The story of two entrepreneurs and their successful drama franchise business throughout Africa
The Helen O'Grady Drama Academy has undergone an amazing development throughout Africa over the last 12 years, with schools running from Cape Town to Casablanca and Cairo in the North. This is an amazing story of success and how a stable franchised network can be established throughout the African Continent.
We interviewed Development Director, Duncan Rice, and the Creative Director, Gavin Pollock, about what brought them to Africa to establish and run what is now the largest and most extensive drama school on the continent. We also asked them about some of the challenges of running a franchise in Africa.
What brought you to Africa, Duncan?
Duncan: "I was born in Cape Town but left South Africa shortly after graduating as an English and Drama teacher. I worked in some of the UK's top schools, studying further, developing drama curriculum for children and directing innovative plays and musicals for young people. After completing 10 years as Head of Drama at St John's College School in Cambridge, and seeing the incredible development of children in confidence, self-esteem, creativity and communication skills, I realised that drama was more than just performance skills and I wanted to devote my life to the development of children in this way. I believe that drama can unlock so many doors for children not only in their education but their future success in life in general. Cambridge gave me an incredible opportunity to develop my understanding of the educational benefits of good drama teaching.
"Therefore having acquired a deep understanding of curriculum development and inspirational teaching methods, I looked around for a drama school which really focused on the child and the psychological and emotional development of children. This is where I discovered the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy and in my first meeting with the Directors of the UK, I discovered that the Helen O'Grady's curriculum really did tick all the boxes of a holistic and highly educational programme. Helen O'Grady was herself teacher and performance artist so she very cleverly wove together a highly proactive programme which catapults children out of their comfort zone with a fun, dynamic programme. By proactive, I mean that the children are given, in every lesson, at least ten real-life situations in which they have to react and develop a quick creative resolution. Children in the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy oozed confidence and were adept conflict resolution. I felt I had to be involved with this programme.
"Following my meetings with the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy UK, I took the position of Principal of the Belfast branch. My brief was to establish and develop the Academy throughout Northern Ireland. If fact so successful was this that the Northern Ireland branch became, at the time, the largest Helen O'Grady Drama Academy in the world, and the largest drama school in Ireland, with over 1400 children attending classes each week. Children were able to attend in most of the major towns throughout this region. We won the Franchisee of the Year Award from the British Franchise Association for our innovative work in bringing children from the two sectarian communities together and for becoming one of the largest drama schools in the world.
"Owing to this success, a few years later, I approached Helen O'Grady herself to talk about taking this highly success model to Africa and then the rest was history as we granted the rights to become the Licensees for Africa as well as running the Cape Town branch."
And how did an Irishman end up in Africa, Gavin?
Gavin: "Meeting Duncan in Cambridge, we realised that to put our strengths together would provide the start up business with a significant advantage. My own local knowledge of the area, partnered with my creative design work and previous experience of finance and administration would provide a strong foundation for the Northern Irish Academy.
"Motivated by the successful business model of Helen O'Grady Drama Academy in Northern Ireland, I wished to bring what the Academy stood for to a part of the world where perhaps choices or resources were not as great as in Western Europe. We were fortunate to have Helen O'Grady sharing our vision for this and backing this decision to open the programme to the children of Africa so they would get this world class programme even in the ruralist of locations. We had a lot of expertise from our Northern Ireland experience in taking the programming into rural communities where the prospect of theatre and drama was not a priority."
It must have been difficult at first. Did you face any obstacles in your development?
Duncan: "Africa is a vast continent with sometimes very poor infrastructure, communication, expensive airline travel and often instability caused by bad and corrupt governance. Twelve years back, it was even harder because there wasn't even a proper internet communication in many countries. In our initial, development plan we looked at the Southern African countries first so we appointed our first franchisees in Botswana, Namibia followed by Zambia.
