R-LABS: EMPOWERING UNLIKELY INNOVATORS

Marc Low, Lameez Alexander, François Bonnici

The Reconstructed Living Labs, or RLabs, headquarters were situated deep in the heart of Bridgetown
– a small township located in an area of Cape Town designated for “non-whites” by the former
Apartheid government. As he wound his way through the streets on a sunny day in December 2013,
Marlon Parker drove past the run-down houses. Half-finished paint jobs and crumbling front yard walls
were practically standard, a physical reflection of the despair which many residents felt. Decades of
structural unemployment had taken their toll, and poverty was the norm. The sense of community and
hope was nonetheless strong.

Marlon was on his way to a meeting with the RLabs Advisory Board – the group of managers and
community leaders which helped shaped RLabs’ growth and expansion, including his father-in-law,
Pastor Roger Petersen. Through his community outreach organization, Impact Direct Ministries,
Pastor Petersen had put in place a program that assisted mostly ex-gangsters, drug dealers, and high
school drop-outs in reconstructing their lives. This small group would later become the original
members of RLabs.

From these humble beginnings, equipped with one computer and a dial-up internet connection, RLabs
grew explosively. Now in 2014 they were by far the largest employer in the Bridgetown area, with 109
community members employed directly. RLabs graduated over 28,000 community members through
their training academy since its inception offering $10,900,000USD worth of scholarships worldwide.
At the end of 2013 they have launched 22 technology start-ups, reaching over 5 million subscribers
and generating nearly $1,300,000USD in revenue, with another 7 start-ups ready for launch at the end
of 2014.
Through franchising, they had operations in 22 countries across Europe, Asia, South America and
Africa.
By all accounts, RLabs was immensely successful in achieving its social mission. The organization’s
unfettered growth was remarkable. Walking towards the RLabs offices Marlon made a mental note of
the issues he wanted to cover in the strategic planning meeting. The RLabs leadership team was at a
critical juncture. With the organization moving at its current pace, the development and implementation
of an expansion strategy was crucial. The message of hope – of community upliftment, and of
possibility – is a key component of the RLabs philosophy, and a huge driver of the movement. Dilution
of this core mission and message is perhaps the single biggest threat to RLabs’ success. Marlon
wondered, as RLabs continued to expand, could this message of hope be scaled effectively and
replicated elsewhere? Would Rlabs be as successful in other locales, given the importance of
community embeddedness? Or would the cost of expansion come at too high a price to pay?

Booting Up RLabs: The Early Days

RLabs was established in 2007 by Marlon, at the request of his father-in-law, Pastor Petersen. Pastor
Petersen ran a community outreach center called Impact Direct Ministries, and through his work, had
connected with a handful of gang members, drug dealers and addicts who expressed interest in
turning their lives around. A walk-in center was established at IDM where rehabilitation in the form of
spiritual counselling –called “Life Reconstruction” – was offered with the aim of showing these young
men and women the path towards societal re-integration. Many of them having either dropped out or
been kicked out of the formal education system, Pastor Petersen gave these youth access to a single
computer with an internet connection in an effort to keep them occupied; this small action created a
spark of interest. The Pastor approached Marlon Parker, a local university IT lecturer, to see if he
could give the group some training in computer skills. This was the seed that would ultimately blossom
into the RLabs project.
Many of these youth struggled to read and write; certainly none of them had been exposed to
technology or computers at length. Slowly, painstakingly, Marlon taught them to use the machines,
exploring basics like word-processing and surfing the internet. As the skill levels progressed, Marlon
introduced them to the concept of blogging. Through online connections via blogs and other forms of
social media, the group learned that they were not alone – that other people, sometimes in areas far
away, were struggling with the same issues around drugs, violence, and gangs. They also learned that
in sharing their own stories online, they could make a positive impact in the lives of people they had
never met. This contribution led to a feeling of self-worth, a sense of possibility, and an understanding
that one's past does not define one's future and that something better lay ahead. No one at RLabs
could tell you exactly when it happened, but slowly, lives were being transformed by this feeling of
hope. Giving hope to others through story telling formed the cornerstone of the RLabs vision.

