ITC is a company based out of India including several departments that negortiate sales in tobacco, coffee, food along with a few other divisions. The company's overall objective is to implement sustainable economic growth within India. India has a large rural community that is considered to be at a disadvantage in terms of wealth. ITC is looking to proactively engage and turn these individuals into viable consumers.
ITC's International Business Division, has been lagging behind other divisions. The company's CEO is looking for change that will make his soybean division begin to grow and catch up to the growth of his other divisions. Given that soybean and other products make up about three quarters of this division, the company begins to set its focus on this area.
Although ITC has done well selling soybean products, the entire "value chain" was extremely inefficient operating with limited resources and lacking the flow of information between farmers.
English: Children in Raisen district (Bhil tribe),...
The Union of the Sun and Moon, Song of the Vajra, ...
Marble Rocks, Madhya Pradesh, Inde.These two critical factors continue to plague the industry into a neverending cycle of ineffeciency. ITC's challenge was to come up with a new and innovative method to overcome these problems and work towards achieving the company's goals. Technology it was decided was the way to go, however developing a new technology system in rural villages that are barely developed and where many people have never seen a computer is quite the challenege.
In order to begin this project, ITC first must research the culture and politics of the industry. Historically, in soybean producing areas villagers would come together at the elder villager's home to share stories and exchange information about the days news or gossip. The meeting place was called a Choupal. ITC used this concept to work with the existing cultural gathering to minimize change and culture shock. The new initiative flourished as an...