3 things big NGOs can learn from small social enterprises

What can successful small social enterprises teach big international NGOs about project implementation, staff engagement and community empowerment in order to achieve their goals? Devex spoke with two top social enterprise executives and here is what they had to share: 1. Keep it simple. When launching a new program or scaling up an existing project, organizations should keep the process as simple as possible. Many big NGOs and international development agencies often get trapped in complex processes, which may lead to delay, a need for a bloated budget or engagement fatigue among employees and the communities they serve. Keeping things simple can lead to better returns. Take the case of social enterprise Sproxil which designed “Sproxil Defender,” a process that enables customers to use their mobile phones to verify the authenticity of pharmaceutical drugs. The approach involves them sending a simple text message, a system that they are familiar with. Once a customer sends the 12- to 14-digit code on the label of the drug that they purchased to a number provided by Sproxil, he/she receives an automated response, confirming whether the product is real or fake. “The simplicity of the ‘Sproxil Defender’ solution, the ease and transparently low cost with which it solves the problem of counterfeiting has had a big impact on its adoption rate,” said Anand Mehta, Sproxil South Asia and Middle East managing director. 2. Be as agile as possible. Big NGOs should also learn how to respond quickly to changes in their areas of operation. Kaakpema Yelpaala, the founder of access.mobile, a social enterprise that is committed to strengthening healthcare systems in emerging markets, said having “a rapid and flexible response” is essential to their work. “We are able to easily adjust, expand and evolve our products with the market,” said Yelpaala. Adopting agility as a culture can also help big NGOs become easily accustomed to experimenting with new ideas, which opens the doors to innovation “It is important to allow for flexibility in new projects as you can spend a lot of time and money on something that doesn't work if an organization is not adaptable,” Yelpaala said. “Set a limited time for each new release or project so [that] it can be assessed and changed as needed.” 3. Empower employees. Successful social enterprises value engaging employees as assets within an organization. But that requires employers to give employees the opportunities they need to express themselves and grow, said Mehta. He gave an example of how it worked for Sproxil. After the successful launch of Sproxil Defender, the team went on to add other features to make deployment faster and more convenient through online portal access as well as a “third-party investigator” service. This has allowed Sproxil to identify counterfeiting hotspots and create specific actionable intelligence reports that pharmaceutical companies can use to carry out raids. Mehta said these developments would not have been possible without a team of empowered employees. “The primary innovation that most founders bring into a new social enterprise needs to be worked and reworked on in time. [New] solutions are best developed by employees who feel empowered,” he said. “The management role is more as a facilitator that guides the efforts in the right direction.” Read more international development news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive the latest from the world’s leading donors and decision-makers — emailed to you FREE every business day.