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Table of ContentsVision ....................................................................................................................................................... 3

Mission .................................................................................................................................................... 3

Objectives ............................................................................................................................................... 3

Target Clients .......................................................................................................................................... 4

Product .................................................................................................................................................... 4

Value Proposition .................................................................................................................................... 4

Performance Criteria ............................................................................................................................... 4

Analysis of the Organisational Functions ................................................................................................ 6

Operations .............................................................................................................................................. 6

Process of Credit Delivery ................................................................................................................... 6

Appraisal Process ................................................................................................................................ 7

Presentation of Report to the Credit Committee ............................................................................... 7

Human Resources ................................................................................................................................... 7

Employee Recruitment ....................................................................................................................... 7

Employee Capacity Building ................................................................................................................ 8

Employee Engagement ....................................................................................................................... 8

Marketing ................................................................................................................................................ 8

Product ................................................................................................................................................ 9

Place .................................................................................................................................................... 9

Promotion ......................................................................................................................................... 10

Marketing Strategy Evaluation ............................................................................................................. 11

Functional benefits ........................................................................................................................... 11

Process Benefits ................................................................................................................................ 11Relationship Benefits ........................................................................................................................ 12


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Friends of Womens World Banking, India was promoted in 1982 by SEWA Bank,

as an affiliate of Womens World Banking, a global network created to focus on the

need for womens direct access to financial services.

Vision

A society based on equity and social justice where women are active partners in

holistic development.

Mission

The organizations mission is to provide financial and capacity building services to

organizations promoting livelihoods and self-reliance of poor women.

Objectives

1. To promote the livelihoods of the end clients by expanding its outreach to

more and more institutions.

2. Making the target clients sustainable through institutional capacity building

and working capital loans.3. Making the target clients bankable.

With respect to the target clients the organization has following objectives in hand

that it tries to follow throughout.

To study a non-profit organisation, it is critical that we understand belief and

values embedded in the culture of the organisation. The Vision and Mission

reflect the principles the organisation was founded upon and gives directionto the people associated with it.


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Target Clients

The organisation defines its clients as follows:

The organizations aims at establishing community owned enterprises

These community based organizations should be such that profits are shared

among the different members of the community

The members of the community wherein profits are shared are primarily

women

Excludes Private Limited companies and partnerships, and mostly focuses on

cooperatives.

Product

It is a package of both the below but the latter is not a necessary part of the package:

Working Capital Loans

Institution and Capacity Building (ICB) support (technical assistance, business

development, market linkages)

Value Proposition

The following value proposition is provided by the product

Credit for traditionally unbankable clients

Customized: The loan product along with ICB support is customized for each

client (with regards to the amount and timeliness of credit and other support to

be extended)

Cheap Credit: Loans are provided at very low interest rates.

Performance Criteria

We identified the following parameters as the ones that can be used to measure the

performance of a non-profit organization like FWWB.


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Turnaround time this is one of the most crucial parameters as lower the

turnaround time greater is the efficiency. This is because speedy sanction of

loans reduces the overall turnaround time and also helps in timely action in

case of defaults from the end-consumer.

Ability to attract clients if it is able to attract many clients then it can be said

to have a better performance. The number of clients matter but the quality of

bankable clients also matter.

Performance of clients The clients performance is the organizations

performance. So if the client is disbursing loans effectively and also taking

care of timely supervision and recovery then this also in effect improves the

efficacy of FWWB.


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Analysis of the Organisational Functions

Our intention while studying the organization was to look at Operations, human

resources as well as the marketing aspect of the organization.

Operations

Process of Credit Delivery

As the turnaround time for delivering credit is one of the key criteria for performance,

we decided to analyze the operations of FWWB in order to seek improvements in

this area.

