Newsletter Archive

Kopernik in Action

February 2012

We've Just Turned Two!

It’s been just two years since we launched Kopernik and during this time we have directly reached 63,000 people in 11 countries with life-changing technology. The demand for the products and services we offer is bigger than we anticipated and we have only just begun to realize our potential for big and bold impact.

When we first started Kopernik we were so excited about all the different technology that had the potential to truly improve people’s lives. However, we soon realized that the technology itself is only one part of the equation. Technology, if it doesn’t reach those who need it, is not going to have any impact. And without effective distribution mechanisms, the technology has no chance of reaching those it was intended for.

We quickly learned that distribution in the last-mile is very complex. Reaching a capital city in a developing country is one thing, but how do you get to those remote communities that are unreachable by road or isolated by heavy rains for months on end? These are places where there are no couriers, no postal system, no shipping agents and no technology stores. And the further and more remote you get, the more expensive a product becomes – because transportation is expensive. And yet, people in these areas are typically poorer than their city counterparts and even more in need of these products. How do we make the technology accessible by the very poor in many last-mile locations when there are often no sophisticated financial services such as micro-finance? And what if the products that traveled these great distances don’t perform as expected or break? What can people do about it?

These are the difficult issues that we are addressing at Kopernik. It’s still early days but we’re seeing encouraging patterns. We already know that partnering with local civil society organizations that are trusted by their communities, understand the needs and have existing networks in our target last-mile communities is an effective way of distributing life-changing technology.

We have learned that there is no one right way of distributing technology. It varies by location and the socio-economic status of the end users. And it’s our local partners that are the ones who know best what’s going to work within their specific context. That means that we need to be open to working with a range of distribution methods, including consignment, through sales agents, village entrepreneurs, rental schemes or direct distribution by our local partners.

Central to our philosophy at Kopernik is that we view the poor communities we work with as our customers and we want them to be satisfied. This means constantly asking for their feedback and rating of the technology, which we then publicly share – be it good or bad - on our website – Amazon.com style. This way, Kopernik is creating a vibrant technology marketplace for the developing world, where promising innovations will be further promoted, by virtue of customer satisfaction.

We’re only two and have a lot to learn, but we’re constantly striving to figure out how to best solve the fundamental distribution challenges in the last mile and get many more technologies to people who need them. We are excited to share our achievements with you in this, our second Annual Report.

We hope you’ll continue on this journey with us in the coming year and wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2012.

With gratitude,

Ewa Wojkowska and Toshi Nakamura

Kopernik Co-Founders


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