The opportunity and the challenge of scale are effectively the two sides of the development coin that social enterprises have to deal with, often against the backdrop of a complex socio-economic matrix. Shell Foundation’s quest for creating scale is based on the understanding that is fundamentally about “delivering cost-effective solutions that impact large number of beneficiaries in multiple locations in ways that are ultimately financially viable and self-sustaining”.Shell Foundation’s Regional Director Anuradha Bhavnani speaking to Sustainability Outlook points out that the Foundation’s quest for scale has had encouraging results on the ground with partners such as Envirofit , Husk Power Systems, Embarq and Agrocel.A key condition for achieving scale, paradoxically, seems to be to find partners who are in the nascent stage of development rather than entities with an established track record.
According to Bhavnani, “We find it striking that in large instances where partnerships achieved scale and measurable impact, it has been with newly created entities that were using new business models that we had jointly developed. We do believe that Angel Philanthropy as a starting point of development change has significant potential to catalyze scalable solutions to global development challenges. For us, Angel Philanthropy is about investing in a new venture without a proven track record or documented impact but with a new business based concept, a new product in a new market which has the intrinsic goal of going to scale, achieving measurable social impact and becoming financially viable.”
With four programs running in India on Indoor air pollution, urban mobility, ethical trade and access to modern energy which address the country’s core development goals, Anuradha feels that the most important factor is to have partners who share an aligned vision on scale and sustainability.
Envirofit, a newly created entity, had a new product: Clean cook stoves. And it wanted to market it in India to counter lethal indoor air pollution that kills two million women and children each year in developing countries.
Anuradha feels that “Building sustainable enterprises that can effectively address development challenges takes time, patience and considerable investment. It involves huge risk to venture with new partners with a new product in new markets.”
There is, of course, the fine line between an enterprise based solution and commercial enterprises that are, for example, looking for fortunes at the bottom of the pyramid. Says Anuradha, “ Being enterprise based is about adopting a mindset and process of thinking rather than an expectation of delivering solely financial returns in a way typified by most commercial enterprises.”
Read the full conversation: “The Future of Supply Chain Management is Sustainability”
