Are you sure that does what you think it does?
An analysis of the Business Model and Strategic Performance Management System of the Village Bike Project
Jason Weller Student Number: 10615725 Master of Business Administration Final Submission: 15 September 2014 Supervised by: Dr. John Cullen
1 Executive Summary
Business models and strategic performance management systems are two hot topics within the academic business field. And for good reason, because central to both these concepts is the idea of insuring that an organization has a solid understanding of its strategy, and what it needs to do to be successful and grow. Unfortunately, many organizations do not spend the amount of time and resources that they should on creating and monitoring their business model nor their strategic performance management system. This typically leads to the organization under-performing, although in the worst case scenario it could mean that it goes out of business, or is taken over. Unfortunately, non-government organizations (NGOs), like their corporate counterparts, are not exempt from this problem.
Fortunately there are a variety of tools that are available to any organization that allows them to examine both its business model and its strategic performance management system. One of the more recent additions to the toolkit is Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas that in one diagram can outline an organization’s key assets, resources, customers, processes among other things. Within the realm of strategic performance management Neely and Adam’s Performance Prism plays a similar role in that it allows an organization to start with identifying its key stakeholders and what they need to be satisfied, and then builds strategies around these needs to insure that they are met.
This report uses both of the above tools and applies them to the Village Bicycle Project (VBP), a NGO based in the United States. First, I use the Business Model Canvas to identify its key customers and what they gain from their interactions with the VBP. Then, I explore what strategic performance management system the VBP currently has implemented and then use the Performance Prism to construct a new strategic performance management system for the
organization. Lastly, I discuss some possible recommendations that the VBP could implement if it wants to pursue some of the strategies identified through this process.
Furthermore, I use a portion of this report as an evaluation for Fietsproject 2014, a pilot project between the City of Amsterdam, the VBP, the Avenues Bicycle Project, and What the Fiets? Through this project a container of bikes was shipped from Amsterdam to the VBP’s operations in Ghana.
2 Table of Contents
I. Introduction 3
II. Framing 5
A. Business Model Canvas 5
B. Strategic Performance Management 7
C. International Business Theory 7
D. Social Entrepreneurship 11
E. Bottom of Pyramid 12
III. Case Description 13
A. Organizational Overview 13
B. Village Bike Project Customer Proposition 13
C. Current Performance Measures 14
D. Research Questions 14
IV. Results 17
A. Methodology 17
B. Data Analysis and Key Findings 17
I. Evaluation for the City of Amsterdam 18
A. Legitimacy of the Program/Organization 18
B. Provide Training Opportunities for Participants 18 C. Insuring that the Village Bike Project is not Inhibiting Competition 19 D. The role of the VBP within the Ghanaian Supply Chain 20 II. Analysis of the VBP Business Model and Performance Measures 20 A. Village Bike Project’s Business Model Canvas 20
B. Strategic Performance Management 21
C. Social Enterprise versus NGO 21
V. Recommendations and Conclusions 22
A. Fietsproject: Supply and Demand Issues 22
B. Recommendations 23
C. Assessing the VBP’s Strategic Performance Management System 23 I. Identifying Stakeholders and What They Need and Contribute 24 II. Strategies to Insure Stakeholder Satisfaction 24
III. Processes and Capabilities 25
A. Partnerships with Micro-Lending Institutions 25 B. Additional Training Opportunities for Retailers and Fitters 26
IV. Identifying Stakeholder Contributions 26
D. Recommendations 27
E. Discussion 27
VI. Annexes and References 29
A. Annexes 29
3 I. Introduction
On the surface it may appear that business models, strategic performance management (SPM), and non-government organizations (NGOs) have little in common. However, since the
introduction of the business model canvas by Osterwalder, and the pursuant work both by him and others to tailor the business model canvas for the NGO sector it is perhaps not so unusual to link these three concepts together. Two of the central elements in Osterwalder’s business model canvas are identifying who an organization’s customers are, and what value is being delivered to these customers. As in the corporate world, for some NGOs the responses to these questions are fairly straightforward, while for others the answers can become fairly complex. The next
question that should be asked is how these organizations are measuring their ability to deliver these outcomes. For organizations with many different customers this question can obviously become quite complex very quickly unless they have a mechanism in place that can handle this demand.
Central to the concept of SPM is how an organization measures whether or not it is achieving its goals. Some organizations choose to utilize purely financial measures to gauge success, while others use a combination of financial and non-financial measures. There are a variety of tools that can be used ranging from the straightforward Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to the more theoretically challenging Performance Prism of Neely and Adams (2002). Regardless of which measurement tools an organization chooses to use, it must make sure that it has
implemented the proper strategies and allocated the appropriate resources to insure its success. Historically, this is an area where many organizations have struggled (Adams and Neely 2002).
In this report I will discuss these above mentioned tools in more detail and use some of them to analyze the business model and performance measures of the Village Bike Project (VBP), a NGO based in Seattle, Washington which delivers donated bikes from the United States and Western Europe to its program participants in several West African countries. After conducting this analysis I will then provide some recommendations for other performance measures that the VBP could implement to improve its performance. Furthermore, I will use part of this report to provide feedback for the City of Amsterdam as earlier this year it engaged in a pilot project, called Fietsproject, with the VBP and several of its partners, the Avenues Bicycle Project and
4 What the Fiets? This pilot supplied a container of approximately 250 bikes to be used in the VBP’s program in Ghana.
5 II. Framing
Within the context of the VBP’s work there are a number of seemingly disparate topics from across the spectrum of business theory that become relevant: business models, strategic
performance management, international business theory, social enterprise, and the bottom of the pyramid. Interestingly, as one begins to examine these concepts it quickly becomes apparent that they are all interconnected with the business model acting as the foundation that ties them all together. Because the business model determines the activities of the organization (strategy), SPM measures how well it is meeting those needs, then the organization tailors these activities to the locale, and the details of how the goods will be delivered (IB theory), these activities
determine what type of organization it is (social enterprise vs NGO), and lastly who the customers are (the bottom of the pyramid). Because the business model is the starting point of this analysis let us begin by exploring it first and then moving on to the other related concepts.
