India is the second largest country in the world in terms of population. India has also a large number of villages; more than 600.000 villages with poor transport infrastructure making shipments of goods extremely difficult. Most of these villagers don’t have access to the very basic hygiene products like soap, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. Many of them have even never used a tooth brush or washed their hairs with shampoo. Instead of investing in costly infrastructure, the Indian government decided to promote entrepreneurship in these villages, targeting women particularly. Hindustan Unilever saw an opportunity in this program and decided to develop a business model accordingly. Within their established organization Hindustan Unilever has created a leadership organization with total freedom for developing the business model. Hindustan Unilever launched the so-called Shakti Entrepreneurship Program. The value proposition was to create in each village and surrounding a chain of entrepreneurs for Hindustan Unilever products. These entrepreneurs (who are selected women) will not only distribute but also educate these villagers on the use of the different corporal hygiene products provided by Hindustan Unilever.
NGO’s have supported Hindustan Unilever with selecting these underprivileged women, to become the new Hindustan unilever distributers and the new promoted entrepreneurs. According to H.Unilever, at the beginning, there was a lot of hesitation, since these women were often illiterate or had no math skills. It turns out they were very quick to learn and smart-within 48 hours they would get it. Their motivation was so high that it compensated for any lack of ability.
Today H. Unilever employs between 60,000 and 70,000 women entrepreneurs in villages to sell Unilever products at affordable prices to the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). For the first time, villagers had access to soap, detergent, and toothpaste. The women entrepreneurs were also educating their communities on hygiene issues while selling their products - for example, by explaining how to brush children's teeth - and through community wide health awareness days.
Shakti is a good example of CSR. it created a whole new way of life for 60.000 to 70.000 women, with the opportunity to gain a good living. It had a direct effect on their social stature. And millions of people had access to personal care and home products. In terms of distribution and marketing, the business model is using the BoP to distribute products; so the BoP is definitely part of the solution. And it's self-sustaining from the business it generates.
Hindustan Unilever has managed to create a sustainable business for itself and for the women distributers, to reach untapped market and to reinforce its brand and its company internal and external culture. All this by using the BoP in a CSR business model.
Definitions
CSR means Corporate Social Responsibility
BoP means Base or Bottom of the Pyramid, the largetst and poorest population
Nice case!
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