Growth and marketing strategy for a leading Pakistani bank, to profitably extend branchless banking services to the 88% of the Pakistani population that is unbanked.
Branchless Banking in Pakistan
Growth and marketing strategy for a leading Pakistani bank, to profitably extend branchless banking services to the 88% of the Pakistani population that is unbanked.
How to Reach 88% of the Population
A year after rolling out branchless banking, United Bank Limited (UBL), the second-largest private bank in Pakistan, was reaching 100,000 customers with its Omni branchless banking service. But UBL wanted to reach the 88% of Pakistanis who lacked access to formal financial channels—more than 150 million people.
To understand how to reach this market, Hope Consulting led extensive qualitative research of the un- and under-banked, followed by a nationwide survey of 2,000 unbanked Pakistanis. We derived target customer segments with discrete financial needs and behaviors, and recommended changes that UBL could make to its product mix, pricing,
and brand positioning to serve this market more effectively. To learn more about this engagement, please read the UBL case in our Customer Insights Toolkit.
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Organizational design and start-up, for the US expansion of an established Brazilian nonprofit.
Brazilian Nonprofit Expansion
Organizational design and start-up, for the US expansion of an established Brazilian nonprofit.
Coming to the US
The Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), a leading environmental nonprofit in Brazil, realized that to further its mission of fighting climate change, it needed a presence
in the US. IPAM’s International Program (IPAM-IP) engaged Hope Consulting to set up its
US operations. We worked with legal counsel to identify the best nonprofit structure for IPAM’s needs, incorporated IPAM as a nonprofit at the federal and state levels, developed its human resources and finance operations, and set up its back office team.
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Primer for how micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and their partners can understand and access growth opportunities along the value chain.
Customer Insights Toolkit
Primer for how micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and their partners can understand and access growth opportunities along the value chain.
Each year, companies spend over $31 billion on market research. The majority of those dollars are spent trying to determine how to drive customers in developed markets to purchase. Less than one-quarter of the investment in market research is in emerging markets, with 16 percent of the total spent in Asia, 6 percent in Latin America, and just 2 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. The little that is spent on market research in developing markets has rarely been used to help micro and small enterprises (MSEs) understand and respond to growth opportunities along the value chain. Hope Consulting’s Customer Insights Toolkit provides practical guidance for organizations that want to design and deliver customer research in the developing world. The Toolkit, developed with the financial support of USAID, can be downloaded here.
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Analysis of US financial advisors’ willingness to sell sustainable and impact investments.
Gateways to Impact
Analysis of US financial advisors’ willingness to sell sustainable and impact investments.
A $650 Billion Opportunity
Americans are increasingly interested in the environmental, social, and governance impact of their investment portfolios. As prior research by Hope Consulting has shown, Americans are willing to put an additional $120 billion in impact investments, but financial advisors are not yet proactively recommending these products. To understand whether advisors were reluctant to recommend these sustainable and impact investments, Hope Consulting analyzed financial advisors’ willingness to sell these investments. We found that nearly forty percent of advisors are strongly interested in recommending these products to their clients. These advisors tend to be strong performers that are relatively early in their careers, suggesting that they view sustainability as a differentiator in their practice. Advisors are willing to place 2.5 percent of their assets under management—or roughly $650 billion—in sustainable and impact investments. To discover what advisors are looking for to make these investments, please download the Gateways to Impact report here.
Work completed in partnership with Deutsche Bank, Envestnet, the Calvert Foundation,
the Metanoia Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Veris Wealth Partners.
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Organizational start-up, for the sister organization to an existing climate change nonprofit.
Climate Change Start-Up
Organizational start-up, for the sister organization to an existing climate change nonprofit.
Implementing a New Strategic Plan
The Governors’ Climate and Forests (GCF) Task Force focuses on using jurisdiction-wide approaches to slow the effects of climate change at the state or province level in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, and Spain. The GCF Task Force established a sister organization, the GCF Fund, to finance capacity strengthening around forest carbon emissions as well as innovative funding mechanisms to slow climate change at the jurisdictional level. The GCF Task Force turned to Hope Consulting to develop the Fund’s financial and human resources operations, staff the organization, and to support the Fund in initial planning and fundraising.
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Curation of the
MarketsforGood.org web campaign, to create a dialogue on the “information infrastructure” needed for greater data sharing and use in the social sector.
Markets for Good
Curation of the MarketsforGood.org web campaign, to create a dialogue on the “information infrastructure” needed for greater data sharing and use in the social sector.
Information + Markets = Social Change
Social change begins with information. Managed by Hope Consulting, the Markets for Good campaign engages nonprofits, foundations, information intermediaries and big thinkers in and outside the social sector in discussion about how the social sector uses information.
To learn more, or to participate, visit www.MarketsforGood.org.
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Analysis of Americans’ demand for charitable giving and impact investing, to inform funding and product development decisions for foundations and implementing organizations.
Money for Good
Analysis of Americans’ demand for charitable giving and impact investing, to inform funding and product development decisions for foundations and implementing organizations.
A $15 Billion Shift in Charitable Donations
In 2009, Hope Consulting observed that many foundations and nonprofits sought to provide giving and impact investment opportunities that didn’t seem consistent with consumer demand. To ground out what Americans did want in charitable giving and impact investing, Hope Consulting led the Money for Good initiative. The initiative’s first research report, published in 2010, provided the first comprehensive view of affluent Americans’ demand for charitable giving and impact investing since 1994’s The Seven Faces of Philanthropy. The initiative’s second report, published in 2011, provided a more granular look at the research habits of individual donors, donor advisors, and foundation grant-makers, identifying how these groups use research today and where their needs are unmet. If these groups’ information needs were met today, we estimate that $15 billion a year could be shifted
to higher-performing nonprofits. That’s a lot of money.
