Is the pay per use business model changing household purchasing dynamics?
The process of writing the previous post on India’s energy efficient cook-stove development efforts made me pause and reconsider my assumptions. Here’s the snippet that struck me in the article. Philips took its India stove to more mature markets in Africa, where a raft of foreign-funded stove projects had familiarised customers with the product. This […]
Lessons for toilet builders from the history of India’s cookstove development efforts
Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar has written a superb critical analysis looking back at the history of India’s development efforts to provide viable, feasible, and desirable solutions to the myriad unmet needs of the common man. Using cookstoves as her narrative theme, she explores the challenges of base of the pyramid product development and marketing, and draws lessons […]
Finally, the silver bullet of micro-finance can be buried in peace
Six years ago, in March 2009, after my return from The Philippines where I’d first conducted fieldwork using design ethnography methods to understand household financial management at the erstwhile Base of the Pyramid in a rural region, I had written: Another eye opener was hearing the story about a micro-finance loan for enabling local women […]
Future scenarios for sub Saharan Africa’s opportunity and market
When you look at selected sub Saharan African markets from the perspective of being a micro-SME up here in Finland, you discover just attractive they can be. This is Team Finland’s futures based report on four most promising (defined by size, growth and ease of doing business) countries: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania. Using […]
When would you buy life insurance for a week? New products for the informal market
A South African company has figured out the back-end technology required to provide easily accessible prepaid or pay-as-you-go insurance products that can be serviced via your smartphone. Their solutions are designed for the unbanked, informal trader, typically living on an average household income of US$8 a day. At first glance, I wondered who on earth […]
The end of an era: Where next for the big smartphone brands of today?
Africa’s marathon to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of connectivity and access is now a sprint to the finish line. Ericsson’s latest report shows penetration rates on the continent have overtaken India. The market we began our careers in has now, not only matured, but is expected to cross 100% […]
Innovation, under conditions of resource scarcity
When Mkulima Young, a social media community for young farmers in Kenya tweeted this photograph of a motorcycle modified to pump water, I was delighted. It had been a long time since I’d seen such an excellent example of innovative product development under conditions of resource scarcity. REculture, the group blog hosted by the now […]
The formal sector and economic development: A lesson from marketing
Pursuing the thoughts introduced in the previous post further, I looked up the original reference on “formalization of the informal sector”1. Alan Gelb, et al. 2009. “To Formalize or Not to Formalize? Comparisons of Microenterprise Data from Southern and East Africa.” CGD Working Paper 175 “…in East Africa, weak enforcement of tax payment and no […]
Old and New: Changing Perspectives on the Informal Economy
Martha Alter Chen’s table summarizing the still prevalent yet now considered obsolete view of the informal economy, against the revised perspective currently held is worth showcasing in its own right. Further food for thought comes from this little snippet from Sparks and Barnett: Gelb et al (2009) found that the “…productivity of informal firms is […]
Top 5 African Trending Topics in 2015
Every day I scan the African business news, and share selected articles on Twitter and Tumblr. Fascinating hobby aside, it gives me a finger on the pulse of stories swirling around the infowebs. On the last day of the calender year, it’s de rigeur to sit oneself down and attempt to cluster these swirling motes […]
