were pre-defined, and that women were primarily expected to care for household responsibilities and support their husbands. Mathu described watching two students interact and realised that to get more girls to study and ultimately work in tech, they needed to see more female role models in the technology and IT sector. Previous challenges Initially, GTEs training programme was a travelling operation, bringing trainers, computers and other equipment into the various communities in which they operated. These were primarily in urban slums, such as Magomeni in Dar es Salaam, that GTE determined to be the areas that could most benefit from the skills being taught. Mathu and Julu believed that tech would allow these children to access the world and potentially earn an income through Web or app development, or blogging. Mathu noted that the girls were intelligent and driven, and that people often did not believe in them simply because they were from poor areas. PAGE 2 j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j VOL. 10 NO. 4 2020 GTEs early operations, in 2013 and 2014, were in a predominantly Muslim urban slum. Mathu remembered that he wanted to be able to connect with the girls, but he did not share their background. Therefore, he had to find local partners. Initially, this relationship was effective. However, Mathu and GTE began to receive increasing media attention, which at times negatively influenced his ability to effectively run the social enterprise. Mathu recalled that partners thought that each time the press came, the money came, when in reality, this was not the case. This compromised GTEs position in the communities in which they operated. While Mathu and Julu thought that publicity and media attention would open more doors, in reality, the publicity only increased the demands made on Mathu and GTE for help, money and time in Tanzania. Some unexpected challenges GTE faced were cultural and religious barriers. For example, Mathu recalled that early child marriage and a lack of future education opportunities, particularly for girls, were key stumbling blocks (Stark, 2019). However, through training and education, Mathu saw that girls began to feel empowered and were proud of their ability to learn HTML, design websites and describe the processes that they had learnt in classes. Mathu chuckled to himself, thinking about how ambitious his initial vision was: his big dream was that every girl who entered the training programme in the rural community would be able to progress, excel and ultimately attend university. Unfortunately, this dream did not become a reality. GTE was unable to raise funds; their mobile training programme was overshadowed by hostility in the community; and media attention escalated tensions between GTE and local partners. In 2015, Mathu and Julu committed to work in the community without any media attention, hoping this would eliminate tension. However, the relationship had deteriorated beyond repair. It was becoming increasingly unsafe and there was a lack of trust between the partners. Mathu and Julu decided to leave the community to ensure the safety of the team. Mathu sighed, thinking to himself, but that was the plan [to be in the community] and it was a difficult decision to leave, [I] had not thought past that. Therefore, in early 2016, Mathu and Julu were forced to come up with a new approach to avoid going out to the communities with the programme. . Coupled with the lack of an enabling environment, Mathu realised that this makes it harder to innovate. Finally, this skills shortage was in the context of a mature labour market, with demand for digital skills expected to grow at a faster rate in the region than in other global markets (Digital Skills in Sub-Saharan Africa: Spotlight on Ghana, 2019). Enabling environment Sitting inside Mathus air-conditioned office was a welcome relief from the 33-degree heat in Dar es Salaam and the office could be anywhere in the world. Yet, the second obstacle was local and particular to Tanzania. This was mindset and market creation. GTE currently attracted affluent Tanzanians looking for opportunities for their children. Mathu knew that extra-curricular activities were uncommon for the average Tanzanian, who believed that traditional schooling was adequate. Awareness of the different skills and opportunities that technology can provide was lacking and it was therefore difficult to reach the mass market. Mathu was determined to continue to work to create an enabling environment for the work of GTE. If people did not understand and value GTEs work, then their market would suffer. Mathu believed that the importance of technology was not well understood. The supply of digitally-skilled labour in Sub-Saharan Africa ... must increase to meet anticipated labour market needs or Africas economies will falter, which is true for Tanzania as well (Digital Skills in Sub-Saharan Africa: Spotlight on Ghana, 2019). Thus, to take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this mindset needed to change, as this would also impact the availability of work opportunities for many Tanzanians. In addition, the shifting nature of work will most likely disproportionately affect women (The fourth industrial revolution risks leaving women behind, 2019) (see Exhibit 7This challenge existed in both Tanzania and the region where social enterprises remained a nascent organisational form and an area of concern for the board. In addition, building awareness of GTEs role in meeting the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, coupled by challenging gender roles, was a big task. Mathu expected a big debate about GTE advancing too quickly into any market without correctly understanding these challenges. He worried that the board would think that his Tanzania first strategy was not viable without access to the public-school network. Mathu was aware of the risk of scaling into regions in Tanzania, or neighbouring countries that did not meet the requirements of GTEs ecosystem assessment. However, increasing competition in urban areas was putting pressure on his ability to move quickly and establish GTE in a growing number of cities and towns. Finally, successful growth needed to be supported financially, and in a complex operating environment, it can be difficult to find the correct funding partners that are completely aligned with GTEs social mission to prevent mission drift. Mathu and the board needed to carefully plan the path forward for GTE.

Based on above case study, Discuss resourcefulness and innovation in relation to the Scaling Girls Technical Education (GTE) case study, concluding on Jugaad/Frugal innovation at GTE.