Hugo Polman
For a while ago I have been searching for a company that could offer me a graduation assignment. The main requirement for me was getting involved into a BoP (Base of Pyramid) project. This means that the project should focus on people in the world who have less than one dollar a day to spend. During my search for an assignment, I was able to get into contact with a lot of companies who had their focus on BoP. The main thing that was noticeable is that many of these companies get almost all their earnings from foundations and charity. This surprised me a lot, because I do not believe in products that arise from a foundation.
How I personally see it, is that the product itself should be designed from the perspective that it generates enough profit to be self-sufficient. As the pillar of sustainability also says; the three pillars are people, planet, and profit. It is not that I think that products or services shouldn’t get funded at all, but with some companies the focus has shifted. For me, I think that a product should first get a proof of concept or even better by doing a bit of field testing. If there are foundations interested in the product to launch the product with their help, than that would be a right way to do. Generally speaking, it should become more a less the way of kickstarter, where successful projects can be launched in a fast way.
Nowadays, many projects occur out the money pit from the foundations without checking if it might turn profitable in some way. If for example a device will be made that waters the crops very efficient, but only one of the actors profits from this and is not able to pay for such a system, than I don’t think this will be a sustainable solution. Therefore it would nice to create a kickstarter like platform in which companies or teams can upload their sustainable solutions and argument in a right way the profit of it, ideas might become more sustainable. Because with only People and Planet, ideas will not succeed.