Tag Archives: business

Formalization is no panacea for micro-entrepreneurs, a liminal space is necessary for growth

By Niti Bhan | Published: February 6, 2018

Yesterday, my bank sent back a client’s payment though I’d presented the invoice and other paperwork. I’m a registered micro-business in the highly formal economy of Finland, and the bank I’ve been with since 2009 has upped their internal regulations after a spate of bad publicity surrounding the Panama papers. I’ve been caught in the […]

Posted in Assumption filter, Banking, Business, Perspective | Also tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

My African Twitter: Social Media and Its Role in the Emergence of African Economies

By Niti Bhan | Published: June 30, 2015

Social Media Day 2015 is as good a day as any to finally get around to completing this post I’ve been meaning to write for almost half a year now. It is based on my personal experience and observations, supported by a few relevant links. African Twitter is unlike any social media I’ve experienced. In […]

Posted in Africa, Culture, Mobile platform, Perspective | Also tagged , | Leave a comment

Assessing the size and value of investment opportunities with an informal economy footprint

By Niti Bhan | Published: May 13, 2015

There’s an interesting snippet from the Nigerian news yesterday that led to this framing of a necessary problem statement. KPMG’s head of private equity is quoted as saying: Meeting current needs of the one billion plus population and, the future demands of the rapidly emerging middle class consumers will drive the next wave of Private […]

Posted in African Consumer Market, Analysis, Assumption filter, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Consumer Behaviour, Frameworks, Nigeria, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Process, Strategy, Value | Also tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Strategy and Operational Excellence: Trade-Offs Made in Design and Thinking

By Niti Bhan | Published: January 9, 2015

“Managers must clearly distinguish operational effectiveness from strategy. Both are essential, but the two agendas are different. The operational agenda involves continual improvement everywhere there are no trade-offs. Failure to do this creates vulnerability even for companies with a good strategy. The operational agenda is the proper place for constant change, flexibility, and relentless efforts […]

Posted in Design, Flexibility, Innovation Planning, Perspective, Strategy | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment

Innovation at the small enterprise level

By Niti Bhan | Published: October 17, 2011

I’ve never been left with such a strong sense of enterprise and innovative thinking as I have now after this past week in Coastal Kenya. In fact I asked Muchiri if he’d been specifying some high standards for the introductions made to various cyber cafe owners or was it that we just happened upon the […]

Posted in Business, Cyber cafe series, Design, Emerging Markets, Innovation Planning, Kenya, Marketing, Platforms, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Projects and Reports, Technology, urban, User research | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Response

On the challenge of merging Business with Design

By Niti Bhan | Published: November 25, 2010

Helen Walters recently published her complete speech from Design Thinkers 2010 online under various titles such as “The 7 Biggest Challenges in Merging Design and Business” as well as “Design: The bottom line” which provides much food for thought as a current day snapshot of the interstitial space where business meets design.  After having sat […]

Posted in Business, Business Models, Design, Literature review | Also tagged , | Leave a comment

Why is design important?

By Niti Bhan | Published: April 22, 2010

Design is first and foremost a philosophy, based on a system of values, which seeks to solve problems. What are we creating? Why and for whom? Are we correctly framing the problem to be solved? These are the questions to which the answers are then manifested tangibly in the form of a new product, service […]

Posted in Business, Design, Platforms, Systems | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment


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