ZEISS has chosen to pilot a new social business approach in rural India to find sustainable answers to the vision challenge. India because ZEISS has a strong organization in this rapidly developing economy and about 300 million people there would need visual correction but have no access to any vision or eye care. “Two things were clear to us when we at ZEISS started to think about solutions to this world problem”, said Daniel Sims, general manager of ZEISS India. “Firstly, we need to make it a business model.” A business model enabling people to earn their living with providing poor people with good-enough spectacles. “That would be the main driver for significant growth of the initiative, because some hundreds entrepreneurs in the end would be motivated to engage and make it a success”, said Sims. This solution can be sustainable, it is not depending on charity.” To bring better vision to some hundreds of millions is nothing a single company can do. So, secondly, we need an initiative which ignites kind of pyramid selling – the project feeding its own growth.” In addition to the business model a strong partnership with NGOs, government and other firms can give the initiative the crucial boost.
“We have conducted field studies and talked with hundreds of people in rural India”, says Nitin Sisodia, founder of Bangalore-based Sohum Innovation Lab, ZEISS’s project partner in India. “Lot of them say, they’d have to go to the next city, spend one or two days on travel, more than 15 dollars for tickets, plus costs for vision test and a pair of glasses. That’s far more than they can afford for a pair of spectacles, so they live with impaired vision.”
Marc Wawerla, COO of ZEISS Vision Care and Aloka project sponsor, adds, “our question was how to bring vision care to those people, how to make glasses available and affordable in rural, unserved areas – not as charity but as a sustainable social business which addresses the root cause: lack of vision care infrastructure and eye care professionals.”