The Wikyo Akala Project (WAP) was a cooperative set up as a social enterprise that sought to pool the
efforts of the sandal makers in the Korogocho area, Nairobi, Kenya, in order to improve their sales
revenue using the internet platform. WAP struggled to survive as a “bricks-and-mortar” social enterprise
in the first six years of operation. However, with the adoption of a “clicks-and-mortar” digital strategy
through an e-commerce platform, the project witnessed phenomenal growth as the internet architecture
provided them with an opportunity to re-think their operating model. The key questions and decisions that faced them were the following:
1. Which operating model would be appropriate for their social enterprise operating in a resource constrained
environment?
2. Secondly, how could they incorporate digital technology into the standardization of their services and
processes, and to enable integration of their processes?
3. And thirdly the issue of future growth, sustainability and competition needed to be addressed.