- Situation
- The brief was to expand a fintech's mobile banking into underserved rural markets.
- Complication
- Most mobile banking strategies quietly assume connectivity, and those markets don't have it.
- Question
- What does a rural strategy look like if you start from the constraint?
- Answer
- Build on USSD and call-based access, which works on any handset and any network, and size the rollout to where that access already reaches. It took first place out of 25+ teams.
The approach
Most mobile banking strategies quietly assume connectivity. Ours started from its absence. We built the expansion on USSD and call-based access, which works on any handset on any network, and then sized and sequenced the rollout around where that access already reached.
Start from the constraint, then choose the channel
- 01 Constraint Low or no internet connectivity across the target markets
- 02 Channel USSD and call-based access: any handset, any network
- 03 Rollout Sized and sequenced to where that access already reaches
Source: CEO Challenge, Pune Startup Fest, January 2025
The result
First place against more than 25 teams, many of them from MBA programmes. Framing the constraint first is what separated the answer from the others.
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