On 12 December last year, one of the projects for which the Business Innovation Facility had provided support reached an exciting milestone. Jita, a rural sales venture that generates income for thousands of rural women called ‘Aparajitas’, was legally registered as a Bangladeshi company. Jita is a ‘multinational social enterprise,’ set up with investment from France and the US, with clear objectives for both profit and social impact.  

The journey to this point had been a long and complex one. One of the many questions faced by the team was how to prioritise effort and investment?  whether to pursue faster break-even or wider social impact?  The tool they used and the solution they found is now written up in a new publication from the Business Innovation Facility, the first in our series of 'Inside Inclusive Business.'   

"Striking a Balance between Profit and Impact: how scenario modelin...shares the inside story from Jita.    

‘Striking a Balance’ was written by colleagues working directly on the Jita project, Christina Chou and Malcolm Ritchie, based on their experience .With support from the Business Innovation Facility, the management and consultants used scenario modeling to work out which combination of financial return and social reach should be prioritised. In doing so, they took a classic tool used for conventional business assessment – and applied it to the exciting and different challenge of an inclusive business start-up.

Further information.

This Insider is for all practitioners seeking to balance financial and social return: please pass it to others or link on Facebook and Twitter, and let us know your feedback.

For more information on Jita including useful case studies and further links, see the Jita Project Profile page.   

Between April and August 2011, support from the Business Innovation Facility was provided to Jita by several team members from the Bangladesh Facility team, Accenture Development Partnerships, and Challenges Worldwide. Part of their role was to work with Jita to develop a sound operating model for the company and secure the investment agreement between the two lead investors: Danone Communities and Care Enterprises.