Your customer defines your business. So who is your customer?

I recently tagged along on a field visit by an NGO in the area where I work. The purpose of the visit was so that a senior manager, who had come from the UK, could report on what was happening on the ground back to the Board of Directors. We arrived at the 'target village' around mid-day where the residents had already assembled. For the next hour, there were speeches by various key members, expressing their gratitude for the assistance that the NGO has provided and highlighting some of the challenges they have been facing.

I wondered how useful this visit was in terms of capturing what was 'happening on the ground' if that really was the purpose. There had been trips to this village by the project staff earlier in the week to make sure the water was flowing and the people were informed that an important visitor was coming. It seemed a little strange to me that all this time and effort on the part of the project staff and the residents of the village was spent to make sure that the 'visitor' left with a good impression [ironically, the tap wasn't working that day].

But I think it makes complete sense if I look at the event from a 'customer service' point of view.

For any business to exist, there needs to be someone who pays for the product or service…a customer. So if we look at the source of the revenue for NGOs, the donor is the customer and not the residents of the village we visited. And any business owner will tell you that customer satisfaction is the key to success.

So what might this customer want? The customer is disturbed by the dismal situation in villages which lack access to safe water and strongly desires to see changes. She feels that the best way to help is by giving money to an NGO which is delivering "results" on the ground, and has a good reputation. And so it becomes absolutely crucial for an NGO to tell convincing stories and maintain a trustworthy reputation, in order to compete for this customer's hard earned money. The NGO will focus on processes which improve customer satisfaction. Compelling marketing, convenient donation channels, annual audits, celebrity endorsements, messages that ensure the donor that their money is making a difference…all of it to maintain confidence in the brand. The customer knows this and is ok with having 20% of her money go towards those administrative activities.

But here's the critical issue- If the donor is the customer, then what the donor views as "results" is what the NGO must focus on to keep the customer happy. If the customer wants convincing stories and clear accountability, then the operations in the target country (where the 80% of the money goes) must focus on delivering those things, first and foremost. This means that a decision to dig brand new wells will be made over the decision to set up systems which ensure that the well is still functional in five years. The incentives are set up to encourage quick-wins, especially ones that can show visible and tangible results. It also explains why preparing for a visit by UK staff, who is ultimately accountable to the donor and not village residents, is worth the time investment by the project staff.

As I glanced around the circle in that visit, I was wondering what the residents were actually thinking. I'm sure they were fully aware that if they impart a good impression on the visitor, then ultimately the donors will be happy, which will mean that the NGO will continue to work in their area and they will receive some of the benefits.

But I wonder how different those 'benefits' might look like, if these people in front of me were the real customers. I wonder if the project staff would focus on making sure that the tap is running to keep these customers happy, and not because a visitor from the UK is coming.

How little I know

Amazing how time flies.

It's been a year and two weeks since I began a new chapter in my life. I had just said goodbye to my job and I was going to take a few months off before starting a volunteer placement with Engineers without Borders Canada. During those months off, I wanted to travel around North America on a 'learning tour' to seek out new ideas and ways of thinking.

So exactly a year ago, my brother and I were sitting in a classroom in Columbia university, attending a lecture on the global food supply chain by Raj Patel. It was very clear to me that I knew almost nothing about a system that plays such a huge role in my daily life.

A week later I was attending a workshop in Rhode Island, where Andrew Hargadon's talk on "how breakthroughs happen" made me realize how little I knew about the way some of the most significant innovations of our time have emerged (Edison's light bulb or Ford's automobile).

That 'learning tour' was taken to a whole 'nother level since August '08, as I began my work in Malawi. A constant stream of new experiences over the past year have made me realize how little I know about the world we live in.

And that is a very uncomfortable feeling. From junior school all the way through university, I've been expected to understand, to figure things out, and come up with the 'right answer'. So for many months, this feeling of ignorance dissuaded me from sharing any thoughts online. "I can't write about something until I really understand it". Then just recently I came across this interview with Richard Saul Wurman (the founder of TED among many things) which helped me to get out of this rut.

"I had an epiphany at about twenty years of age, a true momentary epiphany. It had nothing to do with making things understandable for the world. It had to do with my own ignorance.
Everything comes from that terrifying moment, that milli-second, that terrifying moment of utter truth when I understood that I understood nothing.
I'll tell you the fundamental NEXT thing that happened in my life. I started teaching at the University of Carolina at twenty-six years of age, an assistant professor of architecture. The epiphany there occurred in the first day of class was: Do I teach about what I know or do I teach what I want to learn about?"

Working out here in the development sector in Malawi, I feel that it's my task to communicate 'lessons from the field' to friends and family back in Canada. But when I read that interview, it became clear to me that the reason I was finding this task so difficult, was because I was trying to write about what I know. And instead what I need to be doing is to share the observations and stories that make me go- "hmm, I had no idea". It's in that spirit that I hope to write this blog.