Rene Hogeweg supported Jan Vikas in making a business plan

The Dutch newspaper "Telegraaf" has devoted an article on this programme, to read it click here  
 

About the organisation
Janvikas Kendra Society is a NGO enabling underprivileged people to employ themselves. They support underprivileged people ,like for instance unemployed youth, through training and skill development. This results is about the initiative of Janvikas to support women who try to earn a living through waste picking. To empower these women, Janvikas founded a Cooperative: The Sarvodaya Shramik Mahila Cooperative Society (SSMCS).  Waste recycling provides a source of income for 1.250 members of the society that's why the cooperative started four shopping centers to sell the recycled materials. By working at the shopping centres women learn to build up their own potentials and are being stimulated to join hands with the government and/or other organizations to run income generating activities.

The business case
Jan Vikas could use some support in making a business plan for the Sarvodaya Shramik Mahila Cooperative Society (SSMCS) The cooperative is planning to set up a Sorting and Processing Centre and the business plan should guide them in doing so. Also, overall strategic advice was needed on how to strengthen the SSMCS as cooperative. End goal is to increase income of the members and thereby making the SSMCS self-supporting

The case was matched with Rene Hogeweg working at Rhamo BV . René is a business consultant, and a "Practical, analytical leader with strong persuasion power, perseverance, well developed business knowledge en an optimistic view on life." His principal areas of expertise: Logistics, Management & Organisation, Sales & Customer Service. René is an interim professional for ShareBusiness, the strategic partner of SharePeople, by connecting their interim professionals with SharePeople social entrepreneurs.

Results

Analysis
René mainly analyzed the assignment by interviewing the management Jan Vikas. Also he has studied the whole process of waste recycling. Most of the ideas and knowledge was available in the heads of the professionals involved with cooperative, few information available on paper.

Conclusions

The major conclusion was that the goal the cooperative society had set for itself is "challenging but achievable, however, depending on the funding required". They calculated that a funding of  €25.000 is required for investment in the sorting- and processing centre. By executing the plan and strengthening the SSMCS, they become independent of the Jan Vikas Society that is facing decreasing donations from specifically Germany and the US.

Advice

Together with Jan Vikas, Rene developed a Business Plan and gave strategic advice on how to strengthen the SSMCS. He helped in defining a strategy on renewable energy and organic farming. Also, he designed a presentation about Jan Vikas and the SSMCS. The Business Plan gave concrete advice on how to achieve their goal to create income generating activities, by establishing the Sorting and Processing Centre. One of the advices is to make well use of the richness of creativity and resources available in the team, "make the members proud of the achievements of the cooperative and be part of the success." The Business Plan is very hands on and will help the organization to stay focussed, offer guidelines in executing their plans.

Concrete deliverables
- Business plan

Impact on the partners

René: "The learning was mainly in the area of getting meetings planned with the case owners who were in the middle of transitioning responsibility. What I liked best was working together in exploring the business. It gets you in close contact with the people and you have to stay alert on what is said and what is meant"

Follow up
The management of Jan Vikas agreed to follow up upon the strategy as detailed in the business plan. René agreed to stay in touch and support from a distance via skype and mail, mainly to assure they keep on track. This is a start of a two-year partnership between SharePeople and JanVikas Kendra. Both organisations will keep in touch (a.o. via the SharePeople liaison, at least every 3 months), and with the expert as well. After this Programme, an official update on the status of the organisation takes place every 12 months. With this information, a new Programme is one of the possibilities to boost the organisation if needed.