South Pacific Business Development founder, Greg Casagrande is a “serial social entrepreneur”, founding not only the SPBD microfinance network 20 years ago, but also MicroDreams, a microfinance acceleration fund, and Transformative Ventures LLC, a microfinance advisory company. Casagrande’s storied career has also seen him promote hi-tech entrepreneurship, and act as founding director of the Ice Angels, Australasia’s largest angel investor group. Here he reflects on SPBD’s 20 years, and the challenges and opportunities 2020 bought the network.
Islands Business: The SPBD network has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. How has your vision evolved over that time?
Greg Casagrande: SPBD began simply in the year 2000 with the vision of providing under-privileged Samoan women with the opportunity to obtain small unsecured loans to help them start and grow tiny income generating businesses so that they could work their way up and out of poverty. Since then we have learned that there are several other important needs that we can also address. Today we provide a full range of financial and business development services including: affordable savings accounts, a variety of death benefits, significant financial literacy education, heaps of micro, small and medium business training including our much lauded BLOOM programme, childhood education and higher education financing, basic housing improvement financing, several different asset purchase financing programmes, solar powered equipment financing and distribution, regional seasonal employee financing, remittance facilitation, mobile money transfers and more. Over the past twenty years we have also dramatically expanded our vision beyond the shores of Upolu in Samoa. Today we work throughout Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
IB: As founder, what has given you most satisfaction over this period?
GS: I always find tremendous joy meeting in the villages with our many successful women micro-entrepreneurs. I love hearing their stories about how they have taken charge of their lives and are working hard and making the living and educational environment better for their families and especially their children. So many of our members have become fantastic leaders in their communities. They are especially inspiring.
IB: What is the biggest lesson you have learned?
GS: I read a good quote many years ago that said, “if you want to go fast, travel alone, if you want to go far, go together.” My vision is for SPBD to be a permanent impact organisation that is spread across the region. To achieve that has required building excellent local teams in each one of our markets. Building a great team is critical to achieving sustained significant success. I am enormously proud of our excellent team throughout the region.
IB: Has anything surprised you about the way the network has developed?
GC: Building a financially self-sufficient, sustainable and highly impactful organization that serves the grass roots communities in nearly 2,000 villages across dozens of islands in five different Pacific Islands nations has not been easy. There were many times, especially early on, that we could have failed. I understand clearly why so many well-intentioned similar, well-funded efforts have in fact failed. I think SPBD has great tenacity in its DNA. When I started, I would never have imagined how difficult it would be. But the effort has clearly been worth it.
IB: 2020 has been a difficult year for Pacific island economies, and many families have turned to micro and small enterprises for their economic survival. How has the pandemic and resulting economic impacts impacted SPBD? What adjustments have you made?
GC: 2020 has indeed been an extraordinary and difficult year. SPBD has made many adjustments to better serve our clients in this significantly changed environment. SPBD adopted new procedures and policies to fully comply with all new government regulations in each of our markets. Among other things this included adopting significant use of personal protective equipment in all aspects of our operations, suspending weekly meetings as needed and then using micro-meetings (with just 3 people, in lieu of larger groups) when appropriate. We also helped our clients with their loans by providing them with significant repayment grace periods and opportunities to reschedule existing loans. Additionally we are providing all of our clients with the ability to take out new rehabilitation financing to either relaunch a business or, for those who were working in the tourism industry, to launch an entirely new and different business.
IB: You describe yourself as a ‘serial social entrepreneur’. What new ventures are you working on now?
GC: In addition to SPBD, I am also the Chairman and CEO of WaterHealth International (WHI). WHI is a major provider and operator of distributed, affordable clean drinking water facilities located in hundreds of rural communities across India, Nigeria, and Ghana. Millions of poor rural families rely on us each day for their purified drinking water.
IB: What is the one piece of advice you would give someone who is thinking of going into business?
GC: My advice, to any person considering going into business, is to have a very clear vision of the specific customer needs that you are going to address and satisfy. Figure out exactly how you are going to delight your customers by fully meeting their specific needs. With that knowledge in hand, you can then design a financially sustainable and scalable business model that will consistently deliver terrific solutions that please your customers. You will then be on your pathway towards a successful business.
IB: Who inspires you- and how?
GC: My father has always been my main inspiration in business. He is a tremendously accomplished entrepreneur. He instilled in me most of my core values, a strong work ethic, and a disposition to tenaciously and smartly build quality organisations around terrific, tightly knit teams.
IB: Sadly, you haven’t been able to travel to SPBD countries this year. But when borders reopen, where are you looking forward to visiting again?
GC: In 2021 I will most definitely be back in all five SPBD countries (Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Solomon Islands & Vanuatu). I look forward to meeting face-to-face once again with all of our teams and many of our wonderful, inspired members.