Oct 24 2011 @ 15:09

EWB 2011 Progress Report: Anthony's Experience - Supporting Avian Ventures

This E-Update is part of EWB's 2011 Progress Report, a series of communications that share some of this year's accomplishments from multiple ventures with our donors. We've decided to post these reports publicly for all to see.

The post below is written by Anthony, an EWB volunteer in Zambia with our Business Development Services (BDS) team. BDS aims to help small-hold farmers prosper, but acknowledges that doing it person by person, farmer by farmer simply isn't an effective solution. It doesn't actually fix any of the bigger problems. Instead, BDS focuses on reaching hundreds of farmers at a time by placing a volunteer with an important, small to medium-sized business that serves these farmers, and helps it better serve them. The results vary depending on the type of business, but the impact is the same. Farmers have better access to tools, services, products or knowledge that they need to climb out of poverty.

Anthony's Experience - Supporting Avian Ventures

On June 1st, after a 5-hour drive, I was dropped off at a warehouse in Kitwe, Zambia to begin my placement with EWB's BDS team. I'd be working with a small-scale enterprise called Avian Ventures, a poultry product and services provider that supports local farmers. To put things in perspective, these aren't the chicken farms you're accustomed to - these guys are entrepreneurs who've started raising chickens in their backyard. There are thousands of them in Zambia - if I can help Avian Ventures strengthen its business, I actually help it serve farmers better and serve more of them.

Photo: Anthony Candelario has worked in Zambia with Engineers Without Borders Canada since August 2010.

How EWB Agreed to Help Avian Ventures:

The agreement between EWB and Avian Ventures was focused on the following areas. We agreed to do these things after extensive on-the-ground research to identify the work that would have the greatest impact for small-hold farmers:

• Analyzing, documenting and improving systems to save time and increase productivity
• Training staff in computer skills
• Implementing a ‘live’ sales system in shops
• Looking at the feasibility of franchises as a business expansion mode

Discovering the challenges:

I started out working working side-by-side with Avian Ventures staff and travelling to cities all over the province to better understand the situation. The problem became clear after just a few interactions with different staff and the farmers who relied on them; visibility.

• It was difficult for farmers to tell what what they needed for their poultry farms, whether it be disease or lack of performance, by walking into a shop.
• Shop managers didn’t have some products in stock.
• Stock controllers couldn't predict what was needed and where.
• Management had no way to monitor staff effectiveness.
• Farmers didn't have the product knowledge and understanding required to use products effectively or even know if they were working.

The strategy:

Inventory

The business was doing inventory counts and cash collection from the stores at the same time. It was a major bottleneck as the counts took hours to complete, and they were relatively infrequent, meaning that retail staff had to hold large amounts of cash for long periods of time, putting them at risk and preventing head office from 'seeing' results at the store level.

To tackle this, we rolled out an electronic system that made inventory counts much faster and easier for staff to complete. It removed manual steps in the process (i.e. calculating and tracking sales, inventory and cash) and immediately identified stock needs to meet farmer demand. The system emailed headquarters with a report that summarized the information in a simple format, eliminating even more manual steps and wasted time. In total, we cut the time required to execute these tasks by 50%.

Sales tracking

Headquarters used to call every store, write the day's sales down and then transfer the numbers to a spreadsheet later. It was time consuming and errors were frequent. We switched them to a text-message based system where shop managers send sales via mobile phone to a computer at headquarters. It better predicts farmer needs, ensuring that stores get the stock they need and also that the company orders stock before it's needed. No more shortages - farmers leave with the products they need 90% of the time.

Mid-Project Challenges

Jut as we were beginning to make progress, we were hit with some setbacks. Suppliers increased prices because of market fluctuations, impacting our ability to be competitive. A technical advisor from another NGO also came to analyze the feasibility of the current business model. He spent two weeks and then recommended that Avian Ventures shut down many of the lower performing outlets.

It was disheartening to see things beyond our control impacting our ability to serve farmers, and to hear an analyst say that we needed to shut down stores. Had I not been there, Avian Ventures likely would have followed his advice.

Instead, we reexamined his recommendation. He'd only been there for two weeks, and it's difficult to fully grasp all aspects of the business from reports and spreadsheets. After we reviewed the data ourselves, and used our understanding of what farmers need, we believed expanding shops using the enhanced systems was in fact the right way forward.

Today, as my time with Avian Ventures nears completion, business is booming and the impact of EWB's work is evident. Staff have actually come together to talk about what processes they want to change and what systems they need to make their work easier. Following a discussion with office staff we came up with a concept to better track inventory at the main warehouse that supplies everyone.

With staff taking control of the processes, improved awareness of farmer needs and increased skills and abilities of everyone on the team, Avian Ventures is positioned to reach new markets, employ new people, increase their profitability and support more farmers.

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