The RLabs concept was starting to gather momentum and Marlon secured a donation of 10 laptops
from Dell Computers had donated. Now that RLabs was becoming a defined entity, it became clear to
Marlon that they needed a mission statement... a raison d'etre. Together with his wife Rene, Pastor
Petersen, and the group of 14 reconstructed youth – the so-called “founding members” of RLabs –
they began crafting the core values of RLabs. The value statement, which continued to drive RLabs,
reads:

RLabs...
- it is a movement by people for people
- it is a movement of HOPE
- it is a movement of CHANGE
- it is a movement of OPPORTUNITY
- it is a movement of LEARNING
- it is a movement of INNOVATION
- it is a SOCIAL REVOLUTION

These core values represent the journey that those original 14 members experienced. In creating a
space where these youth could feel safe and valued, a sense of hope was instilled. It was this sense
of hope that empowered the change they experienced. That change opened up new possibilities and
opportunities. By exploring and learning, these youth were becoming innovative, thinking outside the
box about new and innovative ways to use technology to help others and to give back to their
communities. It was thus that the first pieces of software innovation were born from the most unlikely
of innovators.

From Agents of Hope to Unlikely Innovators

It began as an innocuous conversation. Many of the founding members were recovering drug addicts;
all of them were technology addicts. One piece of technology which everyone was using was a mobile
application called Mxit. The app offers an instant mobile messaging service that does not require a
data-enabled “smartphone”. Over 85% of Mxit’s 7.4 million monthly active users were South African.

The RLabs members understood the critical need for drug counseling services in townships such as
Bridgetown. They also knew how incredibly difficult it was for substance abusers to gain access to
such services given the 6-12 month waiting period for most facilities. At just 1 cents (ZAR) per
message, the Mxit chat service provided the perfect solution; and just like that Jamiix, the world’s first
mobile counselling service was born.

Leveraging the Mxit app, Jamiix was the first piece of technology innovation to emerge from RLabs.
Initially, the original group of ex-gang members and drug addicts provided counseling to approximately
50 active users. Soon the number of users skyrocketed causing the system to crash. Eventually,
RLabs licensed out the Jamiix platform to local and international organizations that offered counseling
services on a large scale. The platform later enabled mobile support counselling for a variety of issues,
though the focus at RLabs remained on drug counselling. By the end of 2013 the Jamiix platform had
been accessed nearly 27 million times, managing more than a billion messages, and was growing
every month. This innovation addressed a core need in the community and did so in a unique and
powerful way. By combining technological innovation with “boots on the ground” knowledge about
community needs, RLabs was able to create an immensely valuable service that had attracted a broad,
international audience. It was this type of thinking that solidified the core motto of RLabs:

RLabs is a global movement that provides innovative solutions to address various complex problems.
It creates an environment where people are empowered to make a difference in the lives of others.

Yet some ideas were bound to fail. In 2010, after investing nearly 1 million Rand (roughly $100,000
USD at the time) in a project that leveraged Bluetooth technology to help deliver community
information and news, the team struggled to build a significant user base and the project was
mothballed. Marlon and the RLabs team learned a hard lesson about the value of creating a product
that satisfied a salient market need. The necessity of using existing, embraced technology and social
media platforms became a key factor in determining a project's viability. In addition to the
requirements that new projects be scalable and sustainable, it became an unspoken prerequisite that
projects address socially relevant community needs.

RLabs 2.0: Growth, Opportunity, Contribution

RLabs as a concept and as an organization has grown to be much more than simply a software
development hub or an IT training facility. The portfolio has expanded to encompass six distinct
divisions or areas of practice: Products & Services, Community Work, RLabs Research Institute,
RLabs Academy, InnovIA (the Innovation Incubator) and finally the RLabs Social Franchise division.

RLabs Academy
The RLabs Academy is the formalized training and education structure. It started in 2008 when the
original RLabs members decided to use their new found skills to teach their mothers as a gesture of
goodwill. News about the “free computer lessons” spread quickly and soon the RLabs members found
themselves training others in the community. The syllabus had since expanded to include courses on
social media, blogging, entrepreneurship, project management, and a digital course exclusively for
women in honor of the first “mom’s class”.

In 2012, a new component of the Academy was created that specifically targeted unemployed youth
between the ages of 18 and 25. The vision behind this Grow Leadership Academy was to create a
stepping-stone for youth to develop leadership capabilities, run businesses, and/or enter the job
market as well-rounded individuals. The program – designed to develop “digital artisans” with a
passion for social change – provided training in Entrepreneurship, Digital Skills, and Leadership
across a 6-month period and is offered twice a year. All Academy and Grow courses continued to be
offered free of charge for community members. The GROW Leadership Academy received funding
and support (approximately $750,000) from USAID, Rockefeller Foundation and the Finnish Foreign
Ministry.

