The key to success is in the differences!

This week I have seen what happens when you mix different people with different backgrounds and expertise: you get too many good ideas! Somebody looking for business ideas? Come to us, we have plenty!

My work description with Design without Borders also involves teaching activities at Makerere University. I have decided to teach what I really believe in: that the key to successful products and successful businesses lays in combining knowledge and ideas from different people with different expertises.

Me as a teacher at Makerere University. From my lecture 14th of November.

Transforming the customers needs and dreams into a successful product requires many different skills.

A multi-disciplinary design project
I have initiated and started up a multi-disciplinary project at the university. The four graduate students in the project group have been hand picked with assistance from the university staff and are specializing in mechanical engineering, food science, agri business and advertising design. They are all doing this project as their graduation project.

A project team of experts in different fields is one of the keys to a successful project.

A food product for sale in the supermarket

This is the project objective the students have been given:
"Develop a food product (or a small range of products) for sale in the supermarket"
Tasks will include:

- market research to determine needs and opportunities in the market

- research for available raw materials and technology

- product development according to taste, nutrition, shelf life, food safety etc.

- design of production process and needed production equipment

- packaging development: functionality, materials, shape, recycling options

- business plan: cost analysis, marketing strategy etc

- design of brand, logo, graphic design for packaging, information/marketing material and campaigns

The 4 students will have to work closely together as many of the tasks needs a combination of expertise in different fields.

Lecture about the design process
Before I started up the multi-disciplinary project, I held a lecture at Makerere about the design process and user involvement. Some pictures:

The design process: user and customer involvement is an essential part.

About 100 students and staff came to the seminar.

Both staff and students asked questions and initiated discussions.

The lecture was followed by interesting discussions.

The research phase
The students have just started their design project and are in the research phase. After a very interesting creative process to identify product ideas, they are right now on the way to the supermarkets to see what is going on there and try to identify their customers and users.

First step in the design process: research!

So far, I am impressed by the students efforts, attitude and work. It will be very interesting to follow the project as it moves forward. Hope you also think so. I will keep you posted!

The world needs design for development # 2

UN Headquarters, New York, October 15th : the world has its eyes on design for development!

The exhibition "Design with the other 90%: Cities"

For the first time in history, the majority of the earth’s approximately seven billion inhabitants live in cities. Close to one billion people live in informal settlements, commonly known as slums or squatter settlements, and that number is projected to swell to two billion by 2030, pushing beyond the capacity of many local institutions to cope.

Lured to the city in search of work and greater social mobility or fleeing conflicts and natural disasters, many urban migrants suffer from insecure land tenure, limited access to basic services such as sanitation and clean water, and crowded living conditions. At the same time, these informal cities, full of culture and life, increase opportunities to create solutions to the problems they face.

Design with the Other 90%: CITIES features sixty projects, proposals, and solutions that address the complex issues arising from the unprecedented rise of informal settlements in emerging and developing economies. Divided into six themes—Exchange, Reveal, Adapt, Include, Prosper and Access—to help orient the visitor, the exhibition shines the spotlight on communities, designers, architects, and private, civic, and public organizations that are working together to formulate innovative approaches to urban planning, affordable housing, entrepreneurship, nonformal education, public health, and more. The United Nations offers an ideal setting to examine these complex issues and connect with stakeholders who can impart real change. (Text copied from the official exhibition website)

Projects from Uganda

4 projects from Uganda are represented and 2 of them are Design without Borders' projects:

Design without Borders: bePRO motor taxi helmet (link)

Unicef Uganda and Design without Borders: Digital drum - information access for all (link)

Text to change (link)

Interlocking-stabilized-soil-blocks (link)

The exhibition is on thru 9th of January, 2012. For those of you near New York, make sure you visit it!

This is too important to be missed. If you are not able to see the exhibition in New York, spend some minutes on the website to update yourself on this important issue:

Design with the other 90% Cities website

All photos: Design with the other 90% Cities.

The world needs design - the world needs design for development

Working with design for developement, i get inspired to see others doing the same. Right now, the World Challenge is going on, and there are many good examples of design being used to solve "the real needs" of the people, and our mother earth. One of the finalists is from Uganda, and I hope you will all go to the website and vote for them!