"One of the greatest problems we found as we started to set up was that parents in Africa just seemed reluctant to pay for anything outside of the school. And unlike many countries around the world such as India, China, UK and Ireland, where we have worked extensively, many parents in Africa and school principals just didn't see the benefit of after school enrichment programmes and drama in general.
Gavin: "We had to go on a massive education programme in the media to help parents and schools to see the incredible importance of drama in the development of a child but this equally was difficult to achieve. In many countries, we couldn't even get the newspapers to take our payment through a bank account transfer to put in an advert and so we had to travel to some countries in order to get our name out there which in Africa is extremely expensive."
Duncan: "Slowly but surely, though, we started to get enquiries from people wanting the run the Academy in their specific country and we started to train their principals and teachers. As the name of our organisation started to spread as Academies opened further afield in places such as Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya. The classes started to grow and our Principals and the parents of children saw the amazing results from the children as they developed in confidence and communication skills."
Gavin: "However, it is not always easy as in Africa as we take two steps forward, we take one back. We have the challenges of the instability in many African countries and as regimes change, or the economy tumbles, it becomes difficult for our Principals to operate. During these times we have had to really increase our support and help."
Duncan: "But there are some amazing success stories such as during the Arab spring our amazing Principals Gina and Maija, continued to run the Academy's classes reaching out to so many children in Egypt despite the huge instability following the mass protests."
Gavin: "We also realised that when our Franchisee from Morocco came on board, that if we continued the programme in English we would cut out a vast swathe of the French-speaking population so working together with our incredible Principal of Casablanca and now our Franchisor for Morocco, Houda Farrahe, we developed the French curriculum for this market.
"So thanks to this, It is now being rolled in Mauritius and Egypt which is opening the doors to so many more children to attend our Academy, and doors are opened to the whole of French-speaking Africa."
What for you two are the highlights of your time in Africa?
Duncan: "For me it has been the development and training of teachers and principals throughout Africa. We have literary trained thousands over the 12 years and to see the results of these professionally trained people working with children in their respective countries, bringing out the best in children is such a great joy to me.
"Also seeing our own Principals grow and develop their Academies using our tried and tested franchise formula. Those Principals who follow it become highly successful and also become authorities in their respective countries in drama education and through this we now have many government education departments wanting to collaborate with our programme throughout Africa.
Gavin: "I just love to see people making a living out of doing something they love which has been a result of our business training. To see people who have never run a business before thriving as an entrepreneur is hard-warming."
Duncan: "Also, of course, the difference we have made in the lives children is quite profound. We get regular messages from our principals to let us know how thrilled the parents and children are with the programme and the quick development they make.
What have you learnt by this experience?
Duncan: "If you don't adapt, you die as an organisation. We have had to be flexible and creative and change our model where necessary to reach more countries and children. We have learnt some amazing business and particularly marketing techniques to help new starters to take their schools to a new level of development.
Gavin: "The fantastic enthusiasm for the programme. How young people around Africa have joined in and made the arts as part of their weekly curriculum with such passion and creativity. How normally this talent was going untapped and now that the Helen O'Grady programme has captured the students imaginations, the skills that they have learnt or are learning are a important part of their every day lives, not just when on the stage.
It has been wonderful to see the reaction of perhaps slightly cautious parents and teachers, seeing the results the programme has brought to the young people in their community. It just goes to show much this programme is needed everywhere in the world."
How can someone become a franchisee in the Academy and what qualifications do they need?
Duncan: "Potential franchisees or teachers can contact us by going to our website. We look for people who either have a degree in education or performance arts, but also we are keen on graduates with entrepreneurial skills. Many people contact us who are fed up with formal education or the corporate world and want to make a difference in the lives of children.
This is an extremely rewarding change of direction and the franchise model has been tried and tested a variety of situations worldwide. Particularly to this development are our Indian counterparts whom I have worked with extensively over the years. We are so lucky to be able to share and develop ideas on an international level.
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