Local versus Global Market Shaping with Oliver Sabot
Show notes
When it comes to market shaping, having a wide range of tools in your kit is critical. “You don’t want to be a hammer looking for a nail,” says today’s guest Oliver Sabot. Sabot has spent years shaping markets in various sectors including global health, education, and now climate. At the Clinton Healthcare Access Initiative (CHAI), he was a key leader in expanding access to life-saving treatments for children and families around the world. Since CHAI, he founded Kepler and Nova Pioneer , two ventures aimed at transforming education and training across Africa. Now, Sabot works as an executive coach to climate leaders and directs the climate division of the Kissick Family Foundation which backs promising innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. On this episode, he joins host Inder Singh to chat about the tactical lessons he’s learned from his multi-sector career including, how to diagnose market failures, scale impact, and what it takes to be a successful “quarterback” in market shaping. The Market Shapers Podcast is a production of Inder Singh and is produced by University FM. This interview was recorded in May 2025. Episode Quotes: Why funding alone isn’t enough 17:14: I see it again and again that, as they move into new sectors, that's the last thing that the community thinks of, right? It will push hard on the funding, it will push hard on the, you know, advanced market commitments or new research and so forth, but it doesn't invest comparatively tiny amounts of money in the quarterback role because it's very unsexy, right? Like, you're not gonna do a press release on that, but it's immensely important. The trap of one-tool thinking in market shaping 23:29: Different actors start to have strong perspectives on one aspect of the market shaping toolkit. So some people say advanced market commitments are great. I agree. I think advanced market commitments can be an amazing tool in some cases for some products, for some markets. But you don't want to be a hammer looking for a nail saying, like, the only thing that should ever be done is advanced market commitment, then you're only relevant to the 10% of the places where that's warranted. On acting like a private company to save lives 05:18: So, essentially, what we did is, how can we, a group of social actors, how can we act like a drug company would, right? How can we actually work with suppliers of this, make it into attractive packaging, actually, sort of, launch it as a product and invest as a company would in the marketing and sales, down the chain through distributors and wholesalers. What are their incentives? What profit margins do they need to charge in order for this to be an attractive business for them down to the drug shops? Show Links: “The Missing Tool in the Climate Fight” by Oliver Sabot and Dai Ellis | Stanford Social Innovation Review Oliver Sabot | LinkedIn Kissick Family Foundation Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.