Ugastoves - finalist in the World Challenge 2011-2012

Nine out of every ten (90%) Ugandans rely on charcoal or firewood for energy - putting heavy pressure on the country's remaining forest cover. Designed by a Ugandan entrepreneur, UgaStoves have a layer of clay insulation that greatly improves fuel efficiency. By mass-producing the stoves for domestic and commercial use, the company is reducing both deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, with a claimed annual saving of one ton of carbon emissions for every stove. Less need for charcoal also means more money for poor households to spend on other necessities. Ugastoves is already getting international carbon credit finance to sell its stoves to subsidies sales.


Please vote here:
Ugastoves in the World Challenge


Plastic bag waste being transformed into wonderful new products

Another good example of design for development - and also taking care of environmental challenges. 


Although the UN estimates that over a quarter of the population in Cambodia still live under the international poverty line of US $1.25 a day, with an average economic growth rate of 6.5 percent over the last ten years the country has seen millions of people lifted out of poverty. One side effect of this turbo-charged growth has been a huge increase in the amount of rubbish produced by industry and households. The infrastructure to deal with it has not developed at the same pace. A husband and wife team running an ecotourism venture saw at first hand how plastic bags were choking the countryside. No plastic bag recycling facility existed in Cambodia so they started their own. Now, 'Funky Junk' makes fashion accessories and home goods out of woven plastic bags, in the process earning a decent income for poor rural communities.


Read more here:
IN THE BAG


Think about this when you are buying your next bag: where does it come from? where does it go after you don't need it anymore? Is Louis Vuitton really the right option?

Today I am Reco - the employees role in corporate branding

It is Friday. I am wearing the Reco brand. I am wearing the blue Reco branded t-shirt. And the same is my colleague. I feel that we kind of belong together, my colleague and I. We are "family", and we are proud to wear our t-shirt. Today we are Reco. Do the employees feel this way every day? or is it just on Fridays? and is it just since a few weeks ago, when we got our t-shirts?

My colleague Albert and I wearing our new Reco t-shirts.

Employees importance in corporate brand building
Employees who are proud of the company they work for and feel like they belong together like a "family", are very important contributors to the corporate identity brand building.

According to Wikipedia, corporate identity consists of 3 factors:

1. Corporate design (logos, uniforms, corporate colors etc.)
2. Corporate communication (advertising, public relations, information, etc.)
3. Corporate behavior (internal values, norms, etc.)

Number 1 and 2 are quite obvious and most companies have clear policies here, but how about number 3? How is the company's corporate behavior? And how does the employees feel about the company's behavior? Are they familiar and comfortable with the company's values and norms? And do they feel ownership and pride when they represent and talk about the company?


Reco and HIPS - Health Initiative Private Sector
In August Reco organized a health fair, as part of their participation in HIPS, the Health Initiative for Private Sector in Uganda. The health fair was held on a Saturday in Kasese, the town in the west of Uganda where Reco's factory is based. The fair was addressing health issues like HIV and malaria prevention. Reco employees and the surrounding community was invited to take HIV tests for free, was offered mosquito nets at a subsidized price as well as getting counseling in regards to HIV and malaria prevention. The turnup of people was overwhelming. Reco even ran out of HIV testing kits.

Advise in regards to HIV prevention.

Malaria information and prevention. Reco employees could buy mosquito nets at a subsidized price.

Showing and promoting the products, also part of corporate identity work.

Reco's management introducing the HIV/Aids work policy.

Reco's HIV/AIDS work place policy.

No event in Africa without singing and dancing!

And last but not least: the food!

Events like these are so important, both for the corporate identity and the corporate culture. They bring together the company employees to a "family" and make them feel proud about their employer. By also involving the community and giving them free services, they are improving the company image.  With this initiative Reco has moved one step further in creating a strong and positive corporate culture, and this will in the long term also affect the corporate brand!

The brand can also "create" the culture!
The same way corporate culture can build the corporate brand, the brand can also build the culture. Creating a new corporate identity in the form of a strong visual identity (logo, colors, branding), clear communication and good values and norms for the employees, can improve the corporate culture. As a designer, this is very interesting for me. How can the Reco re-branding process influence on the corporate culture? Well, that reamins to see!

High heels and sharp brains! - women in business and setting goals for your success.

On Friday I attended my first "Women in Business Lunch" in Kampala. This was together with approximately 30 other lovely, intelligent, talented and determined women (a well balanced mix of Ugandans and ex-paths). I was grateful to be invited by the founder of this great initiative, Tracy Hathorn.

