BonVi : Storytelling for Innovation
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Storytelling has always been at the heart of human civilization and remains today as a critical repository of knowledge and wisdom in many cultures and markets. Glenn Armstrong, Vice President of Business Innovations discusses how stories give us insights for successful innovation, and how his team used the power of storytelling to explore and design a new business in the Ghanaian village of Tamale.
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BonVi : Storytelling for Innovation
- 43. GLENN ARMSTRONG, PhD VICE PRESIDENT, AMWAY BUSINESS INNOVATIONS 616.915.1893 glenn.armstrong@amway.com http://www.amwayinnovationstories.com
Notas del editor
- It’s great to be in Ghana and to be part of this conference.There are several themes to this presentation and I will weave them together into a tight matrix. In the end, the matrix will reveal a logical, coherent and diligent methodology to combine storytelling with the tools and power of empathetic thinking known as human centered design. Storytelling has always been at the heart of human civilization and remains today as a critical repository of knowledge and wisdom in many cultures and markets. Human centered design provides us the tools to empathetically engage with these cultures and markets and in so doing, combine the native stories with new insights and new stories. These new compelling stories give us insights for successful innovation. Innovation on this level is how together we can find solutions to today’s most wicked problems. So listen up. I have a story to tell.
- I first came to Ghana five years ago for an Amway project. Everyone I met assumedI was just another white guy ready to write someone a check for some good cause and go back home. After three weeks people started to take us somewhat seriously and realized they would be back to start a company. And we came back many times. At Amway, webelieve that everyone should have the opportunity to achieve any level of success they are willing to work towards. Our vision is Helping People Live Better LivesAnd we continue to achieve our vision on a global scale through a business opportunity based on independent business owners.However, the business opportunity, just like any retail business or service must be relevant and affordable to its customer base. In our case, a relevant business opportunity means that with hard work and dedication success is achievable and sustainable by billions of people who live at a very different social economic level from where our business started. Emerging markets represent an opportunity for new business models. Models that work for them.The business innovation team came to Ghana to build that business opportunity model.We started in Tamale. And what I want to talk about today is how, through our experience there, we started to embrace storytelling as a central tool for innovation.Storytelling as a strategy for innovation.
- Storytelling isn’t something new to Amway.Over 50 years ago, our founders, Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel, started a soap business by telling stories.They went from door to door and told people their stories about Amway products and their vision of helping people live better lives through a business opportunity.The idea connected with people from all walks of life with a common thread of wanting to achieve more. And this thread is universal. Regardless of culture, heritage, race or nationality everyone wants a better life for themselves and their family. The definition of a better life plays out in many different and diverse manners. It isn’t just about money. The critical factor is paying attention to what does matter culture by culture, market by market, person by person.Listen to their stories and what is important will surface. Rich and Jay understood this at a very basic level. At Amway we are just now realizing how brilliant they were.
- Since then, our company has relied on the individual stories of over 3 million distributors globally to fuel our success. Of course Amway does not succeed unless the distributors are successful.
- Many companies use storytelling to talk about their business, their brands and their products. This is the stuff of advertising campaigns and catchy slogans. For Amway and its millions of distributors storytelling is fundamental to the HOW of our business.Keeping in mind the nuances of storytelling, let’s shift to the other part of the matrix:Human centered design.
- In Human Centered Design we found a discipline and the tools to use and transform storytelling into insights. These insights lead to innovation based in the security and trust of the past, the needs of today and dreams of tomorrow. Human centered design isn’t new.It isn’t magic.And it is not a silver bullet. It is an empathetic research approach that allows one to understand people’s needs at a very basic level and to design business systems to meet those needs.It is also, very hard and demanding work.One must suspend what one believes to be true and develop the mind of a child. A mind of openness. Wonder. Questions. And at all times without judgment.Without those filter we all have to make sense of our daily lives.
- So we came to Ghana looking for stories.
