Ayuda! Guatemala necesita vender más mantequilla de maní!

Así que he tenido esta idea dando vueltas en mi cabeza por unos años. Cuando estuve en Guatemala, los grupos con que yo estaba trabajando a menudo requieriron algo de experiencia o un servicio en un área particular, pero o bien:

• No sabían dónde encontrar este servicio
• Tenían dudas en cuanto a la calidad del servicio
• No se pudieron pagar el precio del servicio

Un ejemplo de ello hubiera sido las etiquetas que teníamos que diseñar para los productos en venta de los grupos. El "tiempo al mercado" de muchos de estos productos fue/es extremadamente rápido, lo que significa que alguien tuvo que diseñar un paquete o/y presentación del producto, a menudo en un período muy corto. El diseño podría ser por cualquier persona de los propios grupos o por alguien que trabaja en el Ministerio de Económica, muchos de los cuales tenían credenciales dudosa en el diseño de productos. La mayoría de los mismos grupos y que es lo más importante- los clientes no participaron en este proceso.

Mi pensamiento, como yo mismo (no soy un diseñador de productos para nada) estaba tratando de mejorar el diseño del frasco y la etiqueta de mantequilla de maní  (ver derecha), es que debe existir, literalmente miles de personas en el mundo (ya sea locales o en otros países) quien le encantaría tratar diseñar una etiqueta de maní mantequilla para un grupo de mujeres indígenas en Guatemala.

¿A quién tenía presente?

1. Estudiantes del diseño/arte, miles de los cuales supongo que crean diseños para  productos míticos que no existen (y estoy definitivamente incluyenco entre ellos estudiantes de universidades en Guatemala).

2. Profesionales del diseño/arte, por ejemplo quien trabajan en una agencia de publicidad und hacen un trabajo donde hay menos oportunidades para originalidad.

Tal vez haya otros candidatos obvios, pero no que vienen a la mente en este moment.

Pero, ¿cómo sea posible que tal una conexión sea establecida? Obviamente, a través de Internet. En un nivel básico, se publicaría un problema, con un honorario que debería pagarse por el grupo (calculado por ellos mismos, y quizás en el futuro por un tercero partido). Este problema podría ser adoptada por un número de partidos (o una parte que el grupo mismo se escogió), y el "ganador" sería concedido con el honorario. Un profesor, por ejemplo, podría presentar el problema a sus alumnos. Un máximo de cuatro competitores  podrían diseñar etiquetas de mantequilla de maní dentro de los parámetros definidos.

Para los profesionales y profesores/alumnos, el acceso a Internet no suele ser un problema. Para las empresas en el mundo sin fines de lucro, este acceso no es tan facil. Lo requeriría actores locales para promover dicha oferta. Sin embargo, dichos actores participan ahora en los países del tercer mundo en varias áreas: Micro-créditos, cursos de Internet, etc. Sería alianzas con estos grupos que podrían promover el servicio.

¿Cuánto costaría tal servicio? En la idea de cobrar una tarifa por el servicio hay, en mi opinión, tres ventajas. Uno, que el negocio o grupo se da cuenta de que están recibiendo un servicio, y no algo de forma gratuita, lo que le da más valor a ellos y también les ayuda en el manejo del negocio, en lugar de sea una institución benéfica. Dos, que la persona que presta el servicio sea remunerado por el. Tres, que el sitio web tiene un pequeño ingreso para permitir su mantenimiento, etc.

También es posible pronosticar que el sitio web en sí podría servir de consulta en términos de qué grupos reciben prioridad de los servicios, que las solicitudes de servicio por 0,01 dólares que se publican en la página web no sean demasiados, y quizás en el futuro que ciertos servicios costarán una tarifa base, o un honorario standard. El sitio web también se podría traducir los solucitudes a otros idiomas. Se prevé que el sitio web cumplen una función similar a la página web de Kiva, ayudando a los usuarios distinguir qué servicios fueron mejores o los más interesantes para ellos.

¿Qué servicios se podría pedir? Ideas para mejorar la gestión del proyecto de un negocio pequeño que se estancó, diseño de etiquetas, diseño de funcionalidad de productos (por ejemplo, sistemas solares para comunidades apartadas), diseño de sitios web.

