International development organizations spend lots of money and effort building the capacity of small businesses. Yet they often fail to ask whether people want the businesses’ goods and services. As these stories from Peru show, successful programs start with real buyers who are willing to buy real products.
As a teenager in the early 1960s, Bill Strickland saw his inner city Pittsburgh neighborhood declining; the economy faltered, local businesses shut down, and crime increased. He turned to the potter’s wheel for hope and inspiration. In 1968, Strickland sought to share his inspiration with neighborhood youth by founding the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild (MCG), an afterschool arts program for at-risk kids.
In 1972, he was asked to take over the Bidwell Training Center (BTC), an adult vocational training program in the same community. Strickland transformed Bidwell’s traditional job training programs by developing innovative partnerships with local corporations. For example, he worked with H.J. Heinz to develop a culinary arts program to train students to be sous chefs, and he teamed with American Express on a program that taught students how to become travel agents.
Together, MCG and BTC allowed Strickland to attack the problems plaguing his community from two different angles – using art to teach and engage at-risk youth, while providing vocational training for displaced adults, equipping them with marketable job skills. In 1987, he built a 62,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that houses both organizations and includes a jazz concert hall, classrooms, laboratories, and workshops.
Strickland’s vision for the synergies between two disparate programs, the entrepreneurial relationships he forged with the business community, and the first-class facilities he brought to an economically disadvantaged neighborhood were hailed as national models, and he was acclaimed as a new breed of “social entrepreneur,” receiving a MacArthur “genius award” in 1996. In 1998, he was recognized by the White House and also named a Kilby laureate for creating “a replicable model for enhancing the productivity of ‘at-risk’ youth using a unique experiential blend of fine arts, technology, and science.”
At that time, Strickland envisioned establishing 100 “franchises” across the country over 30 years. Yet, despite Strickland’s desire to see his innovations spread, the process has been difficult and slow. By 2003, Strickland had helped support efforts in several cities. A couple failed; one has been in progress for several years, but is not yet operational; another is just getting under way. Strickland has continued to innovate in Pittsburgh, but his “replicable model” has been very slow to reach new communities.
Marketing and entrepreneurship interface in a number of ways, with marketing being key to the success of any new venture. It is important for the new venture to take a total marketing approach to the customer and attempt to design a business system that ultimately can provide a high level of customer satisfaction.
Marketing research need not be extensive, sophisticated, or expensive, but it must determine what customer satisfaction means for the target market. Marketing research also provides other critical information about the target market that can be used to develop marketing strategies and activities. These activities-pricing, product/service decisions, promotion, and distribution-form the core of the venture’s marketing effort. Because these activities are complex and the relationships between them ambiguous, the marketing strategy, organization, and resources can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage.
Sales forecasting is the bridge between the venture’s marketing decisions and its financial decisions and outcomes. The sales forecast represents the “top line” of the venture’s financial picture. Both a bottom-up and top-down approach to sales forecasting should be employed to produce a range of forecasts that indicate the prospects for venture success or failure.
© 2009 HarvestWISE:Harvesting Wisdom for Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship. All rights reserved.
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