<h1 style="text-align:center;">March Resource Blog</h1>Our March Resource Blog focuses on resources for structuring your day and your team. Take a few minutes and read through the articles below for a deeper understanding on structuring your day, working more effectively and forming the perfect team.<ul><li><a href="https://qz.com/work/1561830/why-the-eight-hour-workday-doesnt-work/?utm_source=pocket&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=pockethits">There’s an optimal way to structure your day - and it’s not the 8-hour workday</a> (Quartz) - In this article, the author disputes the eight-hour workday as an effective way to conduct business. He argues that in order to be as productive as possible, companies and people need to let go of this format and instead structure your day in short intervals, with frequent breaks.</li><li><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/28/what-google-learned-in-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html?utm_source=pocket&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=pockethits">7 Years Ago, Google Set Out to Find What Makes the ‘Perfect’ Team - and What They Found Shocked Other Researchers</a> (CNBC) - In 2012, Google set out to find what went into the perfect team. They interviewed over 180 different teams within Google to find out what comprised the perfect team. They found that individual personalities are not actually relevant, but rather there are five specific team traits that enhance a team.</li><li><a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90305012/how-to-cut-your-work-hours-in-half?utm_source=pocket&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=pockethits">Want to Cut Your Work Hours in Half? Create an A/B Schedule </a>(Fast Company) - This article explores the idea of adopting an A/B scheduling technique to work and do business. The author argues that by scheduling between A and B weeks, it allows for fewer hours and more efficiency.</li></ul><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/screen_shot_2019_03_05_at_4_13_25_pm_0_7034fdcd7c.png"><figcaption>Image Source: Fast Company: <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90305012/how-to-cut-your-work-hours-in-half?utm_source=pocket&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=pockethits">Want to Cut Your Work Hours in Half? Create an A/B Schedule</a></figcaption></figure>

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March Resource Blog

<h1 style="text-align:center;">April Resource Blog</h1>Our April Resource Blog focuses on resources for creating a strong team. Take a few minutes and read through the articles below for a deeper understanding on how to give better feedback, how teams collaborate successfully and how to hire good team members.<a href="https://hbr.org/2019/03/the-feedback-fallacy">The Feedback Fallacy</a> (Harvard Business Review): The search for ways to give and receive better feedback assumes that feedback is always useful. But the only reason we’re pursuing it is to help people do better. And when we examine that—asking, “How can we help each person thrive and excel?”—we find that the answers take us in a different direction.<a href="https://hbr.org/2018/07/a-study-of-thousands-of-dropbox-projects-reveals-how-successful-teams-collaborate?utm_source=pocket&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=pockethits">A Study of Thousands of Dropbox Projects Reveals How Successful Teams Collaborate</a> (Harvard Business Review): In this article, the authors studied the virtual interactions of research teams at universities around the world on Dropbox, analyzed how the collaborative dynamics related to performance and developed a list of best practices that organizations can use on any file-sharing platform to improve team performance.<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/the-science-of-smart-hiring/477561/?utm_source=pocket&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=pockethits">The Science of Smart Hiring</a> (The Atlantic): This article discusses Google's various efforts in finding patterns to understand what attributes made a good Google worker.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/screen_shot_2019_03_28_at_2_39_13_pm_0_49c4119146.png"><figcaption>Image Source: Harvard Business Review: <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/03/the-feedback-fallacy">The Feedback Fallacy</a></figcaption></figure>

