Dreams from my Grandfather

My grandfather's name was Reg Silletto. What a name. He was, and continues to be, an inspiration to me and I'd like to share why.

My earliest memories of him always involved him peering at me over the business pages of The Daily Telegraph. He was the entrepreneur of the family, a great salesman (and talker), and meticulous with numbers.

The story begins in the 1950's where he'd become sales director of a well established engineering firm in Scotland. He travelled widely, particularly across Northern Ireland and the Republic and got to understand the challenges small farmers faced. In Ireland inherited land was divided between sons rather than passing to the first born meaning that over the centuries farms became smaller and smaller making it extremely difficult to make a decent living.

Following the unexpected death of the firm's well respected managing director, the board decided to bring in a new MD with a very chequered past and a suspected history of defrauding unsuspecting investors. Reg's opinion was that the new guy was a con man, and protested the same to the board. His disapproval was met with deaf ears though, and he was issued an ultimatum - either fall in line or show yourself the door.

                               

He chose the latter. Whether it was out of genuinely out of principle or pride I'll never know. Maybe it was a bit of both. I'd like to believe that his values drove his decision though, that he felt that he couldn't work for alongside others who tolerated dishonesty, and that his complicity would define him accordingly.

Meanwhile, in Denmark a young engineer was working on a new prototype that would eventually revolutionise the farming industry in Ireland. Small but powerful machinery that perfectly suited the small farms found up and down the country. 

If his first decision took principles, the next one took courage. The Danish engineer offered him three prototypes to sell in Ireland and the whole family invested everything they had relocating to Drogheda. The risks were huge, going it alone to sell an unknown, untested product in a foreign country would eventually exhaust all their savings. When they arrived the family were so poor that my Mum had to go to school in her old uniform because they couldn't afford new clothes.

He set up premises on a disused piece of land next to a railway station, painted the new machines himself and sold them. The rest is history, orders came flooding in, a new factory was built and dealerships throughout Ireland, Scotland and England opened. Years later, with delicious irony, he was even offered the opportunity to take over his old firm who by then had fallen on hard times. In the end he decided against it and they eventually went under.

In his later years he branched into property and invested wisely in the stock market. He used to split his portfolio and go head to head with his investment firm which year after year he'd usually outperform.

He wasn't perfect of course. As with so many entrepreneurs who focus so intently on their businesses, his family felt his absence. Although he inspired loyalty, he was a difficult man who wanted things his own way and wasn't tolerant of those who didn't bow to his authority. But at his core, I like to believe that he was a man driven to success, but not at the expense of his principles which is why I respected him so much.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, had Reg been alive today he almost certainly would have believed that many of the problems facing developing countries could be solved through trade and enterprise. And I believe the same.

In her unflinching book Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo highlights the fall out of decades on unchecked government aid doled out to African dictatorships. Put very simply, her argument is two-fold: One, at a systemic level aid made these new African economies inefficient, corrupt and ill equipped to compete on a global scale which is why Asia and South America's growth in comparable free market economies has been significantly faster. Two, that at an individual level aid creates a dependency culture where people and their communities learn to rely on hand outs rather than work towards prosperity.

Across East Africa I've seen the dependency culture for myself. Why would you go out and work or collaborate with your community to improve yourselves when the white man will come and do it for you for free? At Alekii I was angered but not surprised that one of the teachers quipped 'Yes but the musungos (whites) will just pay for everything' whilst talking about the future of the school. 

Working in Uganda I remember a volunteer teacher who bought a pair of shoes for one of her pupils because he had injured his toe on the 3 mile walk to school he did barefoot every day. Completely understandable, but the unintended consequences were grizzly - the following day five or six of her classmates came to school with cuts on their feet that they had inflicted on themselves with razor blades to get new shoes.

This is an isolated, extreme case of course, but perhaps symbolic of the dependency culture and behaviours that we in the West can stimulate through aid.

Clearly philanthropy (and in fact aid) still has an essential role to play in development overseas, particularly with health and humanitarian response where there are scant alternatives. However, for Alekii to stand on its own, the solution has to be free enterprise which can run alongside the school providing a sustainable income and creating jobs and opportunity for the community. The challenge, of course, is capital.

Impact investing has been around for half a decade and is rapidly growing in popularity in the financial sector. It can take various different forms, and investors may expect various different levels of return, however what is common is that there is a measurable impact which is reported alongside the return on investment.

I've always believed that at it's purest sense modern consumerism is a quite a good proxy for democracy. Every time you buy something you vote. You vote for a company's ethical policies, their commitment to workers' safety. Of course this assumes we are all informed consumers which isn't always the case, but the truth is that we hold a lot more power in our everyday spending than we realise.

This is doubly true of our investments where we have real scale and influence to demand that we not only make a good return, but that we also create some positive change that mirrors our own values. I don't see why creating a positive impact and making a return on an investment should be mutually exclusive.

It's for this reason that I'm launching The Alekii Harambee Club - an impact investment club in partnership with the Alekii Centre.

In Kiswahili 'Harambee' literally means 'all pull together', or joining hands as a group, community or even country to achieve a particular goal. It became common language as Kenya gained independence from British colonial rule in the early sixties where the likes of Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya's first president) strove to join the many disparate tribes in search of self determination, unity and prosperity. In modern Kenya the word harambee provokes a sense of togetherness - the Kenyan national football team for example are known as the Harambee stars.

The concept for the club is simple - members will invest in new start up businesses on Rusinga Island that a. provide above market returns for investors and b. deliver benefit to the community by way of education, employment or other social/environmental benefit.

Profits over a fixed term will be divided 50:50 between club members and the Alekii Centre to invest in education, youth training, healthcare and other measurable social impact programmes which will be reported to club members along with their earnings. After the term has expired the enterprise and it's assets are released back to the community.

I know many of you have expressed an interest in this kind of programme in the past. Either because you share these kind of views on development, have become disillusioned with traditional philanthropy or are just looking for good investment opportunities for your portfolios.

As I write I'm in Nairobi dotting the I's and crossing the T's of our pilot enterprise business plan which looks extremely promising as well as a club constitution for new members.

I'll be approaching some of you directly with our plans over the coming weeks, but if you're interested in joining the Alekki Harambee Club then please comment or email me at davidshanejackson@gmail.com and I'll make sure you're part of the first initial offering which is due to complete in August.

We plan to start small and prove the concept works, but our aspirations are much larger. The beauty of an enterprise approach to development is that it can be quickly scaled, and I hope in ten years time the club will become a significant force for good in the local area backed by a group of happy investors in the UK.

I owe a lot to my Grandfather. Many of the decisions I've made in my life simply wouldn't have been possible without him and I've always held myself accountable to his ideals and values. In launching the Alekii Harambee Club I hope to, in my own small way, emulate the traits that made him great - becoming an entrepreneur, acting according to my values and having courage. 

I hope you'll consider joining me.