A São Paulo-based Oliver Wyman Social impact team spent 15 weeks helping Brazilian nonprofit Amigos do Bem in two different initiatives. The first focused on reviewing and redesigning the organization’s commercial strategy, and a second supported the structuring of a program to distribute cashew seedlings to small producers in a region of extreme poverty, helping them boost their cashew businesses and the NGO’s impact on the region.

Amigos do Bem operates in the Brazilian northeast, also referred to as Sertão, the most populous semi-arid region in the world, where 57% of Brazilians who still live in extreme poverty are concentrated. The nonprofit serves 150,000 people monthly, in 300 different villages in the states of Alagoas, Pernambuco, and Ceará.

The partnership between Oliver Wyman and Amigos do Bem started in the first half of 2022 in a five-week project. In this engagement the team performed a deep dive into Amigos do Bem’s commercial strategy through a detailed review of the cashew market inside and outside Brazil and a series of interviews with the organization’s commercial partners. As result, the team proposed initiatives to boost the NGO’s commercial effectiveness and improve its brand awareness.

During the second phase of the project, the Oliver Wyman team also structured the nonprofit’s supply process to better understand how costs are allocated along the cashew production chain in order to reduce costs and boost the NGO’s sales. In addition, the team continuning supporting the development of Amigos do Bem's commercial strategy and  negotiated with large retailers to improve brand exposure at the point of sale, giving more visibility to the products and communicating the project’s scope and impact to customers. 

The extensive work of Amigos do Bem promotes effective transformation in the lives of thousands of people. With projects in education, job and income generation, water, housing, and health, the group’s work meets 12 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Amigos do Bem created a sustainable social development model to generate work and provide opportunities for children and young people who dream of a better future.

The Oliver Wyman project gave Amigos do Bem more clarity on opportunities for improvement inside the institution, including reducing production costs, increasing sales and generating more investment in education. The project team worked on creating a supply area to improve product quality, improving branding inside retailers so that end customers better understand the project and support it, and structuring a program to distribute seedlings and reduce the NGO’s distance to small producers, as well as defining a path to implement the changes and opportunities.