On this last Tuesday of the year 2013, I'm going to give you things that have been going around in my mind these last couple of days as I've looked at coming to the end of a year and the start of a new year.
An article in the Economic Times caught my attention a couple of days back. It was written by Makarand Kulkarni, "Design that Matters: Groundbreaking Products Designed for Poor People." What really caught my attention was a couple of pictures that accompanied the article: one had a picture of a women pushing a roller – a Hippo Water Wheel – helping with some of the water issues in the villages. Another was a picture of a woman sitting down drinking water off what seemed to be just a puddle or a stream, but in her hand she had some kind of filter, about a foot long. One end was in the puddle, the other end in her mouth. As she sucked in the water, it was presumably getting filtered. It was said to be 100% pure water. The article went on to say that these are the innovations that are really bringing about change; they make a difference to the largest segment of people in the world – the 4 billion poor people of the world.
The article went on to reference both Prahalad and Hart who had both written about the bottom of the pyramid and then also talked about Vijay Govindrajan's 'Reverse Innovation' that talks about how you don't start with the 2.5 billion people who have things, but start with the 4.5 billion who don't have and then innovate from them and the resources that they have. Then, when you eventually ramp it up, it becomes available to the world of the 'haves' as well. But the starting point in reverse innovation is the people who don't have.
Reading that, my mind was churning, thinking that how true it is that the have-nots need to get the most creative minds thinking about their issues. There's so much creativity in the world today. Somehow that needs to make a difference to the people who don't have. Govindrajan and Christian Sarkar actually sat down in 2010 maybe, and on a napkin designed what they said was a dream – a $300 house. It was interesting to see that the house was just a room with a solar panel on top and a solar cooking range, solar powered electricity powering the phone, furniture that backed up into the wall – stuff that was so good to see. It could be made out of the things that were available to the poor and yet be made to be lasting. They threw out the idea and asked, "Are there any takers around the world?" It was interesting to see that WorldHaus said that they had been working on an eco-friendly house for $2500. Their down payment was $249 and their monthly payment was $29. They were making this type of house available in India, South Africa and Kenya for the poorest of the poor.
I was getting excited reading about all this, thinking that if there is a will to the creative edge that we possess, then changes can occur. I was reminded of an article that I had shared with you almost a year ago, where Biju Dominic and his group of behavioural consultants looked at the 10,000 people who had died in 2011-2012, trying to beat oncoming trains at India's unmanned level crossings. They said, "We have the expertise to do something about it. Let's put our will there as well." So they travelled on the trains and began to look at unmanned level crossings and study accident reports. They came up with simple things like,
· Have trains sound horns at 300 meters rather than the existing 600m
· Change the angle of the speed bump from 90° to 45°
· Paint the yellow lines in broader strips to make them look taller
All these were simple interventions, yet when they were put into play, became so effective. When somebody asked them what they got out of it, they said, "Nothing! It helps save lives."
Somehow I think, as we look at the year that has gone by, as we come to the closing moments of the year 2013, we need to look back on all that we have done through the year and maybe ask the question, "Have I lived my life so that in some way it is touching other people, especially the people who may not have enough?"
I keep coming back to the commencement address given by Bill Gates a couple of years ago. He said, "I learned a lot at Harvard about new ideas, economics and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences. But humanities greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Reducing inequity is the highest human achievement."
Friends, as we look back at 2013, also look forward to 2014, one of the things I have reflected on is: Has my life counted for change in areas where there are so many inequities? Or has it just been confined to myself and my family? Can we say that we are citizens of the world, that God has placed us where we are, with the gifts and talents and creative edges that we all possess, so that we can make a difference to people who don't have as much as we have? That's the question that has been going around in my mind during these last couple of days as I look at 2013 and say, "As I start up 2014, can I turn and face the year and yet not lose sight of the fact that there are inequities all around me? Maybe in 2014 I can try and live my life and do things that will somehow make a difference to the people who don't have, the people who suffer, who don't have adequate resources. Somehow I'm going to make my life count in 2014." That is a noble thought to cross over with into the New Year – that my life will be a life that will make a difference to the poor, to the marginalized, to those who have not.
That's my challenge for myself and I hope, a challenge for you as well, that we look at our lives and say, "God has placed me here, given me all the things that I have. But I'm going to place all of them down and make sure that in the year ahead, my life counts for something in reducing inequities around me.
Let me pray for you. Almighty God, thank you for the year 2013 that is coming to a close. As these final hours begin to ebb and flow away from us and become part of history, my prayer is that we would look at 2014 through new lenses, that somehow they would not be myopic in nature, but that we would look with peripheral vision looking at things around that hitherto we may have glanced over or even deliberately stopped looked at. But help us to see the inequities because we know that you do. So we ask that You would point us in the direction where You want us to make change and that we will be change agents in the year 2014, so that we can say at the end of that year that somehow our lives have counted for something because we have been a small part in reducing the inequities that are rampant around all of us. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.
• Makarand Kulkarni, "Design that matters: Groundbreaking Products Designed for Poor People," http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-12-28/news/45653219_1_consumer-products-good-design-vijay-govindarajan
• Vijay Govindarajan & Chris Timble, "Reverse Innovation:Create Far From Home, Win everywhere." by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble 2012 Harvard Business Review Press 12 chapters, 229 pages
• Vijay Govindarajan, "The $300 House: A Hands-on Labfor Reverse Innovation." http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/08/the-300-house-a-hands-on-lab-f/
• Biju Dominic & Behaviour Consultants, Forbes India, Dec 21, 2012
• Bill Gross, "The $300 House: The Design Challenge. http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/10/the-300-house-the-design-chall/
• Bill Gates' Commencement speech at Harvard: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/060807-gates-commencement.html?page=2
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