- Following a Human-Centered Design approach, we came here with open minds.We didn’t know what we didn’t know.We didn’t bring our best pre-determined strategy, ready to execute and conquer the world.We came to develop our best strategy. We came to learn. With the mind of a child.
- Unlike most companies that come into new markets with brands and products, our challenges went far beyond. Brands and products were certainly a key component, but remember what I said earlier, our primary product is a business opportunity.An opportunity that requires development and execution of a complete business system for distributors to be successful. Getting products on shelf. That’s an easy logistical problem. Our task was to understand the social relationships, dreams and aspirations of the people and their communities to create a business that was relevant and viable according to their values, their reality, their context.The knowledge of context, allows one to start developing a business system with the right content.
- What could we develop that would provide a sustainable and profitable opportunity for millions? A job they could focus on regardless of what crop was in season. A job where they could focus on selling. Knowing that products would always be available and they would have support on the basics of running a business. A job where they would be paid for their efforts. A job that allowed them to better support their family. A job for a better life.
- So we dove in. We observed, engaged and became part of local communities and customs. Not on a superficial level, but by being in market for weeks and months. Months that turned into years. We became part of the landscape. Now I have to say that we didn’t ‘blend’ right in (Glenn is a bit too white and a tad too tall) but we became part of their picture. The obvious fact that we were different became the background. The foreground was one of trust and respect and mutual needs. On one trip to Tamale, a woman came up to me and insisted I come to her home. She had something to show me. Upon entering her mud and thatched roof house, I was treated to a special surprise. On a cot, sharing a small blanket, were her twin baby boys. I suddenly felt very much a part of the family. Every trip back, we went to see her boys. A bond developed as strong as if they were part of my immediate family. I wish I could see them today. Encounters like this are what give the context to lives and needs. And it doesn’t happen sitting behind your desk or at a conference in a suit and tie. And you will never understand it by listening to consultants. Get out there. Find your own stories to share. And these types of encounters happened all the time. In the crowded markets of Tamale. At the Tamale airport, at the United Airlines counter in the Accra airport… A lady asked me what do I do, “Oh!! - - you’re from BonVi!! Let me tell you a story…”
- We partnered with a local NGO, World Vision, to make sure we were respectful to local social norms and approached the right people.We met and talked to many people in the village, including mayors, leaders, village chiefs, merchants, small manufacturers, teachers... And mothers, Everyone we met challenged our assumptions, opened our eyes, upended our thinking.Learning through experience. The heart and soul of human centered design.
- A critical component of human centered design is prototyping to understand. We explored, listened, observed and discussed our findings. With the insights we gained in the field, we started prototyping to design a business opportunity. Early prototypes outlined the value proposition of the test model, the flow of business operations, and the hypothesis for revenue and profit generation. Once the prototypes were refined and we had walked every step of the business model, we were ready to launch a Live Model Test in Tamale.
- We created a brand, selected products, designed packaging and prepared selling materials.Just for a frame of reference, we did not hire a consultant or a branding expert or a naming expert or a packaging expert. We took our questions and samples to the people and found out what worked for them. And it took us three weeks of intense field work. Not easy. But quick, efficient and effective. And yes, cheap. The point here isn’t that consultants or agencies are bad, but don’t fall into the trap of doing things the way you have done things in the past. It simply does not work if you are not willing to be in the market. And BonVi quickly developed into a well known brand with great products. And the business opportunity model started to work.
- To build some initial awareness, we went from village to village presenting the products and talking about the opportunity... Fairly classic marketing techniques.We all know that word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool. After one of our village presentations, which lasted several hours longer than we planned, we decided to cut some of the materials for the next village. Sounded like a reasonable idea.Well, a local with us said that would simply not work. Why we asked?Because the other village had already heard about what we had presented, and cutting any information would be viewed as they were less important. You know the outcome - - it was another long presentation !
