moladi - A game-changer comany Heres a dilemma: You are the owner of a construction company and to expand your market, you need to go into neighborhoods where clients cant pay the typical con struction costs; where there is a dearth of skilled labour and where it is near ly impossible to transport the materials typically associated with your convent ional construction methods. You ask yourself: Why make the effort is the juice wo rth the squeeze? This was the situation faced by Moladi, a South African family-owned business. Sure, there was a demand for new construction after all, affordable housing in low-income areas can provide a pivotal asset and source of stability that can p ull a family out of poverty. In fact, many families were trying to build houses on their own, leading to sub-standard construction and often dangerous living conditions Moladi, however, was ready to rise to the challenge. They put a lot of skin in t he game from a technological innovation perspective, and in the process designed a new construction material to meet the constraints of the target market a rem ovable, reusable, recyclable, and lightweight plastic formwork mould, which whe n filled with aerated mortar, could form the wall structure of a house in as ea rly as one day. Better yet, each set of Moladi formwork panels could be reused 50 times, without electricity, and by unskilled labourers. This was a game-changer for Moladi as a company. The new formwork mould technolo gynow makes up the majority of the companys business, and is being exported to o ther markets such as Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. By taking an informed ris k and creating an innovative new product, Moladi not only improved their compan ys financial position, but also played a catalytic role in the lives of many fam ilies in poverty. This is one of the many transformational stories on how companies unlock their potential by expanding their businesses in emerging markets. Like Moladi, they are looking beyond typical CSR efforts to understand how they can create a new business opportunity, by better understanding and meeting critical social needs . And like Moladi, businesses which are successful in these efforts do so by bein g intentional in what they hope to achieve (for example, understanding the soci al constraints and how a strategy can address them) and support it with resourc es and leadership time commiserate with a significant new business strategy. So the real question isnt to build or not to build? but rather to innovate or not t o innovate? Were finding that game-changing companies have realised they cant affo rd to not innovate with shared value strategies while approaching emerging mark ets. Moladi is just one of thirty success stories we came across while conducting re search for Shared Value in Emerging Markets, a white paper written in partnersh ip with the Rockefeller Foundationto explore how multi-national corporations co uld play an increasingly valuable role in addressing social issues across emerg ing markets. Like Rockefeller, FSG is committed to learning more about how companies can pla y a transformational role in reversing the downward social trends we are seeing in many communities. In fact, another joint effort with the Rockefeller Founda tion (among others), the Shared Value Initiative, was featured last week as a Co mmitment to Action for the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting. This is only the beginning of the journey and we invite you to share your thoug

hts. If you have additional ideas on how shared value is being created in emerg ing markets, or pre-conditions for success, wed love to hear them and incorporat e them into the continuing dialogue. By Patty Russell, FSG Director (Patty is a part of FSGs leadership group and lea ds the Catalytic Philanthropy approach area. She has over 12 years experience in advising corporations, private foundations, and non-profit organisations on str ategy, programme design, evaluation, and operational improvement.) Tags: emerging markets, FSG, innovation, Moladi, Rockefeller Foundation, shared value, plastic formwork, game changer, new formwork technology Read more: http://forbesindia.com/blog/the-good-company/to-build-or-not-to-build -that-is-the-question/