Develop a detailed business model canvas for one of the following social enterprises: One Acre Fund, Acumen Fund, or Envirofit International. Integrate insights from at least five different valid sources for your chosen social enterprise and provide those citations in your blog.

 

Business Model Canvas for: One Acre Fund

 

Value Proposition

One value proposition of One Acre Fund could be, “Financing and training farmers in East Africa in order to eradicate hunger and poverty”. A value proposition that focuses more on the micro aspects of the One Acre Fund could be, “Ensuring healthy, well-fed families throughout East Africa through funding and educating smallholder farmers”.

 

Key Activities

One of the main activities that One Acre takes part in loaning assets to the farmers in East Africa. One Acre provides seeds and fertilizer to the farmers on credit, and offers them flexible repayment options so the farmers are not faced with heavy financial burden through the process. One Acre Fund also makes distribution of the assets a key activity for their organization, as they deliver the resources to locations that are within walking distance and close for all the farmers receiving them.

One Acre Fund also carries out training for farmers. During this activity, One Acre gives training to farmers on how to best manage their crops throughout the season and provide them with modern agriculture techniques so they can get the best production possible out of their crops. In addition to the training on how to best produce crops, One Acre Fund also offers education on crop storage solutions and market fluctuations, so the farmers understand how to best maximize profit for themselves. (Our Model)

 

Key Resources

One of the main resources One Acre Fund has is the supplies such as seeds and fertilizer that is given to the farmers to help their crop production. Without these resources, the organization would most likely be unable to take the first steps in creating a more effective and sustainable farming.

One Acre Fund also has the resource of agriculture expertise. This resource is important to the organization, as it is what is bestowed upon the farmers that allows them to maximize their farming productivity and in turn gives them a chance at earning a higher income.

 

Key Partners

One of the larger partnerships for One Acre Fund is their association with USAID. This partnership between the two parties began in 2012 and is funded through the Development Grants Program and the Global Development Alliance, and most recently, this partnership has seen two grants awarded for a total of $6.4 million dollars. (USAID)

One Acre Fund also has a strong partnership with the Pershing Square Foundation. PSF made a $500,000 investment to One Acre during its early stages in 2008 and has since supplied One Acre with over $10 million in additional funding to help the organization run its operations more effectively. (One Acre Fund)

However, the largest partnerships for One Acre Fund is the partnerships that the company takes up with the local farmers in East Africa. These partnerships see One Acre Fund supply the farmers with resources and training, and the farmers take on repayment plans so One Acre recovers what they provided for the most part.

 

Customer Relations

One Acre Farms creates a solid system of customer relations, as it provides these farmers in East Africa with the assets they require (seeds, fertilizer, tools) in order for them to have the means to grow good crops. In addition to the materials, One Acre ensures that farmers will be able to maximize their crop growth and profit and be self sustaining by providing them with the training and education needed in order for the farmers to fully understand how to harvest these crops and sell them in the markets. This method of supplying the farmers with what they need, but also educating them so that down the road they can effectively produce crops on their own would appear to create better relations than if the organization just supplied the resources to the farmers without actually teaching them how to utilize them in the most effective way.

Channels

One Acre Fund creates a channel of farming supply delivery to farmers that is both accessible and better financially for farmers. By delivering the supplies to locations close to farmers and providing them on a loan that allows the farmers to provide the repayment however they want over a certain amount of time, this channel makes it easy for farmers to grow their production. One Acre Fund also provides an education channel to the farmers that allows them to learn how to best manage their crops and make the most income and return on what they’re growing.

 

Customer Segments

One Acre Fund is mainly focused on bettering the lives of smallholder farmers, specifically located in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and Malawi. These smallholder farmers that One Acre is targeting lack the money and ability to access basic assets such as seeds and fertilizer, and do not have the proper training and knowledge to maximize their crop production, which is why One Acre Fund comes in and provides these farmers with both funding and training to expand their operations. (One Acre Fund)

 

Cost Structure

One cost that One Acre Fund takes on is for the traveling they do, both for the delivery of fertilizer, seeds, and other assets, as well as the traveling that is done to provide education and training to the farmers, who are often located in remote areas. One Acre Fund also takes on costs just to purchase all of the resources that are then given to the farmers. Although the fertilizer, seeds, and other farming assets are paid back by the farmers in the end, those are still initial investments that One Acre Fund has to make.

 

Revenue Streams

Farmer loan repayment from farming resource lending is the largest revenue stream, as it repays roughly 75% of One Acre Fund’s field expenses. The rest of the field expenses are financed through donor money. In the future, One Acre Fund looks to increase in operations so that the repayments provide enough revenue to fully fund the field expenses that the organization takes on. (How We Grow)

 

Citations:

“How We Grow.” One Acre Fund, oneacrefund.org/what-we-do/how-we-grow/.

