Poverty is Dynamic and Flexible, Just like the Informal Economy: Evidence from India
…the concept of poverty today is fundamentally different from that of poverty three decades ago, and that safety nets need to be tailored to meet the needs of a society in transition.~ The Hindu, 2 Aug 2016 When quantitative data provided by the India Human Development Survey (the first large panel survey in India) provokes […]
Seasonality as an element of contextual planning for emerging consumer markets
Growing up as a Hindu expat in multicultural ‘West Malaysia’ of the 1970s and 80s, it was a matter of course that every festival would be a big occasion. We had Christmas in December, and Chinese New Year soon after, to be followed by Hari Raya (Eid) and Deepawali – each of them deserving of […]
African Youth find Opportunities in Informal Sector Biashara
Biashara in Africa’s emerging economies – Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe- are at loggerheads with the state. An ever bulging young demographic and a failure to absorb them into the formal economy has resulted in increased biashara. The informal sector’s low barrier to entry, appeals to the young Africans’ aspirations, like Simon Danda from Zimbabwe. Rather than […]
People-centered systems design thinking out loud
This morning I was pondering the complexity involved in weaving together four separate threads of ‘innovation’ into one holistic system. They were not unrelated to each other, and the end users are more or less the same for each, but each is also a standalone solution to a pain point in an ecosystem. I was […]
Trade is the network
Trade is not a verb or a noun. Trade is a living, breathing network of give and take. When Doc and gang wrote The Cluetrain Manifesto all so many years ago, the first chapter described teh “bazaar” – that markets are conversations was a revelation to the first world in the generations since the end […]
Biashara Economics: Get attuned to the cycles in your business – Lesson #4
Just as egg wholesalers know that business spikes during the school holidays due to increased demand, the ladies who trade in clothes, old and new, know that clothing is a discretionary purchase. In the low season, some switch to selling necessities like charcoal, or fresh veg. People still need to cook and eat. Mama Margeret […]
Biashara economics: You can’t afford to let go of the reins – Lesson #3
The nature of biashara, which is primarily trade and commerce in a cash intensive economy, is such that margins are extremely thin, and there is a fragile line of trust, credit, and credentials which keeps the flows humming. M-Pesa changed that in some very fundamental ways, allowing the tightly furled buds to bloom. Trust, now, […]
Biashara Economics: Nurture your Network – Lesson #2
Without a network, you are nothing. In biashara, the complex webs of give and take (Walther has a nice map, he was inspired by social media networks, and inspired our thinking) that are the engine and the nervous system of the organic, living platform for trade are running on trust and relationships, offering you first […]
Biashara Economics: Diversify your portfolio – Lesson #1
Biashara’s growth strategies include the need to diversify one’s customer base from B2C to more B2B. In small markets, that’s the only way to grow revenue without hitting the cap on the actual number of people who can buy your tshirts. It’s when you are able to nurture a stable team of customers who purchase […]
Introducing the concept of Biashara Economics, underwritten by a value web of trusted relationships
The true value of social network lies not in its actor’s activities but in their relationships to each other. When social networks attempt to monetize their users, they tend to identify them as discrete individuals rather than interconnected actors all acting in a wave at a concert. The ripple effect seen in biashara informed us […]
