Tag Archives: operating environment

It’s way past the time to consider the Informal Economy as a distinct commercial environment

By Niti Bhan | Published: May 2, 2017

Regardless of continent, it is now high time we accepted the informal economy (unformal or unrecognised or unorganized sectors) as a commercial operating environment in its own right. The continued oversight is rapidly coalescing into a gaping void of hiccups and failures, by large companies, non profit institutions, and startups, alike. This issue goes far […]

Posted in African Consumer Market, Assumption filter, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Frameworks, global, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Mama Biashara, Marchés africains, Mobile platform, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Retail in Africa, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, UCSD, User research | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Detailed breakdown of Uber’s business model in Kenya puts spotlight on weaknesses

By Niti Bhan | Published: October 25, 2016

Latiff Cherono has just published an indepth analysis of what exactly it takes for an Uber driver in Nairobi to cover the cost of doing business. Here’s a snippet, In this post, I try to understand the root cause of the disconnect between how the customer (who defines the value), Uber (the service that controls […]

Posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Analysis, Business Models, Consumer Behaviour, Design, East African Community, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Income, Innovation Planning, Kenya, Marketing, Mobile platform, Perspective, Platforms, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Technology, Uganda, urban | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The customer is the king; the beneficiary will remain a pauper

By Niti Bhan | Published: February 25, 2012

We weren’t beholden to our customers until we starting thinking like a business. We didn’t hold ourselves accountable until we started treating our ‘beneficiaries’ as customers. No investor took us seriously until we dropped the ‘social enterprise’ label. ~ Ben Lyon, Founder, KopoKopo, Nairobi, Kenya When I wrote “Why so much ‘BoP’ marketing fails in […]

Posted in Africa, Assumption filter, Base of the Pyramid, Business Models, Consumer Behaviour, Innovation Planning, Perspective, Sub Saharan Africa, Value | Also tagged , , , , | 2 Responses

Scarcity as a driver for innovation

By Niti Bhan | Published: December 30, 2011

Frugality and affordability are very much in the news of late, what with the most recent essay on Change Observer and this post on Paul Polak’s new blog both highlighting similar concepts but from the point of view of very different markets. It seems to imply the trend towards frugal design or extremely affordable yet […]

Posted in Africa, Analysis, Assumption filter, Culture, Ecosystem, Frugality, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, jua kali, Perspective, Photography, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Projects and Reports, Scarcity, Technology, urban, User research | Also tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Observed market forces acting on the changing mobile landscape in East Africa

By Niti Bhan | Published: June 18, 2011

About two years ago I remember making an observation that I couldn’t seem to see any coherent patterns anymore the way I’d been able to by surfing the net for information. Flux I called it. Everything felt like it was in transition and nothing seemed to stay steady enough to grasp, much less describe. This […]

Posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Airtime, Analysis, Assumption filter, Business, Consumer Behaviour, Culture, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Innovation Planning, Marketing, Mobile platform, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Strategy, Technology | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment