Collective production hubs

Throughout the world there are vulnerable neighborhoods, those with high levels of poverty and insecurity, economically excluded from the current prevailing model, for small businesses in those areas the access to means of production, innovative processes or training on how to improve and be competitive in biggest markets is challenging.

Therefore, we want to create collaborative production centers aligned to cooperative principles and values, these spaces will promote access to technology and resilient networks for all small businesses and entrepreneurs in vulnerable neighborhoods, in addition to democratizing access to knowledge processes and Innovation for their companies, these spaces give them the ability to grow, offer good jobs and develop the local economy.

Throughout the world we have seen how traditional economic models such as capitalism exclude all those who do not have large amounts of capital, generating a large gap in inequality and poverty. These large capital companies have production and technological means that allow them to have greater strength and presence in the market, leaving small companies with few opportunities to be competitive and publicize their products or services due to the lack of capital to pay for means of production and applied technological innovation processes.

In Mexico, micro and small companies represent 4.1 million productive units, which generate a large part of economic activity and are the main source of employment, according to INEGI data, unfortunately close to 70% of these companies do not survive more than 2 years, due to the lack of training on how to manage and improve their businesses, the lack of investment and financing, access to the means of production and technology is limited and they do not have networks that allow them to grow or improve.

Collaborative productive hubs looks democratize the access of means of production and technology to small businesses and entrepreneurs, this spaces promote resilient networks and build community in order to helps to this smalls businesses to grow and be competitive.

In this spaces the small business and entrepreneurs has access to means of production in order to improve and standardize their products, they count with specialized machinery to produce more and better products attending market demands, collective brands that allows them to scale their production, they have access to training in innovation and technological processes, promoting the adoption of values and principles of cooperative models wich look for generate good and resilient jobs.

The Institute of Design and Technological Innovation of the Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla has worked in the last 10 years in the accompaniment of small companies and entrepreneurs who live in areas with high rates of poverty, through training and access to means of production and technology for the improvement of its products, processes and services, promoting the adoption of cooperative values, we have more than 1,100 small business accompanied under this model, so, depending on the needs we observe and analyze, we decided to promote the creation of collective production hubs, which allow companies to scale, grow and be more competitive to generate good jobs and local economic development.

This actions impact directly in the way of build community and collaborative processes in vulnerable neighborhoods or rural communities in the first stage, then comes the training and improvementof small businesses wich allows them to has dignity incomes, be source of good jobs and generate economic development in these neighborhoods, and once they are trained in managment and soft skills they needs to scale their business, thats why collaborative production hubs born. 

Today, we have witnessed the great inequalities that capitalist economic models have generated in society, violating vulnerable sectors of the population; this phenomenon becomes even more evident with the current pandemic, leaving thousands of people without a decent source of income.

That is why collective production hubs looks democratizase the access to means of production and technology for small companies in early stages and entrepreneurs, promoting the sustainable growth of these businesses in order to adopt cooperative values to build resilient networks, good jobs and local economic development. 

Our solution innovates in the way that the small businesses could produce, in order to work collaboratively and have access to technology, means of production and knowledge.

Nowadays we attend 250 small business per year at the Institute of Design and Technological Innovation of Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla. 

In a year we expected to serve150 small businesses more, in the collective production hub. 

In five years we could serve 1500 small businesses in the region. (with the collaborative hub and the Institute of Design and Technological Innovation of Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla). 

We could transform millions of lives, replicating the model in different states in Mexico and countries around the world, these model count with solid bases  that allows to fit in different territories.

Our impacts goals

º Democratizase the access to means of production, knowledge and technology for small businesses or productive initiatives in vulnerable neighborhoods.

º Promote the creation of solid networks. 

º Promote the creation of good jobs. 

º Promote the local economy development of the region. 

º Bring the skills to this small businesses to scale and growth. 

º Promote the adoption of cooperative values in order to be resilient to economic crisis. 

As a academic institution we count with different potential allies, who can involve, finance and help to scale the model in different states.

The current pandemic and all their effects could be the principal barrier, but also the biggest chance to prove this collaborative model works. 

Principal barriers 

1. The quarantine, its difficult to us work with the groups during quarantine and social restrictions. 

2. Financial barriers, the access to founds for build the collective production hubs. 

3. The decrease of the markets demands and economic crisis.

4. The increase of extreme poverty. 

5. The current public policies. 

The best way to overcome these barriers is involve different actors in the project, like government institutions, academic institutions, private institutions, foundations, non-profit organizations and the society, in order to found the best way to make this works and benefits to all those small businesses with limited opportunities to scale.

12 team members full time 

4 team members part time 

As an academic institution, we have an ecosystem of profiles from different disciplines and specialties, from researchers, teachers, students, collaborators and a network of strategic allies. 

Since 2010, the Institute of Design and Technological Innovation has worked in the development of methodologies to support small companies with a cooperative approach, which do not have the necessary resources to pay for a business incubation and professionalization process, we are pioneers developing collective processes of savings, consumption, production and commercialization in neighborhoods with high rates of poverty and crime, our methodology promotes resilient employment and local economic development.

The team who works in the solution proposal, have at least 5 years of experience acompaiment directly small businesses and cooperatives in vulnerable neigborhoods in different subjects like business model, financial model, prototyping, innovation, design thinking processes, building collaborative networks and commercialization processes.