The Original Problem: A market development organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo needed replication and crowding of key systemic changes that would accelerate business growth.
Our "Reframed" Question: How do tell the story of ELAN DRC's finding and recommendations that encourage local and international stakeholders to take action?
What We Did Uniquely: We conducted a three-week-long series of interviews with internal stakeholders in Goma and Kinshasa. We also devised and conducted two adaptive management trainings. Finally, we developed content and infographics for the team to use in various disribution methods such as roundtables, workshops, meetings, e-mail, and social media.
Our Discovery: Program's learnings had three audience sets: business stakeholders in DRC, market development organizations in other countries, and the programs investors/donors. We tailor content and content distribution for these three audiences, covering access to finance, mobile banking, agriculture, coffee, and renewable energy.
"I hope I get the chance to work with Discovered Markets again, and I would recommend them without hesitation."
- Nathan Hulley, Private Sector Advisor, USAID's Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE), and former ELAN RDC Team Leader
The Original Problem: Global Good Fund wanted to launch a new solar-powered pay-as-you-go irrigation product.
Our "Reframed Question": What is “best” market and partner to test a new solar-powered pay-as-you-go irrigation business model?
What We Did Uniquely: We developed a 53-point country-level evaluation matrix, setup a 10-member expert panel, distilled insights from 100 pieces of existing research, assessed 60 potential partner organizations, and created a heat map identifying the "best" markets to target to achieve the fund's objectives.
Our Discovery: "Best" market depends on the revenue, impact, and time objectives of the fund. Business model innovations around credit evaluation and decision making were in needed across all market versus new products.
The Original Problem: KOHLER wanted to determine the market viability of their water filter product in Ghana.
Our "Reframed" Question: Does KOHLER's product meet consumer needs and what business model can reach them?
What We Did Uniquely: We set up pop-up shops in 4 cities to test demand and pricing. We tested door-to-door, in group sales, and retail sales models. Then, we conducted user intercepts with over 100 customers, held 20 stakeholder interviews, and designed a pilot program strategy and roadmap.
Our Discovery: With a direct sales model followed by strong customer service, KOHLER had strong demand among Ghanaians with access to tap water. Data from customer service offering could be used accelerate the progress of the entire water filtration industry.
The Original Problem: Incubation and innovation labs in emerging economies are vital sources of innovative talent and hubs of knowledge of local business opportunities that are not utilized by new entrants.
Our "Reframed" Question: How do incubation and innovation labs in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore provide value to foreign investors/companies?
What We Did Uniquely: We mapped organizations in central hubs of Jakarta, Bali, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. In addition, we conducted facility tours and interviews.
Our Discovery: Various services exist across incubation and innovation labs relevant to expanding businesses ranging from access to local partners/investors, hiring/regulatory support, and existing product teams to expedite market entry.
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