Purpose at BCG: Driving Inspired Impact in Rwanda

This article is part of a series on BCG’s five purpose principles: Bring Insight to Light, Drive Inspired Impact, Conquer Complexity, Lead with Integrity, and Grow by Growing Others.

One of the primary reasons I joined BCG more than 30 years ago was that I wanted to be a part of an organization making a real impact on the world, and I have never been disappointed. At BCG, the never-ending push to “drive inspired impact” is one of the five pillars that make up our larger purpose: unlocking the potential of those who advance the world.

When we partner with others—whether in business or society—we turn ideas into positive impact through close collaboration, building capabilities together that will enable and energize our clients over time. There are hundreds of examples, but one of the most inspiring stories about how we drive inspired impact has been our recent work with the Rwanda government.

Building a Strategy for a Top National Priority

In the decades since the horrific genocide of 1994, Rwanda’s recovery was extraordinary, including government-driven industrialization and an economic boom that raised the living standards for much of the population. But in recent years, the government’s highly ambitious goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2035 was facing significant challenges.

Rwanda is a very young country—with youth representing more than 40% of the population—which presents great opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation. It also makes the creation of new jobs a top national priority. And in order to create good, sustainable jobs, leaders knew they needed to step up private-sector-led growth.

This meant rethinking how to attract private investments in a landlocked country with a relatively small population. As part of this effort, the government created the Rwanda Development Board (RDB)—made up of representatives from all government agencies and responsible for attracting and facilitating private investments. We joined forces with this new government entity to forge a strategy that would create the greatest impact.

Creating Impact Through a Distinctive Approach

A traditional consulting model provides technical support to help a government achieve its goals. But in this case, we embedded our team within the government, while also leveraging our broad network of experts across industries and capabilities.

“We established joint BCG-RDB teams for every phase and segment of the overall project,” says Shalini Unnikrishnan, a BCG partner and key member of the team on the ground in Kigali from the beginning. “We brought in agile approaches and principles to rapidly test ideas with an investor-centric lens.”

This effort led to a number of solutions co-designed with the government, including an innovative partnership called the Investment Accelerator. Serving as a central investor hub, the Investment Accelerator manages the investment process from end to end: identifying where to focus, finding investors, developing value propositions, designing deals, negotiating, unblocking hurdles, and building long-term government capacity.

The Investment Accelerator homes in on a few priority sectors and goes after real value propositions that directly link with the existing ecosystem in Rwanda to fill in the gaps. Part of what makes the accelerator unique is how it can cut across government and the private sector to bring competitive advantage by being fast and responsive. “It’s an unusually proactive approach,” says BCG Principal Evelien Dupont, another key member of the team. “The Investment Accelerator doesn’t wait to see which investors show interest. Instead, it puts Rwanda behind the steering wheel and allows the government to shape the country’s progress from an ecosystem perspective.”

Part of our crucial contribution to this process was bringing new ways of working to the Rwanda government. By baking a fast and agile approach into the solution, teams could work in short sprints, follow the best leads, and fail fast, when necessary—all of which is crucial when interacting with the private sector. There was even a shift in day-to-day work habits. For example, we helped the team move from long meetings around a conference table to ten-minute standing meetings, in which decisions are made quickly.

Along with our agile knowledge, and our deep expertise in foreign direct investment, BCG’s contribution included significant sector knowledge—with experts in agriculture, manufacturing, and business process outsourcing within easy reach. We also built a training curriculum for RDB, focusing on both the hard skills that are important when interacting with an investor and the crucial softer skills (effective communication, knowing how to push without seeming aggressive).

A Team Effort for the Greatest Impact

The magic of this process has been the way in which BCG and the Rwanda government have worked hand-in-hand from the beginning. The results of this partnership? Real job-creating investments in Rwanda over the course of 18 months: ten deals so far, more than $130 million invested, and the creation of 9,000 jobs—with 20,000 more jobs created indirectly.

And the long-term impact will be huge. Our expertise helped the Investment Accelerator build a company pipeline of more than 650 organizations, with $750 million in investments currently in negotiation. It continues to generate rapid and creative insights, testing them to activate investors in multiple sectors. The work has been widely hailed as a success, including by the Rwandan president.

We started out working with four people from RDB and are now on a rapid path toward a team of 20, allowing us to more fully support priority sectors. We will continue to establish new ways of working within that larger team. We are also helping to set up a leadership academy, gathering top talent from

the different ministries and RDB and guiding them through a one-year curriculum—preparing the next generation of leaders while creating a strong cross-ministry, silo-free network.

Transferability and Collaboration

Today, this model is attracting interest from global players looking to replicate its success in other countries. We also see potential in shifting the focus to tackle other complex development problems around the world. The possibilities are exciting.

Our partnership with the Rwanda government exemplifies how the power of co-creation, something BCG has always excelled at, can drive the greatest impact of all. The best of BCG builds a partnership, working together, co-owning, and enabling long-term growth and success. In this way, we can build greater change and do our best to leave our clients and the world in a better place.

Read the series:

#1 Unlocking the Potential of Those Who Advance the World 

# 2 Bringing Insight to Light for Malaysian Consumers

#3 Driving Inspired Impact in Rwanda (currently reading)

#4 Conquering Complexity in the Airline Industry

#5 Leading, with Integrity

#6 How We Grow by Growing Others