1. Dr Dai Gilbertson - Director
Phone +64 45895011 Cell +64 225895088
deb@windeaters.co.nz www.windeaters.co.nz
117 Stratton St, Normandale, Lower Hutt 5010, NZ
1 June 2016
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Afintinni Oluwatobi of Babcock University, Nigeria successfully competed in the 2016 Global
Enterprise Experience as an active member of his global team. Each of the 111 teams in the contest
had eight members from rich and poor countries, with English as a first and second language,
different time zones, and world views that are worlds apart.
Toby’s team had members from El Savador, Indonesia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria and Rwanda.
They had just three weeks to connect virtually, build a team culture, generate creative ideas, jointly
choose a project idea, research it, and write a quality proposal that covered strategy, marketing,
economic evaluation, financing and making it happen. The challenge was to prepare a business
concept proposal for “A profitable product or service that fosters social cohesion”. Teams
communicated via the web, using a wide variety of technologies. More information on this
challenge can be sourced on www.geebiz.org.
For 13 years my company, Te Kaihau Ltd, has run the Global Enterprise Experience in partnership
with Victoria University of Wellington, touching the lives of 7,000 students in 93 countries. My work
in both of these organisations has fostered leadership, organisation development and innovation
from the individual level to global organisations.
I was delighted to see Toby grow his capacity for peer leadership, cross-cultural management, social
entrepreneurship, and skills to manage in a globally-connected, digital world through the Global
Enterprise Experience. I was impressed that Toby’s team successfully managed the real world
challenges of pulling together the collective wisdom of colleagues in villages and cities around the
planet using a range of communication technologies. They developed an interesting business
project entitled “Making Shoes out of Waste” which stretched their minds to use business to tackle a
social issue. They had clearly learnt much more than could ever be possible in textbook based
learning.
My congratulations to Afintinni Oluwatobi for being an effective team member in the Global
Enterprise Experience – and all the best for a successful career.
Kind regards
Dr Dai Gilbertson
Director - Te Kaihau Ltd
Adjunct Professor - Victoria University of Wellington