Inkamoss Days 2–4
On the SAP social sabbatical in Peru we’re now deep into the learn/discover phase of the assignment.
Reflecting a bit on the team. We are a development manager with a history from consulting, a service operations manager and a guy from presales (myself). Clearly we have different angles to the topics and it is clear that we differ on structure and planning. Similarly we tend to jump from discovery to solution mode and we deep dive into areas out of scope for the project.
But little by little it becomes clear that all information has some sort of relevance and the questions and answers finally lead us to a solid understanding of a company, that in a matter of 6 years has managed to establish moss production where there was nothing, improved the lives of the local communities and secured a 2% world market share for Peru.
Inkamoss is a social enterprise that generates profit. This makes the company economicably viable and therefore able to sustain long term income for the impoverished Andes communities with which they are working. The business model is very simple: Local communities collect/harvest wild growing moss, transport it to the near-by (or sometimes not quite near by) valley, where the moss is dried and then packaged (See picture above). Once there is enough packages to fill a 40" container, the packages are transported to Lima and shipped to the customer.
With the discovery sessions pretty much done, SAP and Inkamoss have identified 6 business problems and will attempt to solve (or provide a solution suggestion) for 4 of these.
The first problem to tackle involves a closer investigation of the plant and a visit to one or two of the communities.
So away we went to buy some altitude sickness pills, as the bus that leaves Sunday morning will take us across a mountain pass in 4800 meters altitude.
We have all planned visits to Cusco later during the month. And we have worried about the altitude. But with the upcoming visit in mind we will hopefully be well trained to visit cusco.
We are looking forward to experiencing the Andes and meeting with the people there.
Can’t wait…
