Helping businesses, and the world, flourish
Can we leverage broader opportunities, shifting strategies, and new media in pursuit of a more connected and regenerative supply chain? Here are some ways to begin the change.
This edition is a watershed, a break from my past, and a step toward the future. First, it’s a hybrid: part newsletter, part podcast. And I’ve changed the newsletter’s name to Mark Dancer on Flourishing Business. Frequent readers know that I believe that the highest purpose of the supply chain and distribution is to help customers do their work and live their lives—or, more succinctly, to help them flourish. I can think of no better example of helping businesses flourish than the work of Andrew Mack, Founder and CEO of Agromovil. Agromovil is a software company and digital platform designed to help small farmers in developing nations take products to market, pushing their produce into the supply chain to serve global and local needs. Below is my video conversation with Mack, followed by critical takeaways and a few calls to action.
Collaborating for an ‘upgraded’ supply chain
Andrew Mack has a powerful idea for enabling small farmers in emerging nations. He is working to make it happen by fostering collaborations among farmers, buyers, aggregators, governments, and the supply chain. Agromovil is a smartphone platform designed to connect small farmers and buyers, providing visibility to prices and arranging transportation when crops are ready for market. And there’s more, including ideas and inspirations for small and local farmers in developed nations. The best way to understand Mack’s work is to listen to his words, paying attention for insights into the problems and promises of small farmers, supply chains, and international development in this video recording of our recent conversation:
Mack and I agree that the lack of a modern innovation framework holds back the global supply chain, which works for customers on both ends and the supply chain's first and last mile. Mack added that customer needs, especially ones that are not large and powerful, are like a caboose on a train—last in place and priority. He noted that the best trains often operate with engines on both ends. Mack’s thought intrigued me as a form of distributed enablement. I looked into the reasons for putting engines at both ends. The arrangement provides more power, flexibility, safety, profitability, carrying capacity, and more—all worthy goals for a well-running, modern, and upgraded supply chain.
Listening to Mack, I discovered several ideas worthy of consideration by innovators everywhere:
Build technology solutions that are simple in design but radical in effect. Effective business leaders understand the value of being easy to do business with; the same concept applies to technology solutions. People ignore tools that are cumbersome and confusing. But being easy to use does not mean a solution cannot be radical in its impact. Don’t dumb down ideas. Aim high.
Innovate at the edge of markets. Instead of asking customers how services can be improved, inquire about what they cannot accomplish because a solution does not exist. Existing players in every market often embrace new solutions for unmet needs because they are not disruptive. Consider Square. As explained here, founder Jim McKelvey noticed that small businesses were severely limited in taking credit card orders. Square created a solution and became a billion-dollar player in the market for mobile transactions.
Reinvent two-way distribution as a purpose-driven communication network. The global supply chain moves products in the first mile as buyers pay for orders. In the last mile, distributors accomplish the same outcome, delivering products and accepting payment. Mack envisions his platform enabling two-way messages—sending prices, knowledge, training, and expertise to farmers and creating a back-and-forth communication channel. Distributors in developed nations may offer the same value, fostering targeted and high-impact communications among customers, suppliers, and other parties across markets, communities, and ecosystems.
Don’t protect data; advocate for customers and facilitate mutual benefit. Agromovil aggregates data on availability, prices, and more and makes it available for all, but never in a way that works against the interests of the data’s source: small farmers. Transparency and visibility create value up and down the supply chain, in both directions, for all players. Today, distributors and suppliers often hoard their data, considering it an asset for building proprietary advantage. But supply chains cannot achieve their maximum impact without acting on shared data. Independent actors, like Agromovil, may offer platforms that break the data log jam by advocating for customers. Customers give the supply chain purpose, and serving customers better is a foundation for finding new collaborations among all supply chain competitors for mutual benefit.
Collaborate through coalitions, leveraging scale for human benefit. Mack drives progress by finding willing actors among companies, communities, governments, aggregators, and farmers. Distributors and supply chain innovators may model on his work, building coalitions among supply chain activists. By succeeding where success is possible, a moment can build progress everywhere. In a way, these efforts could leverage the massive power of the supply chain to achieve economic and social goods. I think of this as “scale in the service of local.” That is, leveraging what can only be done at scale to create value for communities, workers, and consumers, according to their unique, individual, and human needs.
Leaning in
Operating in a connected supply chain means leveraging the power of human communications to find new opportunities for doing business differently, not retreating to doing business virtually through unseen and opaque algorithms. Mack explained: “We live in a world with increasing connectivity, creating more and more options for incumbents to innovate.” Mack works at the “active edges” of his platform and the supply chain, doing business as a savvy instigator that sees the need for social and economic change, bettering the plight of small farmers while offering a radical change for a more robust and better supply chain. Looking ahead, Mack offered, “One of my dreams … is to create the kind of efficient circular system where people on the platform selling their stuff can be on the platform buying things that they need so that every truck goes out full and every truck comes back full.”
I have written about launching a moonshot and building a supply chain that is not just resilient but responsive to the needs and aspirations of customers and is regenerative for communities, working to help them thrive and grow. Mack’s vision for building an efficient circular system is a powerful concept that invites us all to lean in and help. I offer several suggestions for doing so and welcome your ideas and suggestions:
Communicate. Do you have questions for Mack about his goals or platform? Can you offer support? Or connections? Or anything else?
Think globally. Can you reach out to global businesses in your supply chain to understand their sourcing challenges, especially in emerging nations, and offer Agromovil as an inspiration or solution? How can you act on their needs?
Act locally. Can you imagine Agromovil’s approach as a solution for helping small and local farmers in your markets and developed nations? Or, by extension, for enabling power solutions, healthcare providers, or more? (Read here for more on the trend toward distributed agriculture, power, and healthcare.)
Distribute differently. Can you think of applications for two-way distribution, moving physical products to and from customers or suppliers, and creating a communication network across the supply chain and its ecosystem?
I need your help. I welcome your feedback and suggestions on this newsletter’s hybrid format, and if you have not already completed my survey on reader innovations, please click here. If you can help with Andrew Mack’s work at Agromovil, please contact him at amack@agromovil.co. As always, please leave your comments below or reach me at mark.dancer@n4bi.com.