3 months of sincere and honest blogging, and then.. nothing. No activity on the web, apart from a few tweets. Somehow I thought that would pass by without anyone noticing. Well… it didn’t. Many thanks for the encouragement. I’m back on popular demand.
What happened after these 3 roller-coaster months? I took a holiday, got back home, took some time to settle back in, moved to Amsterdam. I realized it would not be a good idea for me to go back to a ‘regular’ job. I wanted to continue to work on the topic that I’ve been passionate about since I first came across it. My enthusiasm about it had grown even more after my consultancy for WFP, and I had a clearer picture of the business potential.
So I’ve found a new job with the same company in which I continue to work on this topic. In the coming period my challenge is to develop product propositions that are attractive to consumers at the base of the pyramid: people with a daily income of 2-9 dollars. These products will help them improve their diet and as a consequence of that, their health. They need to be available in remote areas, so the distribution channel will be a challenge. And since the spending power of this consumer segment is low, the business model around it will be a challenge as well. The good news is that I like a challenge! And the thought that if we are able to ‘crack’ this one, we will be able to make a huge impact, is encouraging.
My first pilot is in Mozambique, famous for its beaches, and in the Netherlands for the fact that our crown prince wanted to buy a house there. He decided not to in the end, after a huge amount of criticism in the media on this plan. Mozambique is a poor country, also in comparison to several other African countries, such as Kenya for example. It’s a new country for us, we never did any business there yet.
I am writing this blog post as I’m on my way to Mozambique. In the next few weeks, I will be exploring this country with my colleagues from South Africa. Not yet with the hard objective to identify a business case. First we try to get a sense of how people live and what they aspire. How do they spend their days, what is important to them? What do they like to eat and how do they cook it?
From now on you’ll be able to follow me via this blog again. Post a reply or drop me an email if you have ideas, suggestions, or if you’d just like to say hi. I look forward to be in touch with you.
