Finding a Socially Conscious Retailing Partner
During the 2nd half of 2007 through 2008 I made many contacts with prospective retailing companies to offer them the opportunity to become MG2012’s exclusive retailing equity partner. Our retailing partner would have exclusive retailing rights in the U.S. and other countries with their store front outlets. Before continuing with my story about the retailing partner, I would like to share with you the reality of the obstacles one encounters when facing any new idea or endeavor.
In 2007, I read an article by the Dow Jones called The Perils of Being First. It basically pointed out that one cornerstone of entrepreneurship is to be at the forefront of trends, pushing the envelope to find and deliver the next big thing. But being ahead of the pack can also be a tough place to be, and being first can be even tougher. From educating consumers, or socially conscious consumers in the case of MG2012, to outmaneuvering rivals and the status quo, one will most likely face a raft of challenges. This is very true, which I had learned early on in my business career.
As mentioned in Chapter 4, one of the hardest tasks for any new venture being first and then competing against new rivals is honing the “brand” identity. If consumers don’t even know what the products are, how much can they really think about any social or economic benefits for impoverished indigenous growers and producers such as those in the MG2012 scenario? This is why it was so important to pitch and sell the MG2012 business model to a well-known and successful store-front retailer. I spent the last six months of 2007 and all of 2008 introducing MG2012 by knocking on doors and pitching the MG2012 business plan for an exclusive agreement for retailing. I made many extended trips to the east and west coasts to visit numerous retailers that had the market exposure and penetration I wanted, such as Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee, Wholefoods, and Barnes and Noble.
My whole presentation (sales pitch) was based upon what I felt were two virtues of conducting business and reaching the socially conscious consumer. First, the socio-economic ‘value-chain’; driving all, or as much as possible, of the ‘value-added’ in revenue and profit margins to our Maya project groups. This included all the jobs from the fields, processing of crops, and manufacturing of the products, up through the whole distribution channel to our exclusive retailing equity-partner.
Maya Global 2012 ‘Operational Structure’ (Value Added)
Second, the use of ‘advance market commitment’; where the indigenous projects of MG2012 can economically and relatively, risk-free, grow and produce as much product as the consumer demands. I first heard about ‘advance market commitment’ in an article where Bill Gates was talking about a principle to help speed the development and availability of a new vaccine to save the lives of 7 million children by 2030. The first thing that came to mind, since most of my background is in the technology sector (especially computers and processing), was that the same virtue could be used to fulfill MG2012 objectives to maximize the ‘value-chain’ (50-70% of retail price) back to our Maya agri-based projects. At the same time, we could guarantee exclusivity of our products to our retailing partner for a respectable retail mark-up, along with a powerful ‘branding model’ to make their own. The branding model would designate the retailing partner as having the virtue to reverse poverty and environmental degradation with rural indigenous groups around the world.
Be sure to check for Chapter 6 to learn more about how you, as a socially conscious consumer will be able to help reverse poverty by shopping at a convenient online marketplace.