Tracy Hathorn, an inspiration for women in business in Uganda.

Tracy Hathorn is the CEO of Uganda Meat Producers Cooperative Union Ltd., and has been involved in setting up the Norwegian Business Centre in Kampala. She has for several years, been a recourse person for Norwegian businesses and projects who wants to work or establish themselves in Uganda. I met her in my job as a Project Manager for Design without Borders where she assisted us and gave us access to her wide network of businesses, organizations and recourse people in Uganda.

Moving down here, I realize that Tracy also inspires and brings together women who are in business in Uganda. What a woman! And what an important work she is doing uniting clever talented business women!


A color splash of inspiration - the pink table.
When we arrived we got a colored "stone", almost like a "diamond". I got pink, and was joining the other pink ladies and the pink table. The purple ladies sat on the purple table and so on. A great idea to mix people, so you don't go and sit with your friends or colleagues only. You meet new people, you learn new things and get new inspiration.

Our colored "diamonds". I got pink and sat on the pink table.

The pink table: Yodit Angsom, Brenda Mugwerwa and me.

Goal friends Africa

During the lunch Maddy Rice gave us an introduction to goal setting and encouraged us to join the group she has started, "Goal friends Africa". After leaving my "Goal Friend" Eva back in Norway, I was so happy to find new Goal friends here in Uganda.

Maddy Rice, calling herself a "goal addict", gave an inspirational speech.

I have now joined "Goal friends Africa".

I set goals!  and I believe thats the reason why I am now here in Uganda
In 2007 I made my first "goal board", and one of the first goals I put up was: "I will live and work in a warm country, at least in the winter". Maybe I was suffering from "winter blues" when I wrote it. I have never been a fan of the cold, and that has made it quite challenging for me to live in Norway. I always travel to a hot country in the winter, but I have never stayed for long. Until this year, when it was time for a change... 

Some of my first goals on my goal board. I have accomplished many of them! Africa must be a good place to learn how to play drums?

Get inspired to set goals!

The one who inspired me:
Anthony Robbins

Why set goals:
Why set goals?

Link up with Goal Friends here:
Web: Goal Friends
Facebook: GoalFriends Africa

Books recommended by Maddy Rice:
"Goals" - Brian Tracy
Finding happiness in the blue zones - Dan Buettner

Business women unite!
With my experience from being a woman in business in private industry in Europe for about 10 years, I know that it can often be challenging. And we have different challenges than men have. Having other women around us for support, motivation and discussions is so important. It can really give you that extra push that you need to materialize your ideas and your goals!

So women all over the world, I challenge you to:
1. Get together and start "women in business" networks.
2. Start setting goals for your life! if you are not doing it already.
3. Start "goal friends groups" to motivate you and celebrate the success when you reach your goals!

Stop production! - we are out of sugar...

... or out of mango... (they are not in season) .... or out of packaging material.... (it is too expensive, has to be ordered from China and it takes 4 months)...

It is not easy to run a manufacturing company based on natural raw materials. And it is not easy to run any business in a country that is landlocked and has to import almost everything, except from the natural raw materials. Welcome to Uganda!

The sugar crisis

The hot topic in the news in the last weeks has been the "sugar crisis". There is lack of sugar in the country and prices has doubled! And this despite Uganda being one of the most important sugar producers in Africa. And, I was wondering what's so important about that sugar?

What is all that fuzz about "sugar crisis" ?

That was until I realized that Reco, the company I work for, had to stop production because we had no sugar. All our products contains (a small amount of) sugar, and without it we can not produce anything. Orders are not being delivered, sales are going down, and we have a real crisis!

Fortunately last week, after being put on a waiting list for a few weeks, we were able to get sugar from one of the Ugandan sugar companies. Phu! Production could start again, and we are back in business!

Where things are not available all the time
But this gave me something to think about: I have almost never experienced that something is not available. In my home country, Norway, everything is available, - all the time! So, this is a new experience for me. It affects me in small scale in my daily life here in Uganda: if I see something in the shop that I like, I have to buy it there and then. Tomorrow it might not be there! One day there is cheese, another day there is no cheese. Thats life here. But, it is ok. It is good for me to learn to appreciate when the cheese is available ...

But, it really affects business here. And therefore also affects our project. The main raw materials needed for the products we are working with are fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are in season or out of season and they are depending on weather conditions. If the weather is not right, and the season is bad, there are no fruits and vegetables available until the next season.