Although not officially accredited, the educational purpose of the RLabs Academy went beyond mere
transfer of educational content. It offered people the space to discover and nurture their personal
dreams and aspirations, to share their life stories, and to feel empowered. Students who enroll in the
courses were encouraged to return as volunteers and facilitators, which adds to the organization’s
sense of family and community.

Products & Services

The RLabs Products & Services division leverages the skills taught at RLabs to provide consulting-
style services to businesses interested in social media. This work was sometimes done pro-bono,
though significant portion (of RLabs’ revenues up to 70%) came from their consulting work, and they
boasted some major corporate clients. In 2010, RLabs and its Social Media Factory (a technology
start-up created by one of the original RLabs members) were elected as the World Bank’s conference
social media partner. A recent engagement saw the RLabs team involved in a national campaign to
list Table Mountain as one of the seven natural wonders of the world. They succeeded by securing an
additional 2 million votes from the South African public in just three days. Next to that they also offered
paid training services in social media and digital tools to businesses and other institutions as part of
organizational capacity building initiatives. Typically this would involve adapting existing RLabs
programs to meet the needs of the specific business context or institutional domain.

Living Lab & Research Institute

The Living Lab component encourages RLabs members to continue to give back to the community,
reinforcing the RLabs values around change and positive social impact. The counselling work done on
the Jamiix platform is typical of the work undertaken by the Living Lab team. Although the original
RLabs members were no longer involved in counselling services, a new team known as the “Angel
Network” was created as part of IDM’s community outreach services. A member of the RLabs team
continues to oversee the program as well as provide technical support. Other community projects
included offering free social media training to 20 education institutions based in the township of
Khayelitsha and co-creation events, called “hackathons”. Hackathons were designed to attract and
foster collaboration among a diverse of set of stakeholders including government representatives,
NGOs, local businesses, and community members to solve pressing social problems. RLabs regularly
coordinated such co-creation events and had successfully conducted one hackathon per quarter in
2012 and 2013 including one on trade transparency hosted by the UK government.

The RLabs Research Institute had formed partnerships with over 18 universities for the purpose of
scholastic collaboration on peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as research and technical reports on
social media platforms and IT products.

InnovIA
Seeking to replicate the success of Jamiix, RLabs established the Innovation Incubator and
Accelerator in 2012. This formalized structure offered Academy participants and community members
the chance to implement and monetize their social innovation ideas over an incubation period of nine
months. InnovIA was run primarily from the Bridgetown headquarters but other hubs were planned.
InnovIA gave budding social entrepreneurs the tools to successfully conceptualize, develop and
launch mobile software applications that address social problems. Participants were selected based
on the sustainability and scalability of their ideas. Since mentorship and business development advice
was provided, previous experience was required and literally anyone could submit an idea. In October
2013, six new start-ups were launched bringing the total number of start-ups launched through
InnovIA to 22.

One of the start-ups was Uusi. The Uusi project provides a fascinating lens through which to view the
RLabs social entrepreneurship philosophy. Terrence, the creator of Uusi, came to RLabs seeking
basic computer skills; with over 20 years of accumulated unemployment, he was in dire need of skills
development and direction. Outside of RLabs, his situation seemed hopeless, but once inside, his
perspective changed. After completing some of the RLabs courses, he was enthusiastic, but had
trouble coming up with an innovative idea for a social start-up. He recalled a conversation with Marlon,
wherein the founder encouraged him to think outside the box and view his years of unemployment not
as a problem, but as an opportunity for an innovative solution. “Terrence, you're an expert at
something, you just can't see it yet. You've been unemployed for 20 years... You are an expert at
being unemployed! What can you do with that?” Terrence knew many people in the community in
similar positions to himself. He started thinking about how he could empower them to find work. It was
from this altered mindset that Uusi was born. Dubbed “The Poor-man’s LinkedIn”, Uusi provided a
mobile social network platform that matched people with employment and empowerment
opportunities. With a strong focus on emerging markets, Uusi partnered with the Mixit Reach platform
to access users across Africa. The platform was a huge success, with thousands of users signing up
in just the early stages of release.

The process and success of Uusi points to a particular philosophy that is embodied throughout RLabs:
to “use what’s at hand”. It is a philosophy often born of necessity, but steeped in optimism and
possibility. At RLabs, in InnovIA but also as part of the Academy, participants were trained and
encouraged to see opportunity where others saw lack; they made ends meet when the goal seemed
impossible given the resources at hand. Marlon and the senior RLabs members could often be heard
encouraging other members to make the best of available resources, whether those resources were
the computers or the sugar and milk for the coffee. Members were given the space and
encouragement to be creative in solving community issues by focusing first and foremost on their
innovative capacity informed by their own life experiences, rather than external resources and funding.