# Activity Time Manpowe

r

1 Appraisal

a. Receipt of Application - -

b. Prelim Application Check for

approval

2 days 3

c. Send detailed application If approved - 1

d. Receive Detailed Application 15-30 days -

e. Desk Appraisal 7-8 days 3

f. Travel Planning and Approval If approved 0-10 days 3

g. Appraisal Visit 3-7 days 2

2 Approval

a. Prepare and Present Report of

Credit Committee

5-30 days 2

b. Modifications in Report If required 2-3 days 1

c. Sent for approval to ProgramCommittee

Amt >10lacs

10-15 days

3 Disbursement

a. Send Agreement and Sanction

Letter

If approved 1 day

b. Agreement Received with

documents

7-10 days

c. Transfer of Money 2-3 days

Total 45-120

days


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We identified the following bottlenecks in the operations:

Appraisal Process

The appraisal stage at present can last up to over 50 days. Although there is

a shortage of manpower, the appraisal process can be shortened by adopting

a more aggressive approach. We recommend combining the Desk Appraisal

and the Appraisal visit. After a preliminary check, the team can visit the client

organization to access detailed reports and perform the appraisal. This also

reduces the time taken in communication between FWWB and the partner

organization.

Presentation of Report to the Credit Committee

As the Credit Committee consists of the high level officers in the organization

and a lot of the work involves travelling outside Ahmedabad, it is difficult for

them to find a convenient time to have such a meeting, FWWB conducts a

meeting once a month and reviews all reports in the previous month. However,

this means that a report may lie idle for approval for up to a period of a month.

It is recommended that meetings be scheduled at least once a fortnight unless

there are no reports pending.

Human Resources

We are also putting the organization under the HR scanner and try to analyze whatall problems are faced by the organization. The following emerged as critical:

Employee Recruitment

The organization currently takes fresh recruits from entrepreneurship, rural

development and agriculture institutes. Many a time, there seems to be a lack

of professionalism in these young recruits.


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This seems to be a problem with no quick fix. However, the organization may

tie up with various management institutes to offer limited period job offers

where the institute can pay the difference amount between the expected

salary and that offered by FWWB.

Employee Capacity Building

At present, there is no policy for capacity building of employees. This is one of

the loopholes that we found in the organization.

It is highly recommended that FWWB creates a policy for such capacity

building (in various areas: management, communication, finance) throughvarious institutes

Employee Engagement

The work involved and the culture of the organization leads to a high level of

employee engagement. Additionally, it may allow its employees to represent

FWWB in various forums (local conferences, events at educational institutes).

This may further help in boosting their morale.

Marketing

We decided to evaluate FWWBs marketing tactics through the 4P framework,

namely - Product, Pricing, Place and Promotion.

Out of these, we will examine Pricing separately as it forms a primary function

provided by FWWB and is not just an instrument of strategy.


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Product

The loan product offered by FWWB is usually funder-specified. That implies

that FWWB is limited in the customization of loans to meet demand from

potential consumers. This is both because of regulatory structures and

guidelines, as well as standards adopted by its parent donors, investors and

organizations.

Thus, there is not much scope to innovate in this category.

Our recommendation is for FWWB to explore the option of combining term

loans with working capital loans as a new product for potential clients who

have greater expansion plans.

From the funder aspect, FWWB will have to identify and market itself to

potential new funders with adequate risk appetites and flexibility in investment

time periods to allocate funds for term loan disbursement. These could

potentially be venture capitalists, hedge funds with a Fund-of-funds structure,

and even sovereign wealth funds of different countries. We dont feel that

FWWB should explore the option of a crowdsourcing model of funding as

done by Kiva. This is because uptil now, this model has mainly worked for

micro-loans, and hasnt worked for aggregated loans (larger loans created by

combining multiple smaller sources of funds). Also, the amount of funds and

loans pledged under such models has gone down post the recessionary

environment in the developed world.

Place

FWWB has been able to build significant geographical coverage so far in

India. However, the brand recognition is low among target consumers. FWWB

should consider focusing on fewer states, with higher concentration of aware

consumers, and use a potential ink-blot strategy to cover most districts in

these states. These states could be Gujarat and neighboring states. Also,

FWWB could potentially partner with the Bihar government in reaching out to

potential entrepreneurs interested in starting up ventures in that state. This


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could be a win-win situation if the Bihar government, agrees to provide risk

mitigation and underwrite any bad/defaulting loans.

Promotion

Currently, FWWB has no defined promotion activities in place. They rely

mostly on word-of-mouth publicity about their activities among the

academician/NGO networks. Additionally they depend upon eminent

personalities to promote their clients. While this approach has low costs, it

does serve to limit the reach and awareness about FWWB among the target

consumers.