We need mangoes NOW-NOW!
Like right now, we need mangoes for the development of the new products we are working on. But, there are no mangos in season until November, maybe December. Shame on you, mangoes! You are not not following the project time schedule!

Sarah Mundusu is a mango farmer, but she has no mango until November/December, only Guava. We need mangoes NOW to develop new products!

Peanut butter labels for the next 32 years
Other materials needed for our products are the packaging materials. Most packaging materials are not locally available in Uganda. They have to be ordered from China in big quantities, its expensive, delivery times are long and the transport cost to get them here are really high (even higher now, since the local currency it doing so badly). So, therefore it is "better to be safe than sorry". Let's make sure we have enough in stock, so we don't get a packaging material crisis.

Going through the stocks the other day shows that we have enough peanut butter labels for the next 32 years of production, if we continue our current production rate. And we want to redesign and launch the new labels this year. Means we have to destroy quite a lot of unused packaging material. Not good for environment. Not good for the company's economy. But, urgently necessary in order to "rescue" our product sales!

So, let the design of new packaging material begin! The design brief is ready. It is so exciting!


.... but the development of the new products has to wait for mango season...

Ugandan brands #1 - Good African Coffee

I love coffee! and I now love African coffee! I know it is African coffe, because it is named "Good African": it tastes wonderful, looks great and it is Ugandan. It makes me proud of Uganda when I drink it.

My favorite coffee, espresso roast.

Everything a brand needs
Good African Coffee has, according to me, "everything a brand needs":

• a clear name that speak for it self
• nice simple logo
• great packaging design with clear communication about qualities and use
• it is based on "good values", and use this in their communication ("trade not aid", "profit shared 50-50 with the farmers etc. ) 
• a strong story (the teacher who became an entrepreneur)
• a nice looking website, http://goodafrican.com/
• and of course, a really nice taste! (you can't build any brand on something that is not good...)

Nice, simple logo.

Good values: "trade not aid".

Good values: "50% back to the farmers" = Corporate Social Responsibility.

Their own Brand Cafe - giving good advertisement and selling coffee.

The "extras", nice commercial merchandise and promotion articles.

Is "Pearl's" a brand?

In my project I am now doing a market research to find out if Ugandan people know Reco's brand "Pearl's" and what they feel about it. I am so excited to get the results in the end of this month. 

Pearl's peanut butter. Is it a brand?

When I see what Good African Coffe has done with Ugandan coffee, I think it is possible to do something similar with Reco's food products. I am really gonna try my best!

Will keep you posted. Good weekend! and enjoy your coffee. I wish you could taste the Good African. Until it arrives in a shop or restaurant/café near you: enjoy the website of a great Ugandan brand: http://goodafrican.com/

Plastic bottles - a source of life for someone

I jumped off the taxi (the local mini bus) in "the middle of nowhere" on the way to work in the morning the other day. Why? Because I saw a man sitting on the side of the street with 3 big bags full of plastic bottles besides him...

These bags of empty plastic bottles made me jump of the taxi.

My project partner Reco has a small factory to produce plastic bottles, and the project also involves looking into how they can use more plastic packaging for their products. They are now using imported glass containers, both expensive to buy (and getting more and more expensive as the Ugandan shilling is loosing value), not very environmentally friendly when you have to transport it from South Africa to and delivery times are long.

My first thought was: oh no! plastic is bad. There can't be any recycling options in Uganda. Plastic waste must be floating everywhere. But, actually, it isn't. You hardly see any plastic bottle waste on the streets even though the use of them is extensive (my self for example, I use more than 10 in a week, for my drinking water). Searching around I have not found any organized refund system with collection point in the supermarket, like we are used to from Europe. Where do the bottles go? Asking around, nobody seemed to know either.

Well, thats why I jumped off the taxi: I needed to know the story of the bottles in the big bags, - and the story of the man besides them.

Mr. Vorld Obadda, lives on the street in Kampala, and makes a living out of empty plastic bottles.

Mr. Vorld Obadda is a young man who is born in Kampala and grew up living with his mother. He is lightly disabled: he limps. Still he has gone to school, he can read and write and speaks good english. When his mother died he continued to live in the house. One day, some people came and said they had a machine that could "copy" his money and make him rich. He went with them, they robbed him and took everything he owned. Since then he has been living on the streets. Actually, he had just taken his morning "shower" when I surprised him there on the side of the road. 

