WITNESSING THE VERY BEGINNING OF PURPOSE-DRIVEN BUSINESSES IN BOLIVIA
Picture yourself, ten years from now, you wake up for work in the morning, knowing that besides owning a salary you are contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ¿Will this increase your motivation?
It is forecasted that in 10 years, around 80% of businesses in the world will be purpose-driven, meaning that profit will no longer be the main goal, instead purpose will be the reason why a business exists.
Bolivia is no stranger to this movement, nowadays purpose-driven ventures are appearing and some of them are already recognized locally and abroad due to their significant contribution to SDGs and their innovative approach.
Although some businesses have been here in Bolivia for more than five years now, COVID is accelerating this trend and we must realize the witnessing of the beginning of this global movement here in Bolivia.
The “State of the art” regarding SDGs in Bolivia
To start this conversation, let’s see in a nutshell Bolivia’s performance concerning SDGs achievement.
In the chart below you can see the effort we are doing as a country, considering that the only numbers come from the Gubernamental section (i.e. municipalities and regional governments) in general our effort is not enough yet, and requires a compromise from all economical actors to work coordinated and act together towards this framework of goals.
What we have not yet taken into consideration, is the contribution of purpose-driven businesses and ventures to achieve SDGs:
Contribution of purpose-driven businesses in Bolivia to the achievement of SDGs
Just a parenthesis: returning to the abovementioned future, imagine you are searching for a job focused on the SDGs you stand for; thus, to decide which one to apply, you can use this (non-exhaustive) preliminary list of purpose-driven companies categorized on their contribution to achieving the SDGs.
Think of this, perhaps as an attempt to build an idea on how this information can help all stakeholders to:
- take the decision which goals are more relevant to prioritize
- Focus on how to enhance the impact of current purpose-driven businesses in Bolivia
- Measure the level of impact that businesses are or can deliver
- Develop policies
- Guide for benchmarking and driving innovation
I must apologize, this first approach perhaps lacks quantitative information and strives mainly on self-perception and available information. However, still I expect will help to start the conversation on this matter.
From the chart you can notice that nowadays focus and highest impact of Purpose-driven businesses are:
- Goal 5: Gender Equality
- Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production
- Goal 13: Climate action
In the next sections, we will highlight the contributions to the above-identified goals and learn more about some key businesses in Bolivia.
Goal 5: Gender equality
“encouraging more women leaders will help achieve greater gender equality”[14].
More than 70% of purpose-driven businesses in this list are founded/managed by women, isn’t this great? only this topic will let us talk for hours.
I must highlight the contribution of Innovaplast to their empowerment, with around 90% of their workforce from this sex [15].
Having stated that this sector is definitively impulsed by women, here is the — perhaps first — list of feminine purpose-driven leaders in Bolivia:
- Cecilia Jáuregui Gamarra — Innovaplast
- Claudia Otazú, Renata Freitas, Carolina Suarez — Hecha Bolsa
- Cinthia Zeballos — Salvé Bolivia
- Pamela Gallardo Moreno, Julia Beatriz Navajas — Diabla
- Ana Gutiérrez,Mariana Gutiérrez, Mariana Ardaya — La Federal
- Estefanía Asturizaga — Green Beauty
- Regina Heredia — Verde Gourmet
- María José Calderón — Amore by Fer
- Conny Toornstra & Luz Bustillos — Manq’a
Some trends express that women will dominate the world in around 50 years [16] [17] [18]; crossing this information with the quantity of purpose-driven businesses supports that affirmation, and brings me the following question: Why women are keener to start a purpose-driven business?
Although the main driver has to do with the many disadvantages in the labor market (i.e. less paid against men at the same position, difficulty to advance in the career, barriers to getting a job), I can contribute to the explanation with a contribution from the field of sports psychology: studies claim that women athletes perform better in a supportive environment as opposed to men who perform better in a competitive environment [11]. Hence, since Purpose-driven businesses are not created to compete for a market and profit, instead they have the purpose to make a better world, becomes a more natural choice for a woman to start one.