¿Qué se necesita? Para mí, un buen lugar para empezar sería con una organización internacional que sea capaz de promover este tipo de servicio. Estamos hablando de un país específico en la primer fase, por ejemplo la India, con una organización de microcrédito. El sitio web sería construido y gestionado en dondequiera (lo lógico sería que se base en un país donde el equipo podría promoverlo activamente a las universidades), con un equipo de colaboradores en la web. Con suerte, después de que la prueba de concepto fue, así, probado, otros organizaciones involucrados en el desarrollo sin fines de lucro podrían ayudar a promover la página web a través de su propio sitio web, y con sus propios contactos.

Pensamientos?

Help! Guatemala needs to sell more Peanut Butter!

So I have had this idea floating around in my head for a few years now. When I was in Guatemala, the groups I was working for quite often required some expertise or service in a particular area, but either:

• Didn't know where to find this service
• Were dubious about the quality of the service
• Could not afford the price of the service

An example would have been the labels we had to design for the products the groups were selling. The "to-market" time of many of these products was extremely fast, meaning that someone had to design a package and presentation for the product in often a very short period. The design could be one by anyone from the groups themselves to someone working in the "economic ministry", many of which had dubious credentials inproduct design. Mostly the groups themselves or more importantly the customers had no input into the product design.

My thought, as I myself (not a product designer!) was trying to improve the design of a peanut butter jar and label (see right), was that there must exist literally thousands of people in the world (either locals or in other countries) that would love to try and design a peanut butter label for a group of indigenous women in Guatemala. 

Who did I have in mind? 

1. Art design students, thousands of which I am guessing create designs for mythical products that don't exist (and I am definitely including students from Guatemalan Universities in this).
2. Art design professionals, who work in an ad agency doing work where they themselves have little creative input. 

There are perhaps other obvious candidates, but none that come to mind at present. 

But how could such a connection be established? Obviously, through the internet. On a basic level, a problem would be posted, with a fee to be paid by the group (calculated by themselves, and perhaps in the future by a third party). This problem could be taken up by a number of parties (or one party that the group chose themselves), and the "winner" awarded the fee. A professor, for example, could present the problem to his students. A maximum of four competing people could design peanut butter labels within the parameters defined. 

For design professionals and professors/students, access to the internet is not usually a problem. For businesses in the non-profit world, that access is not so assured. It would require local groups to promote such an offer. But these local groups are now involved in third-world countries in several areas: Micro-loans, Internet courses, etc. It would be partnerships with these groups that could promote the service. 

How much would such a service cost? The idea of charging a fee for the service has, in my view, three advantages. One, that the business realises they are getting a service, and not something for free, which gives it more worth to them and also helps them in running the business, rather than a charity. Two, that the person providing the service is renumerated for their services. Three, that the service website has some small amount of income to allow for maintenance, etc.

It is also possible to forsee that the website itself could provide some consulting in terms of which groups receive priority for services, that not too many service requests for $0.01 are posted on the website, and perhaps in the future that certain services cost a base fee, or a standard fee. The website could also translate problems into other languages. It is envisaged that the website would fulfill a role similar to the Kiva website, helping users distinguish which services were for them. 

What services could be requested? Ideas for improving the project management of a stagnated small business, label design, product funtionality design (for example with solar systems for remote communities), website design. 

What does it need? For me, a good place to start would be with an international organisation that would be able to promote such a service. We are talking in one specific country at first, say India, with a Microcredit organisation. The website would be built and managed whereever (it would make sense to base it in a country where the team could actively promote it to universities), with a team collaborating over the web. Hopefully, after the proof-of-concept was, well, proven, other organisations involved in non-profit development could help promote the website through their own website, and on the ground with their own contacts. 

Thoughts?

This was an email I sent to Jock Brandis, creater of the peanut sheller we recently installed in the community of Valle de Esmeralda, Petén, Guatemala. They have their own blog as well!
Full Belly Blog

I think you know the basics. The group from North Carolina brought the machine through customs here without hassles, and I met them at the airport with the Spanish school that we organised the contact through.
Despite a few communication problems (I wanted the machine parts transported to Antigua, as without a vehicle it was a difficult task for me) we eventually got the parts there. The US$50 excess baggage fee was compensated through me by the women by paying for a meal for the travellers in a restaurant here in Antigua.

