One main take-away from Guy Kawaski’s talk is to always keep moving. Kawaski mentioned various challenges, oppositions, and other barriers which stand in the way of any enterprise. Already, Project Plastikan has experienced barriers, including difficulty communicating with the UPD students, or gaining the proper scope of the ecosystem of Paradise Village. By following Kawaski’s advice, we instead need to not let these barriers deter our break-throughs, or hold us back from making progress. Communication is the best way for the Philippines group to keep moving forward. Specifically, the main issues or developments should be communicated immediately through every level of the system, from the main field team, to the UPD students, to faculty, to the SDev group. With clear and open communication, there can be more momentum and collaboration immediately put towards moving ahead and finding solutions to solve the major issues which may stand in the way momentarily. Groupme and email should be utilized constantly, to make sure everyone is being held accountable for their individual roles, and so ideas for how to deal with barriers can be shared quickly. Maintaining strong momentum and enthusiasm, through collaboration on all levels involved (since the Philippines project has many different groups contributing their work) will ensure the most efficient use of everyone’s time and ideas.
The second take-away from Kawasaki is to make meaning, rather than to make money. This is extremely applicable to the Project Plastikan, as we are aiming to bring meaning and empowerment to the lives of many women in the Cooperative, as well as anyone in the local community. Granted, we are aiming to bring these women financial stability and provide them with a source of stable income. More importantly, our aim needs to be focused on empowering these women, with confidence, networking skills, a voice in the household, and educational meaning that they could not gain from simply receiving funds. Instead, this concept needs to be ingrained in the workshop with the women of the Philippines, as well as in each interaction held with the women while on the ground. Kawaski introduces the three main ways to make meaning as follows: to increase the quality of life, right a wrong, and prevent the end of something good. In our case, bringing women a way to find income will increase the quality of their lives, through access to education, healthcare, and nutrition. The plastic recycling in effect is the “right a wrong,” and ensuring that women are active members of the project plastikan system ensures that this “good” being created does not end. To ensure the sustainability, we must ensure that there is a strong education that can be carried on by people on the ground.
The third take-away from Kawasaki is to get going. Thinking differently is a key element to get going, as we need to think of different ways to reach out and help these women. Most importantly, I believe this is applicable to choosing the product we wish to make through the machinery. As it stands now, the group is still unsure of exactly what product we wish to create with the recycling machines. However, our brainstorming should encourage us to look beyond the basic products, and think differently towards out-of-the-box products which will bring great innovation to the Philippines. In particular, this may come from the mentioned agricultural products, unlocking the potential for sustainable and improved agricultural processes to be adopted in Manila, if the products are developed such as raised agricultural beds. In order to get going with the project, and further develop our customer base and other ecosystem elements, we must make initiatives on what products we will be creating, by thinking outside the box.
The fourth point from Kawasaki is to develop a business model. Clearly, this is extremely relevant for the current projects underway. The specificity of these business models is extremely important for this group, as we need to narrow down what customer group the women should look to when opening their enterprises, to ensure they are reaching the correct customer bases that will show interest and bring in profits. Without a clear business model laid out ahead of time, the field workers would be showing up without a distinct plan to lay out for the women of the Paradise Village Co-op. In the business model, we need to answer the basic producer questions, as in who is involved (the Women of Paradise Village), why we are doing this project (sustainable development, social and financial leverage, etc.), where they will be made (within paradise village- still in need of a specific room layout, dependent upon the final machine system). In addition, the entrepreneur/community questions need to be planned out, which the SDev team is currently contributing towards. Most specifically, we are reaching out to Microfinance Institutions and other UN and Governmental Grants to gain funding for the program. A final piece, which will definitely need to be well planned out before the team travels, is how the system we are implementing will remain sustainable in the long run.
The fifth point of Kawasaki is to provide great value to the customer, while creating a unique product. The idea behind the project is already fairly unique, as it creates a combination of social, financial, and environmental innovation for a group of people greatly in need of assistance. Overall, it is essentially important that this value and uniqueness to the project is clearly communicated to the women of Paradise Village, in order for them to fully appreciate the work which they will be taking part in, and to give them a better understanding of our team’s overall goals. These women could easily be offended or intimidated by the changes which Project Plastikan presents to their community, as it will cause disruption to their current professions (or lack thereof) or statuses as oppressed women. To hedge against the risk that women will not be accepting our system, the initial presentation at the first workshop in Manilla needs to clearly demonstrate the goals and potential for social and economic innovation. If we constantly remind the women of the long term value which their work is going towards, they will be far more likely to not become discouraged along the way or oppose our presence.
BUSINESS CANVAS:
PARTNER NETWORK: Paradise Village, possibly local MFI partnering.
KEY ACTIVITIES:
Educating women on our mission and skills needed for engineering and business elements of the project.
Building and setting up the machinery.
Developing a supply chain to receive plastic to be recycled.
Creating products
Packaging products
Setting up markets for women to sell products to
Set prices according to time, supplies, local prices, etc.
Market to these customer groups
Create distribution channel to transport products in a cost effective manner
KEY RESOURCES:
Plastic recycling machinery
Plastic waste products
Safety equipment and storage for products
Marketing materials for women
COST STRUCTURE:
Machine costs
Transportation of plastic costs
Costs associated with women receiving microloans/microsavings accounts
Travel costs
Electricity costs for factory room
Packaging costs for products
Costs associated with marketing business services
OFFER: Provide women of the Paradise Village Co-Op with plastic recycling machinery to turn excess waste into artisanal/agricultural/technical products. Additionally, provide these women with entrepreneurship knowledge and tools to be able to profit from the correct marketing and sales of such products. Education in both machine usage and entrepreneurship are essential features of the offer, as well as the physical machinery and proper supply chain set up.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS:
Maintaining personal relationships with the women to check up on their progress and have any issues and input communicated back to the suppliers (to ensure sustainability of overall system and alignment of needs)
Developing relationships between women working together
Relationship between workers and outside sources of plastic waste products (“suppliers”)
Relationship between workers/entrepreneurs and customer groups they sell to
DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL:
Local marketing (via posters? Web postings? word-of -mouth? Artisanal shows? Direct travel to homes? Sell to stores?)
Utilize other cooperatives with experience in creating and selling products
Possible collaboration with Microfinance Organization to assist in financing and developing strong customer base
REVENUE STREAMS:
Possible grants (UN, Government, Bishop’s Council)
Microfinance Organizations (CARD Bank, Grameen system, etc.) (we have a full list comprised)
CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION:
Impoverished women of Paradise Village Co-Op
Outside Manilla community (also most likely impoverished)
Wealthier customers to sell high markup-products to
