Mandy Tromp supported Nirantara in Finance

About the organisation

Nirantara Community Services is a micro-finance organisation located in Bidar, India. Their mission is to provide financial services (micro-credit and insurance) to the underprivileged segment of the population to improve their living standards.

Since the establishment 2 years ago, Nirantara has grown visibly. They have impacted 6.500 families and attracted many investors and capacity building institutions. In the future Nirantara's ambition is to become a recognized brand in the microfinance domain. Therefore it would like to expand its operations in 10 districts in Central/Southern part of India and to provide financial services to 250.000 marginalized communities. At this moment, 32 people are working for Nirantara and the organisation has an annual turnover of €1.407.772

Nirantara is transforming from a not-for-profit company into a more for-profit 'Non-Banking Financial Company', to continue its microfinance operations in a more sustainable manner. For guidance in this change process Nirantara contacted SharePeople and Mandy Tromp was found suitable for this business case. 

In an earlier programme with SharePeople, expert Maurice Roijers already suggested certain concrete changes for Nirantara, regarding professionalizing senior management, company values, implementation of customer value based and marketing strategy. For the implementation of his recommendations Mandy provided consultations and support.

Mandy Tromp consulted on 2 issues:
- The change process: feedback for growth scenario and upscaling 

- Implementation of earlier recommendations

Analysis

Mandy closely cooperated with Niranjan and his team, to work out a strategic Business Plan. Mandy has visited clients, attend seminars, met stakeholders in order to get a clear picture of the context.

Results

Nirantara's Strategic Business Plan (SBP) was fully revised considering their transformation into a cooperative bank. They included Social Performance Management indicators. The SBP will guide Nirantara for the next few years and will help them in getting support from stakeholders. They have a complete projectplan for the implementation of the SBP in the organisation.

Also, Mandy implemented project management. She provided formats to work with like the PDCA-cycle (plan, do, check and act) And she gave a course on personal development for the whole staff, this made them realize what they can do to improve their own performance and the organisation.

Furthermore Mandy recommended to establish a management team in order to move forward. At this stage a lot of work is concentrated on the CEO, Niranjan.

Impact on the partners
Mandy: 
"I learned that networking and socializing is very important, even though I find this sometimes difficult to do. I learned that working in a different culture really takes an effort, especially in getting your ideas across and explaining certain business ideas.

Also, I learned a lot about the practicalities and risks in microfinance."

Niranjan Sheelavant:

"Mandy did a critical review of our Strategic Business Plan. Revised it appropriately considering our expansion plans while considering our Social Performance Management Goals. She has high level of knowledge, experience and soft skills." "SharePeople's expert program has been creating a positive impact on our functioning. Thorough professionals with appropriate business case knowledge have been adding great value to our organization"

Follow up

Upon approval by the board of Nirantara, the new SBP will be circulated among all staff members. Trainings will be organized to share the SBP. The Project Plan will be shared with key employees. If reguired, Nirantara could contact Mandy (in the Netherlands) for support during implementation.