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 […]
Mobile Money’s next challenge: Enabling the development of a cashless ecosystem
The latest GSMA State of the Industry report on Mobile Money is out this month and the numbers look great in the developing world. The report frames the industry’s next challenge as the need to grow the platform beyond the basics of airtime purchase and person to person transfer. Here are my concerns, starting with […]
Kenyan informal economy rise is responsive to investments
Just 5 years ago, came the first formal multi-storey hotel structure in the Kenyan town of Busia, which abuts the Ugandan town of Busia at the border. Visible rise in the local economy has been noticed by various actors. The first Asian trader, who arrived only 20 years ago, said that the past 5 years […]
The Kenyan informal sector’s well-trodden paths of upward mobility
Studying the dynamics of the informal economy of a particular region in Western Kenya has been an eye opening exercise in questioning one’s own assumptions and frameworks. Other times, I noticed answers to questions I’d never even thought of asking (an outcome of holding implicit assumptions). One of these was career paths and ambitions. The […]
Africa’s rise might strangle the informal trading sector in the “middle income trap”
Ruth, who was briefly introduced in a photo caption is currently facing this middle income trap. She can’t gather enough together to scale and the banks want to skim 18% of the profits of the top, usury, thy name is inclusion. Mrs Felice is facing this dilemma as her container from China will now make […]
