+Acumen chapters are deeply committed volunteer-led groups learning and sharing Acumen’s principles and approach to help create a world beyond poverty – a more inclusive and sustainable future for all.
This course is designed to introduce you to tools and strategies to “scale smart” including Repeatable Models. The Repeatable Models framework has been developed by Bain & Company based on its experience working with high-performing companies across a range of industries and countries for decades. The course also features case studies from several of Acumen's portfolio companies which provide critical goods and services to the poor and have successfully built Repeatable Models. We'll help you apply this important framework to your own work in the social sector. This course will be useful for any social business or organization trying to figure out what they do distinctively well, and how they could build upon those successes to scale.
How do you convince people to invest in potentially life-changing innovations when they have limited incomes? At Acumen, we believe in giving the poor choice, not charity. We envision low income people as consumers who can make their own decisions about the products and services needed to improve their lives. At the same time, social entrepreneurs need insights about why low income consumers often choose to adopt a new innovation. How can you design products and services that are incorporated into the daily lives of your customers?In this 2.5 hour course, you’ll learn about the 4A’s framework, a simple and practical model that can help you understand the drivers of adoption among base of the pyramid consumers: advantage, affordability, awareness and access. Drawn from the “Growing Prosperity” report recently co-authored by Acumen and Bain & Company, this tool will help you identify the most effective ways to increase the uptake of innovations among the poor.
The CourseYou’ve developed an innovation, program or service to help the poor. Now how do you assess whether you’re really reaching your target market? Customers at the bottom of the pyramid are diverse. They span different ages, poverty levels and occupations and use products and services in different ways. The more you know about your target customers, the better you can develop strategies and offerings that meet their needs.This On Demand course from +Acumen and the Grameen Foundation will teach you about market segmentation, or how to divide your market into clusters that have relatively similar needs. You’ll learn about new survey tools like the Progress Out of Poverty Index; understand the nuts and bolts of market segmentation; complete a customer segmentation matrix; and start to build customer personas so that you can better identify who you’re targeting and design products or programs with them in mind. We’ll draw from case studies of companies who have used the Progress Out of Poverty Index to collect meaningful customer insights including Starbucks, Unilever, CARD Bank, and, Samasource. After this 2 hour course, you’ll be better prepared to implement market segmentation and use new survey tools that can yield important insights about your customers. Key Learning Outcomes:By the end of this course, you will:Understand how market segmentation can help you answer strategic business questionsLearn more about your customers by segmenting your marketBuild a customer matrix and customer personas that help your organization strategically serve the bottom of the pyramid More questions?Please visit our +Acumen Page for more information. We invite participants to form groups to work together on this course. If you'd like to form a group with others, please send this link to your friends or colleagues to ask them to sign up!https://novoed.com/market-analysis/If you don't have a group, no problem. On the the NovoEd platform you will have an option to form a group. Or, you can also participate as an individual and interact with others on the course forum. If you have any questions, please contact us atcourses@plusacumen.org This Course Is For You If:You’re an aspiring or practicing social entrepreneur targeting the poorYou’re a global development professional who wants to understand if your program or service is reaching your target marketYou took the Measuring Social Impact course from +Acumen and want to learn more about a specific application for the Progress Out of Poverty tool
At Acumen, we have more than a decade of experience investing in social enterprises that are serving customers at the base of the pyramid (BoP) in South Asia, East and West Africa.When it comes to marketing new social innovations to BoP customers, we have made every mistake in the book and learned many valuable lessons along the way. We have taken a first step toward distilling our lessons into a framework that we will be sharing through this course.Our framework for this course may work in any environment that you launch your business in, but it is acutely important if you’re working in markets with people who live on less than $3 a day.We will not provide answers, but rather we will provide a framework for critical thinking around the Four Ts – Truth Trust Tribes & Trials. They transform your chances for making change, and the 4Ts must be incorporated into your operations long before you execute the traditional 4Ps of marketing.
+Acumen desarrolló este curso conjuntamente con el Grupo de Impacto de Acumen para ayudar a responder estas preguntas: '¿Qué significa crear impacto social?' '¿Cómo es el proceso?' y '¿Por qué medir el impacto social y qué medir?' Este curso se centra en la forma como Acumen mide el impacto de su portafolio de empresas y cómo usted podrá aplicar estas herramientas en cualquier contexto.Creemos que este curso será especialmente revelador para quienes tienen interés en inversiones de impacto, pero de ninguna manera es solo para ese público. Ya sea en su calidad de filántropo, profesional de las inversiones de impacto social sin ánimo de lucro o emprendedor del sector social, o como persona que sencillamente desea “hacer el bien", este curso es para usted.