Pisos Mamut & Innovaplast: Industrial Innovation and responsible production to counterfeit climate change
Today, Pisos Mamut can be defined as the “Bolivian ambassador” of Purpose-driven businesses in the world, because of their high impact, recognition, and contribution. For those unfamiliar with Mamut, let me state that they developed its technology locally to transform waste tires for producing floors applied to industry, sports, and others. Among SDG 12, Mamut has a significant contribution to SDG 9, SDG 11, and SDG 10 [3].
Innovaplast, impulsed by Cecilia Jáuregui has also received many local and national awards. Their core business is the manufacture of plastic bags from waste plastic, the resulting product can degrade completely in up to ten years. In the future, they plan to diversify their production [13]. Innovaplast has a significant contribution to SDG 9, SDG 11, and SDG 12.
Manq’a: revitalizing Bolivian cuisine and food heritage for social development
Those who have noticed that Bolivia is becoming a gastronomical travel destination [4] [5] [9] must ask: how this happened?
The revitalization of Bolivian cuisine is linked to Copenhagen and Claus Meyer’s foundation: Melting Pot, the famous Chef and gastronomical entrepreneur who visualized the “Gastrotourists” who will be willing to taste a dish made with wild ingredients from the Amazon elaborated by talented chefs [6].
But above giving satisfaction to that new breed of tourists, all contributing forces visualized the “unreleased potential” [6] of our Bolivian food heritage and gastronomical culture, making it a tool for innovation, social development, and responsible consumption and production, materialized in the gastronomical schools created in collaboration between the ICCO cooperation and Melting Pot.
The word Manq’a stands for food in Aymara, one of our Bolivian indigenous languages. Manq’a is a chain of Gastronomical Schools and Cafeterias, owning 7 schools in the city of El Alto, 3 in the Sucre city, and replicas of the Bolivian model in Colombia and Central America. Success numbers include:
- 4200 students in the range of 16 to 35 years graduated from their schools
- 875 youth-led gastronomic ventures by Manq’a students.
- More than 75,000 lunches served
- Today 100 families of small local farmers supply their products to the schools and restaurants
The first school was established at El Alto, an area of low income, poor nutrition, and inhabited mainly by young people with few job opportunities. Teaching in schools is highly practical and lasts five and a half months. It is not limited to the technical aspect of cooking and handling local food, but developing skills in young people for customer service and management of gastronomic business, developing respect and knowledge of agricultural products and the diversity and dignity of the rural areas [8].
From my analysis, Manq’a significantly contributes to achieving SDG 2, SDG 4, SDG 8, SDG 9, SDG 12, SDG 17; furthermore, due to the impact this social innovation venture has to do raising our country’s image worldwide and it’s current and potential economic impact, becomes one of the most important case studies of Purpose-driven businesses in Latin America.
Conclusion (for now…)
By the time I am writing this article, I had the luck to discover other Purpose-driven businesses that could not yet make the above list, I will keep studying them to provide more insights and hope will be able to support them or collaborate somehow in the future.
Developing the ecosystem of Purpose-driven businesses and professionals in Bolivia will take some time, In the coming years I forecast will be a specialized demand for:
- Business Management.
- Specialized Job search services/headhunting
- Specialized services, for example, Brand strategists for conscious businesses
- Consultants in: Strategy, projects, finances, sustainability, innovation, legal matters.
The above exercise shows the value of measuring Purpose-driven businesses contribution to SDGs; which drives us to desire a formal and systematic approach. Luckily and just recently, B Lab together with UN Global Compact, developed a free tool that helps organizations worldwide to learn, measure and manage their impact: SDG Action Manager which becomes a strategic tool for businesses who are willing to achieve sustainability.
Taking advantage of waste or trash is a great opportunity; however, taking advantage of the unreleased potential of our heritage is giving us more clues on a key approach for sustainable development; today’s example is Manq’a but you surely find more connections by realizing how local fashion designers and brands are using our culture and heritage as a source of inspiration and innovation to raise this industry [12]
Let’s finish going back to the future: the good news is that it’s very likely you will work for a woman, hope this will contribute to see them differently now.