A. The Business Model Canvas
Many organizations struggle with the notion of a business model. Far too often it is something that is thought about infrequently, and the end result is that the business can lose focus on its value proposition to customers. This ultimately leads to a decline in revenue and perhaps even its demise (Magretta 2002). Historically, one of the primary issues organizations faced was what their business models should focus on. However, as Baden-Fuller and Morgan point out
“Business models are not recipes or scientific models or scale and role models…they play any-or all these roles, often at the same time” (Baden-Fuller & Morgan 2010, p. 168). In an effort to provide some clarity about what business models should do some scholars have sought to determine a road-map. Richardson (2008) claims that within the literature there are three core elements that should be present in a business model: the value proposition, the value creation and delivery system, and value capture. Furthermore, Magretta (2002) agrees with Richardson’s assessment claiming that there are four key questions a business model should answer:
Who is the customer?
What does the customer value?
How do we make money in this business?
What is the underlying economic logic that explains how we can deliver value to customers at an appropriate cost?
6 For her, one of the central questions is how to differentiate between your company’s idea and the competition: “a successful business model represents a better way than the existing alternatives” (Magretta 2002). One area where Magretta varies from many other scholars is that she claims that ultimately the business model should read like a story of the organization.
In response to the myriad methods for creating business models, and the various roles they can play within the organization, Osterwalder (2013) introduced the Business Model Canvas (see Appendix II). Osterwalder sees the Business Model Canvas as a tool that can facilitate “structured, tangible, and strategic conversations around new businesses or existing ones” (Osterwalder 2013). The Business Model Canvas is composed of nine “building blocks”:
Key Partners: Who are key partners and suppliers, and what resources are obtained from them
Key Activities: What activities does our value proposition, distribution channels, revenue streams require
Key Resources: What resources do our value propositions require
Value propositions: What bundles of products are being consumed, which of the customers’ needs are being met through the transaction, and which of the customer’s problems are being solved
Customer relationships: What type of relationship does each of the customer segments expect us to establish and maintain with them
Channels: Through which channels do our customers want to be reached and are we reaching them
Customer Segments: Who are the customers, who are the most important customers Cost structure: What are the most important costs inherent in our business model Revenue streams: For what value are our customers really willing to pay
This framework is interesting because it simplifies the business planning process and reduces it from a week to an afternoon (Osterwalder 2013). Moreover, it makes explicit the connections between the various building blocks so that it becomes apparent how changes in one part of the model would affect different aspects of the business e.g. changing the value proposition changes the key resources required.
One of the critiques that has been levied against the Business Model Canvas is that it is ill suited for the NGO sector. In response a number of academics, including Osterwalder himself, and practitioners have provided revisions to make Business Model Canvas more NGO friendly. Graves (2011) suggests that with some simple substitutions and adjustments the canvas can be tweaked to be more appropriate for use by the NGO sector (See Appendix III). While Graves
7 leaves the left side of the model alone, he renames a number of the blocks on the right hand side: “Customer Segments to Co-creators, Customer Relationships to Relations, Cost
Structure to Value-streams – outlay and costs, Revenue Streams to Value-streams – returns” (Graves 2011). These changes for the most part reflect the reality that NGOs are not reliant upon customer generated revenue streams, but instead rely upon funders to supply the capital for the organization’s operations. Sanderse (2014) on the other hand, argues that more substantive changes are required for the Business Model Canvas to be appropriate for use by the NGO sector (See Appendix IV). The largest change she argues for is that the canvas needs to be divided along three dimensions: vision, programmatic, and fundraising/marketing and financing. Otherwise she leaves the majority of the building blocks alone, with the exception of adding a 10th block: impact. Which of course refers to the organization’s outcomes.
As some practitioners have pointed out, the Business Model Canvas is an excellent tool for creating strategy, however there needs to be something in place to track the company’s performance (McGrath 2010). In the ideal world, once the business has identified who are its customers and what needs are being met it can then use this information to create performance measures to track whether it is meeting those needs, and how successfully. Which is why the next section is focused on Strategic Performance Management.
B. Strategic Performance Management
Despite decades of study there is still no definitive link between Strategic Performance Management (SPM) and increased firm performance (Micheli & Manzoni 2010). However, there are some best practices that these authors claim can lead to the increased likelihood for success; “the design of an SPM system and the definition of its roles are fundamental factors determining its success” (Micheli & Manzoni p. 465). In this section I will discuss and critique several popular SPM tools: key performance indicators, the Balanced Scorecard, and the Performance Prism.
One standard approach that many organizations use is the setting of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the strategic plan. These KPIs set a performance benchmark for the staff, and the whole organization to achieve. Attached to the usage of KPIs is the “truism that what gets measured gets managed. It follows that what isn't measured isn't managed” (Gittens 2013). For many organizations this creates a dangerous precedent because both managers and employees
8 alike are tempted to game the system for their personal advantage and to the detriment of the organization especially when remuneration (bonuses) are in question. Furthermore, in his critique of using KPIs in the public sector Barratt (2011) claims KPIs “are simply inappropriate to measure the performance of complex tasks. What should be a high resolution colour
photograph of a complex job, with all its nuances and subtleties, gets reduced to six or eight data points.”
Another approach to performance measurement that has been popular since its inception in the mid-1990s is Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard (BSC). The BSC is interesting because it seeks to go beyond simply looking at financial indicators of success and instead seeks to
implement a more holistic approach to performance evaluation that does not rely solely on financial measures to gauge company performance (see Appendix V). The name is perhaps a bit misleading the, because the BSC is not in fact a scorecard. However, it is made up of four components:
Customer - e.g. retention (profitable customers) Internal business - e.g. innovation (new products)
Innovation and learning - e.g. capabilities (the right people) Financial – e.g. how well is the company performing
When using the BSC each of these components should have its own outcomes that would ideally tie into the overall strategy of the company. Thus, the BSC is a tool that is able “to link a
company’s long-term strategy with its short-term actions.” (Kaplan & Norton 2007).
