
Making Markets Matter 2020! We have just completed another successful MMM program. Next year’s program is scheduled for May 3-8, 2020 at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West, South Africa. Please mark your calendar and look out for announcements and other details in the coming months. If you are not on our mailing list, you can subscribe here.
Overview
MM Inc. offers all-encompassing business training, including marketing, strategy, financial analysis and supply-chain management. Our ultimate goal is to identify a set of strategies that will help entrepreneurs recognize market demand and meet their customers’ needs, in the process offering employment and promoting economic opportunities in their communities and the region. As such, we customize our training programs to meet the exact needs of the participants, taking into consideration their level of existing training, business experience, industry, and geographic location. MM Inc. has organized and facilitated large-scale programs (75+ participants) as well as smaller training events including mentorship programs available for individuals businesses. To date Market Matters Inc. has trained over 2,000 individuals/businesses.
Click here to view and download reports from previous Making Markets Matter programs.
To view photos from previous programs, visit our Flickr page.
Making Markets Matter Videos
What is Making Markets Matter (MMM)?
In 2001 Market Matters Inc. recognized the need for a high-quality and comprehensive agribusiness training program targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets, particularly in Africa. This recognition led to the creation of Making Markets Matter – an annual program that provides agribusiness executives an introduction to the key building blocks of business management, along with the opportunity to network with industry stakeholders, fellow business leaders, and other agribusiness practitioners. To date, MMM has been offered in Africa, and has trained close to 2,000 businesses in its 15 years of operation. What started with a small initiative with about 30 participants has grown into a well-known, selective agribusiness training program that trains over 75 businesses at a time. Since 2013, MM Inc. has also been involved in business training programs in other emerging markets in Asia.
Who is MMM for?
Over the fifteen-year span of the program, we have provided business management training to SME agribusiness owners and managers as well as representatives of the public sector working in the area of SME development from across the African continent. We have worked with individuals along the agribusiness supply-chain, from farmers to business owners producing value-added food products. Every year we strive to increase the participation of women business owners, still underrepresented in the African agribusiness sectors.
What makes MMM unique?
We have worked hard to build a unique program that offers benefits that are not readily available to SMEs in Africa today.
- High caliber facilitators: The program is facilitated by an international group of development practitioners, all recognized leaders in their fields of agribusiness management, food technology, biotechnology, and finance, among others.
- Emphasis on hard and soft skills: While we start with the fundamentals of business management (marketing, strategy, financial analysis, and human resource management), we enhance these by adding sessions on soft skills such as leadership and business negotiations.
- Leveraging relationships to help businesses: MM Inc. staff and facilitators have a wealth of knowledge about and linkages to research institutions, financial service providers, multinational corporations, and development agencies.
- Business-to-businesses networking: Our program presents a rare opportunity for African SMEs to network with each other.
FACILITATOR PROFILES
The MMM education program draws on the experience and talents of Facilitators who represent a wide range of professional and geographic backgrounds, who are leaders in their fields and offer the "best in business thinking" to program participants. The availability of a large Facilitator pool enables us to design a program that best meets the needs of participants. Below we list the MMM Facilitators, along with their area of expertise and county (countries) represented.
INVITED SPEAKERS AND GUEST LECTURERS
Besides the Facilitators, invited speakers also enrich participants’ experience at our training programs. The invited speakers represent a wide range of backgrounds from CEOs of multinational companies to academics who offer fresh perspectives and inspiration for participants. Previous speakers include: