Innovation in last mile distribution
Embedding innovation in LMDs’ DNA
Innovation is particularly important for LMDs because it helps them to capitalise on new markets, attract the attention of prospective investors, quickly adapt to external shocks (eg. COVID-19), and continually improve their offering in order to add value for their customers. While costs can prohibit LMDs from innovating, innovation doesn’t have to be expensive; it can happen at small scale and pay itself back, if done well. Our webinar and downloadable poster help LMDs to more meaningfully cultivate innovation in their organisations.
Building resilience through innovation
Last mile distributors’ (LMDs) ability to pivot and adapt has been crucial to their survival in the face of Covid-19 – and will be important to help distributors weather any future shocks, too.
Incremental innovation and COVID-19
Distributors faced the same challenges, albeit more acutely, during the pandemic as they did before – namely, how to maximise sales efficiency, enable consumer affordability and access finance. This blog explores the incremental rather than radical innovations that LMDs adopted in response to COVID-19; which set them up to bounce back robustly, and shift quickly into recovery mode.
Adapting key business areas
COVID-19 also drove distributors to consider and prioritise particular business areas in a new or different way. This practical guide for LMDs explores the challenges, innovations and potential solutions identified by a group of 23 distributors as priorities for post-COVID-19 business activities in four areas: smart use of working capital, MNC and e-commerce partnerships, digitising customer relations and remote field team management.
GDC Innovation Challenge
Our Innovation Challenge offers GDC members and their partners the opportunity to bring exciting ideas to life. Voted for by GDC members, the winning teams receive grant funding and support from GDC innovation experts. Learnings and outputs are shared across the GDC membership and wider ecosystem, helping to also develop the sector at large.
This project was funded with UK aid from the UK government, via the Transforming Energy Access programme.