It could be argued that one of the biggest strengths of the BSC is its flexibility. One does not need to look very long online to find various iterations of the BSC. In some cases additional components have been added, or substituted for Kaplan and Norton’s original four. This flexibility has not doubt has contributed to the longevity of the BSC. And even Kaplan and Norton have sought to innovate the BSC by introducing the strategy map which builds on the BSC and adds more detail about the strategy making process.
Of course the BSC is not without its critics. Perhaps chief among them is that there is no definitive academic research supporting the effectiveness of the BSC (Kraaijenbrink 2012). As Kraaijenbrink (2012) claims, the studies on the BSC to date have found an increased awareness on strategic planning, and communication but not necessarily a connection with overall firm
9 performance. Thus, the BSC is not a magic bullet that will automatically help a firm improve its bottomline. Another critique made by Norrelkit (2000) is that the causal chain which Kaplan and Norton have built into the Balanced Scorecard is non-existent, and instead there is a logical relationship between the various elements. To rectify this problem Norrelkit (2000) proposes that instead of a causal relationship users should look for coherence, or how the various outcomes complement each other.
A newer, and therefore less tested, option for performance measurement is the Performance Prism as proposed by (Neely, Adams, & Kennerly 2002). The authors claim “that the
Performance Prism is a thinking aid which seeks to integrate five related perspectives” (Neely, Adams, & Kennerly 2002, p. 4). The five areas referenced by the authors are:
Stakeholder satisfaction: Who are our stakeholders and what do they want and need Stakeholder contribution: What do we want and need from our stakeholders
Strategies: What strategies do we need to put in place to satisfy these sets of wants and needs
Processes: What processes do we need to put in place to satisfy these sets of wants and needs
Capabilities: What capabilities-bundles of people, practices, technology and infrastructure-do we need to put in place to allow us to operate our processes more effectively and efficiently
The significant role that stakeholders play in the Performance Prism is a marked difference from other SPM tools such as the BSC which takes into account customers, but sees them in a more a passive role e.g. how to raise customer satisfaction. Whereas within the Performance Prism stakeholders are far more broadly defined to include groups such as investors and regulators, and take on a much more active role as there is an effort to identify and assess what they can
contribute to the success of the firm.
C. International business theory
Given the complex organizational structure of the Village Bike Project (VBP) it would be possible to write an entire thesis on any of the elements of international business that relates to the functioning of the organization. However, for the purpose of this report I focus on two
10 particular aspects: the VBP’s supply chain, and how new markets are identified, and then how connections with the relevant parties in those market are forged and maintained. These issues are of particular relevance to the City of Amsterdam, because the city wants to ensure that the bikes are actually making it into the hands of consumers in country, and that the VBP is not inhibiting local competitors from selling their products because of its discounted prices for its bikes.
The VBP’s supply chain is a complex structure for a NGO. On the supply side the VBP is reliant upon donors to collect the bikes, disassemble, and pack them in shipping containers to be sent to Africa. In an interesting twist, the VBP is not listed as the receiver of the bikes and instead uses one of its five consignees. The consignees are Ghanaian staff members who have worked for the VBP for over two years and all of them have their own bicycle shops throughout the country. The consignees are then responsible for paying the port fees and with an arrangement with the VBP the organization is allowed to take its share of bikes up to 150 from the container, which is normally 350-400 bikes, to be used for its charitable programs. The consignees are then allowed to sell the bikes when the container is unloaded, which becomes a sort of micro-market with 20-25 buyers bidding on the bikes which they will then in turn sell through respective networks (either at their own shops, or they will resell them to another shop elsewhere in the country). The consignees are then allowed to keep any profits from the sale.
Over the history of the organization there has been a combination of allowing communities to contact the VBP to request programs, and the VBP reaching out to organizations to provide programs. In particular, the VBP used to solicit participation from health care centers so that it could provide them with bikes. However, as the executive director, Dave Peckham, noted, there was a mismatch in expectations in these scenarios and they rarely worked out, at least from the VBP’s perspective. According to the country director, Jason Finch, the VBP is currently approached by far more communities than it can service in any given year. He has instituted a selection process that begins with interviewing the contact person and looks at criteria such as need, location, and access to other markets. Once a community has been selected there is little difficulty for the organizer to fill the program that allows participants to purchase a bike for 45 cedi (roughly $13 at the time of this report). This is one area where being an NGO is beneficial to the VBP because it takes out the guess work out of figuring out the market for bicycles in
11 Ghana. If anything, the difficulty lies in the fact that the operation relies on bikes donated from abroad and that the VBP cannot dictate or predict when bikes will be arriving. For example, when I visited the warehouse was remarkably barren but there were 10 containers
(approximately 3500 bikes) purportedly en route.
D. Social entrepreneurship
At its core social entrepreneurship is focused on creating social change, while providing products. A common example of the differentiation between conventional and social entrepreneurs, is that the latter don’t provide fish, or lessons on how to fish, but instead revolutionize the entire fishing industry. Social entrepreneurship presents an interesting alternative to the standard concern within the field of sustainability with the triple bottomline (people, planet, profits) because it is so focused on social change. This framework is interesting in regards to the work of the VBP because it calls into question the mission of the organization with regards to its work in Africa. This leads us back to the issue of the metrics of success that the VBP is using. From a social entrepreneurial perspective one could see a massive shift in how success is measured which depends on what the VBP is hoping to achieve. Does the VBP want to (a) introduce, and ultimately revolutionize, sustainable means of transportation in Africa, (b) help its consumers to be more productive, (c) both, or (d) something else? Of course, the metrics of success would vacillate wildly between these different outcomes.
Unsurprisingly, there have been a number of critiques of social entrepreneurship from the INGO community chief among them are the fetishizing of social enterprise, and that some companies are creating failed social enterprise business models. Andersson (2012) argues that for many non-profits the notion of social enterprise is enticing but not well understood. As Herrera (2013) claims some social enterprise endeavors actually end up reliant upon the social ills that they are seeking to fix. The example she cites is that of TOM’s shoes, a company which gives away a pair of shoes in the developing world for every pair of shoes purchased by a customer. Herrera’s critique of this model is that TOM’s is not actively doing anything to end poverty, but instead relying upon the population of poor people for its model to be successful. As she points out, while TOM’s is not in the business of alleviating poverty it is at least a dynamic it needs to be aware of.
