From Beads to Business: SAP’s Impactful Social Sabbatical in Ghana
‘Akwaaba’ (welcome)! Ghana welcomed the 12 of us from SAP with all hearts on 4th February for a special pro-bono consulting assignment. Our destination was Accra, where we were to work in sub-teams of three for four different social enterprises, each focusing on unique social and environmental challenges.
SAP in partnership with PYXERA Global designed this unique program to give an opportunity to selected candidates to support a social enterprise dedicatedly for a month. After years of working in the corporate world, I was eager to dive into a new experience that would allow me to combine my skills and passions in a meaningful way.
Our subteam, myself from India, Lindsey Freedman from the US, and Damian Watharow from the UK were designated to work for an enterprise called Environment360.
We were assigned to work with one of the key programs of this enterprise called the Circular Innovation Hub(CIH). CIH’s mission is to support women waste pickers in Ghana by providing them with the resources and training they need to create second-life products out of recycled plastics. By doing so, they are not only reducing the amount of plastic waste that ends up in landfills and oceans but also creating green jobs that empower and uplift women and youth from low-income families. The innovation hub is mainly focused on creating beads from plastic waste collected from bottle caps. Products like bracelets and necklaces are created from these beads which are retailed.
Our scope of work was to create a business plan that would give them a clear path to achieve financial independence and become less reliant on donor funds. We spent the first week of the assignment, conducting interviews with the founder and employees of E360. We also took a trip to their innovation hub and met Madam Lizzie, who was trained to operate the machine that recycles plastic waste into beads/ buttons etc. We even tried our hands at the machine.
Ghana is a country with rich customs and beads have a cultural significance. Therefore, we also spent time conducting market research in the local and ex-pat bead markets, interviewing various people to understand the demand, supply, and pricing of bead-based products. We visited established retail shops like Kati Sun Trade Beads and Global Mamas where we got some valuable insights.
Over the course of the next weeks, we worked closely with the E360 team to share our research findings, recommending product strategy and pricing. We built a few product and packaging prototypes with them, especially focussing on the messaging and story of supporting women waste pickers. One of the most rewarding aspects of the project was seeing how our recommendations had been put into action.
Combing all the inputs from market research and interviews, we created a detailed business plan that included a clear path to achieve break-even and ultimately scale by creating additional value chains. The plan included chapters on product and pricing strategy, distribution channels, scaling, and value chain optimization. We also delivered a dynamic cost and pricing model spreadsheet that would suggest product pricing based on operational costs and volume inputs.
In our final presentation to the client, we were able to showcase the tangible results of our efforts. Our client was extremely satisfied with the results of our work, and we could tell from their positive feedback that they felt we had made a difference. A happy client is the ultimate reward for any consulting project.
We were not confined in this project to our subteams, but always collaborated with the larger group over meals and drinks. One of the most rewarding aspects of the project was the opportunity to work with such a diverse team and exchange cultures. We all came from different backgrounds and cultures, which made for a rich and stimulating experience. I was fortunate to meet an incredible group of individuals who quickly became like a family providing a supportive and loving environment throughout the project. Overall, the SAP Social Sabbatical program was a fantastic opportunity to make a meaningful impact while also developing my consulting skills and at the same time having a lot of fun!
Aristotle’s well-known quote, “The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know,” resonates with my experience during a social sabbatical journey in Ghana. This project was a reminder of just how much there is still to learn in the world.
