Business scan towards growth for a commercializing NGO in Ashagram, India

About the organization

Ashagram Trust is a non-profit organisation providing mental health services. The organisation integrates persons with a disability or mental illness to the social mainstream. This is achieved by skill development and providing employment. They also exploit 2 production sites: handmade papers and hand woven carpets from cotton scrapes. Over the years they have impacted the lives of tens of thousands of people. The aim of the organisation is to be less dependent on donor funding and to become self-sustainable.  

Business case 

Ashagram Trust owns a handmade paper factory whose operations were cancelled in April 2010, due to financial problems. The business case was about assessing the current status of the factory, and to explore the operational and financial requirements that are to be fulfilled before a restart of the factory could be considered. Therefore, auditing the income generating units of the organization was the most important aspect of the business case.



Analysis

After a complete audit of the paper factory it became clear that the factory was dealing with operational problems: severe accumulation of dust and large amounts of paper waste, high inventory levels, and financial problems: irregulations in price setting and inefficient financial management. The design of the financial reports did not allow Ashagram to actively manage the paper factory. It was therefore recommended to use a different lay-out of the financial reports to allow management to take on this financial steering role. The business scan of the income generating units of our organisation is the most important aspect.
 

Outcome
Richard Ottens created a detailed financial evaluation for not only the paper factory, but also for the carpet weaving factory and the hospital.

This evaluation revealed many new focus points for the management. In an attempt of selling the large amount of paper in inventory, he also created a marketing strategy for the paper factory. Ottens also changed the layout of the financial report so that the management will have better insights in the organization's profits and losses. Finally, he created a document for the organizations future management that creates a better understanding of the different progresses.

The recommendations are as follows:

• Ashagram management members must formally and                   
       jointly agree on this new management style.
• Develop a strategy that ensures the cultural
       change will be gradually, but successfully, achieved.
• Develop a digital employee database that contains
       all relevant details of all Ashagram's employees.
• Ashagram management, in cooperation with
       financial staff, must determine which management information parameters
       are required on a monthly basis.
• An IS-investment will be required to make
       management information digitally available.
• Design a professional and up-to-date web site for
       Ashagram Trust.

Personal and professional development
 

Expert Richard Ottens
"The business culture in India is entirely different than the Dutch culture, it is more relaxed, less stressful, and although appointments are made there is no real guarantee that a planned meeting will take place, or a promised document is timely delivered. Initially, I struggled with this different business culture, during the 3 week project period I learned to accept that this culture actually forms a strong basis of the Indian culture, since in the end things will always work out it also provides a feeling of trust and confidence in each other.

Bijoy Swain

"As many of us in the organization are more concerned with the social aspects of people, and generally view things on a socio cultural based paradigm, we definitely business skills. Developing individual skills in creating profit and loss analyses, a situation analysis, preparing presentations, and forming improvements were the highlights of the entire process.

Follow up

We agreed on planning a frequent telephonic follow-up, to continue the progress made by Ashagram Trust, and to provide additional advise if necessary. Since the total transformation plan will most likely take approximately 5-6 months, this frequent telephonic (or mail) follow-up will be very important. Furthermore, the expert will provide Ashagram with a "professional" toolkit, which will help management to increase their professional management style.