Facilitating Women Prosperity with Higher Purpose at Vyomini

Abstract

The theory of conscious capitalism is based on the idea that when business is done consciously, it promotes humanity intrinsically. This philosophy is rooted in the four tenets of higher purpose, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership and conscious culture and management as given by Mackey and Sisodia (2013). All social entrepreneurs are motivated by a higher purpose to provide sustainable solutions to neglected problems with the help of positive externalities (Santos, 2012). They have the capacity to envision, share and execute the deep-seated higher purpose (Mourkogiannis, 2006). Such a higher purpose with a social angle has been depicted in the case of Vyomini. The case is about a social entrepreneur Prachi Kaushik, the founder of Vyomini. She works for menstrual health and hygiene of unprivileged and rural women in India. Prachi’s constant endeavour was to create an ecosystem for the economic and social upliftment of these women through financial inclusion and livelihood training. She understood the problem, empathized with the women and provided a simple, economical manufacturing technique using locally available, biodegradable raw materials to provide an inclusive solution. This case describes her journey in creating an innovative business model by the adoption of design thinking and implementation of higher purpose in the business. Dilemma: For ensuring menstrual health and hygiene among less privileged rural women should the sanitary napkins of big brands be distributed at a subsidized cost or design and develop a special product suitable for this segment of the market? Theory: Entrepreneurial inclusive business model Type of the case: Experience-based applied single case study Protagonist: The owner of the firm Options Distribute existing brands at a subsidized cost. Develop a new product that is biodegradable, free of carcinogenic compounds and cost-effective. Get it manufactured by subcontractors. The design also a cost-effective manufacturing process and empower women of less privileged background to manufacture and sell. Discussions and Case Questions How can the sources of supply and manufacturing be made robust so that they can be scaled up? Should the product be offered to different segments of the market with differential pricing? In order to expand reach, which channels should be added for a taboo product like sanitary napkins?