This basic philosophy, which sought primarily to leverage what was present rather than point out that
which was lacking, had the double benefit of empowering the local community with a sense of
personal attachment and pride in driving innovations that solve community problems; it also gave
RLabs tremendous flexibility in decision-making, because they were not beholden to a particular
funding source or government grant. InnovIA was entirely funded by revenues generated through
RLabs products and services. The result was a potent combination whereby RLabs members gave
their very best out of a sense of connection and pride rather than income, giving RLabs leadership the
freedom to take on “riskier” innovation projects. This self-sufficient strategy had driven much of the
innovation that emerged from RLabs to-date.

From Bridgetown to... China?

The sixth and final piece of the RLabs puzzle is the Social Franchise division. As the RLabs concept
gained traction in South Africa, Marlon started to receive enquiries from other communities and
organizations around the world who wished to replicate the RLabs model. Marlon and the RLabs team
saw the opportunity to not only grow the RLabs global community and assist other communities in
need, but also to expand the innovative capacity of RLabs by broadening their network and
geographic reach.

RLabs approached this issue mostly on an ad-hoc basis, choosing to execute on opportunities as they
arose rather than strategically planning to enter certain regions at specific times. The organization was
open to working with anyone who showed innovative capacity to uplift their community. The only
requirements were that franchisee organizations had to embody the RLabs values, be established
organizations with legitimacy in their communities, and be operating in an innovative fashion.

RLabs not only welcomed, but encouraged partnerships in countries or regions which offered the
greatest challenges, and thus, the biggest risks. RLabs viewed working with those most troubled in
the community as the very essence of their success. Those who were empowered with a renewed
sense of hope were most likely to give back with enthusiasm because they appreciated the risk that
RLabs took in helping them transform their lives.

The first franchise was established in Portugal in 2010. By the end of 2013 RLabs had a footprint in 22
countries around the world, including Namibia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Brazil and China. RLabs saw
these partnerships moving along a two-year plan, with the first one-to-two years dedicated mostly to
skills upgrading and community-relevant educational programs. As the satellite organizations mature,
the plan was to create regional incubation hubs similar to the Bridgetown InnovIA structure, where
ideas could be developed remotely as opposed to centrally through RLabs Bridgetown.

Financial sustainability
The six practice areas (Products & Services, Community Work, RLabs Research Institute, RLabs
Academy, the InnovIA Innovation Incubator and the RLabs Social Franchise division) had coalesced
to create a hybrid organization of sorts, whereby business and non-profit motives existed side-by-side.
Consultancy fees for RLabs products and services were re-invested into the organization, funding
additional training programs, scholarships and start-up projects. Both the RLabs Academy and
InnovIA were financed solely by RLabs operational funds. The only RLabs component fully funded by
external third parties was the Grow Leadership Academy. By creating a significant level of self-
sufficiency – RLabs had raised nearly R12 million (approximately $1,440,000) through various
revenue channels, accounting for almost 70% of total funding requirements – RLabs had a
tremendous degree of flexibility in terms of the projects and direction it chooses for itself. Were it
constrained by traditional sources of funding, this would most certainly not be the case. The flexibility
to take risks and innovate was a key component of the RLabs recipe, which Marlon and the RLabs
team were determined to maintain moving forward. Although training products and consultancy
services generated a steady flow of income and was crucial for sustaining RLabs operations, it was
the innovative capacity of RLabs that would ensure its long-term success. The RLabs approach to
R&D investment was high risk, placing huge bets on innovations with the potential for enormous
success, both socially and financially. To assist and support RLabs to build the innovative capacity
that they require, Omidyar Network invested more than $500,000 in RLabs towards the end of 2013.

The BlueMedia technology was one such high risk investment that did not succeed. Fortunately, some
risks did pay off. The Jamiix technology became a significant source of revenue for RLabs. The
technology was adopted by several third party counseling services, such as Rape Crisis and Lifeline,
the national HIV/AIDS counseling service in South Africa, as well as Childline in Zimbabwe, under a
licensing structure. As the first open social application on Mxit, Jamiix spearheaded the innovative
Mixit Reach platform. In early 2012, Marlon was invited to head the Mixit Reach platform, a non-profit
entity focused on developing and creating community-based innovations and mobile applications. The
formal partnership established between RLabs and Mxit Reach afforded RLabs a contract covering all
operational costs for an initial period of 12 months.