Mr. Obadda, my guide and teacher for the day.

So, what about the bottles? Well, Mr. Obadda has spent the whole yesterday afternoon, evening and night walking up and down the streets to collect them from the ground and from trash cans around the city. Now, he is soon going to deliver them and collect his daily source of income, his source of life. I asked him kindly if I could follow him and see where the bottles go. He was surprised of this interest for his "work", but he took me along.

A view of the river in Kisenyi.

A lot of garbage floating in Kisenyi, but no bottles.

He took me to an area of town called "Kisenyi". Not many foreigners (or muzungus - as they call white people like me) comes here. It is near to being a slum, or maybe it is a slum. I am not quite sure of the definition. There were children playing and running around even though it was time for school. Many kids here don't go to school, some of them don't have a home. They are street kids struggling to make a living, in the same way as my guide and "teacher" for the day, Mr. Obadda. 

A street boy sitting in the garbage, looking for things to use, sell or play with.

So, he took me to the "recycling plant", which turns out to be a station for washing and reselling the bottles for re-use. He delivers the bottles there, and gets 100 Uganda Shillings (about 0,04 USD) for 7 bottles. The recycling plant sells the "clean" bottles to street vendors: 3 bottles for 100 Uganda Shillings. Street vendors fills them with "juice" or other drinks and then sells them to customers on the street. 

The "recycling plant".

Bottles are washed with soap, and made "ready" for re-use.

Is it environmentally friendly? Yes. But, is it safe and healthy? No. There must be other options for recycling. It still needs more research. 

Some bottles are re-used, but what happens to the broken bottles?

I also asked Mr. Obadda about broken bottles that can not be taken to the "recycling plant" and be re-used. He says they are also collected, mostly by the street children. A truck comes and collects them. Mr. Obadda doesn't pick the broken bottles, he says the payment is too low, it is not worth it. The truck that comes belongs to a big Ugandan plastic company who pay 200 Uganda Shillings per kilogram (about 0,08 USD). Imagine how many kilos you would have to collect in a day to make a living! 

I a day, Mr. Obadda makes about 5000-6000 Uganda shillings (about 2 USD) from his bottles. Just enough to give him the food he needs, - and the energy to go on picking bottles day after day. 

We sit down and have tea!

“Could I please have access to your strategic documents, your vision and goals that you are working according to now and in the next few years?” – I asked the technical director this question the other day. He looked at me, smiled and said: “we don’t have any, we sit down and have tea”.

From working with big companies and organizations in Norway, we are so used to having visions, goals, strategies for the next year, for the next five years etc. “Everything you need to know about the company” is written down and serves as guidelines for what you are supposed to focus on and how to move forward with your work. I found my self asking: “but how do you know what to do then?”. The director's answer was “we just know”.

This gives me, a newcomer in the company and in the country, some challenges in doing my research and trying to understand how this company works and where we want to be in the future. Since I am working with their identity and branding these questions are crucial for me to be able to do a good job.

So, what to do then? Well, I have to look a bit beyond the traditional way of doing research (reading lots of documents), and just make sure I am there when they have their tea. In other words I need to spend time with the people here, observe, talk, ask questions and drink tea!

Being flexible and take advantage of opportunities

“Having tea instead of written formal strategic documents makes us flexible and able to turn around and take the advantage of opportunities that comes”, said the Technical Director. This is true. Looking historically at Reco's business and product development through my “strategic eyes”, it might seem a bit random. But, I am sure every step and turn they have made had a good reason, it was an opportunity that came by and they took it. I just have to find out how and why.

The latest example of Reco taking new opportunities, is their development and production of “Ready to use Therapeutic Food” – RUTAFA. This was a project done together with USAID and NuLife. RUTAFA is made specifically for severely malnourished people, most of them living with HIV/AIDS. There is a big need for this kind of treatment and food supplements in Uganda. 

Since suitable raw materials like peanuts, milk, sugar and vegetable oil are widely available in Uganda, why should these kind of products be imported and not produced locally? Well, Reco asked themselves this question, and they did something about it. The RUTAFA has been a very successful project and the products are now being used by Unicef and World Food Programme.

- I feel proud working with a flexible company that sits down and has tea!

More info on the RUTAFA project:

NuLife - Food and nutrition interventions for Uganda