Social Impact Project for Business Strategy Expert to Help Transition to B-corp Structure

How This Works

As part of the TRANSFORM Support Hub, you will learn how to advance your career while getting hands on experience on projects like this one.

Project Description and Impact

Business Strategy Expert to Help Transition to B-corp Structure

Business Structure for the Hybrid Value Chain

With the support from the Gates Foundation we started last year an exciting program to improve access to healthy and affordable food in the vulnerable communities of Cali, Colombia. Our organization is currently operating a value chain completely integrated in the local economy. This means that most of its producers and providers are locally sourced. This is creating a significant impact on the local society through the creation of decent jobs, but we need to make this more visible for stakeholders.

For any business owner it would be important to understand how he can improve his business strategy. For operators in the social sector like us, this is no different. We are therefore looking for support adopting a business model that sits at the intersection of social and commercial impact.

Your project would be to write a business strategy to convert the current business model into a B-Corp. Colombia has specific regulations around B-Corp that can be used.

Why are we looking to use a B-Corp structure?

The current Cooperative model is great to unite Community Mothers and support their Early Childhood Development work. But it does not work well engaging Producers, Providers and Farmers into the Hybrid Value Chain. Therefore we are looking at a different business model that can facilitate this. A B-Corp has a strong social character, but also allows to enter into commercial contracting and potentially attract impact investing in the future.

We do not need for this project an accounting or fiscal analysis, but need a clear business strategy.

Learn social impact frameworks and use it for:

Feeding Infants, Empowering Women,

Learning Opportunity

Of course this is a very personal question. And I can answer this from my own perspective.

As a professional from Europe I had to adjust a lot. The the local context of Colombia is in no ways similar to anything in Europe, or North America. If you are from Asia (ie. Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Japan) or Australia, NZ, the same applies. After making numerous mistakes, I am now at a stage where I can apply my skills and experience to our work in the local communities at at a level that is fun and challenging at the same time. There is a strong demand for people like you (us).

While a couple of us have paved the way, it will now be easier for you to spend your time productively and actually make a difference. Within the clearly structured scope of the projects you can enjoy autonomy in the way you structure your work. Your input is very valuable!

What you will take away from this experience is that you will be adding value in the most unexpected ways.