12 Central to the notion of the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) is that this label describes the world’s poorest inhabitants. However, there is some disagreement about how to define this group and what exactly constitutes the BOP. Since this debate is not central to this report, we will focus on the report generated by the World Economic Forum in 2009. According to the report “the BOP is nearly 3.7 billion people across emerging economies occupy the base of the pyramid (BOP); they earn less than US$ 8 a day (2002 PPP$) and remain largely excluded from formal markets.” (WEF 2009, p. 9). Furthermore, “The BOP are not a homogenous group – they live in both rural and urban areas of developed and developing countries, and their income and spending levels differ” (WEF 2009, p 9). This lack of homogeneity creates some difficulty for companies seeking to create products for this market segment because there is no “universal solution” that will appeal to the entire group.
While there might not be any universal solutions, Prahalad argues in his book Fortune at the
Bottom of the Pyramid that in order for businesses to cater to this market they must make some
adjustments in their business model. Some of these adaptations include: a high degree of local adaptation, and more rugged and robust product design (Prahalad 2006). According to both the CIA and the IMF the average per capita income in Ghana for 2013 was $3500, which equals $9.50 dollars per day. By the WEF’s standards this is obviously trending towards the middle of the pyramid, however there is still the question of whether any of the adaptations relevant to the bottom of the pyramid consumers are also relevant in regards to consumers in Ghana. For example, does the VBP select more rugged bikes with fewer components to be sold in more remote parts of the country where bike repair facilities are scarcer? Ultimately, this question is focused on the level of local adaptation the VBP has implemented in order to be successful.
One of the primary critiques of this approach is that Prahalad is simply converting poor people into consumers and does not recognize the valuable role they could play as producers (Karnani 2007). Furthermore, Karnani (2007) claims that the “fortune” at the bottom of the pyramid is simply a mirage, as the examples that Prahalad uses in his book are not truly representative of the industries they are part of. There is also a question of the equitable distribution of benefits as Jaiswal (2007) questions whether the fortune for MNEs at the BOP will be shared with those living at the BOP as well. Jaiswal (2007) fears that that those living at the BOP are simply a tool
13 to allow the MNEs to become wealthy at their own expense by being marketed and sold products that they do not need.
14 III. Case Description
A. Organizational Overview
The Village Bike Project (VBP) is a non-government organization (NGO) based in Seattle, Washington. The mission of the VBP is to provide “affordable and sustainable transportation for Africans” which it does by soliciting donated bikes from around the world, and then arranging for those bikes to be shipped via container to its programs in Ghana or Sierra Leone. As far as its achievements to date, the VBP has sent over 75,000 bikes to Africa since 1999, taught 13, 500 students bike repair skills, and sold over 50,000 tools in 14 different African countries
(Villagebicycleproject.org).
Since its inception in 1999, the VBP operations in Ghana have grown from a two person operation, Dave Peckham and a Ghanaian staff member, to its present incarnation of having a country director, Jason Finch, a full time intern, and a staff of 10 trainers who are on contract to work 144 days a year traveling around the country to administer the programs plus an executive director, Dave Peckham and a board of directors based in the United States.
Central to the success of the VBP is its relationships with its various partners and suppliers who are spread around the world. The VBP now has on its website explicit instructions for new and returning donors about what kinds of bikes, parts, and tools are needed and welcomed in its programs. Needless to say, given the grassroots orientation of the VBP is has gathered some staunch supporters in the United States and Europe. Groups such as Bikes Not Bombs and the Avenues Bicycle Project send containers of 300-400 bikes on a regular basis. Fietsproject 2014 is a collaboration between the Avenues Bicycle Project, based in the United Kingdom, and What the Fiets!, based in Utrecht.
B. VBP Customers and value proposition
Within Osterwalder’s framework the concepts of customers and products are intriguing for the VBP because in some regards the organization is not structured like a typical NGO in that it does not simply provide a service or good e.g. distributing food or medicine to remote villages. Instead, the VBP has a fairly complex network of customers to consider, which leads to the question of what value proposition each of these customers receives from their transaction with
15 the VBP. While there was reference to the VBP’s business model during conversations with the staff, it seemed that the focus was more on how the organization gets bikes into the country and what happens to them afterwards, without much thought focused on the customers, or the value proposition.
C. Current Performance Measures in Use by the VBP
To date, the VBP has primarily focused on quantitative metrics (e.g. number of bikes distributed, number of participants trained, etc…). Given the historic constraints of the organization in terms of staffing and budget this certainly makes sense. However, as the organization has grown in size over the last several years this may be a good opportunity to step back and assess whether there are other measurements the VBP should be tracking. In particular if there are opportunities to track outcomes with some of its other customers such as the consignees, retailers, and bike fitters who assist with the workshops. While there might be some difficulty in collecting reliable data due to personal financial nature of this data it is something that is worth pursuing.
Additionally, there is the issue of whether the current performance measures interface with the organization’s strategy in some way.
Furthermore, if we look at a SPM tool such as the performance prism then the VBP’s suppliers would also be considered part of the stakeholders. This would then force us to examine the types of outcomes that the VBP could expect to have with its suppliers and donors. As far as I can tell there, there has been infrastructure put in place to support the work of the suppliers and donors, but nothing has been put in place to create a common strategy.
D. Research questions
There are two areas of interest within this report. On the one hand I am providing an evaluation for the City of Amsterdam, while at the same time analyzing aspects of the VBP’s business model and Strategic Performance Management System (SPMS).
