Failing Fearlessly at TWB
Most people don’t like discussing the F-word… FAILURE. We often reflect on our hopes and fears but dance around the conversation of failing even though it happens all the time. So what is it about failing that we are so fearful of? For starters, people are often hesitant to give to a cause that is failing. While failing can certainly be disappointing in the moment, at The Women’s Bakery, we believe that there is much to learn from and use this opportunity to innovate unique solutions.
Markey Culver, our founder and CEO, recently sat down with the Development and Communications team to share some failures since the founding of The Women’s Bakery. This month, we will be diving deeper into what some of our bakery operations failures have been and how it has made us stronger.
“Bread is not new, it is millennia old - but the way we are using bread for our social mission is new.” - Markey Culver
This proved to be easier said than done as Markey shared that early on she did not come from a background of business nor the baking industry. In fact, it was her journey with TWB which inspired her to go and pursue her MBA in 2017. Like many other social enterprises, The Women’s Bakery lacked infrastructure when it first started. Our early operations involved using a half-buried hollowed out petrol can to create a Dutch Oven-like oven to bake bread. While this method worked to bake a few loaves of bread at a time, it certainly did not lend itself to producing larger quantities of bread. Hence, Team TWB identified the need for acquiring industrial equipment.
Those of you that are familiar with the baking or restaurant industries may be well acquainted with the fact that industrial equipment can make kitchen operations much more efficient; however, it does come at a costly price.
Failing to invest in industrial equipment when TWB was launched served as catalyst for other problems in the early years. One piece of advice that Markey shared looking back on our early operations would have been to prioritize investing in higher quality or new equipment. With limited funds, the budget for equipment simply could not cover brand new appliances. While setting aside $50,000 as an upfront cost for equipment might seem unimaginable for many young businesses that only have $20,000 to their name, it certainly makes all the difference down the road in terms of improving processes for production and ultimately for the bakers’ working environment. Through in-kind donations and thrifty second hand equipment purchases, we have come a long way since the first rendition of The Women’s Bakery.
From failure in securing quality equipment, we were also met with failures in terms of being challenged by our path to scale and mission creep. While our model works well today, we faced some steep challenges in terms of sticking to our mission and scaling it up. Many people might recognize photos of our Flagship cafe in Kigali as a gathering space for the community and a solid spot to spend the afternoon working remotely. Since it was our first bakery, that meant it came with several learning opportunities which directed us to take a closer look at how mission-critical the larger storefront actually was. In short, it isn’t.
Some might even be shocked to learn that our first bakery to reach profitability is one located in a semi-rural town in the Gicumbi District - about 1.5 hours away from the capital city and without all the bells and whistles of our Kigali cafe. Markey shared that this taught the leadership team to really think about how we are positioned in each city and in the country as a whole. In fact, it has encouraged us to explore more partnerships with our bakeries and local organizations such as schools, refugee camps, and other businesses.
While these failures have created challenges over the years - some of which we are still navigating today - they have shown us the power of both our resilient women-powered team, and our high quality bread. These staples have a ripple effect of growth in the communities which we serve. The equipment we use and the space we sell our bread from certainly makes a difference but it is all the strong women behind our organization - from our bakers to our management team - and the bread itself that makes us fearless in our innovation. Stay tuned for next month’s featured failures in regards to our impact!