GOGLA Off-Grid Solar Forum: “If Product is King, Distribution is God.”

When we started TaroWorks as part of the Grameen Foundation 8 years ago, we envisioned a mobile field service tool that would help field agent networks on the frontlines – no matter what products or services they were delivering, be it solar lanterns, agricultural inputs, or latrines.

We created our tool on one of the world’s most powerful CRM systems, Salesforce.com, to help sophisticated distributors and companies track their customer relationships and inventory as they grow to more geographies, and scale into multiple products.

I’m attending the GOGLA Global Off-Grid Solar Forum in Nairobi this week and was struck to hear that discussions of the distribution network have caught up with the off-grid solar technology conversation.

Yoven Moorooven, CEO of Engie Africa remarked that, “If product is King, distribution is God.” In fact, research done by Open Capital Advisors and Vivid Economics (full report published in the coming weeks) points to the trend that companies are testing business models to diversify their product offerings to cater to the communities they serve.

We’re currently at a time where the importance of last mile distributors is readily apparent. A recently released report on this sector by Global Distributors Collective provides an insightful picture of where things stand and what may be needed to bring that industry to scale.

My colleague Sebastian Csaszar, TaroWorks’ Business Development Lead, and I are looking forward to the conversations at the GOGLA Off-Grid Solar Forum this week to see what we can collectively achieve.

If you’re interested in learning more about how TaroWorks’ field service app is being used by our clients to manage last mile distribution, let’s get together at the GOGLA conference or when you have a minute free. Here’s my calendar and Sebastian’s. We look forward to speaking with you.