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April Resource Blog

<h1 style="text-align:center;">Improving Ethiopia’s Investment Profile</h1>We at RENEW join Ethiopia in celebrating the heightened attention it has received recently within the international investor and business community. The country’s liberalizing reforms are gaining momentum under the fast-moving leadership of Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed, presenting increased reason and opportunity for the rest of the world to take notice. Many have seen great economic potential in the country’s fast GDP growth, abundant natural resources, growing middle class, political and strategic importance in Sub-Saharan Africa and relative political stability. Yet, the challenges of doing business in Ethiopia have caused many U.S. and other foreign investors to be reluctant to invest in Ethiopia. We applaud the administration’s efforts to change this reality.RENEW is heavily invested in Ethiopia’s success. Our team, based primarily in Addis Ababa, facilitates angel investments into companies in Ethiopia and works with these investee companies to help them become more competitive in both international and domestic markets. We have been operating in Ethiopia since 2012 and, together with the Impact Angel Network (IAN), have become one of the most active private equity firms in the country. Since 2012, RENEW and the IAN have made twelve investments in ten companies supporting nearly 2,200 jobs, generating millions of dollars in export earnings, and supporting more than 5,700 small-holder farmers along multiple agricultural value chains. RENEW has implemented an “accelerating business growth” (ABG) program in Ethiopia in partnership with the Canadian government. We are advised by an ABG advisory group which includes prominent businessmen and government officials from Ethiopia. We have learned a lot about investing in Ethiopia from our local advisors and are very thankful for their support.Recently, we were invited by members of the Ethiopian government to report on the challenges that we are encountering when investing in the country and to suggest areas for improvement. We have had a number of fruitful discussions following up on this invitation as part of the government’s efforts to reform its investment regulatory and administrative framework to align it with recent changes in economic policy priorities. The focus of these discussions has been on the areas and recommendations outlined below:<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/whitepaper_3c057a6ee8.jpg"><figcaption>Image Source: France 24: <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20180730-abiy-ahmed-spreads-hope-reform-ethiopia">Abiy Ahmed: Ethiopia's first Oromo PM spreads hope of reform</a></figcaption></figure><ul><li>Restrictions on Investment Structures Commonly Used by Investors in Early Stage Companies: Investors frequently cite a lack of options for structuring their investments, particularly in early-stage companies. We recommend loosening restrictions on lending (including interest rates), considering long-term options to open the debt markets, allowing other entity types (such as a PLC) to issue preferred shares, and providing greater flexibility for small equipment leases.</li><li>Enforceability of Investment Agreements: Oftentimes, investors are nervous that their investment agreements (such as a share purchase agreement or shareholders’ agreement) will not be enforceable. We suggest clearly stating in the law that all investment agreements will be separately enforceable, in addition to companies’ memorandums and articles of association, and clearly outlining any witness or other authentication requirements for such agreements.</li><li>Frequent Regulatory Modifications: Investors express some concern that regulations will be modified unexpectedly or without explanation. To alleviate this concern, we suggest providing additional notice periods for regulatory changes so that investors can plan accordingly and seeking public commentary before final laws are published.</li><li>Delays and Uncertainty in the Process of Registering Capital: Various agencies play a role in registering foreign investments, including the EIC, NBE, MOTI and DARA. Officials at each agency sometimes provide conflicting guidance and the number of agencies can cause delays and uncertainty as to whether an investment will be reliably approved. We recommend enhancing the training of government officials responsible for registering foreign investments, streamlining the number of agencies involved, and restricting notaries’ duties to ensuring the authenticity of documents (rather than performing substantive reviews).</li><li>Repatriating Capital: Investors often fear that they will encounter significant administrative delays when trying to convert currency and repatriate capital. To ease these concerns, we recommend that the NBE publishes its track record of paying remittances and, if possible, provide a platform through which investors can track their place in the queue to repatriate dividends or capital.</li><li>Sector Restrictions on Foreign Investors: We recommend opening up additional sectors to foreign investment. Rather than having a list of defined sectors in which foreign investors can invest, we recommend a narrow list of prohibited sectors, leaving all other sectors open to foreign investment. Certain sectors could first be opened through investment by a joint venture between foreign and domestic investors, to allow for a gradual opening of the sector.</li><li>Treatment of Local Companies with Foreign Minority Shareholders as “International Companies”: Foreign investors often take a minority equity interest in a local company, in an effort to help that company compete with international players. However, we understand some companies have lost certain privileges they had as a local business due to these minority investments. We recommend abolishing any policy that favors 100% locally-owned companies over local companies which merely have a foreign minority shareholder, so as not to harm these companies and undercut the growth that the foreign investment is intending to facilitate.</li><li>Registration of Title: Providing for title registration at the municipal level can oftentimes cause delays in the operation of a company’s business, if the local office is closed or unavailable for any reason. We recommend providing for an alternative to municipal registration in an effort to alleviate delays.</li></ul> &nbsp; &nbsp;

RENEW suggests investment reforms to attract more foreign investment and business

Ethiopia

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Improving Ethiopia’s Investment Profile

