Whether you represent an R&D instutution with limited business capacity, a technology enterprise looking for growth or expansion into new markets, or a financing institution requiring niche expertise to lower your investment risk, Ungana-Afrika is ready to provide a high quality service to help you succeed.

We are known for our efforts as a niche enterprise and business model catalyst within the under-served and emerging markets. Our consultancy and enterprise development services range from facilitating user generated innovation processes to assisting our clients to evaluate the feasibility of their business model before risky investments are made.

Typically we are contracted to work as external consultants helping to design or analyse specific sustainability and feasibility components, such as a business model, supporting the long term success of an existing or planned enterprise. However, we are also able to design customised methodologies and processes, and to facilitate workshops or seminars and build the capacity of your organisation or a group of investees to have the skills to conduct essential enterprise development activities internally.

Our core competency areas listed below form the foundation for our services:

Idea Generation

Every innovative business venture, new product or service, and a non-profit activity starts with an idea. The original idea might be quite different from what the final implemented model looks like, but the business most likely wouldn't exist at all without the momentum the initial idea generated. Even though many great ideas are born without any specific external trigger, examples have shown that there is also a need for more structured innovation methods.

Facilitated idea generation can start from implementing a comprehensive baseline study and needs analysis of the market without any constraining parameters. Alternatively some of the parameters can be set from the start, for example by only accepting ideas that can be implemented if the market has access to broadband connectivity. Ideas can also be generated by incorporating participatory grassroots methodologies with end-users (such as a peri-urban community) or facilitating focus group discussions and brainstorming sessions with a diverse group of experts and other important stakeholders who have useful knowledge about the target market, including its needs and trends.

The goal of our idea generation services is to identify new opportunities and eventually narrow these down from potentially feasible ideas into a handful of innovative, and promising, options.

Conceptualisation

An innovative idea can be captured by using a napkin sketch during a fruitful lunch discussion with a colleague or by using a phone to save a few bullet points when waking-up in the middle of the night after a breakthrough moment that occurred while sleeping. In order to evaluate the viability and attractiveness of the idea, a number of essential key pillars need to be considered and defined, forming a rough design or a prototype of a concept, or setting boundaries for important operational or governance issues.

Ungana-Afrika is able to assist with further brainstorming for possible services of a potential new enterprise, writing-up a "brochure"-type summary of a promising idea to be circulated within a team or a department, prototyping multiple designs for key business model elements to gain a deep understanding of what could be, using visualisation techniques to better communicate the concept by using diagrams or drawings, or just preparing a well articulated presentation or a story for a meeting with executives.

Business Modelling

A business model defines the underlying mechanisms of an enterprise (some non-profits might prefer the term "enterprise model" to "business model"). These are encapsulated in the business model, which needs to clearly identify what services the enterprise will be providing (the value proposition), who the clients are (customer segments), what relationships there will be with the customers, and how the enterprise will generate revenue. Associated with this, the business model should identify what key activities need to be performed in the running of the business, what partnerships will be needed, and what costs will be incurred in the establishment and running of the business. The business model defines the operational aspects that must be in place for the enterprise to provide services and generate revenue.

For the design and visualisation of a business model Ungana-Afrika uses The Business Model Canvas, conceptualised by Dr. Alexander Osterwalder and Dr. Yves Pigneur. According to the 'Business Model Generation', a book authored by the Dr. Osterwalder and Dr. Pigneur in collaboration with hundreds of parcitioners around the world, the concept "has been applied and tested around the world and is already used in organisations such as IBM, Ericsson, [and] Deloitte".

To complement the business model design we are also able to help with value chain mapping and analysis, defining use-cases or the full business logic, and facilitating a discussion about how different scenarios can influence the original business model.

Feasibility Analysis

A well developed business model provides a good basis for a successful enterprise, but there is still no guarantee that it will be viable when implemented. A comprehensive feasibility analysis tests whether a business model can be successful in a given market. The feasibility framework developed by Ungana-Afrika assesses an enterprise across seven dimensions of feasibility. Our services include thorough market and pricing research, and an assessment of the management and operations of the enterprise, technical aspects of implementation and the social context in which it needs to succeed. The market and pricing research data also provides the necessary input data for a financial model, to test a number of viability scenarios.

A professionally undertaken feasibility analysis is instrumental in identifying and mitigating risks, and provides a necessary justification for financial projections and financing applications. It is also a key input for the business plan.

Business Planning

A well documented business plan is needed for an enterprise to access the required finance to start-up planned activities, or at a later stage to support scaling of an already proven model. A business plan can also be used internally as a reference and as a strategic and implementation guideline. Using the business model as a foundation, the business plan synthesises inputs from all our other enterprise development services, with additional analysis where necessary. The result is a comprehensive and compelling document that details the key strategic, operational, financial and environmental aspects of the enterprise.

Ungana-Afrika has the required experience to prepare environmental analysis, scanning the competitive environment, regulatory or technology trends, or future customer preferences to name a few key aspects. We are able to advise on viable governance and management structures for the enterprise, and conduct a stakeholder analysis in order to recommend suitable parnership strategies (such as Public-Private-Partnerships). Detailed financial projections complemented with financing advice, implementation planning, and risk analysis are also part of Ungana-Afrika's service portfolio.

Please contact us to discuss in more detail what value we can offer.