From Grape Juice to Drones: Creating Impact for All

I’m not asking you for anything difficult: I’m simply asking you to drink a glass of delicious fruit juice. I harvest the grapes myself. I bottle it and sell it. It’s not for the money. All profits are donated to a charity. 

At work, it’s the same; I don’t ask for anything difficult. I love working in a team, connecting people with each other. I believe that everyone, from where they are, can contribute to creating a better world. 

For me, it all started a few years ago. I worked for a family-owned pharmaceutical laboratory based near Frankfurt, Germany. Thanks to them, I had the opportunity to travel to Ghana to work with social entrepreneurs on specific issues, particularly the supply chain, which is my area of expertise. That’s how I met Peter Awin, Ashoka Fellow and founder of the startup Cowtribe.

We quickly formed a friendship. Peter is a social entrepreneur, and Cowtribe's mission is to provide access to veterinary care and medicines to all farmers, even those living in the most remote areas of the country. Cowtribe needed expertise on supply chain issues. We organized training and coaching sessions for the employees. I stayed for five weeks. 

I also remember the journeys on a moped with a cargo of vaccines to deliver. The heat, the dust. The roads are bad, riddled with potholes and ruts.

Since last year, we’ve been using drones for deliveries. Just press a button, and the medicines are delivered. Helping others is sometimes easier than you think. 

As part of this project, I also went to Kenya and Uganda. I organized workshops on specific supply chain issues. I always received support from my teams here in Germany. Again, I don’t ask for anything difficult or complicated. I believe the key is to present things in an "appealing" way. I tell them about the people I meet, the moped rides, and the drones, and I bring them along with me. They understand the essence of the project.

It’s not about business but about empathy. That’s my priority as a manager, to prioritize openness and kindness. Today, I’d say that working with Peter or other social entrepreneurs is the most important thing I do in my day. I am genuinely passionate about what I do! 

My teams reflect this enthusiasm back to me. I feel like these projects have helped me grow as a manager. The more I evolve, the more my teams evolve as well. I love creating connections, linking people together. It wasn’t about telling them, "do more social work," but about telling a story to make them want to be part of it. I realized that many people are willing to do good around them. They just need that initial push.

That’s why I try to leverage emotion, something that will touch their hearts. Emotion, etymologically, is what makes us move, what triggers movement. I always ask myself, "What in my speech and actions will move this person?" 

2015 was also the year of the migrant crisis. It was impressive to witness these human clusters who had fled their countries by mysterious means. The problem was real, cruelly real, and for me, the appropriate response was empathy. Making the men, women, and children on the move understand that they were welcome, helping them integrate. 

These different experiences, the stays in countries far from mine, the refugees, my small grape juice business... have radically transformed me. 

Before all this, I felt like something was missing in my life. And then, thanks to a partnership with Ashoka, I started to take action to change things, at my level. I am much happier and more open today, as a persona and as a manager. These experiences have brought and continue to bring me a lot of wealth; not money, but everything else. 

When I think about it, it’s something that goes back a long way for me. My parents were always involved in social work. We lived in Nicaragua where they helped underprivileged children access education. I observed them, and then I wanted to imitate them. They never told me, "do social work" or "help others." They just set the right example, and I wanted to do the same. Today, I try to offer the same model to my children. I try to bring them along with me on this great social adventure. 

I feel like everything I do, everything I have implemented in my daily life, can help better prepare for the future. What I also like is not knowing where we’re going. It’s exciting; it stimulates the imagination. For example, three years ago, I never would have thought we could use drones, and today we do! 

I am proud of what I have accomplished, and I don’t hesitate to talk about it around me. There’s nothing to explain, just to act. Start by drinking grape juice, and that already helps a lot. It makes people happy to know they are part of the adventure and contributing to a better world.