I worked on designing and implementing KPIs for the business side of Amigos do Bem. The organization works on alleviating poverty and hunger in the Brazilian semi-arid region, and they do this by providing education for children and young adults, infrastructure projects, health care initiatives, and donations — but mainly through providing jobs and income through production units that manufacture cashew nuts and other goods. These goods are sold throughout the country and the earnings are reinvested in social assistance, and this is what is referred to as the business side of Amigos do Bem.

By designing KPIs and implementing a routine of meetings to track those same KPIs, I was able to make sure that the work of commercial, logistics and production parts of the organization were aligned with the mission of the NGO, and that they are tracking this by looking at actual facts and numbers. This also allowed the executive director to help unit directors in prioritizing efforts and focusing on what is key for the organization to achieve in order to alleviate poverty and hunger (e.g., created KPIs and goals leading to sales maximization and, therefore, creation of more jobs).

While in discussions with the organization designing the KPIs, I had to use much of the knowledge I got in analytical courses such as Statistics and Business Analytics. Operations Management and Operations Strategy helped me get a better understanding of their production and logistics facilities, and where there were opportunities to be more efficient. Investing in Social Ventures helped me get a general understanding of the challenges NGOs face while seeking funding. Finally, accounting was key for me to navigate seamlessly their financials, to quickly identify key metrics to look at, and understand what indicators made sense to keep track of.

There were two major challenges I faced while there, one related to the pace of the organization, which was slower than what I’m used to from working in consulting, and the other was to get alignment and buy-in from the different stakeholders in the project. My expectation, initially, was to be able to do much more work than what I as ultimately able to, covering all areas of the organization and including the impact part of it. Since data was not quickly available, and I was not able to access the organization’s systems, I couldn’t gather data quickly enough to do as much analysis as I think it would be helpful to define key metrics and set goals. Because there are not as many people as in regular companies, and the project stakeholders I was working with had oversight of a wide range of topics, it was often difficult to get time to meet them, or to get them to review information or answer emails. I was also expecting the organization to have clear objectives for my time there, and that everyone would be already onboard with the project. In fact, I had to proactively propose a project scope, deliverables, timeline and approach, which was challenging, but was aligned with my professional background and a good chance to put this skillset in practice. As we designed what the project would be like together, I also had to walk other stakeholders through the initiative, its importance, and actively make sure they’d contribute, which was also a highly useful experience for what comes forward in my career as a consultant.

Initially my goals were related to learning more about the third sector in Brazil while also being able to contribute to the impact of an organization. While able to achieve these goals, I also had three major learnings:
1) Given the slower pace of the organization and how overstaffed some of the key leaders there were, I had to plan ahead for the data I would need and the people I would have to talk to, so I was able to accomplish what I needed to be the agreed deadlines. This skill of thinking ahead and planning for roadblocks, and ultimately being more organized overall is something truly useful for me. 2) I had to make sure that senior members of the organization, who had a lot of work and other concerns, would also contribute to my project and actively participate. Engaging them, making sure they all agreed on the importance of the initiative and, when necessary, involving the executive director and bringing all stakeholders on board, was not something I had to lead many times before in my career, and the success in doing this, this time, makes me more comfortable to do this again in the future. 3) I had the chance to speak up in a board meeting, which involved some widely known Brazilian businesspeople, and make a positive impression. This is also something I have to work on going forward in my career and was an extremely valuable opportunity.