#Growing Bottom Up
“Find the right team, then let them own it. They won’t face these challenges if they’re not honest. Find a local team, register a new entity, let them own part of it, they will act like owners”
-Felix Kimaru, Founder of Totohealth
Anyone who has watched aid workers or an NGO step into a new situation and try to solve it can understand the perils of taking a top down approach in a complex situation. Many African entrepreneurs find the same applies to their businesses. By harnessing the knowledge of locals, trusting in their own teams, and generally letting the facts on the ground guide them, technology businesses like Totohealth and Powertechnics have seen great successes.
##Bottom up within a Company
“All the staff became owners of the process- this made the process more sustainable.”
-Naresh Mehta, CEO of Powertechnics
Mehta, the managing director of Power Technics, a company he’s built from a $500 investment in 1982 to over $30 million in annual sales today has always looked to his employees for ideas on how to improve his business. This ties into his philosophy of operating his business like a family and developing loyalty from those within his company, but it’s also proven an effective way to improve the way his company functions.
“If you go to them and ask them how they do it now and how they think the tasks can be improved, you give the chance to people on the floor to simplify their own task, that adds up to saving them time and increasing volume.”
-Naresh Mehta
This was also valuable when Powertechnics wanted to introduce ISO-grade quality control, instead of having management write the manual they decided to begin the process at the lowest level. Each member of staff wrote down what they did every day, then each department made a flow chart. These were combined to create the manual, it was an efficient bottom up approach which led to an accurate and innovative ISO chart for the entire company.
##Bottom up International Expansion
Totohealth, a company founded by Felix Kimara provides health advice and resources via text message. They see their organic growth driven by the needs of their customers. However, that raises questions when it comes to expanding internationally. Totohealth can’t simply assume the needs of potential customers in Tanzania will be the same as they were in Kenya, let alone somewhere farther away. This thinking applies beyond customer need, to regulation, distribution, marketing and management.
The solution was to seek out a local team to build the business on a franchise model. By finding a group of locals with the same passion for bringing health advice to isolated and poor areas, Totohealth gains the benefits of that passion as well as local knowledge. The difficulty then is trusting the new teams enough to give them a degree of control. The answer Felix came up with there was to give the new teams an equity share in the new franchised company, so they have a stake in its success.
This bottom up approach means Totohealth can maintain its core philosophy and its unique market advantages in order to prosper as it expands.
##Bottom up Production
Karl Heinz Tondo, founder of Africa Born 3D, sees bottom up thinking in his own way. For him it’s a principle best applied to production. By precisely timing each step required to manufacture his 3D printers over months before averaging that data to obtain precise and realistic data on his entire production process he stays in control. While others may assign production times based on rough estimates or expectations, Karl’s focus on detail and accuracy make his production process for more predictable and manageable.
The result for him has been outstanding efficiency which has allowed his company to prosper by precisely understanding the necessary lead time for his production.
Can you relate to the stories we told here? How is your experience different? We’d love to hear from you. Your questions and comments are what will help us make better lessons in the future.