In this video series-2, Elizabeth Littlefield, CEO, CGAP, takes the discussion further on Financial Crisis and its impact on MFIs. She explains why MFIs cannot fail and why in some markets MFIs need to distinguish itself from mainstream profit maximising consumer credit. She further explains the important role CGAP plays in dealing with the crisis.
Blog
Recruiting and Retaining a Large Workforce – Lessons from the BPO Sector
To improve human resource management, microfinance institutions (MFIs) can usefully draw relevant lessons from the Call Centre/Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, which has a lot of similarities in terms or managing a large workforce. This note draws lessons from the BPO industry and concludes that managing a large workforce is no longer about providing a life-time career option to all employees, but rather to ensure that the time staff members spend with the organisation is fruitful and mutually beneficial. The objective is to inculcate a long-term symbiotic relationship between the employer and the employee.
Market Strategy Development and 3rd Generation Microfinance in India
The “product-centric” approach of the first and the second generation microfinance (SHG-Bank linkage and the MFI led JLG model respectively) has proved rather inadequate to face up the challenges posed by the fierce competition resulting from a glut in microfinance service providers in certain regions. Response to these challenges calls for emergence of the third generation (3G) of MFIs that make a “tectonic shift” to the “client-centric” approach. The 3G-MFIs will put the client back at the centre of their business and will be early adopters of technology to unlock the benefits of cost reduction and efficiency.
Financial Crisis Impact on MFIs and their Clients Part 1
In this video series-1, Elisabeth Littlefield, CEO, CGAP, talks about financial crisis within microfinance industry and its impact on MFIs and their clients. Elisabeth highlights that the food crisis coupled with oil crisis has resulted in the fall in financial condition of microfinance borrowers. She notes that due to the crisis remittances were going down in most countries and in some cases they were going up because of a variety of reasons.
Being Strategic about HR
Given that Human Resource Management (HRM) is designed to act as a support function, what exactly does “being strategic” entail? The human resource function assumes a different role depending on the stage of the organisation’s evolution: growth phase; product diversification phase, and steady state. HRM must be treated as a strategic function, must be integrated into all other strategic planning and implementation, and must be developed to operate as a strategic peer to all other institutional components such as operations, risk management, product development or finance.
Dinosaurs and Rabbits – Indian Microfinance Market Evolution
The microfinance world is changing – very fast. Because different clients have different needs and no one product or microfinance player is going to meet all needs. If microfinance is to deliver on its promise it must evolve and adapt in a way which meets clients’ needs more effectively, as clients change, and as the world changes around them. This note assesses what is needed for MFIs to keep up with the pace of change.