In 2013 the VBP engaged in a pilot project with the City of Amsterdam and the What the Fiets! to break into the market of second hand unwanted Dutch bikes and to ship these bikes to Sierra Leone. However, due to an ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone the VBP has temporarily suspended its operations in that country, and the bikes were instead sent to Ghana. As part of the pilot, the
16 City of Amsterdam requested that an evaluator assess the VBP’s operations to insure its
legitimacy on the following items:
the bikes are not being dumped in the destination country
the VBP is providing some type of training related to its programs
the VBP is not jeopardizing the financial well-being of local bike retailers in Africa The second layer of analysis for this study revolves around who the VBP identifies as its
customers, what value these customers gain from their interaction with the VBP, and furthermore how the organization has been measuring its success meeting the needs of these various parties. According to Dave Peckham, the founder and current Executive Director, these are areas that the organization has not investigated in a long time, and given the growth of the organization there are likely new opportunities that can be explored.
17 IV. Results
A. Methodology
I used an action research orientation to collect data, and therefore was engaged as a participant observer with the project. I assisted with the loading of the container in Amsterdam, and then traveled to Ghana to collect data and to come to a deeper understanding of the VBP’s operations. Given the context of data collection in Ghana, there were a number of limitations that I
encountered ranging from race, gender, age, language, and nationality (power) which negatively impacted my ability to collect data. While English is the recognized language of Ghana there are over 70 recognized languages within the country and it was difficult to ascertain during some of the interviews whether the participants really understood some of the questions. In an effort to mitigate some of these issues I sought to insure that another member of the VBP staff was present during the interviews to assist with translation. Because of this arrangement, it was impossible to insure confidentiality of what the staff shared with me about their perspectives of the. Therefore, I recognize that this may have inhibited them to share sentiments that were critical of their boss, or the organization that employs them.
Another major limitation of this project was that I had only 10 days in Ghana to observe the program and conduct interviews. Fortunately, Jason Finch was able to put together an itinerary for my visit that allowed to observe and visit everything I wanted to. During this time period I was able to observe a program in the village of Dedoda (in the southern Volta region), participate in a staff meeting/training, visit the Tudu bike markets in Accra, and interview a bike shop owner, and VBP staff member, who owns a shop in the town of Dodowa 40 kilometers outside of Accra. Moreover, the VBP staff insured that I had numerous opportunities to discuss aspects of the program. However, given the hectic schedule during the in-country visit I opted to pursue informal conversations as opposed to using formal scheduled interviews. Thus many of the conversations took place during meals, or at the bar in the evening, which may have altered the topics discussed.
Upon my return to the Netherlands I conducted one final interview with Dave Peckham, the executive director of the VBP, over the phone. Additional data elements used in this report included VBP staff posts on Facebook in regards to customer profiles, and past evaluations and surveys that the VBP had conducted.
18 B. Data Analysis and Key Findings
Because the evaluation for the City of Amsterdam is more straightforward I will begin by first responding to the three areas it requested. Then use this analysis as the foundation for the more theoretical examination of the VBP’s business model and how it measures the success of its programs.
I. Evaluation for the City of Amsterdam
A. Legitimacy of the program/organization
The need to legitimize the VBP’s program was one of the driving factors that influenced my decision to travel to Ghana so that I could observe the program first hand. And indeed it was clear from my initial conversation with Jason Finch when we met at the Accra airport that the VBP has a history of delivering a high quality program to rural communities all across the country. I spent the next 10 days verifying Jason’s comments as I was able to visit the VBP’s warehouse in Accra, observe a staff meeting, and visit the bike shops of two of the staff. While at the warehouse it was obvious that it had housed far more bikes then were currently there, given the presence of tire marks reaching up the walls almost to the ceiling. And I was not surprised to hear that were a number of containers en route at that moment to replenish the VBPs bike stock.
Additionally, I was able to travel to the village of Dedodo with the VBP staff to observe and participate in a two day bike distribution and training program. Dedodo is a small village of about 1500 people that is several hundred kilometers Northeast of Accra in the Southern Volta region. For the most part the residents of Dedodo are essentially “feudal farmers” who travel long distances by foot from their homes to the land that they farm on behalf of its owner. The staff also took along some of the additional front-mounted cargo racks that were sent with the bikes, and for an extra fee program participants could purchase the rack and have it mounted by the staff after the program. It was very interesting to watch people try to load the bikes with 3 full grown people, 1 rider and 2 passengers, riding through town the rest of the time I was there. While I left Dedodo after 3 days to return to Accra with some of the other staff, the trainers remained throughout the weekend to do a one day program for school kids, and a tool workshop on the final day they were there.
19 B. Provide training opportunities for program participants
There are two ways that the VBP provides training opportunities through its programs. The first is fairly straightforward in that it provides mandatory bicycle repair training classes before participants can receive a bicycle. Depending on the type of bikes being given out the training sessions typically run from 4-6 hours with a break for lunch around noon. The training sessions for the Dutch bikes ended up being about 5 hours because of their lack of shifters and external derailleurs. The trainers shared with me that many people will arrive in the morning and say that they already know how to fix a bike, but are told that they have to participate if they want a bike. These same people thank the trainers after the training and share that they never knew how complicated bikes were. The VBP trainers also offer a supplemental tools workshop to program participants which tends to be shorter than the standard repair programs but participants are allowed to purchase bike tools at a discounted price.
The other facet of training that is related to the work of the VBP is that of the local fitters who are often invited to assist the trainers during the programs. This is an opportunity for the local fitters to expand their client base as well as their skills, and pick up any needed tools. Normally these fitters are working another job, typically as a farmer, and doing bike repair on the side. The two fitters who attended the workshops in Dedodo were in their late teens.
C. Insuring that the VBP is not inhibiting competition among other bike sellers When speaking with the VBP staff about how they decide where they should offer their
programs one recurring theme that I heard was, “we go where nobody else wants to”. Meaning that the villages and towns are too small to support a full time bike shop. Essentially the VBP chooses remote villages throughout the country as the locations for their programs. As was mentioned in the previous section these communities typically have a part time fitter or two, but most of the people who own bikes have traveled to the closest market town, which in some cases may be a several hour walk, to purchase their bikes. Therefore, by default the VBP is choosing a market segment whose needs are currently not being met. So despite the fact that the VBP offers its bikes at a steep discount compared to the open market there does not appear to be a market saturated with bikes. In fact, the reality is that there is far more demand than capacity as every year the VBP is turning down far more programs than it can accept. And as I saw in the village of Dedodo there was a mix of VBP bikes, from a previous program, and non-VBP bikes.
