MICROFINANCE BEST PRACTICES GROUP - BEST PRACTICES DEFINITIONS UTILIZED BY THE GROUP http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=3040764&trk=anet_ug_hm

1. MICROFINANCE BEST PRACTICES GROUP ON LINKEDIN
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=3040764&trk=anet_ug_hm
BEST PRACTICES DEFINITIONS UTILIZED BY THIS GROUP
In order to fully clarify the BEST PRACTICES concept as well as the role / mission/purpose of this group I am posting
below the following definitions:
1. According to Wikipedia “A BEST PRACTICE is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive, or reward that is
believed to be more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. when
applied to a particular condition or circumstance. The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, a desired
outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. Best practices can also be defined as the
most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable
procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.
A given best practice is only applicable to particular condition or circumstance and may have to be modified or adapted for
similar circumstances. In addition, a "best" practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered.
Despite the need to improve on processes as the environment changes, best-practice is considered by some as a
business buzzword used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple
organizations can use for management, policy, and especially software systems”.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_practice)
2. According to the www.businessdictionary.com BEST PRACTICES are defined as “Methods and techniques that have
consistently shown results superior than those achieved with other means, and which are used as benchmarks to strive
for. There is, however, no practice that is best for everyone or in every situation, and no best practice remains best for
very long as people keep on finding better ways of doing things .” (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/best-
practice.html)
3. Related to the meaning / role / mission of this group BEST PRACTICE also means to identify the current systems,
tools, procedures pertaining to the mainstream banking that could be easily applied (maybe with slight
amendments/adjustments) to the microfinance institutions.
Basically, the MFIs products and services (micro-loans, micro-savings and deposits, micro-insurance, payments/transfers,
cards, etc) are similar to the ones offered by banking institutions, the only major differences being the vision/mission, the
products’ size and the targeted customers. Therefore, taking into account these basic resemblances, I think it is only
natural that the basic policies, manuals, procedures, systems, financial models and tools utilized by MFI’s (especially the
ones that already reached a certain level of growth / development) to be more or less similar to the ones utilized /
implemented in banks.
George Staicu – Founder and owner of the Microfinance Best Practices group
Senior banking and microfinance consultant