Category Archives: Indigenous & Traditional

Sensemaking in extreme conditions for enhancing resilience: Literature Review

By Niti Bhan | Published: April 27, 2021

Here, I want to explore themes of resilience and sensemaking together in extreme conditions. For now, I have considered the systemic shock of the global pandemic as an increase in volatility, complexity, and uncertainty of operating conditions, from the perspective of the informal urban food system in Nairobi, Kenya. Therefore I have deliberately excluded literature […]

Also posted in Africa, Analysis, Biashara Economics, Business, Flexibility, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Literature review, Perspective, Research, Retail in Africa, Risk, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, urban, Work in Progress | Tagged complex adaptive systems, extreme conditions, informal trade ecosystem, literature review, resilience, sensemaking, systemic shock, visual sensemaking | Leave a comment

Situating one’s rant within business model typology for rural and low income markets

By Niti Bhan | Published: April 24, 2021

After yesterday’s post on stripping out social considerations to allow for a pragmatic economic assessment of viability prior to investing in infrastructure for service delivery to rural customers, I looked up literature on the general theme. Site selection as a keyword brought a slew of articles focusing on GIS technology, primarily from the lens of […]

Also posted in Biashara Economics, Business Models, Consumer Behaviour, Frameworks, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Literature review, Marketing, Perspective, Retail in Africa, Rural Economy, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Work in Progress | Tagged business model, conceptual framework, informal trade ecosystem, literature review, marketing, pels & sheth, rural economy, strategy tools, toolmaking, typology | Leave a comment

Less Technologically Advanced Societies are not necessarily backward or primitive: Assume at your own risk

By Niti Bhan | Published: December 26, 2019

This illustration by Jeroen Meijer of Jam Visueldenken of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, was created for our team during a workshop to capture the insights from a feasibility study on agritech we had completed for the Dutch government’s sustainable agricultural value chain development at Wageningen University’s Economic Research unit back in mid 2013. I’m pulling it […]

Also posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Afrique francophone, Airtime, Analysis, Assumption filter, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Consumer Behaviour, Design, East African Community, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Frameworks, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Kenya, Marketing, Mobile platform, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Rural Economy, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Technology, UCSD, Value | Tagged africa, business model, design, Flat and fragmented, mobile, prepaid, user research | Leave a comment

New Market Opportunity: The Digitalisation of African Agriculture

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 12, 2019

Just over two weeks ago, I analyzed a report on the Digitalization of African Agriculture on twitter. Bandwidth heavy PDFs aren’t user friendly for mobile first or mobile only browsing environments, such as prevalent across much of the African continent, and ‘granulating’ reports is something I’ve gotten into the habit of doing quite regularly for […]

Also posted in Africa, Airtime, Alternative currency, Analysis, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Cattle, Design, Ecosystem, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Livestock, Mobile platform, Platforms, Report Review, Research, rural, Rural Economy, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, Technology | Tagged africa, agriculture, D4Ag, design, digitalization, new market strategy, rural value chain, sustainable agricultural value chain development, vcd | Leave a comment

Book Review: Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 5, 2019

Although the book I’ll be reviewing today was first published in the year 2007, I only came upon it this year in a used bookstore. Raj Patel’s Stuffed and Starved lays bare the innards of the world’s food distribution systems and the market dominance of the megacorps in the business. The Guardian’s original review captures […]

Also posted in Africa, ASEAN, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Book Reviews, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Futures, FMCG, Informal & Flexible, Migrant worker, Perspective, Retail in Africa, rural, Rural Economy, South Asia, Sub Saharan Africa | Tagged book review, food systems, raj patel, stuffed and starved | Leave a comment

Rural Household Financial Management on Irregular Incomes

By Niti Bhan | Published: October 18, 2018

While all farms are not alike, and scale and variety and geography differs, the pattern of household financial management holds its fundamental logic across continents. As we saw previously, an experienced farmer tends to fall somewhere in between a salaried employee and an odd job labourer in their ability to predict with any reasonable degree […]

Also posted in Africa, Analysis, ASEAN, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Cattle, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Frameworks, Informal & Flexible, Livestock, Mama Biashara, Perspective, Philipines, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Rural Economy, Savings, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research | Tagged biashara, biashara economics, biashara economy, frameworks, household finance, household financial management, informal economy, prepaid economy, research | Leave a comment

Competitive Advantage & Customer Relationships: Lessons from Market Mummies of Ghana

By Niti Bhan | Published: August 29, 2018

How would you differentiate yourself in this informal retail market? Ghanaian market research guru Gerry van Dyke took a closer look at the market ‘mummies’ – Mama Biashara, as we call her – and their consumer marketing techniques in the “non-label environment”. His findings form an excellent foundation for understanding marketing and customer relationships in […]

Also posted in African Consumer Market, Biashara Economics, Business, Consumer Behaviour, Culture, Ghana, Informal & Flexible, Mama Biashara, Marketing, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, urban, User research | Tagged africa, African Consumer Market, biashara economics, branding, informal economy, informal retail, mama biashara, marketing, prepaid economy | Leave a comment

How informal financial services can lower the barriers to formal financial inclusion

By Niti Bhan | Published: March 9, 2018

Around 2 and a half years ago, I was on a short visit to Abidjan, the capital of Cote D’Ivoire as a guest of the African Development Bank. They were holding an innovation weekend for young women and men in the Francophone West African region who were interested in becoming entrepreneurs. David O. Capo Chichi, […]

Also posted in Africa, Afrique francophone, Analysis, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Consumer Behaviour, Design, Flexibility, Income, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Mama Biashara, Marchés africains, Marketing, Mobile platform, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Retail in Africa, Savings, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, UEMOA | Tagged africa, banking, business model, financial inclusion, flexibility, informal economy, intermediary, women | Leave a comment

Context Sensitive Law: What happens when African societal norms meet modern commercial practice?

By Niti Bhan | Published: March 6, 2018

In short, social forces shape contracts: the stronger the sense of community, the more effective these sanctions are likely to be. The result: A privately ordered system of business behaviour, which exists without reference to the governing law of the state. The underlying adhesive: community. In the absence of conventional forms of collateral, my contract […]

Also posted in Africa, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Consumer Behaviour, Culture, Informal & Flexible, Marchés africains, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, South Africa | Tagged community, contract law, customary law, informal economy, law | Leave a comment

Why the African Consumer Market is NOT the same as the African Middle Class

By Niti Bhan | Published: February 15, 2018

The biggest challenge faced by consumer facing companies looking at the African Consumer Market is the age old positioning of the “middle class” as the ideal target audience. This middle class is segmented by the same attributes as the original middle classes who formed the consumer markets of the developed world. This is the outside […]

Also posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Assumption filter, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cattle, Consumer Behaviour, Economy, Emerging Markets, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Livestock, Marchés africains, Marketing, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Retail in Africa, Rural Economy, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa | Tagged African Consumer Market, consumer electronics, kenya, kilgoris, maasai | Leave a comment

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