Global business consultancy Challenges Group launches Enterprise Resilience Programme

Support for SMEs as Challenges Group launches Enterprise Resilience Programme

The Challenges Group has supported the growth of thousands of SMEs in developed and developing markets over the past 20 years. Now our global team of business consultants are using that same expertise to support the resilience, re-calibration and recovery of SMEs during the global economic crisis caused by COVID-19.

Challenges is now delivering resilience business support to enterprises affected by the Corona virus and the global economic slowdown.

In the first instance, we will deploy a robust diagnostic tool to analyse the enterprise, providing a rapid and in-depth market and operations investigation that will enable SMEs to carry out information-based decisions to respond, recover and reposition from COVID-19.

Looking at the enterprise’s current market, we work with the business to understand the risk and opportunities attached to current customers and supply chains, as well as HR concerns in staffing and more. Our commercial experts and consultants will co-create with the business owner the crucial next steps and recommendations to help them become resilient, protecting jobs and income.

The diagnostic process will take around four to six weeks. Initially, the in-country teams will conduct rapid information gathering within the first fortnight. Our support team of technical and commercial experts will then analyse the information and identify possible strategies, which will be presented back to the senior management team with actions then agreed. Challenges will remain available to offer ongoing implementation support.

The service is offered with no upfront payment attached. Instead, Challenges is offering a fixed fee repayment package of 24 months for the first phase to essential businesses and discount offered to those who can pay quicker than this period.

Partners and interested businesses can visit our website, also follow us on Twitter, @challengesgroup for regular updates.

Country specific emails can directly be sent to our sites across Africa or the UK headquarters;

Contact Details:

admin@thechallengesgroup.com

ghana@thechallengesgroup.com

malawi@thechallengesgroup.com

rwanda@thechallengesgroup.com

uganda@thechallengesgroup.com

zambia@thechallengesgroup.com

 

Twitter: @challengesgroup

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Challenges Uganda’s analysis puts microgreens on the menus across Kampala schools

Challenges Uganda NUTRIgreens market insight

Challenges Uganda recently performed a commercial and impact analysis for the social enterprise NUTRIgreens. We undertook this market research to assess whether there was opportunity for the business’s “microgreens” products and whether these baby vegetables could be used to address Uganda’s malnutrition problem.

Malnutrition is a significant problem for families in Uganda. More than one-third of children under the age of five (2.4 million) suffer from stunted growth and 50 percent of children are anaemic. When it comes to education, Uganda’s dietary problem has further consequences. Malnourished children suffer from poor concentration and energy levels, which results in poor academic performance. With increased healthcare costs and a lack of opportunities, this in turn keeps families trapped in poverty.

Financially, the problem is also hindering Uganda’s economy. A 2009 study found that the cost of undernutrition among Ugandan children is equivalent to 5.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, some UGX 1.86 trillion (£420 million).

Challenges Uganda partnered with NUTRIgreens to develop a market solution to Uganda’s malnutrition problem. Established by Enactus Nottingham, NUTRIgreens is a social enterprise that aims to enhance the nutritional value of school meals by adding microgreens to the menu.

Microgreens are baby plants harvested between 7 and 21 days after germination. They contain up to 40 times the nutrient concentration of their mature counterparts, and require approximately 150 times less water. Due to their small size, they can be grown in volume with little burden on the producer, making them suitable for indoor growing.

NUTRIgreens commissioned Challenges to undertake a market analysis to investigate the feasibility of introducing microgreens into Ugandan secondary schools and to determine the potential long-term success of such an initiative. We also looked at their potential application in restaurants.

Challenges’ research findings

Through a combination of stakeholder interviews, online research and questionnaires completed by school principals, students and farmers, the Challenges Uganda team found considerable interest in the food product and the concept overall.

We found that small-scale farmers had appropriate growth materials and capacity, and were willing to diversify and grow the crop. Schools also expressed an interest, provided the microgreens were supplied at an affordable price. They were especially interested in NUTRIgreens’ offer to provide training programmes to students. The Challenges Uganda team also found concrete interest among other NGOs in partnering with NUTRIgreens with a view to rolling out this food source innovation.

As a result of Challenges’ research, NUTRIgreens is now working towards launching a pilot across Kampala schools later this month. With affordability a considerable issue for school management, NUTRIgreens will subsidise the programme by selling microgreens commercially to restaurants in both Nottingham and Kampala.

Both NUTRIgreens and Challenges recognises the potential for this young food. It’s an innovation that can both address the malnutrition crisis affecting Ugandan children, while offering a commercial opportunity for farmers and food producers willing to diversify.