Fast forward a couple of months, during which I was working here in Antigua, but I managed to mail the two boxes to the community in Petén, and they were collected and stored in the “factory” there. On about the 18th of May, I made my two or three-monthly visit to the community, had our normal meeting, unveiled the parts, and we started construction the next day (21st, I believe).

Day 1:

• We used a basic 50-50% mix of sand and cement
• Bought a little extra plastic for the small mould (not included)
• Used cooking margarine used by one of the women who also makes bread in the community to grease the moulds
• Let stand for 24 hours

Day 2:

• Removed the rotor with little difficulty from the mould
• Scoured the inner surface of the stator with the back cog of a bicycle gear
• Constructed the lathe mould from spare wood
• Scoured and “evened” the rotor with the same bicycle cog until concentric
• Let stand for another 24 hours

Day 3:

• Removed the stator from the mould with little difficulty
• Mounted the top metal bracket concentric on the stator
• “Dropped” the stator in far too forcefully and then removed it after 15 minutes
• Attempted to centre the bottom metal bracket with a little difficulty
• The rotor ended up a little off centre, or at least not even with all the stator surfaces, don’t know if this is normal or not
•  The attempt to mount the bottom of the stator on two pieces of wood proved a little difficult, as the four bent screws were exposed with far too little length to mount on thick wood, and we had no tools to indent a hole to allow the nuts to pass in the wood, as shown in the assembly photos.
  I would recommend with the internet instruction that you at least specify the end function of the screws embedded in the cement, to allow an estimate of how much to leave exposed out from the cement.
• We eventually mounted the machine on a wooden “horse”, which will allow the inner nuts and shells to drop into a tub which we can remove and change over with ease

Our hiccups

• Not knowing the function of screws we were putting in to the cement moulds
• Not having a full list of things we would need before starting: (For example, the lathe to plane the rotor, pieces of wood to attached to the bottom of the stator, glue, tools, etc.)
• Putting the rotor into the stator with nothing to support the stator, or a “stopper” to prevent the rotor from wedging between the two
• Problems with centring the bottom thread of the rotor, and the rotor dropping through the top thread when we righted the machine
• Threads too short to support decent thickness of wood to mount the machine on the drum

Otherwise, the process was quite smooth. I amazed myself with my problem-solving skills, to be quite honest, the problems were quite easily overcome, with nothing but internet instructions printed out to go on.
 
I had at least two women watching the assembly process at all times, so I hope they would be able to do it by themselves (pending the above changes to the instructions, and translations into Spanish).
They were also very impressed, I think, by the ease of function of the machine, we did hardly any adjustment, having the handle on the lowest possible setting of the rotor (thinnest possible passage, right?). The only problem with this is that the small stature of Mayan women means that they will probably have to be standing on a block or something to turn the crank, as it is at about head-height for them, and perhaps their arms will have problems clearing the central threaded-rotor.

I have a friend that took a good grab of the interesting parts of the construction, and of course the finished product. I also took a couple, but with the old-fashioned film that you’re going to have to wait for processing.

As I stated in my previous emails, the next step is to find the best way of making the technology available to other communities.
Basically this means we are left with a few steps to be completed, which I sincerely believe do not require any more funds.

1. Finding a cheap and reliable way of replicating the metal parts (these will be supplied at cost)
2. Finding a reliable way of getting the moulds and instructions to communities from my base here in Antigua (more or less a central point of contact to communities – the capital is only 1 hour by public bus away)
   This is a tougher one, I think a deposit system is the way to go here, when the moulds are returned, so will be the money.

There is also the potential to get a quote for another set of moulds at a fibre-glass workshop here, now that we have the originals available. I honestly think this will be a manageable task.

That’s all for now. If any of the people from your part of the world make it down here, I would be only too happy to take them to the community to see your project in action. I would also like to send you a couple of jars of peanut butter.

Yours in solidarity,
Tomas Triglone