The position of TerraCottem NV towards NGO's and (my mission in) Burkina Faso .

TerraCottem reacted with a double face towards my project:

on the one side, there gave me every co-operation via Davy Ottevaere, Head of Research. On the other side, they reacted very sceptical towards my NGO approach from the beginning via TC Dialogue asbl. (a non profit organisation). They were, to say the least, not very forthcoming.

When Bernard De Vos, a friend of Prof. Willem Van Cotthem bought TerraCottem NV , a special structure was setup to service the humanitarian side of TerraCottem.

This structure was called TC Dialogue – TerraCottem Dialogue (TCD) – a non profit organisation. Prof. Van Cotthem was named president of this organisation with the aim of spreading the word of TerraCottem for humanitarian use, the set-up of different tests in the world to prove that TerraCottem worked all over the world, and in this way supporting the further research of the product. The structure of TCD was solid with several experts, often retired scientists, but also some active professionals. TCD also gained the status in Belgium which allows private gifts to be deducted from the taxes if above 30 EUR annually.

In the beginning TCD was financed with a cetain percentage of the turnover. There was also the possibility to purchase TerraCottem at the price of the seperated products, which is in fact under production costprice.

From the beginning there were problems with this structure.

The construction of TCD was considered as a commercial one, as the structure was not independent enough from TerraCottem NV . The financial side has to be reviewed into a donation instead of a percentage of the turnover.

There was a problem of transparancy and independency of both – one profit, the other non profit – which created problems in various discussions between the commercial and the NGO side. That TC Dialogue could deliver TerraCottem at lower prices than TerraCottem NV could put them on the market for, did not help the relationship at all.

By the end of 2006, this resulted with a big discussion between TerraCottem and TCD, which culminated in the resignation of Prof. Van Cotthem as president and together with him some more members of the board also left. TerraCottem NV cut all ties and shut down the financing of the foundation, which decided to re-orientate towards a new future. The name changed to Terr@dialoog vzw, with a similar purpose as before but with different means to get there. (See letter - in Dutch about this)

This also resulted in a different type of relationship with NGO projects, which is now entered into on a commercial basis, perceived as a normal customer.

This strange situation, where big potential clients were left in the hands of a foundation, because their aim was to help the poor, is in my opinion a commercial error and a setback of years for the success of TerraCottem.

The foundation had no commercial experience and no drive to “sell” TerraCottem on a large scale.

Doing business in this way, is in my opinion, against the idea explained in the book “The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” (See this section)