Andrea Barry

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How Kenya created the world’s most successful mobile-payments service
Andrea Barry
Last modified on December 9, 2015 at 9:44 pm
M-PESA has transformed the everyday lives of most Kenyans, disrupting the traditional banking system and capturing the previously unbanked market. Allowing whole businesses to be run from a mobile phone, the secret to M-PESA’s impressive performance can be found backstage.

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On December 15, 2015, Andrea Barry commented on Warby Parker: Disrupting the Eyewear Industry :

Hi Lisa, great read 🙂 I hadn’t heard of WP before arriving in the US so I’ve enjoyed catching up on the excitement around this new brand. It seems that a critical part of their initial strategy was the customer’s ability to receive five pairs of glasses in the mail. In thinking about these types of strategies for developing countries, the local postal systems present a significant challenge, as they are not sufficiently reliable or honest to deliver goods timeously or at all in some instances. The cost of sending these items through a more secure channel is often prohibitive, unfortunately. I hope that we will be able to innovate in Southern Africa to create delivery models that complement online beginnings for startups!

On December 15, 2015, Andrea Barry commented on SpaceX: The Quest for Affordable Space Travel through Reusable Rocketry :

Anish, this was also my reaction upon reading the article. However, I’m now thinking about operations in terms of the different characteristics of successful manufacturing versus innovation/R&D. It makes sense that the organisational structure and culture impact the degree of free thinking and collaboration for innovation, which I hadn’t factored into my thinking on operational models previously.

On December 15, 2015, Andrea Barry commented on TriMark: The Foodservice Equipment Distribution Giant :

I would be interested to understand more about the value-added services that TriMark offers, such as the monitoring of supply levels that you mentioned. What form would this type of tool take and what level of integration is required?

It would also be interesting to know more about their customer strategy. Have they partnered with all of the big hotel chains? Do they sell to retail customers at all?