Articles by Emma Colenbrander
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Guest Articles
Tuesday
May 7
2024Russell Lyseight / Emma Colenbrander
Scaling Impact in the Last Mile Distribution Sector: The Pros and Cons of Different Pathways to Scale
The last mile distribution sector has gained significant momentum. But as Russell Lyseight at the Global Distributors Collective and Emma Colenbrander at Spring Impact point out, there is still a huge discrepancy between the size of the problem (i.e., last mile consumers’ lack of access to beneficial products and services) and the distribution solutions that currently exist. They explore several approaches last mile distributors can use to close this gap.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
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Guest Articles
Monday
October 30
2023Emma Colenbrander / Amy Ragsdale
‘Build, Test, Respond’: How Lean Testing Enables Organizations to De-Risk Their Scaling Strategies — And Accelerate Their Impact
Both social enterprises and non-profits aspire to create an agile organizational culture that enables them to learn from failure. But according to Amy Ragsdale and Emma Colenbrander at Spring Impact, this is not always easy for organizations dealing with short-term funding cycles and cumbersome evaluation processes. They explore how lean testing can help social enterprises and non-profits optimize their strategy and unlock impact at scale, and share examples of organizations that are using this approach successfully.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Guest Articles
Monday
May 22
2023Emma Colenbrander / Nell Lemaistre / Kasthuri Soni / Sharmi Surianarain
Scale vs. Systems Change: Three Ways Impact-Led Organisations Can Achieve Both
The social impact sector is increasingly recognizing that scaling a solution does not always result in lasting change. According to Emma Colenbrander at Spring Impact, Nell Lemaistre at 100x Impact Accelerator, and Kasthuri Soni and Sharmi Surianarain at Harambee, this realization may seem to force businesses and organizations to choose between scaling their own work and attempting to change the broader system. But they explore how these two goals can actually be pursued simultaneously — if organizations leverage the right kind of funding, mindsets and support.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Guest Articles
Wednesday
May 11
2022Emma Colenbrander / Gerwin Jansen / Charlotte Taylor
Implementing Effective Innovation Challenges: Three Lessons from the Last Mile Distribution Sector
Last mile distributors (LMDs) are key to bringing life-changing products to hard-to-reach consumers, and innovation is essential to their work. But as Emma Colenbrander and Charlotte Taylor at the Global Distributors Collective and Gerwin Jansen at Bopinc explain, these innovations are often not replicated, leading LMDs to spend time and resources reinventing the wheel. They explore how innovation challenges can foster greater replicability and inclusivity, and share three key insights for LMDs and other businesses and organizations working to support innovation at the last mile.
- Categories
- Technology
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Guest Articles
Monday
December 7
2020Emma Colenbrander / Gerwin Jansen
The Big Impact of Small Improvements: How Last-Mile Distributors Have Responded to COVID-19 with ‘Incremental Innovation’
Distributing beneficial products in last-mile communities has always been difficult, but COVID-19 has made it much harder, exacerbating many of the challenges that last-mile distributors were already facing. Emma Colenbrander and Gerwin Jansen at the Global Distributors Collective explore innovative solutions to some of these challenges, many of which have tended to be incremental rather than radical.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
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Guest Articles
Thursday
April 9
2020How Will Last-Mile Distributors Adapt to and Survive the COVID-19 Crisis?
COVID-19 is creating major challenges for last-mile distributors around the world. And though these businesses are both nimble and resilient, they urgently need financial and technical support. Emma Colenbrander at the Global Distributors Collective explores how investors, NGOs and other stakeholders can help the sector to survive this crisis, and to continue to deliver impact as the pandemic subsides.
- Categories
- Coronavirus
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Guest Articles
Wednesday
November 20
2019Emma Colenbrander / Charlie Miller
What Will Last Mile Distribution Look Like in 2025? Six Predictions for an Emerging Sector
From water purifiers to solar lights, the impact-oriented products can’t further development goals if they can't make it to last mile customers. Emma Colenbrader and Charlie Miller of the Global Distributors Collective explain how the organization's 140 member distributors have defied tough odds to get 13 million products and counting into the hands of last mile households. They share a first-of-its-kind report that aims to better understand the markets for these products, the customers being reached – and the business models that can reach them.
- Categories
- Energy, Telecommunications, Transportation