The informal market

Robert Neuwirth writes about the informal economy in Lagos, Nigeria, and its importance to the local economy. Local governments mostly view these informal markets in a negative way, even though they contribute significantly to the economy. Some interesting points: The demand for economic activities takes over everything as bridges are transformed into informal markets. The [...]

Within arms’ reach of the retailer and consumer

In a competitive environment, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies are increasingly forced to get within arms’ reach of the retailer and consumer. CPG companies that have a Route-to-Market strategy that includes a direct focus on mom-and-pop stores are the most successful in reaching the “base of the pyramid”. The buy-in-bulk mentality is unlikely to have [...]

Sri Lanka Distributor Issues

Sri Lanka is currently waking up from years of civil war. There is a sense of optimism in the air and the country is most certainly open for business. In September I spent two weeks in the country and also had a chance to review a FMCG company’s distributor network.  I jotted down a few [...]

Guinea distribution

Guinea Conakry has seen better days. Political instability and an uncertain economic outlook have not helped consumer confidence in this West African country. I have spent the last two weeks assessing a FMCG company’s distribution capability. The data tell an interesting story. Wholesalers – like most of markets in Africa, FMCG companies rely heavily on [...]

Ethiopia’s inclusive distribution model

Arriving in Ethiopia in 1998 the local Coca-Cola operation  was hardly an operation to search for best practices. Today, the picture looks very different. Harvard University (download PDF) recently conducted research on the Coca-Cola Ethiopian manual distribution center (MDC) and published a report on the model. The Ethiopian MDC project, launched in 1999, is today viewed as [...]

10 ways distributors can add value to your business

Knowledge- they know their customers and distribution area very well and can provide you with valuable customer insights. Provide credit- many distributors provide credit to smaller outlets and they have the ability to collect regular payments. Stockholding- they provide warehouse space and it reduces your personal warehousing space requirements. Delivery- delivering bulk to your distributors [...]

Village Billboards and supply chain

Erik Hersman blogs about Zach Lutische, a man with an interesting concept envisioned for rural Kenya. “The concept involves putting up a network of rural billboards around Kenya, using them as a way to gather and create a nexus point for community information. Anyone in the village can put up a notice, news or advertisement [...]

10 building blocks of a distribution partnership

Find below some of the key building blocks in a distribution partnership: Contracts – ensure clear partnership contracts Processes – develop standardized processes Policies – implement policies and policy review processes Tracking – ensure tracking and monitoring systems are clear to all parties Benchmarking – develop a KPI dashboard with standardized KPIs Reviews – schedule regular reviews and [...]

Emerging market partner selection and management

Southern Africa has been consuming our time of late, and I we have been missing in action. We recently conducted a supply assessment and pilot roll-out for a media company in Zambia. Our workstream focused primarily on the Go-to-Market strategy and partner selection. The following key issues were identified during the assessment: Select the right [...]

10 key barriers with partner collaboration

Culture differences. Different organizations have different values and ways of doing things. Poor alignment. Organizational goals and incentive conflicts. Contracts and legal. Poor drawn up contracts or lack of contracts. Accountability issues. Overlapping processes and unclear accountability issues. Competing partners. Conflict of interests with competing organizations. Lack of leadership. Lack of leadership to drive the [...]

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