- And then it was time to start recruiting our team of distributors. Some we selected from the people we had met through research.I am sure all of you are familiar with microloan groups. These groups are based in trust and respect and they want everyone to succeed. So we decided to ask them to choose three members from their group that they believed would be successful with BonVi. They chose wisely. So why women? Because they are responsible for the health and welfare of the family. Because they need an opportunity.Because they are willing to work.And getting women sustainable jobs is a key component to achieve the economic goals of the UN.
- We learned from them what they needed to be trained on-- how they do accounting, and how we need to teach them how to operate a direct selling business, how to demonstrate a product, This was the first time in MY life that I truly interacted with people who are illiterate. And whenever we needed to sign something, a contract… a legal document… we’d have some one put an “X” in the box…We truly had to show them how to hold a pen and write an X. And there were distributors who took weeks to sign her X. The pride that they had when they accomplished this task… was a very emotional and moving moment.They taught us how to teach them.
- So, the women were trained, and with the products at hand, they were off to build their business...Andas for us? Well, like any child, learning the right way takes time.
- We continued to observe, listen, learn and modify our business model. We had to be comfortable getting things wrong, trying different things and learning some more.Definitely getting it wrong to get it right was a common theme. And this was by design, not by default.
- To build credibility for the brand and to our distributors, we opened a store in Tamale establishing a physical presence that offered tangibility and proof of the opportunity.And we learned that our preconceptions of what a store should look like didn’t work here - we had to rethink the design of our initial stores because the villagers were intimidated and didn’t venture in, so we redesigned it to make the villagers feel that it was a store oftheir own.Having the store also meant that our distributors didn’t need much upfront investment to manage their business and could manage their inventory by coming to the store as needed. It also gave us a place to offer training, and continuously observe and hear back from them and anyone else that came by. It was a place to share stories: For them to learn about the business and for us to keep learning from them.
- By being empathic and listening to their stories that we also knew when to to step in and share some of our stories.One of the big things we were able to bring to them was the concept of group selling at events.Even though they are a very social community, selling in groups was something new. Wecalled this the “Village campaign”. A new selling method. Not walking around, but rather, having the customers come to an event. This was never done before and our distributorswere very skeptical.But the event, with live demonstrations proved to be a huge success.The customers made purchases during the entire time the products were demonstrated, providing the distributor with three days of pay with three hours of work.
- And it was in these group selling events that we witnessed and heard some great ways our new distributors, true to Amway’s tradition, were already using storytelling to grow their business.We heard from one customer: “My girlfriend stayed at my house longer because it smelled better when I used BonVisoaps” and that she repeated this story to her other customers all the time.Here, you see our distributor taking a shirt off of a young man’s backand washing it in her demonstration, right at the event…
- Selling is universal.It was incredible to witness how passionate and driven people got about the brand, the products, and the opportunity. This guy is amazing. (the man in the green shirt, lower right) We called him the King. With two backpacks of products, he would go to local markets and sell to those who were selling in the market – he sold to the vendors at the market. So picture this: at the market… you are a seller of rice, sitting on the ground with your rice in cans and bags. It is mid day in Tamale. Sun directly overhead. No shade. The King arrives, wearing his bright green BonVi shirt. And he’s talking, showing you products, and other vendors from the market listen up, and all approach. The King has a story to tell, and he has samples to share And pretty soon, they’re buying his products.The King sold $1500 GCD per month.
- Through this process of learning and iterating, we learned that great ideas can come from anywhere. Even though our BonVi agentshad very little experience with a direct selling business, they had a lot of great ideas.Fati was one of the 30 women we recruited... She was a mother, struggling to make ends meet- she couldn’t send her children to school because she needed them to work and help her earn money. She was hungry for opportunity. She quickly became an invaluable partner - helping us interpret Ghanaian culture, giving advice, guiding the team and sharing her ideas on how we could make the opportunity better.