This is a 6-week introductory course that will take you through a variety of materials Acumen has designed to train leaders who wish to change the way the world tackles poverty, and build a world based on dignity. Acumen’s definition of leadership starts with moral imagination: the humility to see the world as it is, and the audacity to imagine the world as it could be. Course participants will begin by further developing their personal leadership skills, cultivate more self-awareness, and discover their own style to leadership, through the lens of moral imagination. This includes exercises that ask you to dig deep and share personal stories, experiences and opinions. While we’ll touch on the Acumen investment model, this isn’t an in-depth course on Acumen’s investment work. We’ll be providing a variety of material intended to make you think, question, discuss, and debate what it means to lead positive change. This is a course based on discovery, so we’ll be scratching the surface on new concepts, with the opportunity to go more in-depth in some of our other courses. And while there are no ‘right answers’, prepare to be challenged! The course is free and you must work through it with a group (min: 2 people; max: 6). Form groups on your own, or once the course begins you can find a group.
More than 2.5 billion of the world’s poor rely on agriculture for their livelihood. Helping these smallholder farmers gain access to better products and inputs has the potential to improve their lives permanently. When farmers grow more food and earn more income, they are better able to provide for their families, send their children to school and invest in improving their farms. Growing Prosperity: Developing Repeatable Models To Scale The Adoption of Agricultural Innovations, a new report by Acumen and Bain & Company produced with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, unveils how social enterprises can find new, effective ways to profitably serve these hard-to-reach customers at scale. Based on extensive research conducted in five countries across South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, including interviews with more than 300 smallholder farmers, Growing Prosperity proposes how these companies can give poor customers much-needed access to the right products and services at the right time to help pull them out of poverty.In this short course, you’ll hear directly from the authors about the report’s highlights and the new frameworks they developed. You’ll also begin to explore ways you can apply these tools and insights to your own work to scale adoption of products and services at the base of the pyramid. This is the first in a series of short courses based on the report.YOU'LL LOVE THIS COURSE IF:You are looking to achieve positive change in the world and scale your approach across marketsYou are curious about how social sector organizations can apply cutting edge business principles and modelsYou want to learn about approaches to scaling adoption of products or services at the bottom of the pyramidYou are working to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers by introducing new agricultural innovationsWHAT YOU'LL LEARN:By the end of this course, you will be able to:Explain the challenges of scaling adoption of agricultural innovationsUnderstand the basics of the “4As to Adoption” framework and the repeatable models frameworkArticulate key insights about how to spur greater adoption of innovative products and services among some of the world’s poorest customersHOW THE COURSE WORKSThis is a +Acumen short course that will take approximately 2 hours to complete. The course materials will remain open and you can come back to it at any time.There are no in-person teachers or facilitators for this course, but we will have technical and subject matter experts available to assist you online. You can take this course either in a group or on your own. The course will be offered through a third party learning platform called NovoEd.Course content will consist of a recorded webinar, readings, and a short assignment. You can take this course with a group or individually.
You've developed an innovation, program or service to help the poor. Now how do you assess whether you're really reaching your target market? Customers at the bottom of the pyramid are diverse. They span different ages, poverty levels and occupations and use products and services in different ways. The more you know about your target customers, the better you can develop strategies and offerings that meet their needs.This Short Course from +Acumen and Grameen Foundation will teach you about market segmentation, or how to divide your market into clusters that have relatively similar needs. You'll learn about the Progress Out of Poverty Index; understand the nuts and bolts of market segmentation; complete a customer segmentation matrix; and start to build customer personas so that you can better identify who you're targeting and design products or programs with them in mind. We'll draw from case studies of companies who have used the Progress Out of Poverty Index to collect meaningful customer insights. After this course, you'll be better prepared to implement market segmentation and use survey tools that can yield important insights about your customers.
+Acumen desarrolló este curso conjuntamente con el Grupo de Impacto de Acumen para ayudar a responder estas preguntas: '¿Qué significa crear impacto social?' '¿Cómo es el proceso?' y '¿Por qué medir el impacto social y qué medir?' Este curso se centra en la forma como Acumen mide el impacto de su portafolio de empresas y cómo usted podrá aplicar estas herramientas en cualquier contexto.Creemos que este curso será especialmente revelador para quienes tienen interés en inversiones de impacto, pero de ninguna manera es solo para ese público. Ya sea en su calidad de filántropo, profesional de las inversiones de impacto social sin ánimo de lucro o emprendedor del sector social, o como persona que sencillamente desea “hacer el bien", este curso es para usted.
What does social impact mean?How does Acumen assess social impact when considering potential investments?How can you apply the same concepts elsewhere?One of the most common questions we get is how we measure our impact. Is it just the number of lives impacted? How do we know if the goods and services our companies provide are improving lives? When do social and financial goals coincide, and when do they deviate? These questions are core to our work to create a world beyond poverty.Together with Acumen’s Impact Team, we’ve developed this introductory course to help you understand how we analyze impact in our portfolio and how you can apply the same building blocks to any socially-focused company or organization that you are personally excited about.We believe this course will be especially insightful for those interested in impact investing, but it is by no means limited to that audience. Whether you are a philanthropist, an individual working at a non-profit, an impact investor or an social entrepreneur, or if you just want to understand what it might take for you to “do good” more effectively, this course is for you.The world needs you to lead.
