4. Help Invest in a Supplier Network that You Need

M was complaining that he spends a lot of time managing trekking guides. Guides aren't always very dependable, they're freelancers, and there's no guarantee on their quality. It's made harder because they are so few. Wouldn't it be great if there were a local company or institute that trained trekking guides, and that offered them to folks like M. His core competence is hostelling, not trying to manage itinerant, freelancing guides. Not to mention being able to tell how good these guides really are. Wouldn't it be great if he had a supplier of guides?

Or, for that matter, simply a good supply of labor? Martin told of an interesting story of an Ecolodge in S. Africa that helped one of its employees build a sustainable landscaping company by investing in it, then employing it.

The story of Green Futures is one of good news and hope in which unemployed people can find a new and exciting future in the field of fynbos landscaping and conservation. It all started as a dream of the Lutzeyer family, owners of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve, to train unskilled people from local communities and to find work for them in fynbos landscaping and horticulture. What started as a dream has become reality through a public/private partnership project between Grootbos and DEG (German Investment and Development company). The DEG agreed to support Grootbos on a rand-for-rand basis over a two-year period to establish the Green Futures college and training program. The education centre has been built on Grootbos, a team of lecturers employed, a training curriculum developed and the first intake of twelve unemployed student’s chosen. The first year’s intake of eager 'gardeners in the making' began their training in June 2003.

Read more here.

This reminds me of accounts of Japanese companies investing in their suppliers.