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DOREEN MASHU: OK.

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My name Doreen.

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I just graduated as
a Sloan Fellow 2018.

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I came here from Zimbabwe,
and I did an independent study

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with Anjali Sastry.

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So I had 10 years
work experience

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in accounting and finance
before I came to Sloan.

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And I had this passion
for agriculture

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that stemmed from growing
up in Zimbabwe with parents

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that were farmers.

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So I had done quite a bit
of research personally

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on agriculture everywhere
that I had worked.

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And even though I was
working in finance,

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I tried to make sure that
I did some agriculture

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work, whether it was mergers
and acquisitions or whatever.

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I tried to make sure that
I infused agriculture

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into my work.

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So when I got here, I wanted
to formalize this passion

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and do a bit more in-depth
analysis, in-depth research

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on this sector and what
I wanted to contribute

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to it after graduation.

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So I did an independent
study titled

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Innovations Across the
Agriculture Value Chain--

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An Opportunity for
Savvy Entrepreneurs,

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because I want to be an
entrepreneur in this sector.

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So the independent
study involved

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researching the current value
chain, or the traditional value

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chain as it is, and
then interviewing

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different stakeholders to
figure out where opportunities

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are for innovation.

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And that's what I
worked on with Anjali.

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So I started out
with some questions

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that I wanted to answer, or some
hypotheses, and the main one

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was the fact that there
is a big opportunity

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to do value addition.

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And so to move farmers from
the traditional farming

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and raw material production
to actual processing of items,

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of consumer goods, whether it's
juice or personal care items.

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Anything that can be produced
from excess agricultural

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produce.

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So my hypothesis was that
everybody on the table

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would agree with the statement,
that that is the only way

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to move farmers or
rural communities

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from poverty to prosperity.

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And that's where most
of the investments

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should be going forward.

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So I started with that
question, and so when

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I interviewed stakeholders,
I interviewed farmers.

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I interviewed business people.

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I interviewed development
organizations.

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And asked questions that
questioned or poked on that

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hypothesis, or supported it.

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And the response was
actually what I expected,

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which is it's true
that that is where

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everybody thinks that
the investment should

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be focused on.

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It's just a matter of changing
some existing mental models

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that keep both farmers and
investors in this sector stuck

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in and doing things as
they've always been done.

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I looked at all the things
that I was interested in,

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things that I was
passionate about,

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but that I wasn't necessarily
addressing through my MBA

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classes at Sloan.

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And so agriculture stood out.

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And then within
agriculture I looked

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at what was related
to my startup, which

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is what I'm hoping to work
on now that I've graduated.

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And so it was easy to
narrow down a topic,

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because I wanted
something that was

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aligned with my startup
and my interests.

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Managing the work and myself
was probably the most difficult.

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I think, like I
said, because I had

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done some research on the
topic without really having

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any plans of using
it in any formal way,

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I underestimated the time it
would take to actually come up

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with something meaningful.

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And I like to talk--

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I'm a people person.

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So I enjoyed the
interviewing part,

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and I kept gathering information
and gathering information,

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and talking to people more than
the people I had on my list.

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But then when it came
to gathering the insight

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and writing, what I had
done and why I had done it

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and what the next steps
are, it was of difficult.

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And also I had a
full course load,

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because I spent all of my
IAP doing this research.

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And so I didn't take any
other classes or any units

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that I needed
towards graduation.

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So in the spring,
everything was due.

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The independent study, all
the courses, and all of that.

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So it was difficult, but
I worked with Anjali a lot

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in trying to figure out how
I needed to craft the paper.

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And so we did a few
iterations of that.

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She actually is very hands-on.

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So she'll take
positive notes write--

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this first section could
be this, do you agree?

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What are you trying
to get from that?

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So she pushed me
a bit and ask me

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questions that helped me figure
out the structure of the paper.

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And also the time I would
spend on each section,

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and what was more important
and what was less important.

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And how I can show
that I actually

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did the work, because
doing the work

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and actually reporting the
work is quite different.

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But in the end, it worked,
definitely with Anjali's help,

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and working extra hours.

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So I think this experience
was interesting for me,

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because I ended up
using frameworks

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in the independent study that
I think are unique to Sloan.

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So for example, I used systems
thinking, which is obviously

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a big thing here at Sloan.

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And also things
around sustainability

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and sustainability-oriented
innovation, which MIT

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is a champion in.

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So I think that being in
this environment helped

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with the framework
I was going to use

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and the way I was
writing this paper.

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Entrepreneurship
is also big at MIT,

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so that's why I
even wanted to be

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an entrepreneur after a
10-year career in finance.

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So I think all of those
things went together

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to help me produce
this independent study.

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I do think, however, it's just--

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yes, for me it was MIT,
but for anyone else

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it could be anything, right?

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It's just a matter
of figuring out

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what you have in
your own ecosystem,

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and then using that
to your advantage.

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Also, in addition to
being a Sloan Fellow,

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I'm a Legatum fellow, which is--

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Legatum is a center here
at MIT for entrepreneurship

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and development.

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And it supports 20
Fellows per year

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that wants to work
in the developing

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world after graduation.

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So it's everybody from PhDs in
engineering to undergraduates.

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And so I came here
through a scholarship

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from the Legatum foundation.

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So I knew coming
in that I wanted

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to be an entrepreneur in the
developing world after Sloan.

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And my startup idea
is in agriculture,

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so it's another part of what
created this independent study.

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I knew some people
that I interviewed--

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some stakeholders that I
interviewed through Legatum,

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and then approaching
them as a Legatum Fellow,

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it made sense that I was
doing this agriculture paper.

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So it helped me talk to people
that I probably would have

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a hard time reaching out to.

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Anjali also brought in
her contacts for people

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that I needed to interview,
so that was helpful as well.

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And the name MIT was
helpful as well, so

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to link back to the
ecosystem, right?

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So reaching out to
someone and saying, hey,

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I'm a student at
MIT and I'm studying

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this topic was, I think,
helpful for people

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to open up their doors
and resources and such.

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I just came from a conference
last week after graduation.

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I went straight to a
conference at the World Bank,

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and I think everybody's
questioning this idea of

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is technology a good solution?

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And if so, how should
we be using it,

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and how do we really get these
rural communities to prosper?

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And there's a lot actually in
between farming seasons, right?

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So a farming season could
be just three months,

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and then you add the
preparation time, which

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is another couple of months.

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And then farmers are
going from cycle to cycle,

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and their conditions are
not really improving.

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So people are
questioning why that

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is happening, and we what we
need to do more of, or less of.

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So I think it's an
exciting sector,

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because I think that
the whole world is

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worried about food security.

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The whole world is worried
about climate change,

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which is linked to agriculture.

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So I think it's a hot topic.

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It's just people need to
figure out-- everybody needs

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to be on board in
terms of figuring out

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what needs to be done.

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Because on one hand,
you have people

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that are investing in
more production of food

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so that we have food
security, but then is

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that food distributed equally?

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That remains to be seen.

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And then on the
other hand, there's

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all this talk about
climate change

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and what farmers should
be doing or not be doing,

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and there are all these
technologies that people

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are coming up with, but
are they being co-created

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with the communities?

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Probably not.

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So uptake of those technologies
is slower than people think.

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So there are all of these
topics, all of these loose ends

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that need to be figured out.

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And I think that's why it's
exciting for me to be in,

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and hopefully I can figure
out a small part of it.