A part of the assignment given by KITA, is the creation of a business model for the Mor Nutro Powder business. We did so by using a business model canvas, over the time of a year. The complete BMC can be found in Appendix A.
KITA’s goal is to develop a sustainable Moringa business at their University campus, in order to provide a stable income for many farmers while decreasing malnutrition. This business model has been designed for the Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture and their Mor Nutro Powder business to reach these goals most efficiently.
KITA’s customers are described to often be at the base of the pyramid. This makes it a challenge to convince people to spend extra money on their food, in order to increase their health. This requires a clear educational programme, but also trust is from great importance.
Trust, again is very important in case of the farmers, They need to be able to trust KITA in order to be able to make the decision to their abandon their current crops and start growing Moringa.
This trust can only be reached through the long-term relationship and the reputation and notoriety of Moringa Powder. When this trust has been established, the business can be taken to the next level.
There will be a focus on schools and care centres for the sale of Mor Nutro powder, in order to fight malnutrition, but eventually a broader market can be targeted. In order to reach a bigger market for Mor Nutro powder, the product has to be refined and the capacity at KITA has to be big enough. This means, that the key resources like the milling machine and walk-in solardryer have to function properly and the key activities, such as the training of the farmers and the educational part of the project, have to be fulfilled. It’s only after these objectives are satisfied, value has been added to the business and an attractive product with a respectable price can be launched on a broader market.
Because the Mor Nutro business is at a very early stadium, it is difficult to specify the different cost and quantify the revenue streams at this point in time. Before this can be done, properly, a lot more research on how the sales will be conducted and how the production process will be arranged needs to be done.
For this same reason, it is very important to evaluate the business model at the end of the project and adapt it to the new knowledge we acquire. As such there could be possibly important aspects that have now been left out of scope completely, that turn out to be vital to the process. These would need to be added to the model, in order to provide the farmers, the women with an honest and efficient view of what being part of KITA’s Mor Nutro business will entail.
The Business Model Canvas is an efficient way of showing how to arrange the Mor Nutro Powder business during these first steps. There are a lot of paths that KITA can choose to go during the set up phase of the business, and a lot of choices to make, which all can be adjusted in the business model. Eventually, it is recommendable to use this business model as a pilot one, and together with all the stakeholders at KITA come up with an improved version at the end of the project, which is why we will keep a flexible attitude at all times.
“A growing number of initiatives all over the globe seem to be defying the obstacles that have prevented businesses from providing services to the poor. Collectively, those initiatives constitute a phenomenon that has been dubbed ‘social entrepreneurship’. It combines the resourcefulness of traditional entrepreneurship with a mission to change society”
(Seelos & Mair, 2004)
As Bart and Melanie quoted Seelos and Mair last year, we set out to really dive into the entrepreneurial side of the project during our internship. Where previously the research side of the project was conducted we will set out to create incentive for a permanent change and develop not only the economic but also the social environment. Changing the monotonous diets of the local people will increase mortality rate and enhance health overall. Diminishing the lack of awareness about malnutrition and the advantages of Moringa is the only way of creating a sustainable market for our product.
The partnerships with local women in the training creates the possibility of steady employment in the long term and when the Moringa business takes off, a chance to become entrepreneurs themselves.