20 Furthermore, given the typical income of the VBP program participants and the fact that they trend towards the lower-middle to the bottom of the pyramid there is a question of whether or not some of these people would choose to purchase a bike without this program. While the
Ghanaian economy is strong relative to many of its neighbors, the quality of life I witnessed in the village of Dedodo was varied with some people having running water and electricity, while many of the inhabitants used pit toilets and maintained a fairly basic living by Western standards. In terms of pricing, the participants in the VBP program were charged 45 cedi (approximately $13 USD) for their bikes, while in the free market prices can range wildly depending on the location within the country, but they tend to start around 100 cedi (approximately $33 USD) and go up from there.
D. The role of VBP within the Ghanaian supply chain
The VBP also plays an interesting role in the supply chain of Ghanaian bike retailers, because a portion of their bikes are sold to retailers and wholesalers who then move the bikes through their networks across the country. A prime example of the efficacy of this model is the fact that while visiting the Tudu market in Accra I spotted a “Dutch bike” for sale at one of the stalls. This model is compelling because it not only meets the needs of the VBP, but it allows other members of the Ghanaian bike community to benefit as well.
II. Analysis of the VBP Business Model and Performance Measures A. Village Bike Project’s Business Model Canvas
As was discussed in the literature section, it makes sense to use Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas to come to a better understanding of the VBP’s operations. Despite the concern about NGO’s having issues identifying its customers within the literature, this is not a problem I encountered. Instead, according to the interviews I conducted with the staff there are three primary groups of customers for the VBP:
Customer Segments Value Proposition
Consignees Profit motive
Retailers Profit motive
21 During the interviews another group was identified by some interviewees: bike fitters. This group is comprised of the local fitters who volunteer to assist with the VBP trainings at villages all across the country. For a short time the VBP had assigned an intern to do some research on this group and identify the types of repairs that are most common, and an estimate of how money the fitters generate in a week. Unfortunately, this study was stopped due to a lack of resources.
The VBP staff also had no difficulties identifying the value propositions for the various customers. The value proposition for consignees and retailers is pretty straight forward in that they are driven by a profit motive. Similarly, the value proposition for the program recipients is also straight forward in that they want a bicycle.
B. Strategic Performance Management
As mentioned earlier, the VBP has historically relied on quantitative measures of success for its programs. When asked about these measures the staff saw them as fitting organically with the scope of the program. However, when I asked the staff about the measures of success in an ideal world, there was consensus that the VBP would like to transform the infra-structure of Ghana to make it more bike and pedestrian friendly. As Dave Peckham said during our conversation, “We want to make Ghana another Netherlands, not another Los Angeles.” This response creates some interesting challenges in regards to creating performance measures and certainly transcends the current scope of the work of the organization.
C. Social Enterprise versus NGO
The ease with which the staff were able to identify the various blocks of the Business Model Canvas points to the fact that VBP is in some regards not your traditional NGO and instead may perhaps be leaning towards a social enterprise. However, it was during the conversation about what the VBP staff would like to accomplish within the long term that the social enterprise elements of the organization become glaringly relevant because the staff identified transforming the infrastructure of the entire country and creating a national market. This is not the goal of your standard NGO. Instead it rings truer to a social enterprise. However, when I asked some of the staff about their perspective on this difference the response was that these are simply labels and of no particular relevance to the actual work of the organization. Although, the country director, Jason Finch, mentioned during our interview that this was the second such conversation he had participated in a relatively short period of time in regards to the work of the VBP. This
22 might be a coincidence, or it may allude to one of the critiques of social enterprise in that it is the current trend which philanthropists are focused on.
23 V. Recommendations and Conclusions
Since the feedback and recommendations for the Fietsproject 2014 is more straight-forward I will begin with them and then delve into the recommendations that stem from the more theoretical analysis.
A. Fietsproject: Supply and Demand Issues
Before the arrival of the Dutch bikes there were a number of questions about their suitability in Ghana. While it was recognized that in general their frames and wheels were well suited for the Ghana weather and terrain, there was still the question of whether the typical lack of a wide range of gears on these bikes would be an impediment to their viability in the market. However, none of these concerns turned out to be particularly relevant. While there was some skepticism among the buyers when the bikes were initially unloaded, the fact remains that they were bought and distributed throughout the country. In fact I even saw one for sale at one of the bike stalls when I visited the Tudu market in Accra.
Instead there is now the recognition that given their reception one shipment of Dutch bikes a year is not sufficient. First, the organizer of the event in Dedodo approached me before I left and asked if I could arrange for another 100 Dutch bikes to be sent later this year (August or September) as the demand is high for bikes, and these bikes are well suited to the flat terrain of the region. Plus they are capable of carrying large amounts of cargo which is important to the farmers who use them. As a little additional context, the VBP had just been in Dedodo a month earlier and given out 100 bikes. So this gives a sense of the demand in some parts of the country.
Second, from the supply chain side this pilot project has highlighted the need for the
establishment of an actual supply chain that could send a shipment of bikes more than once a year. Indeed, the country director was concerned, that if the bikes do not arrive on a regular basis that there will be a process of having to “reintroduce the Dutch bikes” when they arrive because the members of the Ghanaian supply chain will have forgotten about them. And after each shipment arrives there will be an uphill battle to sell the utility of the Dutch bikes to the market in Ghana. So this calls into question the capacity of What the Fiets! and the Avenues Bicycle Project to be involved in more than one shipment of bikes a year. If these groups lack
24 the required capacity, perhaps there is a need to seek out additional partners. Additionally, it is the responsibility of the VBP to find more suppliers within the Netherlands and implement the required infrastructure that would allow the bikes to be sent at regular intervals. Failing the ability to establish this foundation, it would perhaps be ideal to have an honest conversation with the staff in Ghana about whether one shipment of Dutch bikes a year is realistic in terms of the required cultural and commercial shift to establish these bikes in the Ghanaian market.
