IN REVIEW
Making Markets Work: Corporate Partnership Round Table 2016
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Š Population Services International / Photo by Manprot Shergill
“Too often we think about business and NGOs as having separate agendas and separate audiences. With so many people moving out of extreme poverty, more and more people have some degree of choice in the market. When and where we are able, we should explore serving them in that way — as customers.” – Pam Scott, The Curious Company
For PSI’s second Doing Well by Doing Good Round Table, current partners, potential collaborators and colleagues spent time together in Washington DC to talk about “Making Markets Work” for both consumers and shareholders. By aligning the business and social goals of various sectors, it is possible to create both social and financial profit. For those in the room, this time together provided the opportunity to learn and collaborate, to search for renewed inspiration, to form new connections and to further break down barriers between sectors. A New Approach In order to make markets work, a new Market Development Approach is needed. Yasmin Madan and Shannon Rosenberg of PSI’s Global Marketing Team focused on discussing how and why markets fail those most in need. It’s a long held
ASSURED QUALITY Accuracy, reliability, consistency, ease of use, controls, accredited AVAILABILITY Production, core materials, rules, regulations APPROPRIATE DESIGN Prototype, user friendly, human AFFORDABILITY Tiered, subsidized, value chain focused, new payers
A’s of a new Market Development Approach:
AWARENESS Cultural sensitivities, new channels
belief that by just creating greater access, the problems in emerging markets will be solved. But, after years of providing free or cheap goods it is clear that even solving issues of access or price won’t solve deeper-rooted market issues. Greater systems thinking is now needed with a focus on understanding needs across the spectrum, and then filling those gaps. Sustainable service delivery requires all market players to understand their potential role and influence so that markets can work for consumers in the long-term. Innovative organizations that understand market failures can convert those into market opportunities and do business in new ways through: • Keeping the consumer at the center and leading with consumer insights • Understanding markets as ecosystems • Enabling and improving the functions of the market and market players • Leveraging partnerships to address market failures So, as we shift to a new Market Development Approach, consider “who does what and who pays today?” and “who will do what and who will pay tomorrow?” It’s a brave new world with innovative financing options at every level, so learning to collaborate and create by looking to the consumer, and their abilities and experience, will be key.
“The discussion about market failures helped me rethink how we can use our technologies and programs from the view of overcoming failure and answering a need.” – Katie Davis, Becton Dickinson
A Human Focus Spending time with The Curious Company’s Pam Scott on Human Centred Design brought the realization that too often development and business underestimate the power of including the consumer in the design and planning of products and services that could improve or influence their lives. When a deeper understanding of the consumer is gained and their voice is captured throughout the process, there is a huge opportunity to create something immensely powerful that will resonate for the long-term.
Innovation doesn’t always have to mark a huge change; sometimes even small adjustments to previously deemed unimportant elements can make the biggest impact. Often when looking to create a big idea, perfection is sought before getting consumers involved in the process. The HCD process of creating, getting feedback and iterating and then repeating, showed the importance of continually including consumers throughout the process. An example of packaging options for a family planning product in Tanzania highlighted throughout the discussion showed the importance of how small changes and constant consumer input can make a difference.
work has an inherent dignity for the needs and desires of the consumer.
“The Human Centered Design approach was fabulous and sensitized me to start looking at markets from the consumer’s perspective.” – Jackie Lustig, Alere
By rethinking what leads the process – the dry data or the living breathing human at the heart of it — Human Centred Design has the ability to ensure that all market development
UNDERSTAND
CREATE + ITERATE
DEFINE
IMPLEMENT
LEARN
The 5 P’s of Marketing Through the energy of a fishbowl session moderated by Abi Winskell from PSI’s Global Marketing team, participants were able to debate how and if the traditional Ps of Marketing need to evolve for a new Market Development Approach.
Pricing is as much an art as it is a science — therefore there’s a need to differentiate between willingness and ability to pay, and to consider the opportunity costs beyond just the product.
When promoting a product or service professionalize the sale, there’s no need to shout. Be solution agnostic. Start upstream and include key stakeholders like vendors and pharmacists who are your face to the consumer.
