Three Wheels United
Deliverables
Customer Journey Map & Recommendations. By detailing a driver’s decision-making process, the journey map reveals improvements for the customer experience. Implementing new initiatives can increase driver loyalty and brand recognition.
Human Resources Recommendations. This guide presents high-level recommendations for improving company communications, building leadership capacity in current employees, and developing organized management structures as the enterprise scales.
Market Evaluation Guide. This guide evaluates the feasibility of expanding into a new market based on factors found to be important from field research. Examples of these factors include local regulations, existing infrastructure, and driver demographics.
New Delhi Market Entry Strategy. Three Wheels United is preparing to expand into New Delhi, the largest city in India. This document presents pertinent market research, a customized market entry strategy, and partnership recommendations with an electric rickshaw aggregator.
Mission
Break the cycle of poverty and reduce pollution by financing electric vehicles.
Challenge
Develop a scaling toolkit to help Three Wheels United efficiently reach new markets.
Research Activities
Three Wheels United provides affordable loans for electric three-wheeled taxis (rickshaws) in India for financial empowerment and pollution reduction. The company currently operates in the Bangalore area and is seeking a consistent procedure to expand into emerging markets. We helped Three Wheels United structure several key components of its scaling process by conducting 102 interviews with drivers, financiers, dealerships, and potential partners in four cities. These interviews revealed obstacles to electric vehicle ownership, improvements for the customer experience, and critical factors to use when evaluating new markets.
Key Findings:
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- Each city has unique demographics and regulations that influence its rickshaw market. Permit allowances, existing financiers, the presence of unions, and the transiency of drivers are several important factors that differ between cities.
- Charging, parking, and maintenance are the primary obstacles for electric vehicle drivers. Most driver homes cannot accommodate parking or charging, and drivers lack the knowledge to repair electric vehicles. A more comprehensive loan product that includes these elements is attractive to electric rickshaw drivers.
- Innovative ways to communicate rickshaw pricing soothe worries about upfront expenses. Although electric vehicles are more expensive than gas-powered vehicles, electricity is much cheaper than fuel. Drivers may not understand the long-term cost benefits of switching to electric vehicles.
- Consistent repayment increases when loan products are customized to the driver’s lifestyle. A driver’s ability to repay a loan changes due to annual expenses and unexpected events.
What The Entrepreneurs Are Saying
The deliverables we received from GSBF helped us to better formalize our current understandings of our clients and also helped us gain knowledge of new markets while shaping the way we will continue to do market research. All of this has been very valuable for Three Wheels United!
-Rosemary Pierce-Messick, Head of Business Development, Three Wheels United
Team
2019
Social Enterprise:
Three Wheels United
Fellows:
Gavin Cosgrave
Management Information Systems
Linkedin
Blog
Rachael Han
Civil Engineering
Linkedin
Blog
Faculty Research Mentor:
Don Riccomini, English