<h1 style="text-align:center;">May Resource Blog</h1>Our May Resource Blog focuses on resources to help grow and succeed in business. Take a few minutes and read through the articles below for a deeper understanding on how to build your company, the pros and cons of an advisory board, and how to stop your phone from being a distraction.<ul><li><a href="https://medium.com/s/please-advise/what-seven-years-at-airbnb-taught-me-about-building-a-company-e1d035d49c56?sk=ccd328f7c5ea669d3c951486e6bc28a9">What Seven Years at Airbnb Taught Me About Building a Company</a>: A founder who sold his startup to Airbnb shares his insights on how to build a company based on his experiences at Airbnb. (Medium)</li><li><a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90328314/startups-proceed-with-caution-before-forming-an-advisory-board">Startups: Proceed with Caution Before Forming an Advisory Board</a>: A panel of expert counsellors sounds like a great idea, but “big-name” advisers can be a time suck with little payoff. (Fast Company)</li><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/smarter-living/how-to-make-your-phone-limit-your-screen-time-for-you.html">How to Make Your Phone Limit Your Screen Time for You</a>: As focus is becoming scarce, the latest iPhone and the newest version of Google’s Android come with tools to limit how much time you stare at your screen. Here’s how to make them useful instead of nags you’ll eventually turn off. (NY Times)</li></ul><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/screen_shot_2019_05_07_at_9_21_30_am_0_ad5f2c455b.png"><figcaption>Image Source: Fast Company: <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90328314/startups-proceed-with-caution-before-forming-an-advisory-board">Startups: Proceed with Caution Before Forming an Advisory Board</a></figcaption></figure> &nbsp;

Resources to help you grow and succeed in business.

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May Resource Blog

<h1 style="text-align:center;">July Resource Blog</h1>Our July Resource Blog is designed to help guide your business. Take a few minutes and read through the articles below for a look into how beneficial checklists are, how consumers are learning marketing tactics, the Toyota Way (principles and behaviors which drive their company) and lessons from Jeff Jordan, the founder of a VC firm who has worked with big brands around the world.<ul><li><a href="https://blog.nuclino.com/the-simple-genius-of-checklists-from-b-17-to-the-apollo-missions">The Simple Genius of Checklists, from B-17 to the Apollo Missions</a>: No amount of wisdom in a given field makes us immune to forgetfulness. Implementing a checklist lightens our cognitive load, frees up our attention and allows us to focus that hard-earned knowledge on higher level problems. (Nuclino)</li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way">The Toyota Way</a>: The Toyota Way is a set of principles and behaviors that underlie the Toyota Motor Corporation's managerial approach and production system. Toyota first summed up its philosophy, values and manufacturing ideals in 2001, calling it "The Toyota Way 2001". It consists of principles in two key areas: continuous improvement and respect for people. (Wikipedia)</li><li><a href="https://behavioralscientist.org/consumers-are-becoming-wise-to-your-nudge/">Consumers Are Becoming Wise to Your Nudge</a>: Would the general public spot a pattern in the way that marketers are using behavioral interventions to influence their behavior? Are scarcity and social proof messages so overused in travel websites that the average person does not believe them? Do they undermine brand trust? (Behavioral Scientist)</li><li><a href="https://fortune.com/longform/jeff-jordan-vc/">Lessons From the VC Who's Seen It All Before</a>: How Jeff Jordan is applying what he learned during his time at Disney, eBay, and OpenTable to help founders at Airbnb, Pinterest, and Instacart. (Fortune)</li></ul>Interested in learning more about a specific topic? Contact us and let us know what interests you at <a href="mailto:renew@renewcapital.com">renew@renewcapital.com</a>.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:100%;"><img src="/uploads/screen_shot_2019_07_01_at_7_51_21_am_0_a9a5bebd39.png"><figcaption>Image Source: Fortune: <a href="https://fortune.com/longform/jeff-jordan-vc/">Lessons from the VC Who's Seen it All Before</a></figcaption></figure>

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July Resource Blog

<h1 style="text-align:center;">August Resource Blog</h1>Our August Resource Blog takes a peak at some of the topics we go over during the <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/companies">CFO100 Program</a>. Take a few minutes and read through the articles below for a look into business forecasting, managing your cash flow and the strategic role of CFOs.<ul><li><a href="https://hbr.org/2015/05/outsmart-your-own-biases">Outsmart Your Own Biases</a>: When it comes to forecasting and making business decisions, we all face the challenge of biases that limit our vision and hamper our decision-making process. Most of us tend to be overconfident in our estimates. This article shares various strategies to build scenarios and use other tactics to avoid biases in decision making. (Harvard Business Review)</li><li><a href="https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/financial-management/10-tips-managing-cash-flow/">10 Tips for Better Managing Cash Flow</a>: Cash flow is important for all businesses, but it is critical for early startups. If you cannot manage your cash flow within the first year, you will likely not survive the second year. This article outlines 10 tips to manage your cash flow. (Quickbooks)</li><li><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Business Functions/Strategy and Corporate Finance/Our Insights/Strategy and corporate finance special collection/Final PDFs/McKinsey-Special-Collections_RoleoftheCFO.ashx">Building a better partnership between finance and strategy</a>: The growing strategic role of CFOs may create tension with top strategists or CEOs in small and medium-sized businesses. That’s a missed opportunity for teaming up to improve company performance. Working together, CFOs and CSOs/CEOs have the stature to challenge biases and influence how the top team makes decisions to improve a company’s performance. (McKinsey &amp; Company)</li></ul>Interested in learning more about a specific topic? Contact us and let us know what interests you at <a href="mailto:renew@renewcapital.com">renew@renewcapital.com</a>.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/training_1_9e44c6f479.jpg"></figure>