Employees as Change Makers While the consumer is key, employees are the backbone of a company so ensuring that they know their role in making markets work and the opportunities it affords their brands and markets, can drive success. Fellowships (or pro-bono engagements) have offered many corporations the opportunity for experiential learning, leadership development opportunities and the sharing of much needed business expertise. The time employees spent in country enabled them to better achieve their social mission while gaining insights into market development opportunities. Over lunch, Pyxera Global and fellows from FedEx, IBM, Merck, Pfizer and SAP shared their personal experience on how time spent out of the company impacted them personally and professionally, and benefited the company. A Partnership Mindset Creating a new approach, engaging with consumers and employees and rethinking the P’s of marketing clearly matter on the road to success but if we can’t work together across sectors and mind-sets, can we truly succeed?
Assess a need before developing a product – one size does not fit all and what works in one market won’t necessarily work in another.
“Partnerships are complicated and must be planned but the value can be high if they are managed appropriately.” – Betty Hannoun, Merck
Collaboration is hard – everyone has a different agenda, a love affair with their own solution, their own timeline, personal ways for working, unique cultures and specific expectations. It’s an act of vulnerability to collaborate but it’s also an expanding opportunity to do something bigger and bolder than you may be able to do on your own. As Richard Crespin of CollaborateUp explained, sometimes collaborations may not be the right approach to solve a given problem. If you don’t need to collaborate to be successful, don’t. But, if a partnership is necessary to achieve your goals, there are ways to make the messy timeconsuming process of collaboration just a little easier.
the failure to be addressed in
Using CollaborateUp’s six basic steps helps to ensure that partners agree on the actual problem to be solved (or
driven, experiential, technical – can be
Packaging is often overlooked and under utilized despite being an integral part of the consumer’s product experience. Use it to your advantage by understanding the story it tells.
And finally, people are at the center of everything we do – be human through your work, internally and externally, and build and nurture relationships.
MDA language) and work together to find the right partners to aid in that endeavour. All too often the word ‘partner’ is misused as it denotes an equality that is not always recognized. But in looking for ways to value the expertise that each part of a collaboration is bringing to the table – financial, reputational, community key to developing solutions that fulfil a need.
Learning by Doing (or what not to do) Market Tales from Procter & Gamble and Medentech
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Don’t go it alone
Measurement focus within the Private Sector • Profit • Market share • Total revenue • Capital efficiency • Quarterly reporting • Public company mandates • Risk management Measurement focus within the Social Sector • Donor funding • Overhead rate • Spend out and burn rate • People impacted • Single donor • Grant cycles • Compliance and audit
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Don’t build a mansion
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Don’t give it away
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The Value of Measurement Through some boisterous conversation shepherded by Amy Ratcliffe from the PSI’s Analytics Team, participants identified the risks and opportunities faced by their relative sectors in adopting a ‘shared value’ approach. Adopting a business approach that lies within the intersection of social impact and financial profit is not straightforward. This further exemplified the need for a new business model — one that captures how to make innovative solutions both profitable and socially relevant. A model that understands social sector funding constraints (lag time responses, vertical programs, drives to deliverables) and enhances private sector opportunities. Looking for trade-offs, as has often been the case, and penalizing corporations for doing good business and enhancing community impact through employment has to stop. Business as unusual and measurement as unusual are the way forward. A Market Vision After two and a half days of talking about making markets work, there was just enough time left to talk about how to communicate a social mission. Marshall Stowell, from PSI’s External Relations Team reflected on how
Don’t go too rural
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Don’t just sell one brand
often the social impact narrative has depicted individuals as beneficiaries rather than customers with agency and dignity. Ever since the first Band Aid “Do they know it’s Christmas” track, the tone of talking about issues in emerging markets has needed a refresh. Through a visioning exercise, participants were able to devise a new vision for how their work in making a market work could be communicated in the years to come. Using facts, not props and determining the new stories that could be told as markets are made. In Closing By striking a balance between learning sessions and workshop based activities, participants felt that their time spent together was productive and drove new thinking about market development activities. The mix of participants from corporations, government agencies, foundations, consultancies and academia also enhanced the conversations and diverse opinions. For PSI, it was an opportunity to showcase the work of a truly market-oriented NGO, and for participants it was a chance to fully engage in a tricky and still nascent area. Many thanks to all who attended and who helped the conversation flow.
“You created a comfortable environment where organizations could open up about their own struggles, share failures, frustrations and really dig into the challenges of making markets work.”
© The Dow Chemical Company
– Jamie Nishi, Devex
For more details about working with PSI to make markets work, please contact Cate O’Kane, Director of Corporate Partnerships at cokane@psi.org
For more details about PSI’s upcoming events including our annual “Doing Well by Doing Good” Roundtable or to stay in touch, please sign up for PSI’s Impact magazine at www.psiimpact.com