Lucknow – street traders and Pollinators
Hi, I’m James McCafferty (below, center), a senior quantity surveyor. Originally from Ireland, I transferred from AECOM’s London office in 2015 to my new home in Wellington, New Zealand.
I came across Pollinate Energy when Vikki, our project administrator, asked me if I had seen the poster on the noticeboard in the office. It was, in her words…”right up my street”, and I am delighted to be working with and on behalf of such an amazing company.
It took me almost 30 hours to get to Lucknow; however, even a few minutes after arriving, I knew the journey was worth it. It has always been a dream of mine to come to India, so I was happy once I had actually stepped off the plane. Everything about this country is so different, from the cows in the street, to the pann tobacco chewed (and spat!) by the locals, and the different smells on every street corner.
So far, Lucknow is an amazing city, and I have met so many beautiful people here. The locals are very friendly; there has been no animosity at all, even when out in the communities.
Along with my AECOM colleagues, Jeremy Hart and Ly Galanos, I have been assigned a project with two main objectives:
- To help Pollinate Energy enter the street trader market;
- To assist with Pollinator* recruitment in Lucknow.
*A pollinator is a local who has been hired by Pollinate Energy to manage the product sales and engage with communities to deliver life-changing products.
For our first task, we sat down as a team with two local fellows, Apurva and Sabashini, and reviewed our project brief. Through countless days working in the communities, Pollinate Energy has highlighted street traders as a potential new market in Lucknow. We have seven days to find out if this is viable and then determine how best to approach the market.
Our strategy is simple: we have drafted a survey with 16 key questions that help us collect sufficient data to decide if street traders need Pollinate’s assistance. From the 38 surveys that we have carried out so far, we have identified the following:
- 95% of street traders are lighting their stall with a car battery and LED lights;
- 95% of street traders have purchased their car batteries for between INR 1500-3000;
- These car batteries cost and average of INR 20 per day to charge;
- Daily profit can range from INR 200-3000, depending on the stall (that’s AUD$4-60/day!);
- Almost all respondents have said that they have no alternative source of power.
We still have more surveys to carry out, so the plan is to hit the streets again as early as possible.
As of this morning, we have yet to make a dent in our second task. Following a few workshops, we determined that working closely with Ajay (below), the new Lucknow sales manager, would be the best way to achieve our goal of hiring three Pollinators by 15 October.
Ajay has worked tirelessly over the past few days to identify his perfect candidates. It is now up to us to interview these potential Pollinators over the next day or two. Pollinate Energy aim to have at least three Pollinators on board within the next two weeks so they can ‘hit the ground running’ in Lucknow. We feel a second ‘hands-on’ interview in the field will be massively beneficial to help decide who is best suited to join the Pollinate Energy team. So, once we have our first Pollinators shortlisted, we will be throwing them in at the deep end and heading straight for the communities to see how they interact and manage relationships.
I’ll keep you posted on progress.