You can conceptualize a water product or technology and be firmly
confident that this is the most efficient and advanced solution . However, this
is an insufficient (and sometimes not even needed) condition to get it to the
millions/billions in Africa and the bottom of the pyramid ("BOP").
To sell your products to the BOP, you need to:
1) Cater
to the BoP's specific needs
2) Form
an Innovative package
3) Get
financing
4) Adopt
the right attitude
BoP specific needs: As always, you first need to decide who the target
end-user is, what they need and what is available locally to make this
feasible.
Of course, clean and easily accessible water is a primary basic need
but usually the existing infrastructure in developing regions does not allow for
the utilization of technology often used in the West. Thus, appropriate
technology needed often needs to be:
●
simple
●
decentralized
●
low maintenance
●
low energy - where there is no water, there is
usually no electricity
●
low cost
You want real solutions instead of money-wasting white elephants.
Innovative packaging and models:
The right packaging incorporates many options:
●
Firstly, you need to enable a different price
range. If one is to keep the quality, this means no frills; many of the
components essential for the West are not needed and even wasteful in Africa,
smaller packaging and smaller quantity are key.
●
Add social mechanisms and business models. Over
50% of water projects in Africa are not sustainable after 6 months[1].
This is seen all over Africa in the form of malfunctioning equipment, lack of
maintenance, faulty or soiled filters or just plain population misuse due to
lack of training and understanding. This can be solved if you add social
mechanisms and business models to your technology package.
●
Training programs and a maintenance package are
also essential as without these the project is short-lived.
●
Turn-key solutions: BoP style projects, with an
operation base from which Return on Investment can be generated, is always a
very sought after model by many governments and agencies in Africa.
Financing:
We need to keep in mind that the reality in Africa is that government
budgets cannot cover all the costs thus requiring alternative methods of
financing projects
The right attitude:
●
Be creative and open to new ideas and sales
techniques.
●
Be optimistic and know that businesses can have
a positive impact on people's lives.
●
Partnerships with local partners and
distributors are essential; you must have a local presence and be able to
communicate with local culture.
Africans looking for Israeli technology and expertise should know
certain facts about Israelis:
●
Israelis are very pragmatic and often do what
they can with what is available; that is one of the main advantages of working
with Israelis.
●
Israelis have a history of dealing with drought
and lack of water, which has made them experts in this field.
●
Israelis are very curious people – they often go
to great lengths and to almost anywhere in the world just to see it, meaning they
are very happy to travel wide and far.
●
Lastly, Israelis tend to believe that there is
nothing that can't be overcome.
[1] Founder of EWB, Professor
Bernard Amadei, University of Colorado, USA – EWB seminar Tel-Aviv, 3 June 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-hE_KgLhTo
