Dastkar

With keen management and sales strategies independence is within reach

NGO Dastkar (non-governmental organisation Dastkar) has commissioned SharePeople to work on a business case in the Ranthambore Artisan Project.

About Dastkar

NGO Dastkar is working together with the traditional craft co-operative, Ranthambore Artisan Project (RAP) in Rajasthan. The 300 illiterate female members decorate textiles in the traditional way and dye them, using biological dyes. RAP has two of its own stores in Rajasthan at the touristic Ramtambore Tiger Park. RAP has a single-headed management.

Business case

• By working in a more commercial way, RAP hopes to become more autonomous and to no longer be dependent on external funding. RAP wants SharePeople to come up with ways in which this can be realised.
• The RAP manager would like to know how to create more time for the strategy, vision and management of her staff, without becoming bogged down in her daily tasks.
• The RAP manager would like to know how she should manage local talent in order to secure her future succession.

Results

Analysis

• Research, carried out by the SharePeople team, showed that the
co-operative did in fact make a profit, but that it made less of a profit than the management actually thought. One of the reasons
for this is that sales are seasonal because of local tourism.
• During the research period, the manager, Ujwala, came to the conclusion that, by carrying out all the management tasks herself and by not delegating, she was the company's biggest risk. 

Advice

Based on a thorough analysis, the SharePeople team offers RAP the following advice:

• A Management Team (MT) must be set up in order to create a better spread of risks in the company.
• The manager must stick more to the main points and delegate tasks to staff members. Involving the staff members in the strategy and policy can also give a positive boost to the development of the organisation.
• By using more of a business-to-business approach, the members of the co-operative are less dependent on seasonal sales.
• A new price policy for the products yields higher margins.
• The SharePeople team provides input and advice on how to write a good business plan.

Impact on the overseas partner 

The importance of an MT has been recognised and has been set up in the meantime. The MT also includes illiterate women from the co-operative. This is important if improvements in the production process are to be addressed in the MT and they know exactly which products sell.

Impact on the professionals

The manager has more confidence in her own staff members. She does not worry unduly about the future and believes in the continuity of the enterprise. The manager had already been authentic but developed her leadership by stepping back in her management function so that her staff members were able to develop themselves further.

The Dutch professionals now listen better to what the client is not saying. SharePeople has made them grow in their authentic leadership and they are capable of fulfilling a more strategic role. They also have more insight into the various roles that are necessary to form a good team, as well as insight into how commercial work operates in developing countries.

Impact on the European company 

One of the participating companies tested its Base of the Pyramid insights in India.

Follow up

In 2009 the management team within DASTKAR in Ranthambore is still existing and working well (also including illiterate women). Therefore business processes like quality management, steady delivery and cost pricing are functioning very well. The impact of the Group Programme is that CEO Ujwala Jodha has more time for sales activities. Therefore Dastkar is proud to mention that in 2009, they started an export link to the US. For more information about this export link, see: www.aidtoartisans.org. Also, visit the webpage of Women on Wings, a follow up organisation of the SharePeople Group Programme 2006. Ujwala participated in the SharePeople Experience Week in July 2009. For her, this was a great opportunity to see market opportunities in Europe, to link with potential clients like Fair Trade Original and Return to Sender and to be able to expand her business, and therefore jobs for Dastkar Ranthambore cooperative.