“One Acre Fund.” Pershing Square Foundation, pershingsquarefoundation.org/case-study/one-acre-fund/.

“One Acre Fund.” The Life You Can Save, www.thelifeyoucansave.org/where-to-donate/one-acre-fund.

“Our Model.” One Acre Fund, oneacrefund.org/what-we-do/our-model/.

“USAID.” One Acre Fund, oneacrefund.org/about-us/press-and-awards/usaid/.

 

List five take-aways from Guy Kawasaki’s talk and explain exactly how you will integrate that concept/construct/strategy into your project. Make it compelling. Don’t write generic forgettable text.

1: An important topic that Guy Kawasaki touched on during his talk was the importance of creating a MAT, or an outline of your ventures Milestones, Assumptions, and Tasks. Creating milestones creates a focus for your team to strive for, and motivates the team to continue to push forward in their research/mission, while the tasks clearly lay out what needs to be done by the team in order to reach those milestones. The assumptions that are made are also important in reaching those milestones, as they could dictate how the team can operate in certain facets of their venture or react in certain situations. Ukweli has laid out our major milestone of getting our venture to launch, and has laid out the tasks needed to be done by each member of the team, but we have some assumptions about how the structure and work in Sierra Leone operates, and that is something that has to be confirmed or adjusted.

2: Kawasaki also highlighted the importance of hiring people who are “infected” with a dedication for your cause and company, as it progresses your venture forward. Although Ukweli Test Strips has Hassan carrying out various operations for us, we have talked about looking to bring another person in Sierra Leone onto the team to assist Hassan. This is where the idea of hiring an infected person can come into play, as we should be looking for someone who would love working for our project and working to carry out our milestones.

3: Kawasaki’s idea of not asking people to do something you wouldn’t do also stood out to me. I interpreted this just as respectfully treating people who are helping your venture, and I believe this is one of the more important things we could do in Sierra Leone. I believe that in country we make sure that the workers feel like they are being treated in a fair and respectful manner, and they feel like we are not asking too much of them in order to progress our venture. This would give our company a good reputation and also potentially make our operations more effective.

4: Kawasaki also highlighted the importance of flattening the learning curve. In terms of our project I think we could apply this concept to the training and educating of the workers in Sierra Leone who are administering the strips. With work currently being done on the marketing and training pamphlets for the PHU workers in Sierra Leone, it is important to make it as easy as possible for the workers to understand and retain the information that is needed to make their jobs related to our venture effective. If it is difficult for the workers to understand the workings of the strip and the overall operations of Ukweli they could perform their tasks incorrectly, or not effectively convince people to get screened.

5: I also believe it is important to keep in mind Kawasaki’s idea of niching oneself. Although the test strips offered by Ukweli are already distinguished from and offer more value to women than the competitor strips, we should not become satisfied with what we already have. Adding preeclampsia to the strips does bring additional value to the end users, but I feel like we should still look for ways to increase value to pregnant women in the future.

 

Present a business model canvas for your venture.

1: Value Proposition

Ukweli offers a specific, affordable, and accessible three parameter test strip that screens women for UTIs and preeclampsia.

2: Customers of Ukweli

The direct customers of Ukweli include the various peripheral health units and pharmacies that are buying the strips from our team, then distributing them to the end users of the test strips, which would be the pregnant women and women in general of Sierra Leone who would be at risk of contracting a UTI or who could have preeclampsia.

3: Channels for Distribution

At the moment Hassan is the main channel for distribution to get the test strips from the World Hope Makeni office to the PHUs in the area. Although having a man on a bike deliver the strips seems unreasonable, it is the most effective method in that context and situation.

4:Customer Relationship

A lot of the customer relation with the PHUs falls upon Hassan to carry out. Since Hassan is the one doing the selling to the PHUs, as well as the one carrying out the training for many of the CHWs, he is the one that is carrying out the most regular communication with people on the ground on behalf of Ukweli.

5: Revenue Streams

Our revenue stream is based solely upon selling our test strips to the PHUs, who would then sell the strips to women to create a source of revenue for themselves.

6: Resources

Lehigh University serves as our major resource, as it contains many of the resources inside of it that we use to test the accuracy of the test strips and other factors. Another resource to consider is the already established relationships in Sierra Leone. This resource cuts out the often difficult task of establishing ties in a new country.

7: Partners and Suppliers

Our main partner is World Hope, who has employees working to expand Ukweli’s venture in Sierra Leone. Our OEM supplier is Wangchen, based in Jilin, China.

8: Activities

The main activity of Ukweli’s operations is to distribute test strips to the PHUs that will screen women for UTIs and Preeclampsia. Another operation of Ukweli is facilitating the training of workers who administer test strips, as well as organizing the manufacturing of the test strips.

9: Costs

Ukweli takes on high overhead costs associated with running the venture, which is one of the main reasons our team requires more funding. We also have labor costs for Hassan that we need to account for.