What makes a good charity shop location? Why should you never say that you don’t have competitors? How can you make better decisions? Why shouldn’t we dismiss the tools of the private sector?

In this episode, you’ll hear from Caroline Glackin, a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Broadwell College of Business and Economics.

This conversation was based on a paper by Caroline and Burcu Adivar titled: Improving Location Decisions For Charity Retailers: Applying Operations Research and Customer Discovery

The paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.1177/08997640221146934

You can find out more about Caroline on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolineglackin/

Or on her university’s faculty page: https://www.uncfsu.edu/academics/colleges-schools-and-departments/broadwell-college-of-business-and-economics/faculty-and-staff

Contribute More is hosted by Zac Parsons. Find out more about him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zwparsons/

// REFLECTION

Have a conversation with a colleague about how your organisation approaches decision-making. Do you ever discuss how you’ll make a decision? Do you consider which criteria are and aren’t relevant to the decision? Do you regularly identify and weigh up trade-offs?

// RESOURCES

Habitat for Humanity ReStores: https://www.habitat.org/restores

Business model canvas: https://www.strategyzer.com/library/the-business-model-canvas

Mission model canvas: https://www.strategyzer.com/library/the-mission-model-canvas-an-adapted-business-model-canvas-for-mission-driven-organizations

// CHAPTERS

(0:00) Intro

(2:13) Why does the framework use a business model and analytical approach?

(6:30) Applying the business model canvas in a charity context

(11:44) Centre of gravity analysis for choosing shop locations

(13:19) Location of donors

(16:59) Location of staff and volunteers

(19:39) Location of customers

(22:26) Location of competitors and direct vs indirect competitors

(27:13) Choosing a location from a series of options using multi-criteria decision-making

(34:07) Key takeaways

(41:02) Outro

(41:45) Reflection