THIS week we are going to explore the upside down model and how we could use insights from the story of Dr V to make our own entrepreneurial dreams a reality. There were a number of strategies that were applied at Aravind that made it such an outstanding institution. As an upcoming or growing Namibian enterprise you can learn a great deal from the strategies below:
Broadening the Pie: This is a very interesting way to conduct marketing, where you prioritise marketing to the person who cannot afford to pay. As far as I know this is not the common reason why we conduct marketing in Namibia. However, Aravind had a marketing team that went through extraordinary service lengths to find people who could not afford their services, even if they knew where the hospital was situated. How did they really do this? They went out into villages and found people who needed eye care and brought the services to them. This was done with a mindset to own barriers.
Owning barriers: This means when you own a social enterprise, how can you take services to people who cannot afford them or sometimes cannot get to you? They actually realised that although the services at Aravind were free very few people showed up. This was really worrisome to them until they talked to a blind beggar who had the following to say: “You tell me that your service is free; but to get to hospital I need bus fare, and once I get there I need accommodation, food and transport. I am 80 years old, I can’t come alone. If my son comes with me, he loses his daily wage. Your free service will cost me 100 rupees.” When Aravind heard that they learned that they have to own the barriers. They sent out medical professionals into the villages. Thousands of patients were screened and those who needed special care were taken to the city, and all expenses were paid for, to and from the villages.
Self-Reliance: This is really a dimension that catches the business world. Self-reliance does not only restrict itself to money, from Aravind we learn that it is more about a mindset. It is indeed a way of identifying and engaging with your resources. If you apply the principle of self-reliance in your own business it can certainly extend to human resources. It is important to highlight at this point that you don’t just find people, you have to build them.
As Namibians are we willing to go out to villages and find teachers and build them up until they become world-class educators?
Train your competition: At Aravind they believe that if you have something that is very good and that works, you have to give it away. Aravind decided to train its competitors. The reason being if I have succeeded at something, it was because of the help from those around me. Under normal business circumstances people will be very protective of their competitive advantage, but at Aravind they learned that they had to train their competitors.
Stay rooted in compassion: The Aravind story clearly teaches us how compassion can drive scale; can drive sustainability and excellent service delivery. Compassion can be the engine behind that.
Serve and deserve: This concept is rooted in the belief that if you do the work, the money will follow. This implies that if you follow your mission, the resources will be galvanised. From these strategies we learned that while Dr. V was trying to address external blindness, his success also enabled him to address internal blindness. Internal blindness refers to anger, grief or fear, jealousy or uncertainty or annoyance. All the petty little things that sometimes blind us and move us away from entrepreneurial opportunities.
Finally, look out for those things that sometimes cloud us to act in a manner that is fully aligned. Today, as I close off this story I would like to remind each and every Namibian that, clarity in thought and action is linked to discipline of mind and heart.
• Dr Wilfred Isak April lectures in Organizational Behaviour, Entrepreneurship and Leadership in the Department of Management Sciences at the University of Namibia.