- One of her ideas was to paint her house in the village the BonVi colors. A simple but very efficient tactic that just hadn’t occurred to us. As she pointed out, while mass advertising had a presence along main roads in West Africa, nothing had penetrated the villages yet. So painting a mud home on the edge of the Sahara Desert bright green and white showed people in the village where they could go for their BonVi products. And that turned out to be one of the strongest marketing ideas, because BonVi! was the only branded presence in the village.
- The opportunity grew and developed in ways beyond our goals or expectations. Severaldistributors grew their business to the point they wanted to invest in their own stores and then, because business was doing so well, they started recruiting family and close friends to help them out.The business that started as a single level opportunity started to organically become multi-level - the way Amway operates worldwide - but not because we assumed or imposed a pre-existing structure, but because that’s how local distributors wanted to grow their business.
- Storytelling was not only a powerful tool for us to learn from the people in the field and develop the opportunity, but for us to share our experiences with the organization. At crucial points in the process we went around talking to executives and potential partners at different levels to tell them stories of our experience in Ghana so we could get the resources and support needed.Storytelling was so effective, that we not only received the money and support, but executives were so excited that they wanted to come see it for themselves.
- So they came.This is our Chief of Staff, Bill Payne. He could not visualize that money was changing hands in the local markets. “Isn’t is all trade bartering?” he asked.We had him follow a business women for one day. Besides being exhausted after five hours, he saw for himself that money and lots of it changed hands between vendors and customers everyday. And what was interesting is that by experiencing the country, the culture and the test for themselves, listening to the stories of our distributors first hand, they were able to have their OWN stories to tell back home. And that level of engagement and authenticity just makes storytelling that much more powerful.
- To recap, when we first came in, we had NO idea of the context and day-to-day of the people in Tamale or Ghana - it was a totally foreign reality to us.
- We learned so much. But we were able to teach them some of the things we knew too. We collaborated. We worked hard, and we built the BonVi opportunity together. Because we built it together, we owned it together. And that meant a deeper, more meaningful relationship between the community and the brand.
- It wasn’t just our team and our initial distributors that helped build the business. it was the soccer team that BonVi sponsored, theywould step in to help carry products or help distributors work a local market. We had a positive impact on the community and the community had an INCREDIBLE impact on us.
- From a business perspective, the Live Model Test in Tamale allowed us to put our assumptions to test, observe the outcomes and iterate to refine our solutions and reduce risks. In the corporate world, every company wants to succeed and grow, but if you don’t have your proposition right, that’s just a path to disaster. So, expect to be wrong 80% of the time. Be ready to rethink, recast, redo, repeat. Over and over again. Get it right small first, and then go big. The insights and learning we got here are so powerful that we have used them toinform internal initiatives in South Africa, China, India and other emerging markets.
- I want to share with you my top three do’s and don’ts… the most important lessons about developing a business in emerging markets:
- Don’t limit your options. Do keep an open mind to new ways to add value.
- Don’t go to an emerging market to IMPLEMENT your best strategy. Do go to the market to DEVELOP your best strategy.
- Don’t outsource your understanding to a high-priced consultant. Or a low-priced one either. Do build real relationships with real people, gain an authentic understanding of the people and the market needs.The real insights and understanding necessary for meaningful innovation don’t come from numbers, charts or tables - they come from the environments we experience, the people we meet and the stories we hear.Throughout this experiment, we got a lot of things wrong, and had to embrace constant iteration, but the one thing that proved consistent from the beginning is that everyone has their dreams and aspirations and is looking for opportunities to make them come true.
- And like opportunities, stories of the human experience are universalWhich brings me back to storytelling as a strategy, and as a lever for innovation. We believe storytelling is the foundation of human-centered design. Storytelling is a powerful tool.
- So after our success with storytelling in Ghana, we started capturing aspirations of people around the world…in Russia…
- Japan…
- Brazil…
- India…
- And we now we ask YOU… to tell us your story.Your dreams, aspirations and visions for Africa’s future. What does innovation in Africa mean to you? What can we accomplish?Together we can dream, together we can learn…So, let’s create stories together…
- And keep innovating.Thank you.