Clinton Etheridge is no newcomer to West Africa. After graduating from Swarthmore College in 1969, he taught secondary school math for two years as the first African American Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia. Decades later, in July 2011, he returned to that country on a pilgrimage with his three adult children and 4-year-old granddaughter.
But it wasn’t until June 2013 that Etheridge was able to bring his background as a businessman to the region. For nine months, he coached six high-potential small and medium-sized enterprises from Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone as one of Stanford Seed’s first coaches. Working in six different industries, he assisted a commercial ice company, a general contractor, an electrical engineering contractor, an oil processor, an affordable housing developer, and a bottled water company to identify and move toward their business goals.
For the assignment, Etheridge drew on some 40 years of experience in commercial banking with Chase Manhattan Bank in New York and London, and Citicorp in San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as an MBA from Stanford GSB. As a founder of the California Economic Development Lending Initiative, he also had significant experience helping more than 200 entrepreneurs finance and build small and medium-sized businesses throughout California.
Etheridge recently spoke with Seed about his engagement on the African continent.
Why did you decide to be a Seed coach?
It was an opportunity for me to fulfill a life-long dream that I had of going back to Africa to leverage my business skills and make a different kind of contribution than I had made when I was a Peace Corps math teacher decades before.
What did you bring to the assignment?
I was a very experienced banker, and most of the companies were looking for some sort of financing in order to grow. I had a perspective on how you become lender-ready, how you talk to investors, how you present yourself when you’re going for capital. I also brought a kind of cultural sensitivity that was the result of my Peace Corps experience.
How was working in West Africa different from working in the United States, and how did you deal with that difference?
My Seed customers in West Africa were more risk-averse than my U.S. customers. In Africa, businesspeople assume that if they fail, they won’t get a second chance, and they will let down their extended family, who are depending on them. We Seed coaches dealt with this risk aversion by getting them to think big and think boldly about getting on the path to transformation — even though transformation takes a long time. The starting point was helping to create a mindset shift.
What kind of an impact did you have on the companies you worked with?
My Nigerian customer said being in the program was like rowing a boat down the river — and then coming to the ocean and seeing that there’s a big, wide, wonderful world out there. That’s the kind of effect we coaches had on most of these businesses — getting them to think bigger and bolder than they had before. I was also able to significantly help two customers, in particular, with the financing requirements that they were looking for.
Was there a moment when you saw your work really come to fruition?
Yes. One of my customers, an oil processor, needed investment capital to get equipment that would improve their refining capacity for their soybean oil. They were a growing and profitable company, and they were considering a number of financing proposals. But one of the offers had an onerous condition attached to it. I advised them to turn the proposal down, which they did, but the financing source wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. He was really jumping up and down. The management person didn’t know what to do. I advised him to just let things settle down, which they did. By the time I left, the company had gotten another proposal for the same equipment on better terms.
What was a typical day like for you?
What was one of your most uncomfortable experiences?
Most of my cohort companies were cooperative, but shortly after the transformation program started in July, one of them replied “What for?” when I asked for copies of their financial statements, a standard information input for diagnosing a company. Over time, as I gained the trust and confidence of the company, they provided the financial statements and even invited me to a board meeting.
What would you say to somebody considering becoming a Seed coach who may be on the fence?
There was an expression the Peace Corps had years ago: “This is the toughest job you’ll ever love.” I felt that way about the Stanford Seed coaching program. If you have the right attitude — one of humble inquiry — and you’re prepared to roll up your sleeves, act as a “partner” with these enterprises, and help them get on the road to transformation, you can have a lasting impact on a company, and even a country. Stanford Seed provides you with an opportunity to leave a legacy in Africa. That can be compelling for the right person.
Personally, what are you going to do with your experience?
I had an article about the family pilgrimage I made to The Gambia called “What Is Africa to Me?” published in my Swarthmore College alumni magazine in January 2012. That article showed some promise by winning the 2012 Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation, so I decided to expand it into a book. In it, I’m going to explore what I learned through these significant engagements with Africa — both about the continent and about being an African American.
by Marguerite Rigoglioso