Additionally, it may benefit all parties involved if the VBP staff in Ghana makes a Dutch specific “wish-list” that could be shared with donor groups. The front cargo racks, typical of many Dutch bikes, are not common in many other places in the world (rear racks tend to be more popular) and as I saw during the program in Dedodo there is a certainly a demand for these types of products. Another part that I was asked about while in Ghana are the internal rear hubs, in particular the Sturmey Archer hubs. I found out that one of the VBP fitters who has his own shop outside of Accra is servicing a large population of English Royal Mail bikes and it is very difficult for the fitter to access replacement parts for the rear hub when he needs to do any repair work. Of course these are just two examples that I observed, and there are likely a broad range of opportunities similar to these that could be exploited.
B. Recommendations
Infrastructure needs to be put in place within the Netherlands, if possible, to be able to send Dutch bikes on a more regular basis. Ideally there would be 2-4 shipments of Dutch bikes a year to maintain a sense of continuity within the supply chain.
Construct a Dutch/Northern European wish list of parts that are more likely to be found in these particular countries that would be of benefit to the VBP’s staff and customers. Prime examples of these types of parts include front cargo racks, child seats, internal rear hubs, etc…
C. Assessing the VBP’s Strategic Performance Management System
During our conversation about performance measures, Jason Finch pointed out that the VBP had already distributed more bikes by mid-July 2014 than the entire previous year. Although he was
25 quick to point out that it was unfair to compare years against one another as he said each year is different. This awareness is similar to many of the key criticisms against using KPI’s as these numbers only give an absolute accounting of how the organization is performing without taking into account any factors which may either inhibit or promote growth. As Dave said during his interview, the VBP has made efforts to include “squishier” outcomes, however the hard, quantitative numbers keep showing up in the reports.
Therefore, it is perhaps time for the VBP to employ one of the various SPM tools discussed earlier in this report. Given the size of the organization, and the fact that during conversations with the management team there was an intense focus on increasing the capacity of the staff it would make sense to use the Performance Prism because it creates an SPMS with a variety of stakeholders, such as employees, and customers in mind. Although, one difficulty with any of the models is the fact that many of the staff maintain different relationships with the organization e.g. employees and customers.
i. Identifying Stakeholders and What they Need and Contribute
Neely and Adams (2002) recommend that users of the Performance Prism begin with identifying the key stakeholders for the organization, what they require to be satisfied, and what they
contribute to the organization. I did such an assessment for the VBP which can be found in Appendix VII. As is evident from the analysis there are several groups of key stakeholders that the VBP needs to consider in order to continue being successful: Program
participants/organizers, fitters, consignees/retailers, employees, suppliers/donors, and regulators. More importantly, each of these groups has its own set of unique needs and contributions in regards to their interactions with the VBP.
ii. Strategies to Insure Stakeholder Satisfaction
According to Neely and Adams (2002), the next step is to now devise strategies that ensure the satisfaction of each respective stakeholder group which can be seen in Appendix VIII. In some cases the VBP has already implemented, or is in the process of implementing some of these strategies (e.g. training additional staff to collect customer data, and the mentoring program between senior and junior staff), however there is a fair amount of work that can be done around some of the strategies in regards to other stakeholders. In particular the strategies in regards to
26 the consignees/retailers/fitters group place the VBP in a position of essentially redefining its relationship with these stakeholders. Instead of simply viewing them as customers this new relationship sees these stakeholders as partners with the VBP. While this transformation fits nicely with the notion of the VBP playing a transformative role for cycling within Ghana, it also leads to the question of whether the VBP has the capacity to bring in these additional resources and infrastructure for bike retailers and fitters within the country.
iii. Processes and Capabilities
The next steps, according to Neely and Adams (2002) in defining the strategy of an organization are identifying what capabilities and processes need to be put in place to insure that these
strategies are successful. In regards to some of the strategies that were discussed above, the VBP needs to grow in some new directions by both creating new partnerships as well as deepening its relationships with its stakeholders. There are several salient examples of how the VBP could accomplish this task, which are outlined below.
A. Partnerships with Micro-lending Institutions
While there are currently no arrangements between the VBP and any of these institutions, this seems like it could be a natural fit for some of the work that the VBP is undertaking. These institutions historically have sought out small business owners, or entrepreneurs, in emerging economies and provided them with small scale loans to grow their business. Of course these loans are paid back over time, which allows the lenders to then seek out new customers. This model breaks from the norm of lending, because it seeks out borrowers who would not
traditionally use conventional banking products. The concept is relevant to the work of the VBP because it opens the door for possible partnerships between the VBP and other INGOs.
Ultimately, there is the possibility that this is a tool that the VBP could use to assist
entrepreneurs who wish to open their own bike shops (or repair shops) but lining up funding. This is relevant because of the conversation about the products that the VBP are selling, and leads to a question of whether or not the VBP is selling the “creation of micro-businesses” as a product.
While speaking with the VBP staff in Ghana I learned that some evaluation work with local fitters had been started, but had not progressed far due to technical issues. The purpose of the
27 evaluation was to identify the key repairs that fitters typically do in one week as well as an estimate of how much money they are making. It would benefit the VBP greatly to reinstate this project with maybe a few alterations. The first being asking the fitters in the villages where programs are going to take place to conduct the survey prior to the program, and then a few months after the program so that the VBP can gain a sense of how much business a program is generating for each fitter. If possible, it would be ideal to have some fitters who live in non-VBP areas to also complete these surveys so that there is a baseline to compare against. So that eventually there would be non-VBP fitter data, and pre/post VBP program data. This type of information would connect nicely with the notion of micro-lending as it would give the VBP a better sense of the scale of the business that the fitters are running.