Business forecasting, managing your cash flow and the strategic role of CFOs

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August Resource Blog: 2019

<h1 style="text-align:center;">September Resource Blog</h1>Our September Resource Blog takes a look at our favorite articles from this past month. Read through the below to learn more about venture capital, selling family businesses and the story of See’s Candies (one of Warren Buffet’s early investments).<ul><li><a href="https://larrysiegeldotorg.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/siegel_venture-capital.pdf">The History and Future of Venture Capital Investing</a>: Are you curious how venture capital has evolved into a backer of some of the common brands that we use or depend on? This article takes you through the history of the industry. Throughout the article, the author tries to answer if venture capital (VC) is a good investment and whether VC investors can expect the same returns as in the past. (Laurence Siegel)</li><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/your-money/whats-left-after-a-family-business-is-sold.html">What’s Left After a Family Business Is Sold?</a>: After so much attention to running things, little thought goes into what comes next after a family business is sold. This article describes stories from multiple families who sold their business and then went on to do many things, including managing money by investing in other businesses. (New York Times)</li><li>The Full See’s Candies Story: People &amp; Product: The story of See's Candies. See's was one of the early investments made by Warren Buffett. “Buying See’s Candies was not only a good investment for us, it was a positive learning experience. We discovered that we had purchased a company that held itself to a high standard of business ethics – product quality, service integrity, and the right sort of relationships with employees and suppliers. See’s Candies became our model for investment in other quality companies… [See’s was] a company that taught us early a vital lesson about the way to do business.” – Warren Buffett. (Intelligent Fanatics)</li></ul>Interested in learning more about a specific topic? Contact us and let us know what interests you at <a href="mailto:renew@renewcapital.com">renew@renewcapital.com</a>.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/resources_0_0e60e0a394.jpg"><figcaption>Image Source: Toggl: <a href="https://toggl.com/business-resources/">Business Resources and Useful Links</a></figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;

Our favorite articles for the month of September.

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September Resource Blog

<h1 style="text-align:center;">October Resource Blog</h1>Our October Resource Blog takes a look at our favorite articles from this past month. Read through the below to learn more about defining success, setting goals, recruitment and buying businesses.<ul><li><a href="https://hbr.org/2019/08/before-you-start-a-business-decide-what-success-looks-like">Every Business Owner Should Define What Success Looks Like</a>: As a majority of companies are owned by people with a tie to the company instead of outside shareholders, a well-articulated owner strategy about what they want from the company in terms of returns and other objectives generates alignment among owners, board members, executives, and employees. Think of it this way: if owners are clear about how they want to keep score, board members and management teams will know how to win. That clarity also allows companies to define success on their own terms, rather than someone else’s. (Harvard Business Review)</li><li><a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90393311/giving-up-on-my-medium-term-goal-allowed-me-to-grow-my-company">Giving Up on My Medium-term Goal Allowed Me to Grow My Company</a>: A CEO recounts his approach of growing a company by focusing on short-term deliverables and a long-term vision instead of medium-term goals. (Fast Company)</li><li><a href="https://medium.com/redpoint-ventures/recruiting-recruiters-62176d0910fb">Recruiting Recruiters</a>: Redpoint Ventures recommends hiring an internal recruiter earlier than usual in a startup, as potential delays might exacerbate the challenges of growing a company. (Medium)</li><li><a href="https://hbr.org/ideacast/2017/02/why-you-should-buy-a-business-and-how-to-do-it.html">Why You Should Buy a Business (and How to Do It)</a>: In this article, two professors at Harvard Business School spell out an overlooked career path: buying a business and running it as CEO. Purchasing a small company lets you become your own boss and reap financial rewards without the risks of founding a start-up. Still, there are things you need to know. (Harvard Business Review)</li></ul>Interested in learning more about a specific topic? Contact us and let us know what interests you at <a href="mailto:renew@renewcapital.com">renew@renewcapital.com</a>.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/hbr_0_0599fe1e53.png"><figcaption>Image Source: Harvard Business Review: <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/08/before-you-start-a-business-decide-what-success-looks-like">Every Business Owner Should Define What Success Looks Like</a></figcaption></figure>

Our favorite articles from this past month.

