Abstract
The underlying emphasis of the book is not on creation itself but creating the conditions to create. The book is divided into four parts which talk about the Why’s and How’s of trust, role of mind-set, how existing social norms be capitalised and how to work in tandem as a team with the state.
The book starts by addressing vacuums in the developing world and talks about ambient trust and how it takes the developed world forward. The book mentions that trust that one has over individuals from different cultural backgrounds makes for two things: it simplifies daily life and enables collaborations to innovate. The book urges entrepreneurs to not only see the problem they think requires utmost attention but also the ambient inadequacies within which the problem resides.
Chapter 1 discusses the Why’s and How’s of trust by comparing the dairy industry of India and China. It focuses on the famous melamine scandal that hit China in the wake of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and how it continues to haunt Chinese customers. The book mentions Charles Shao, an entrepreneur, who uses technology by creating ‘water curtains’ for cows, mechanical sweepers to remove the manure and putting a chip behind a cow’s ear to get its health history and milk yield data. Despite so many endeavours, the Chinese customer is still wary of Shao’s claims to the quality of milk no matter how much tech is used. The book contrasts this with India, where Amul, a name synonymous to the Indian dairy industry has woven a web of trust encompassing everyone from dairy farmer to end user by providing community-based solutions which are low on tech but high on trust. This trust has enabled Amul to become one of the most iconic brands India has today.
Chapter 2 explores trust, by analysing a paradigm shift in the mind-set of how social entrepreneurs operate. The chapter focuses on Devi Shetty, founder of Narayana Heart Hospital which provides treatment to all regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. The book explores Dr Shetty’s mind-set in two aspects of entrepreneurship: Walmart like offering quality products at affordable prices and Mother Teresa offers compassion and selflessness to every section of the society. The chapter concludes by discussing how this model has proven to be profitable due to huge demand and how hospital’s per unit cost is kept low by negotiating better deals with their suppliers.
Chapter 3 looks at existing social norms to weave a web of trust. The illustration used is that of microfinance in India and Mexico. The chapter mentions Banco Compartamos, a micro credit organisation that has been at the forefront of Mexico’s informal money lending scenario and is now valued at a staggering US$2.5 billion. The book captures the rise and fall of Compartamos when it was accused of its intentions and later had to register as for-profit organisation. The chapter compares it with the rise and fall of SKS (swayam krishi sangam), a for profit self-help group in India, which saw an overnight success in micro-credit area among women amassing a staggering US$350 million with its Initial Public Offering. But suddenly the stocks plummeted 96% in a matter of a few days. The reason was SKS, along with other Micro-Finance Institutions, was being accused of exploiting the poor. While SKS did nothing, the trust of local community was broken. It took five years for SKS to regain that trust among rural women of South India. The chapter concludes by advising entrepreneurs to understand that a certain degree of stability is required to foster change. Paradoxically, it makes sense especially in settings where societal norms and joint liability are key players in deciding the future of a for-profit organisation.
Chapter 4 focuses on how entrepreneurs and academicians should work as a team with the state and create a partnership which benefits the deprived sections of the society and create impact to scale. The chapter proceeds to give an example of the Bolsa Familia in Brazil, a programme run by government in health and education of children and financially helping poor people to make ends meet. To bridge the gap between the rich (asfaltos) and poor (favelas), the chapter mentions an academician, Alexandra, who is working non-stop and trying to work in tandem with government vision and mission to build the trust between asfaltos and favelas in her own unique way. The chapter complements the same effort in India too and mentions how private entrepreneurship and government have worked in sync to create a unique ID for every Indian. The chapter captures trust by illustrating how Indian citizens trusted their government with the security of data and by the end of January 2017, 1.1 billion population of India out of 1.3 billion had unique ID cards. The chapter concludes by stating how entrepreneurship can work with the government rather than in opposition to it by building trust from both sides.
Finally, the book concludes by throwing light on Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and how he not only created a tech platform but ensured businesses were preserved and customers got what they wanted. He built on the trust that already existed in the society and used this social fabric as an asset. Ma also worked with the government to create scale and many small entrepreneurs followed suit. In a nutshell, the book beautifully captures the nuances of entrepreneurship in developing worlds and provides substantial cases which prove how trust among individuals, communities and institutions is the building block of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in a developing world. This book can be considered as a tool for social entrepreneurs and academicians who wish to understand the dynamics of social entrepreneurship and how a web of trust is required to achieve an impact of scale.