About the company
Grow Movement aims to work anywhere where entrepreneurs are building a more just world. Today they work across Asia, Africa, and the United States, from entrepreneurs innovating with mobile payments or improving nutrition in Kampala, to non-profits rehabilitating ex-felons in Chicago and social enterprises in Mississippi.
Grow Movement connected us with Stoic argipeak Rwanda Limited, an agricultural start-up based in Rwanda, which provided the base ingredients to make foods that help children and new mothers.
Stoic argipeak Rwanda Limited.
Stoic agripeak Rwanda Ltd (SaR) is a social enterprise based in the Eastern Province of Rwanda, that manages agricultural services and helps people gain access to nutritious foods. Jean Bosco Ngara started the company by investing in four hectares of land, where most of the agricultural activities now take place. Before the Business Project began, the company employed two full-time employees year-round and an additional twenty part-time employees who worked on a seasonal basis. SaR has partnered with many large organisations including supplying maize to African Improved Food (AIF), where it is then turned into a nutritional porridge and given to children and breast-feeding mothers.
About the project: Company objectives
1. Marketing – Students were asked to produce a robust marketing strategy to reach more customers to avoid food/harvest losses.
2. Finance – The students were asked to produce a finance plan and analysis to improve the company’s capital.
3. Business Strategy – The company asked for support in improving its business strategy model, administration structure, irrigation system, and governance.
Company Statement:
What do you think the students brought to the business? Were their ideas different from what you could have achieved if you have conducted this project in-house?
Before joining the LSE program, it was hard for me to find a clear path to growing my business, I was stuck on my marketing and market expansions, finance and economy of my company and finding better operating business Models.
Meeting with students was like an eye-opener for me and the company because during the time we worked together they were able to help me re-shape my business and see different opportunities around me. For example, I used to generate small profits from my farming activities, and I thought that it was because I have small land, but students helped me to revise the finance operational activities and taught me how to minimize costs and improve on the production I generate per hectare of land. By practicing their recommendation, I was able to increase my production by reducing the size of the land that we use to cultivate. I no longer worry about having a small size of land as I saw that the small land I have is useful when I apply proper strategies and use the best and applicable agriculture tips.
How do you think the Business Projects have helped your business?
During the time I worked with LSE, the project and the students helped me and my company to achieve the following:
- Win a grant of $10,000 from the Tony Elumeru Foundation which helped me to build a drying shelter and storage room to conserve my produce.
- Apply for other grant funding opportunities, and even though I didn't qualify to be part of those received grants, I gained useful experience and built a network that will help me apply for other opportunities in the future.
- Learn how to use my network appropriately and get feedback from my customers, which enabled me to repeat business from some of my potential customers.
- Reduce my production costs and cut unnecessary expenses which helped to increase profits and increase revenues by +20%.
- Increase the number of part-time employees from twenty to thirty (I hope to keep adding more staff as I grow my market).
- Build a website.
How will you use the outcomes in your business going forward?
As previously mentioned, I have learnt a lot from LSE students, I will keep using the skills and tools I gained from them to engage with other business opportunities. I am now looking at how I can build a better irrigation system that will enable my business to work more efficiently year-round. With the pitching tools and techniques I learnt from students, I am confident that I will find ways.
