What if “I used to be” became “I am”?
“I used to be an IT Professor…”
“I was directing multiple departments in a large maritime logistics company…”
“I had my own graphic design studio…”
These are just a sampling of the pasts of some of Glovo’s migrant courier community. Glovo is a delivery startup headquartered in Barcelona with a large community of migrant and refugee ‘couriers’ (those that deliver the food) and migrant-run restaurants worldwide. The company began to realize that by better supporting this community, they could have better impact AND business.
“Glovo’s ecosystem of couriers, partners and users is beautifully diverse with migrants from all corners of the world and this is one of the very special ingredients of our work. Glovo often presents a first work opportunity to many recently arrived regular migrants into countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Peru. Supporting migrant communities in these countries is in the core of our social impact work” — Viliana Dzhartova, Social Impact Manager
SINGA has collaborated on a multinational level with Glovo, conducting research in Italy, and with SINGA Spain facilitating an innovation process that brought together a diverse group of couriers and employees to develop solutions collaboratively to make sure that instead of saying “I was”, migrants are able to say “I am” and that their pasts can also lead to brighter futures.
At SINGA we always start with people. Before the workshop we sat with some couriers and learned about their journeys as migrants, and we learned that everyone went through a destabilizing period where they were forced to put off their dreams while they tried to cover their basic needs. They had all had experienced a drop in professional status when they arrived in their new country and that all had pasts that they wanted to relaunch in their new home. Once they had stabilized a bit they began to dream again and work towards their goals. Glovo was key in this: it creates a sort of ‘buffer zone’ where people can have the flexibility they need to make steps towards their goals, whether it’s to study, launch a business or recoup an initial investment. However, they often have to work so many hours to make the money they need for themselves and their families that they end up putting off their futures again. So we thought:
“How might we reimagine being a Glovo courier from a way to cover your basic needs to a road to your dreams?”
One of our key design principles was to foster ideas that generate shared value. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives tend to fail because while they are nice to have, they aren’t integrated into the core capacity of the business and oftentimes fall to the wayside because of this. By thinking about these projects from not only a social impact perspective but also a revenue generating one, we create more sustainable solutions. Throughout the workshop we pushed the teams to think about how the dreams of couriers could also drive the company’s success. One particularly interesting idea was how to use the Glovo platform as a way for migrant culinary entrepreneurs to grow and test their business ideas through digital ‘pop up’ restaurants. Something that would create a value for Glovo through having unique culinary experiences, but also be a great way for early-stage entrepreneurs to get exposure and test their ideas.
Finally, we know that we don’t know the experiences of others, so we brought in a group of migrant innovators / entrepreneurs to give their feedback on the ideas and help refine them based on their experience both as migrants and entrepreneurs, flipping the power dynamic and demonstrating the value of their experience not as receivers of aid, but as teachers themselves.
The end result was a group of newcomers and locals that had become teams and a set of projects based on creating shared value and the power of diversity for Glovo to take forward and develop. This process was then systematized into a toolkit that is being scaled to six countries in Europe and Latin America.
Interested in bringing the power of diversity to your organization? Get in touch!
Author: Alex Alden
Director of SINGA Spain and a design strategist. Follow her on Medium