To learn more, please visit our Money for Good homepage.
To download your free copy of More Money for More Good, visit the website
of our partner, GuideStar.
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Social change campaign, to educate nonprofits, foundations, information intermediaries, and others about how to help donors and grant-makers to make more informed giving decisions.
Money for Good Campaign
Social change campaign, to educate nonprofits, foundations, information intermediaries, and others about how to help donors and grant-makers to make more informed giving decisions.
Getting the $15 Billion Word Out
In partnership with GuideStar, Hope Consulting developed a social change campaign to educate nonprofits, foundations, information intermediaries, and others about how they can help donors and grant-makers to make more informed giving decisions. We leveraged our second round of Money for Good research to inform this campaign, including the finding that up to $15 billion in charitable contributions could be shifted to high-performing non-profits if donor, donor advisor, and grantmaker needs are met. The campaign drove key messages through media outlets, blog posts, speaking engagements, presentations, and the well-received publication of More Money for More Good, a guidebook that encourages nonprofit organizations to focus on impact for improved fundraising and donor engagement.
To learn more, visit our Money for Good homepage.
To download your free copy of More Money for More Good, visit the website
of our partner, GuideStar.
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Market positioning, for the Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Note.
Market Positioning for Impact Investment Note
Market positioning, for the Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Note.
What Message Resonates with Investors?
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) was planning to launch a Conservation Note, to provide loans to state, countries, and regions for environmental conservation programs. TNC had outstanding questions about how to position the Note. Hope Consulting conducted two focus groups with two segments of potential investors: those who were familiar with the Conservancy’s work, and those who weren’t. From this work, we determined the optimal messaging to reach investors interested by the Note. In the Note’s first six months, it raised $16 million in capital commitments.
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Strategic advisory, to pressure-test a mid-market medical equipment company’s growth plans and ambition.
Market Analysis in Healthcare
Strategic advisory, to pressure-test a mid-market medical equipment company’s growth plans and ambition.
Strategic Evaluation Finds Millions in Lost Revenue
A $100 million medical equipment company engaged Hope Consulting to pressure-test its growth ambition and strategic plans across five market segments. We helped product managers to re-size market opportunities in their product lines, evaluate their competitive sets, and adjust their strategic plans accordingly. We rolled up the analysis to develop a realistic valuation for the company and to sense-check its existing growth ambition. Finally, we identified service areas that were losing money, and developed a strategic roadmap for the company’s CEO.
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Growth strategy, for midmarket biotech company evaluating growth opportunities across multiple market sub-segments and geographies.
Biotech Growth Strategy
Growth strategy, for midmarket biotech company evaluating growth opportunities across multiple market sub-segments and geographies.
Where to Grow?
When our client was ready for its next growth phase, Hope Consulting developed a growth strategy for the company, analyzing market opportunities across 21 market segments and
three geographies. We developed a go-to-market strategy for two high-priority market segments. With senior leadership, we developed an implementation plan that equipped
the leadership team to deliver on the company’s growth ambition and new strategy.
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Management consulting, to identify whether Population Services International should sell into the fast-moving consumer goods network.
Fast Moving Consumer Goods: Divest or Invest?
Management consulting, to identify whether Population Services International should sell into the fast-moving consumer goods network.
Leveraging Existing Distribution Channels
Population Services International (PSI), a leading social marketing NGO, considered expanding its sales of family-planning and related products from the pharmacy channel into the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) network in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
To help PSI plan for expansion, Hope Consulting benchmarked their operations against leading distributers of consumer goods. In the process, we discovered that PSI’s internal organization could be restructured to achieve greater efficiency in sales and distribution. We also investigated retail outlets and their suppliers. The market had many hallmarks of a great opportunity—high product margins, customer access to points of sale, and no need to deliver product outlet to outlet. However, we recommended that PSI strengthen its internal operations before extending distribution to a new channel. PSI has done so, building a strong sales organization to support future growth. A case study of this engagement is provided in our Customer Insights Toolkit.
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To make strategic turnaround recommendations, Hope Consulting analyzed how sales agents spent their time, guiding a new direction from observed best practices of leading sales and distribution companies.
Sales Force Effectiveness
To make strategic turnaround recommendations, Hope Consulting analyzed how sales agents spent their time, guiding a new direction from observed best practices of leading sales and distribution companies.
Lessons from Private-Sector Sales Teams
Three years in to a four-year grant, Population Services International (PSI) was distributing 11 reproductive health products throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of the products were reaching their targets, but four of them weren’t.
To find out why, and to make strategic turnaround recommendations, Hope Consulting analyzed how sales agents spent their time, and compared their time allocation to sales figures. We found that sales agents spent less than half their time on core selling activities, and were burdened with distribution and administrative tasks.
As a guide for a new direction, we captured best practices from leading sales and distribution companies in the country. Ultimately, we recommended a tighter geographic focus, guidelines for customer segmentation and prioritization and performance-
based compensation.
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Management consulting, to help 16 of the US’ leading foundations to standardize their grant reporting.
Reporting Commitment
Management consulting, to help 16 of the US’ leading foundations to standardize their grant reporting.
Transparency is Power
When 16 leading US foundations wanted to increase their grant reporting, Hope Consulting helped them to make that vision a reality. We identified the core components of what information the 16 partner foundations should report, when they should report it, and how they should report it. To come to consensus on these elements, we consulted each participating foundation, as well as key social sector information intermediaries. As importantly, we conducted independent analyses to identify priorities and come to informed recommendations. To learn more, visit www.glasspockets.org or read here.
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