B. Additional training opportunities for retailers and fitters
One interesting aspect of the bike shops in Ghana is that bike sales are the source of highest income as opposed to shops in the US and Europe where bike sales tend to have fairly low margins. Given this market dynamic it may be prudent to talk with local fitters during the workshops and identify fitters who might be interested in expanding their business from repairs to offering bikes, parts, and tools. Similarly, the VBP could start to offer support services to fitters across the country. This could be as simple as compiling, or at least starting, a database of the fitters they have contact with and could possibly extend into training opportunities focused more on managing a business than being a bike fitter. For the time being these efforts may be more focused on the more populous areas, but as internet penetration spreads throughout the country there is even the possibility of offering online business management trainings.
The VBP can also explore the creation of a national network of retailers and fitters. While this transcends the current scope of the organization, it does align with the ideal outcomes that the senior management team identified. Moreover, it is worth noting that the VBP does not need to play the lead role in coalescing this group, but may be well positioned to play the role of
facilitator. Once formed, this network would be the ideal forum to discuss policy and lobbying issues. Furthermore, it could provide capacity building opportunities such as trainings.
28 The final stage of the strategy making process involves identifying what the stakeholders will be required to contribute to the organization after these strategies have been implemented. The previous section touched on this to some degree, in that some of the VBP’s customers would now become its partners. For these particular stakeholders this will mean cultivating a deeper and more honest relationship with the VBP so that they are comfortable sharing details about their businesses, and areas where they are struggling so that the VBP can seek to provide trainings, or other resources, that could ameliorate their respective difficulties.
D. Recommendations
The VBP should create a role within the organization (intern, volunteer, or staff) to liase with fitters in communities where the VBP conducts programs to collect data from them in terms of how a VBP program changes their businesses. Similar surveys could be conducted in areas where the VBP has never offered a program to examine if there are any differences or similarities.
Create the infrastructure to provide networking and capacity building trainings to local bike shop owners and fitters across the country.
Explore and pursue relationships with micro-lending institutions to provide funding sources to local bike shop owners and fitters so that they could expand their
businesses.
Explore the creation of a national network of cycling retailers and repairers. This organization could, among other things, focus on policy issues across the country.
E. Discussion
During his interview Dave Peckham mentioned that he was looking forward to the findings of this report as relates to the VBP, but he also mentioned that he hoped other organizations might be able to learn from the VBP. Indeed, such an opportunity seems to exist. While the
recommendations made in this report pertain solely to the VBP, the larger lesson to be taken away is that there comes a time in an organization’s lifespan when it needs to assess whether strategic changes need to be made to allow the organization to grow in new directions. And as we have seen in this report there are now a variety of tools and resources that can be used to accomplish this goal.
29 As the Fietsproject moves forward there were several recommendations that I heard while I was in Ghana. First, that there should be a team involved in writing the next position description for the MBA program. Suggested team members include both Jason Finch and Jason Weller as well as Chris Jarrell. Second, there was a suggestion that it might be beneficial to have a lead
member from the Fietsproject, travel with the next MBA student to Ghana so that they can observe first-hand the program, and get a better understanding of the challenges the VBP staff face in the field.
The VBP is presented with some interesting choices as it decides how to move forward with the findings from this report. At the very least it could choose to pursue some of the
recommendations that were made, such as partnering with micro-lending institutions or hiring an intern to work with fitters around the country to come to a better understanding of the challenges they face, and explore opportunities to form partnerships with them. Or, it could seek to move away from the use of KPIs to a more holistic SPMS which as we have seen by the use of the Performance Prism would certainly put it in an interesting place strategically.
Since I have already been informed that all the parties involved in this project would like to pursue another MBA student for 2015 it is pertinent to mention a few possibilities for future research projects. Some of the more striking choices appear to be: (a) the challenges of building the capacity of the staff of a small NGO (b) how an international organization deals with a volunteer driven supply chain (c) the difficulties the organization faces of balancing its needs for data with the needs of Western funders. Of course, the next student may well find something else of interest to study within this international, socially connected, complex organization.
30 VI. Annexes and References
A. Annexes Annex I
Questionnaire for key Village Bike Project Staff (June 2014)
How would you describe the Village Bike Project’s customers (gender, age, occupation, nationality, rural or urban, etc…)?
During your tenure with the Village Bike Project how have the customers changed?
What value do you believe the Village Bike Project is creating for these customers?
How has this value changed during your tenure?
How does the Village Bike Project currently measure and track success of its programs?
What measures have been used in the past that are no longer used?
31 Annex II
Business Model Canvas, Osterwalder,
32 Annex III
Non Profit (NGO) Business Model, Graves (2011)
33 Annex IV
34 Annex V
35 Annex VI
Performance Prism, Neely and Adams (2002) http://www.performance-measurement.net/news-detail.asp?nID=31
36 Annex VII
Key Stakeholders for the VBP according to Performance Prism
Stakeholder Satisfaction Stakeholders Stakeholder Contribution
Informative, Easy, Quick Program recipients/organizers Income, Support, Growth Increased customer base,
Knowledge, Access to resources
Fitters Support during programs,
Legitimacy
Quick delivery, Easy, Cheap Consignees/retailers Income, Easy Purpose, Resources, Pay,
Learning, Legitimacy
Employees Skills, Knowledge, Passion
Positive outcomes for donations, Recognition, Success, Satisfaction
Donors/suppliers Supply chain (products), Easy, Income, Growth
37 Annex VIII
Strategies to insure stakeholder satisfaction
Stakeholders Strategy
Program
organizers/recipients
Continue to streamline application process As internet penetration rates continue to climb
throughout the country, begin to put some materials online
Continue to revise curriculum used in trainings, and create new curriculums for new product types (e.g. Dutch bikes)
Fitters/Consignees/Retailers Provide access to additional training and funding opportunities (e.g. micro-lending institutions)
Create a professional network for bike retailers/suppliers (or encourage another well placed organization to do so) Encourage more staff to consider becoming consignees Employees Insure training opportunities for staff (either locally or
online)
Implement a mentoring program between senior and junior staff
Donors/Suppliers Insure that appropriate data is being collected to report to donors
Implement some type of tracking system to trace where bikes are ultimately delivered for both program
recipients and for bikes going into the market Train additional staff to collect customer data that is
relevant to donors
Regulators Encourage consignees and other staff attend trainings on how to import bikes
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