The Arc Initiative provides a channel for people exchange knowledge and business skills. The program generally focuses on helping relatively impoverished communities, and is very important considering the possible results it can achieve.

I think there are two main reasons Arc functions so well. One is that the program combines two different categories of information. Uwonkunda, an Arc Initiative Sauder student from Rwanda, can demonstrate how this works. She grew up in Rwanda, which means she is familiar with the environment, market, and customer behavior in the place where business is going to start. Combined with her understanding of background information, the knowledge and business skills Arc program provides can become more useful and function to a greater extend. Another reason is that Arc allows ideas to be exchanged between two almost entirely different points of view. People from different backgrounds have unique perspectives of how business can become successful. Ms. Tesfaye’s career is a good illustration of how exchanging perspectives can solve problems. The new perspective she learned at an Arc workshop tells her that a different strategy can be applied to her business, which ultimately solved her problem.

The Arc Initiative program turns out to have helped many businesses, but it can be improved to become even better. Right now the program only builds connection between UBC Sauder students and four impoverished regions, so maybe the Arc program can expand its range. Engaging students from other facilities may help because they might be able to contribute differently than students from UBC do. Also, the Arc program can consider switching the target regions once a while so that more diversified group can receive help.