Marlon knew that they needed to invest in another breakthrough innovation before reaching the end of
the Mxit contract to ensure RLabs’ financial viability beyond this point. Uusi provided the perfect
opportunity. The application’s initial online success with job seekers attracted major clients who were
willing to pay top rates for advertising. In the first year the revenue generated from advertisements
alone was sufficient to cover the Uusi’s operational costs Uusi and Terence was able to hire a
dedicated team to speed up Uusi’s development. Then, advertising revenues dropped significantly,
Uusi’s reserves were drying, and a potential investor was yet to be found. Uusi was back at square
one. Despite these challenges, Marlon continued to believe in Uusi’s potential and, recognizing the
need for further technological development, remained steadfast in his support of the business.

Even so, the time seemed ripe for taking another risk. He discussed the idea with the board members
who agreed with his strategy. They evaluated several of the InnovIA projects one technology called
Cinemo – a mobile application designed to compress video content to make it more accessible to
users. Cinemo, the brainchild of Shane Vermooten, solved the problem of distributing video content to
people without smartphones or access to fixed line internet. The risk paid off. In 2013, Wabona, a
South African video streaming service, purchased an equity stake in Cinemo with the aim of becoming
a majority shareholder in two years.

Marlon knew that the RLabs model of risk taking worked. He also knew that they needed to increase
the number of start-ups launched through InnovIA if they wanted to increase their chances of future
success. This was not something that could be achieved through the RLabs Brigdetown headquarters
alone. They needed to distribute the risk and find a way to set up incubation programs at other RLabs
locations. However, staff at RLabs headquarters were already strained and Marlon feared that the
intensive management effort such an expansion required was beyond the organization’s capacity.

Cultural Continuity
In addition to financial sustainability, the RLabs values and culture was a critical component of its
success. Any expansion through the social franchising model had to serve to sustain these values in
locations far removed from the original RLabs hub and its founding members. Social franchise
partners were carefully selected, primarily on the basis of values alignment and innovative capacity.
This had worked well. Even so, significant risks existed that these partners might deviate from the core
mission of RLabs, do not yield the intended innovative capacity, or join RLabs but do so in a manner
that would draw resources without adding additional value. Till now only one hub had failed in this
respect and it was shut down. However, as RLabs continued to grow and expand, these risks were
likely to increase.

The franchise model was designed in such a way that each hub could take on its own form; hubs were
not required to incorporate all components of the RLabs model. Indeed, each hub was strongly
encouraged to ensure that the projects and specific training programs provided reflect the needs that
were most relevant to the communities they were serving. This approach was both a strength and
weakness of the RLabs expansion model. On the one hand, it was extremely effective in that it
facilitated community building and strengthened the organization’s relationships with community
members, without which no hub could succeed. On the other hand, it made replication and scaling
through conventional methods such as standardization almost impossible.
Sustaining RLabs’ innovative capacity was strongly linked to the success of the existing 18 hubs
across the globe. Although all hubs were expected to be financially independent, a tremendous
amount of investment in the form of capacity training and cultural socialization was required before
innovation could occur. Central to the RLabs model was the collection of beliefs and values about
creating hope and possibility in effecting community change. Training provided through the RLabs
Academy played a critical role in transferring and embedding these values in others. Team members
from the RLabs headquarters were therefore sent to partner hubs and organizations to train local staff
in two-week training blocks. Training programs were customized according to hubs’ specific
organizational and community context. The effects on the financial and human resources at RLabs
headquarters had been draining.

Marlon knew that in order to achieve the cultural continuity across all RLabs hubs, he had no choice
but to send the strongest team members that epitomized the values inherent to RLabs. This often left
the RLabs headquarters vulnerable. During the initial stages of setting up a new hub, staff from
headquarters visited each hub at least twice a year. Costs were either funded by headquarters or
external donors. In November 2013, four different teams were expected to visit hubs in Tanzania,
Namibia, Botswana, and Mozambique, with some spending as long as one month away from their
home base. This occurred in the midst of ongoing training activities and a huge graduation ceremony
planned for 1200 students at the end of the year.

Despite this intense investment, there was no guarantee that partner hubs would fully embrace the
RLabs culture and values. It was also difficult for headquarters to monitor to what extent cultural
adoption had occurred at each hub. There was no monitoring system in place and headquarters
simply did not have the capacity to implement one in the near future. A lack of funds had also limited
on-site visits and there were some hubs that had not been visited at all. For now, the plan was to
consolidate activities at existing hubs and build on what was already up and running with the hope of
at least setting up a second Innovation Center in the near future. Although this could potentially boost
long-term growth and sustainability, the risk of failure was considerable.

