The artisan as CEO

The government has been talking about an agro thrust for almost two decades. Unfortunately, we do not yet have an agro terminal in place, which is a basic pre-requisite. Countries like Kenya have had such terminals in place for over a decade, the developed countries even earlier.

A quick overview of the social sectors: multi-laterals, corporates, NGOs as well as the government have done a reasonable amount of work in the areas of education, health, and water management. As there is no revenue from these sectors that can meet the needs at the grassroots, grants, donations, and food-for-work programmes were required. Recently, realising that these sectors need the infusion of entrepreneurship, different organisations have begun assisting workers in the handicraft, handloom, textiles and the agricultural sectors to further develop their craft. More recently still, the new buzz is that these efforts need to be sustainable.

Unfortunately, almost all the organisations involved have approached this effort in the same way they approached the other social initiatives ie without a commercial motive. The teams working in this new 8216;8216;sustainable8217;8217; venture are still those who worked on the development aspects. The point is, these teams do not really understand commerce. I go to the extent of saying that while the multi-laterals and others have made immense contributions for poverty alleviation, they have also done a lot of unintended harm. NGOs and groups working with poor artisans have been subsidising production costs through the grants and donations they have been receiving. So the situation now is that before we can address the sustainability aspect, we are confronted with the very difficult task of effecting an attitudinal change.

To make ventures competitive for global markets, there must be a change from the existing subsidised production to one that is capable of sustaining workers by having a viable, self-sustaining enterprise 8212; in short, a commercial venture. Yet, the existence of the grants and donations precludes the surfacing of a hunger or a real need for making products that could sell with profits. Some key areas that need to be addressed are the organisation structure where there needs to be greater accountability and delegation of authority to individuals who are assigned different tasks. In fact, task assignment is also a weakness, resulting in a situation where everybody is responsible and no individual accountable.

Among other areas, production flows need to be made more efficient and better procurement systems put in place to ensure quality and better prices. For instance, if beads are purchased in villages which are at the end of the chain, they would be substantially more expensive than if they were bought from a wholesaler or manufacturer. In addition, the latter are more likely to be able to supply a repeat order for a certain colour or size of bead than a village retailer 8212; thus addressing the consistency aspect.

GPOs have tried to raise their prices to buyers, which also affects their sales. But what they haven8217;t looked at is that margins could be substantially increased by reducing cost, as the current cost structure is inefficient and wastage management weak. A recent trend seems to be emerging, which is very encouraging and positive. Organisations working in this sector are realising that if their ventures were profitable, they could do a lot more for their constituents, whom they have long served with much dedication.

India8217;s excellent traditional craft skills in different parts of the country is self-evident and recognised around the world. Yet, because the 8216;8216;social8217;8217; aspect of development has been stressed to the exclusion of the commercial, past efforts have been geared almost exclusively toward generating employment. The word profit has had a very negative connotation, treated as almost a 8216;8216;bad8217;8217; word; it is what 8216;8216;those capitalists have worked with to exploit the poor downtrodden masses.8217;8217; I offer a small interaction as an example of the split between the solely employment-generating enterprise and one that, while doing the same, can also be viable and sustainable.

I showed some samples of what I thought was very good embroidery to a potential buyer. This is the response I got. 8216;8216;What exquisite work, but it8217;s too busy. Our consumers want something much more simple.8217;8217; The exquisite irony! A truly beautiful piece of craftsmanship was rejected. Why? That cushion cover was not produced with a market in mind in which to sell it, especially at a profit. The much too gorgeous and intricate work on the cushion cover was because the underlying motive was to give 8216;8216;more8217;8217; work to the artisan so that she could be paid more. The buyer assured us that the earnings of artisans would remain the same or even increase because they would be required to make more pieces, each with much less work.

Artisans and NGOs need to learn to adapt to a higher fabric-to-embroidery ratio. If this were done, artisans would not only continue to earn as much as before, but would be assured of a steady stream of orders because they would be making products for which there is demand.

A major problem that this sector faces is finding markets for their goods. This problem is compounded by the fact that most consumers are not able to distinguish between hand-made and machine-made products. Also, there is an obvious effect on the resultant pricing 8212; how to enable individual artisans and the organisations assisting them to compete against the cheaper but also attractive mass-produced products that have flooded global markets.

Corporates working in this sector could benefit from a 8216;8216;vendor development8217;8217; exercise, which would assure them a sustained, quality source of supply, while helping NGOs to incorporate business processes and systems which would help them to make profits while also helping their constituents. This would also help with the marketing problem that the artisans face.

The writer is chief executive officer, Grassroots Trading Network for Women