You've come up with an amazing prototype for a new product or service that could benefit villagers in rural Kenya or slum dwellers in India. Now how do you figure out if there is a sustainable business model to get this innovation into the hands of your customers? This 5-week course from +Acumen & Santa Clara University's Global Social Benefit Institute will help you think through how you can create financial value while delivering products or services to the poor. You'll learn about 5 social enterprise models that Acumen has seen effectively create value, and then you'll use the business model canvas to map out components of your own potential company. You'll analyze your value chain—from manufacturing to distribution—and determine the stages you want to get involved in vs. where you'll need to partner with other key players. You'll walk away from this course with hypotheses about the size of your target market, the key business partners you'll need to reach out to, and potential cost structures and revenue streams. While this course will not delve into the intricacies of financial modeling, you'll emerge with a big-picture understanding of the key components to consider if you are building a business that prioritizes social impact and strives for financial sustainability.
When you think of networking, do you envision awkward mingling at cocktail parties and self-promotional pitches? This doesn't have to be the case. At Acumen, we believe leaders should have the audacity to imagine the world as it could be AND the humility to recognize that they cannot change the world alone. To tackle the world’s toughest problems, you need collaboration from people across your network and across sectors.In this 2.5 hour On Demand course from +Acumen and theCenter for Creative Leadership, you’ll complete interactive diagnostic activities that will help you and your team unearth the social capital & relationships that you bring to the table. You’ll be exposed to new data visualization tools for mapping your network; learn about 5 network traps to avoid that are particularly common to the social sector; and, most importantly, gain concrete strategies for building genuinely collaborative relationships. Key Learning Outcomes:By the end of this course, you will:Understand the 3 key characteristics of effective networks and 5 network “traps” to avoidMap and diagnose your individual network using the Leadership Diagnostic tool and other visualization platformsVisualize and collaboratively assess your organizational or team network to see key trends and gapsPlot 3 specific ways you can cross a network boundary, make a new introduction, and deepen an existing relationshipThis Course Is For You If:A team member looking to uncover and build upon your team’s network, particularly around a common challenge or goalAn individual looking to diagnose the strengths and gaps in your own personal networkAnyone who wants to work more collaboratively to tackle the world’s toughest problems
You've come up with an amazing prototype for a new product or service that could benefit villagers in rural Kenya or slum dwellers in India. Now how do you figure out if there is a sustainable business model to get this innovation into the hands of your customers? This 5-week course from +Acumen & Santa Clara University's Global Social Benefit Institute will help you think through how you can create financial value while delivering products or services to the poor. You'll learn about 5 social enterprise models that Acumen has seen effectively create value, and then you'll use the business model canvas to map out components of your own potential company. You'll analyze your value chain—from manufacturing to distribution—and determine the stages you want to get involved in vs. where you'll need to partner with other key players. You'll walk away from this course with hypotheses about the size of your target market, the key business partners you'll need to reach out to, and potential cost structures and revenue streams. While this course will not delve into the intricacies of financial modeling, you'll emerge with a big-picture understanding of the key components to consider if you are building a business that prioritizes social impact and strives for financial sustainability.
For almost 15 years, Acumen has been making long-term debt and equity investments in early-stage enterprises tackling poverty and striving to provide low-income consumers with critical products and services—from affordable education, housing, andhealthcare, to clean energy, safe drinking water, and productivity-enhancing agricultural technologies.Over time, we have reviewed thousands of business plans and mentored dozens of the world’s best-known social enterprises. We have also learned a lot about what it takes to be successful, including a passionate leadership, humility, and being closely attuned to the unique needs and cultural context of low-income consumers. Financial rigor is another key to creating a sustainable and scalable business model—the organization’s plan for profitably making and selling a product or service.We have come across entrepreneurs who have not been sufficiently rigorous in assessing the business case. In some cases, their numbers just didn’t add up—targeted price points couldn’t generate enough income to cover anticipated sales and operating costs. Other times, a business could look profitable at first glance. But on deeper investigation, the business could never scale without continued subsidies because it didn’t generate enough net profit to pay for up-front set up costs, capital depreciation, and overhead.Having a clear line of sight on how your social enterprise will reach a profit level required for scaling is a critical part of being a successful social enterprise and achieving the goal of broad social impact and transformation. It’s an issue important at all stages of a new enterprise’s birth and growth (i.e. Blueprint, Validate, Prepare, Scale up phase).Because of this, we have teamed up with Dr. Erik Simanis to develop this introductory course on financial modeling for start-up social enterprises. Erik has more than a decade of hands-on experience leading and advising social enterprises and major corporations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.The course will show you how to think about and build a basic financial model from the ground up, starting from a single “business unit”—a stand-alone profit-center (like a branch, sales office, or individual franchise) that is replicated when you scale. The course will then explain how to connect the business-unit financials with the “home-office” and its associated costs—these are the supporting operations and administrative structures that have to be put in place in order to scale a business. This approach helps ensure that your product or service can be realistically commercialized, and that the business model is built for scalability from the start.This course is valuable for social entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes, and at all stages of the start-up cycle. It is as applicable to aspiring social entrepreneurs with a great idea, as it is to non-profits preparing to replicate a market-based project, to impact investors evaluating a new business, and to corporate intrapreneurs launching a bottom-of-the-pyramid venture.So please join us, and get fluent with the numbers side of social enterprise—a critical skill for all the world’s changemakers!