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October Resource Blog 2019

<h1 style="text-align:center;">2019 ABG Check-In</h1>In 2016, RENEW signed a collaboration agreement with the development arm of the Canadian federal government, Global Affairs Canada, for a project known as Accelerating Business Growth (ABG). The ABG project aims to support high potential, responsible small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ethiopia so they can attract and efficiently use finance to scale up, enabling them to play a stronger role in the Ethiopian economy. The project addresses the gap found in the capital markets in Ethiopia and in many other countries in Africa, called the “missing middle”. This missing middle limits the ability of SMEs to access finance to grow their businesses and create sustainable jobs.The project’s ultimate outcome is to increase employment and generate income opportunities for men, women and young adults from Ethiopia’s small and medium enterprises sector and related value chains. Specifically, RENEW is aiming to support a total of 5,000 jobs and help Ethiopian SMEs attract $52.5M (CAD) of financing to help scale their companies by the time the project concludes in May 2021.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:100%;"><img src="/uploads/abg2_7d4fbe5c3d.png"></figure>With three years completed, RENEW has made significant progress on both metrics, now supporting 3,944 jobs through the program (79% of target) and having helped Ethiopian SMEs attract $47.5M CAD (91% of target). A sampling of other project targets and current results are as follows:<ul><li>Target: Train 650 SMEs on finance. Current result: 529 (81%).</li><li>Target: Train 100 resource providers (banks, chambers of commerce, accounting and legal firms, financing institutions, etc.) on finance. Current result: 74 (74%).</li><li>Target: Annual sales growth rate increase of 10% achieved by companies who participate in The Exec’s Program. Current result: 13.50% (exceeding target).</li><li>Target: Graduate 50 individuals from The Exec’s Program. Current result: 46** (92%).</li><li>Target: Graduate 100 finance executives from the CFO100 Program. Current result: 51 (51%).</li><li>Target: Grow the Impact Angel Network (IAN) by 175 individuals and families. Current result: 73 (42%).</li></ul><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:100%;"><img src="/uploads/chigign_98d5028b3a.png"></figure>Throughout the project, the team has also developed unique initiatives that directly support the project’s goals and have contributed to the achievements listed above to date, including:Chigign ‘Tobiya: In partnership with Tonetor Multimedia, RENEW launched Chigign ‘Tobiya, a business pitching TV series broadcast on national television (FANA TV) which aims to raise awareness and build interest in entrepreneurship locally in Ethiopia. The initiative also aims to build out a local Ethiopian angel investor network for SMEs. Two seasons have been fully aired attracting a reported 40M viewers, with season three production now in the final stages. Eleven companies that pitched on the show have advanced to the diligence stage, and RENEW anticipates multiple closings in these companies during 2019.Women in Finance: RENEW launched the “The Women in Finance” series in 2017 aimed at empowering and inspiring female finance professionals in Ethiopia. Four sessions have since been held in partnership with local banks and organizations, with glowing reviews and results. Guest speakers have been invited and productive discussions have been held related to the unique challenges that women face in the finance industry in Ethiopia. The 5th edition of the program is scheduled for Q4 of 2019.Women’s Mini-fund: The mini-fund is an investment vehicle that pools funds for investment in multiple (women-owned) companies. The RENEW team wanted to be creative in forming a vehicle that would address the unique constraints faced by women entrepreneurs. More details about the mini-fund can be found in our Press Release from May, as well as in the Press Releases for RENEW’s two new portfolio companies, a company that supports <a href="https://travelethiopia.com/">tourism in Ethiopia</a> and a <a href="https://kijanionline.com/">Ugandan diaper company.</a>For more information on the ABG project, <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/resources/blogs/An%20Update%20on%20the%20ABG%20Project">read the blog</a> we published in November of 2016 shortly after the project launch.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/canada_3_1_c404b1a690.png"></figure>The Accelerating Business Growth (ABG) program is undertaken with support from the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada. The Impact Angel Network (IAN) is one of the largest North American-based angel networks dedicated to investing in Africa. RENEW is an impact investment firm working in Ethiopia that manages the IAN and provides professional investment advisory and consulting services in support of its investments.**46 includes our Spring 2019 class who have not yet received their certificates, but who have completed all required coursework and assignments.

**46 includes our Spring 2019 class who have not yet received their certificates, but who have completed all required coursework and assignments.

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2019 ABG Check-In

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