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Challenges partners with Uganda Solar Energy Association to enhance services

USEA Uganda Challenges Group

The off-grid solar energy sector is an exciting and fast-moving arena that Challenges is excited to be working in. Our Challenges team in Uganda has partnered with the Uganda Solar Energy Association (USEA) as part of its mission to grow solar energy businesses in Uganda and the East African region.

Founded only a few years ago in 2016, USEA is an independent non-profit business membership body that was formed to act as a driver for the development of the off-grid solar energy sector in Uganda. It also seeks to push for improvements of solar energy standards, and to attract new entrants to the solar energy sub-sector.

Challenges Uganda is working with USEA to better understand its potential to act as a broker of business development services for its members. Most recently, we conducted needs assessments of 25 USEA members, giving us detailed insights into the sector as well as each business’s individual needs, as well as their future investment strategies, risk profiles, and whether they have the appetite for USEA’s support in connecting them to business development services. Data from this research has now fed into the construction of a pilot training programme in organisational leadership and sales and marketing, which will be offered at a subsidised rate for USEA members. At the same time, we’re also working with USEA to enable it to operate this training and business support model in the long-term without outside assistance.

We hope that by the end of this project USEA will be equipped with the training and tools to develop an in-depth understanding of the needs of its members, and that it can use this information to construct impactful business development service and investment pipelines. Like us at Challenges, USEA wants to significantly boost the ability of the solar energy sub-sector to reach the many Ugandan households who do not yet have access to electricity.

Image courtesy of Uganda Solar Energy Association.

 

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Challenges Uganda intervention encourages detergent manufacturer to clean up its financial management and sales strategies

Armour Group Uganda Challenges Group

Strong demand and a diverse portfolio should have brought success for Kampala-based Armour Group Ltd, a family-owned detergent manufacturer with 12 employees. But with little growth and challenging financials, it was clear that something was going wrong. Challenges consultants undertook an Enterprise Diagnostic on the business … with some eye-opening results, and have since been brought in to help strengthen the Ugandan business.

Armour Group Limited is a family-owned detergent manufacturing business that produces nine different cleaning and sanitising products, ranging from bar soap for the home consumer, liquid soap for businesses, and its more heavy-weight degreaser for industrial kitchens and catering businesses. Its bar soap – by far its most popular product – is made from locally sourced natural oils, and has no industrial residues.

Founded in 2014, Armour Group now employs 12 staff from its base in Najjeera in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

Despite strong demand for its products, and in particular its natural bar soap, Armour struggled to grow turnover or increase market share. Challenges Uganda consultants were invited to undergo an Enterprise Diagnostic to analyse the business’s operations, strengths and weaknesses, and to recommend areas for change.

The Challenges intervention quickly identified huge potential for the business, but also a series of significant internal obstacles that required prompt attention.

Although demand was strong for its products, Armour was failing to capitalise on the market due to the lack of a cohesive sales strategy. The business suffered from poor record keeping, and as a result, had no internal mechanism to record expenses nor manage costs.

As a result of poor management practices, such as a lack of record-keeping and inventory management and non-existent sales strategy, Armour was subject to a poor credit situation that exacerbated its tight working capital. Despite its sales, Armour was registering a decline in profits. In the first week of our intervention, Challenges analysts highlighted a massive increase in the business’s losses, which had grown from a year-on-year loss of 18% in 2016 to an eye-watering 83% in 2017. Due to poor record-keeping, management had not realised the severity of the problem.

As part of the Enterprise Diagnostic, Challenges recommended ways to improve Armour’s financial management systems, and strategies to improving their capital position. We also worked to develop internal controls to enable better planning and budgeting: moving the financial recording to an accessible accounting platform meant that managers were better able to understand the company’s financial position.

In addition, we also recommended methods to improve internal and external communications, as well as sales reporting, forecasting and analysis.

Challenges encouraged the management at Armour Group to implement a training plan for new sales staff to drive sales and generate brand awareness. It also highlighted the need for product-specific sales strategies; consistent branding; a ring-fenced R&D budget for product development; robust market assessment; and clearer value propositions to its separate customer segments.

As part of the support, Challenges recommended Armour looked at ways to optimise production through available technology, and a more efficient supply chain. Expanding market reach into other regions of Uganda would also create new sales jobs for young Ugandans who could be trained as sales representatives, a strategy that would also make the business more attractive to impact investors.

Although the recommendations were far-reaching and made difficult reading for Armour’s management, quick adoption by Armour had a positive impact on the business, which has since recorded a slowdown in its net loss. The business has subsequently commissioned Challenges Uganda to undertake a more thorough intervention that will see Challenges staff working directly with Armour to create market linkages, give sales support and drive business development. The results of this will be published in the new year.

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