Our recommendation is for FWWB to adopt a lead farmer approach. This

works by identifying a lead farmer in each geographical unit, who is then given

training and incentives to carry out promotion activities. This farmer could also

be the beneficiary of our funding.

Another recommendation is to approach Corporate channels with wider rural

distribution networks. This could be marketed to them as a way to provide a

value added service (of finance and ICB) that can be bundled with theirexisting product offerings.


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Marketing Strategy Evaluation

To analyze the efficacy of FWWBs overall marketing strategy, we decided to follow

the framework given in the Marketing in 3-D article in The Mckinsey Quarterly,

1999.

In this article, the authors- Court, French, Mcguire and Partington, argue that

contemporary marketing needs to incorporate functional, process and

relationship benefits for customers to value a brand as well as build a differentiated

offering.

Let us evaluate FWWB on these three dimensions.

Functional benefits

The main functional benefits provided by FWWB are in terms of providing

access to cheap credit, at rates much lesser than commercial rates.

Additionally, there is a much higher rate of customization offered by FWWB

vis--vis other institutional credit providers. Finally, FWWB often provides

credit where credit facilities are either non-existent or potential customers are

not eligible to be considered for traditional credit offerings (because of poor

credit history, quality of collateral, etc.)

Process Benefits

Currently, FWWB provides a personalized form of interaction with each

consumer. There is a continuous process of communication with loanees, and

application and appraisal-related support from organization employees is

provided through telephone and e-mail.

The proposed benefits should be oriented towards increasing ease of

transactions and reducing transaction time. Thus, FWWB should look at

providing all application forms online, for easy download by consumers. Also,

standardized forms for appraisal and review processes could also be provided

online. In addition, sample completed forms should be provided along with

checklists.


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Relationship Benefits

FWWB has a very powerful brand name and reputation among the investment

and donor community and networks. Thus, FWWB funded enterprises often

find it easier to raise additional rounds of funding from these sources.

Investment providers will often consider an FWWB investment in an

enterprise as an indicator of quality. Thus, FWWB provides an important

element of trust and credibility to its funded enterprises, which it can then

leverage into greater financing to scale up and grow rapidly. Additionally, their

brand name also helps in creating easier market linkages for the partner

organization, which can help them achieve faster disbursal, economies of

scale, and lower costs of operations.

We propose that FWWB should also provide customized credit referrals for

organizations who reach self-sufficiency. These would help them get credit

from formal financial institutions as well.

Based on the Marketing Toolkit given in the reading, we recommend the following-

1) Creating an opportunity mindset- Dedicate human and financial resources to

develop and implement marketing strategies

2) Multiply consumer contacts by encouraging increased feedback from

customers from formal and informal channels

3) Customer data should be mined to the maximum extent possible for insights

on customer behaviour and preferences. For this purpose, client intractions

should be recorded and tracked as far as possible.4) Alliances should be explored with new, innovative partners in terms of

financial, technological and distributive flexibility.

5) Systems and processes should be increasingly upgraded and automated for

increasing efficiency, bringing down costs, and providing innovative solutions

to consumers.


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Thus, to conclude, we can use the 3 Rules for Marketers to suggest the following:

1) Building a 3D opportunity portfolio by emphasizing functional, process and

relationship benefits

2) Delivering portfolio on technology backbone by increasing online interactions

between FWWB and clients, as well as regular updation of the MIS software

and systems.

3) Spending Funds where they work hardest Here, we have identified that the

main bottleneck for FWWB is human resources and lack of adequate talent.

Thus FWWB might want to allocate greater financial resources to recruiting

quality talent as well as increase compensation budgets.

Conclusion

The organisation is involved in a sector where competition does not provide the

greatest threat. It is the need of the product which drives the market. However, we

would like to emphasize that it is here that the importance of marketing as a tool to

bridge the gap between demand and supply is most felt.


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References

Annual Report, FWWB India

3D Marketing, the McKinsey Quarterly 1999

We would like to thank the following for their encouragement and willingness to be

part of this project:

Ms. Anshu Bhartia, Chief Executive Officer of FWWB, India

Mr. Sridhar Reddy, Senior Program Manager, FWWB, India

Ms. Suhani Avarani, Employee, FWWB, India

group 6 - mai final report

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