RLabs 3.0: Towards sustainable growth

RLabs was expanding and fast. Marlon was confident that they were on the right track. But rapid
expansion also brought its own unique challenges. Despite their success in forming corporate
partnerships, sourcing external investment, and monetizing certain key platforms and services, there
remained the occasional – and frustrating - emergency cash flow crises. In this regard, RLabs was
facing similar challenges to traditional for-profit business, in that it was literally “growing itself poor”
due to intermittent cash flow constraints. There had been a few times where Rene had to temporarily
withhold salaries while the organization waited for funds to be released for completed work. While the
RLabs team was aware of and understood the issue, Marlon was careful for the situation not to
escalate so as to strain the fabric of the organization.

Marlon was also concerned with sustaining the pace of innovation. Expanding the geographic reach of
RLabs unlocked new potential, but that potential had to be harnessed appropriately in order to be
effective and useful. Up till the end of 2013 much of that drive and creative capacity was being
funneled through Marlon and the rest of the RLabs core team. Marlon knew that some decentralization
of authority was necessary in order to manage this process effectively.

Marlon wondered if RLabs could continue to grow at the current rate but having these cash flow issues
under control. What could he and the rest of the leadership team do to mitigate the cash flow risks?
And how would their expansion plans affect or be affected by these risks? Maintaining the culture of
RLabs was critical to Marlon and the RLabs team. Would they be able to maintain those
characteristics that had made them so successful in the early days, or would they have to compromise
on culture? How could they best leverage the value of different cultural contexts, but maintain the
quality and the pace of innovation they had enjoyed to this point?
Appendix 1: Short bio of Marlon Parker

Marlon Parker is an Entrepreneur and advocate for using Technology for Social Good. His passion for
community development has influenced his work and led to being the founder of the Reconstructed
Living Lab (RLabs) a global movement currently having activities in 22 countries. He has been listed
as one of the 100 World Class South Africans in 2013, an alumni of President Obama’s Young African
Leaders initiative and honorary faculty member of the International School of Digital Transformation.
During 2014 he was also selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Ashoka Fellow
and recipient of a Dangote Fellowship.

He was the co-founder of JamiiX that was the backbone to one of the largest mobile chat counseling
networks in the world with more than 4 million people being reached since its inception. Marlon is also
a trustee of the Mxit Reach Trust and his most recent initiative is co-founding the Kukua Fund an early
stage investment vehicle seeking to invest in high growth social entrepreneurs in Africa.

Appendix 2: RLabs Organizational Structure

As the founder of RLabs, Marlon Parker is responsible for the organization’s strategic growth and
expansion. RLabs is managed by an Advisory Board consisting of four RLabs members. Rene Parker
is the CEO and also Marlon’s wife. His father-in-law, Pastor Roger Petersen, is the Chief Community
Advisor. Two Directors – Craig Dumont and Gary Wills – round off the management team. RLabs
strives to be a flat organization with very little hierarchy. For this reason there are no dedicated
functional positions (e.g. HR or finance manager). Although senior members take on some of these
responsibilities when needed, they lack the requisite knowledge and experience to fulfill these
functions. Instead, the organization is structured around projects. Individual members are encouraged
to take on the responsibility of managing various projects including coordinating social media
campaigns, co-creation events, and other community based projects.

Furthermore, the Academy is structured around 3 content streams: (1) Digital (courses on social
media, web publishing, Mxit app development, and photography); (2) Women in ICT (introductory and
advance courses on social media and information literacy); (3) Project Management (courses on event
management, project management, etc.). Each course has a lead facilitator responsible for running
the class as well as a number of co-facilitators who help prepare class materials and assist in class.
Each stream has a stream leader who ensures that all courses within a particular content stream are
on track. Typically, RLabs members begin as co-facilitators and work their way up to become content
stream leaders.

The Grow Leadership Academy follows a similar structure and the majority of co-facilitators are RLabs
interns. Each year members are expected to take on new and different responsibilities in the
organization. The RLabs Employee Empowerment Model aims to empower employees at all levels of
the organization in such a way that those with experience in a particular role are expected to take on
new challenges, leaving room for those with less experience to assume greater responsibility.

The table below gives a detailed organizational structure (as of October 2013):