CLIENT: Global Goods Partners

DATES: November 2009 - February 2010

COMPANY
Global Goods Partners creates economic opportunity for women in some of the world’s poorest nations by providing them with access to the US market to sell their fair trade goods.

CHALLENGE
Global Goods Partners needed to determine a strategic direction for their next fiscal year that both created the most impact in the communities they served, and generated revenue to sustain the organization. As the Director of Marketing and Operations, I was tasked with leading the strategic planning initiatives of the organization.

APPROACH
To develop a plan based on key strengths, we first needed to understand how all of the company’s processes were working, where the holes were, how the community partners viewed the impact being created, what was selling and not selling, and what the general market trajectory looked like. I worked with staff members to collect and analyze all of this internal and external data. Additionally, I interviewed key players in the industry to extract learnings from them and get a baseline benchmark for the company.  

We used all of these findings and documents to convene a staff retreat in which we brainstormed solutions and formulated a strategic plan for the coming year. The strategic plan included objectives and concrete plans to implement solutions for:

1) Strengthening the partner microenterprise portfolio  
On-boarding new partners based on on-site observations, interviews, survey assessments, product reviews, and their administrative capacity

2) Providing a more robust marketplace for microenterprise partner products
Re-building the e-commerce website to be more user friendly

3) Strengthening Global Goods Partners’ web presence via online marketing
Building wholesale relationships

4) Reformatting branding assets

5) Streamlining internal operations to make the best use of limited resources
Creating accounting manuals and procedures
Solidifying warehouse policies and relationships

RESULTS
The final deliverable was a strategic planning document, microenterprise partner support timeline, and online marketing plan. The combined outcomes of these plans were a new wholesale line of business that accounted for 25% of sales, a 52% expansion of the microenterprise network and 30% growth of earned revenue via the ecommerce platform.