Connecting Communities to a Shared Problem and Purpose
Joel Nana Kontchou
Angel Investor, Managing Director, Board Member, Community Leader at Various Companies
This article is part of a Project Transformer series about “Bright Spots” of innovation. Each year, an Eneo program recognizes their employees’ low-cost and no-cost innovation projects that have made a positive impact on the company and the communities it serves. This team’s initiative tied for Second Place in the Eneo 2018 Simply Smart Innovation competition. The external panel of judges commented, “Laudable to focus on the hospital and extend to the wider community; creative land acquisition.”
________________________________
When individuals work for the common interest, this can only lead to results that are good for all. In business, we often talk about learning from failures to improve our work in the future. This is true, but we must also learn from our successes.
This innovative Eneo employee solution was inspired by an earlier project that had been successfully implemented for the Central Market of the City of Douala. The electricity supply for the large market’s independent merchant stalls had grown unstable and dangerous. Power frequently cut off. Fires broke out. People were hurt. Goods were destroyed. Many of the vendors’ connections had been unsafely improvised. It was clear that Eneo’s local transformers needed to be upgraded and augmented in order to help make things safer and to improve service reliability for the Central Market’s growing electricity needs. The biggest challenge was that, in order to make this major electrical system upgrade, Eneo would have to cut the power off to the entire market for at least 5 days. Imagine a crowded, urban marketplace without electricity for lights, phone charging, machinery, tools, and refrigeration for almost a week! The Eneo team knew they had to get the support of many different community stakeholders, including the local merchants’ business association, the vendors, the Central Market leadership, and various local politicians. By connecting these stakeholders to the urgency of their shared problem – and getting their support and commitment to allow the Eneo workers to work without threat or risk of interference – the complex upgrade was completed.
A New Challenge
By 2017, some of the members from this Eneo team faced a new challenge in South Douala. One of the busiest medical clinics in Douala was frequently experiencing service quality problems including power surges and brief outages. While already a chronic issue, the clinic had recently expanded and built a medically-assisted reproduction unit, including in vitro fertilization (IVF) services. Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, it was impossible to operate with the unstable electricity capacity. With their Central Market experience on their mind, the Eneo team knew that this was not the problem of one client, but the symptom of a root problem: an inadequate power supply that was being experienced across the growing community. So the team consulted with the hospital, the City Council, and a local military air base to collectively devise a sustainable, comprehensive solution. Ultimately, land adjacent to the air base was provided by the City, at no cost, for Eneo to build a new electrical distribution substation very cost-effectively. The new power capacity has solved the quality of service problems for the medical clinic at one-sixth of their typical new connection cost. The substation also supplies new households, businesses and hotels in the surrounding area.
Uncovering the Root Cause
"Success can breed success,” explained the Eneo team operations leader. “If we have the discipline to document the key learnings from a successful project, and then adapt the approach for the unique circumstances of the next project – we are likely to be successful again. Imagine how honoured our team feels, knowing that we’ve been able to play a small part in our community to help local couples get excellent medical care and finally experience the joy of parenthood!” He continued, “Our operational strategy involves more than working with our clients and their communities. It’s about taking the initiative to uncover the root cause of systemic problems, rallying stakeholders around a shared purpose, and designing sustainable solutions that are optimized for local needs.”
More New Stations
Based on this collaborative and analytical approach, the same Eneo operational leader and their team continue to develop similar solutions in different districts of Douala – connecting new clients to the electrical grid or improving current service quality, while minimizing costs for everyone involved. In the past year, following this same pattern of cost-effective co-creation, the team has built new 5 transformer stations in Douala communities.