{"id":16231,"date":"2022-10-04T13:19:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T11:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/?p=16231"},"modified":"2022-10-04T13:48:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T11:48:02","slug":"supporting-a-cambodian-social-enterprise-to-improve-production-efficiency-and-boost-marketing-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/supporting-a-cambodian-social-enterprise-to-improve-production-efficiency-and-boost-marketing-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting a Cambodian social enterprise to improve production efficiency and boost marketing performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norm Bunnak, a female entrepreneur in the handicrafts sector and CEO of Villageworks Cambodia, invited a Swiss expert, Markus G\u00f6ldi, to Cambodia to advise her company. Here she speaks about the lessons learned and the benefits to her enterprise during their two-month long collaboration.<\/em><\/p>\n

Norm Bunnak\u2019s business, Villageworks Cambodia, operates as a social enterprise. It works to give skills and jobs to people with disability (PWD) so that they can earn an income and live a self-determined life. To do so, Bunnak employs PWD and disadvantaged people to craft seagrass, silk fibre, cotton, real leather and many other recycled materials into stylish, socially responsible, and eco-friendly products.<\/p>\n

As the business became more established, new challenges were emerging. Notable were those related to improving the business\u2019s marketing strategy and to managing the efficiency and productivity of the workers, particularly given the restrictions on their capacity.<\/p>\n

\"\"At this point, Bunnak turned to Senior Expert Contact (SEC) to request the support of an expert to give her new inputs to take her business to the next level. \u2018I saw SEC\u2019s potential to support the development of my business image so that I can build a better brand and be recognized more widely. Additionally, I was looking for advice on my workers\u2019 work processes so that we could maximize productivity.\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, she remembers.<\/p>\n

Her request for support was accepted and Markus G\u00f6ldi, an SEC expert in production value chain and marketing, took up the challenge. He travelled to Cambodia and worked on a voluntary basis to coach and advise Bunnak.<\/p>\n

G\u00f6ldi was impressed by Villageworks Cambodia\u2019s mission and its contribution to society, saying: \u2018The company\u2019s mission focuses on FAIR TRADE, helping people with disability, and going \u201cgreen\u201d (recycling \u2013 upcycling). This is the right direction. Now the products themselves must be genuinely appealing and more attractive to consumers. This will take a bit of time, but it\u2019s possible.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Through their work together, Bunnak and G\u00f6ldi achieved several good outcomes which will sustain Villageworks Cambodia now and in the future.<\/p>\n

Highlighting key successes, Bunnak notes that, \u2018As to concrete outcomes from this assignment, we started to better define our product identity and now have a clear market focus. Additionally, we went through a SWOT analysis of our business. We reviewed the organization\u2019s structure, the job descriptions of our staff, and created a more logical organigram.\u2019<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

G\u00f6ldi mentions, \u2018We also improved the company\u2019s online presence and website. Now they can better exploit e-commerce opportunities. Additionally, I could also show them various marketing and planning tools.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

No matter how smoothly any SEC assignment runs, challenges are unavoidable. Both Bunnak and G\u00f6ldi took note of the important lessons they learned along the way.<\/p>\n

G\u00f6ldi summarizing his learning as follows, \u2018The biggest challenge was ensuring focus on, and giving priority to, the most urgent topics. There were many different issues and requests coming up while I was on site. Frankly, when I compare with some other SEC consultations I have done, on this occasion I spent too little time in analyzing the current situation. I jumped into the problems without making a proper project plan. That said, with the current management structure it would have been hard to structure the work, because all management tasks fall to one person.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

G\u00f6ldi is clear about the strategic priorities, \u2018First of all, they must go for sales. Only orders can bring prosperity. Sure, other problems will occur if they have to manage the production of large quantities, but those problems can be solved. The management team should increase both sales and quality.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the experience working side by side during the assignment, both parties feel optimistic and are ready to grab future opportunities. Bunnak reflects, \u2018I feel good after this first SEC assignment. It helped me to know what our next steps are. I am confident that we can create better quality items and source great accessories so we can raise our prices. I recommend SEC without hesitation to other Cambodian SMEs.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fortunately, it looks as though the end of this SEC assignment does not mean the end of the collaboration. G\u00f6ldi reflects, \u2018I have a good feeling about my assignment. Everything went well. I will stay in contact with Villageworks Cambodia. I am happy to support them as they go further.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norm Bunnak, a female entrepreneur in the handicrafts sector and CEO of Villageworks Cambodia, invited a Swiss expert, Markus G\u00f6ldi, to Cambodia to advise her company. Here she speaks about the lessons learned and the benefits to her enterprise during their two-month long collaboration. Norm Bunnak\u2019s business, Villageworks Cambodia, operates as a social enterprise. It […]\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[366,117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-senior-expert-contact-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seniorexpertcontact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}