Hello everyone! I just spent five weeks in Bangalore for GE Healthcare. While working at a multinational thinking BoP is an interesting yet odd experience, living in India is simply amazing!
As the IT capital of India, Bangalore is a fast growing city with both city and villages mixed together. In the last ten years, the city radius from 12 km to 20 km (12 miles). On my daily walk to work, I bypass a village where mud built houses are commonly found and people wash clothing at the nearby lake. And cows--they are everywhere! There is probably no other country that has cows more integrated to people's life (and not eating them) than India does. Most interesting among all, this village is located between two technology parks.
Even though the city is going through growing pain (India's rich culture, thousands of dialogs, and traditions such as class system make things even more difficult,) people there are active and hopeful. At a local social enterprise meet-up, entrepreneurs and NGOs are eager to change. While the city doesn't have a good trash collection infrastructure nor recycling system, an environmental NGO has been successfully teaching people to compost. On the other hand, a group of young people spend every weekend at a rural village to build ultra low cost, locally accessible house to see whether there's a better housing solution for farmers. At India, social enterprise is not a buzz word but apply innovation or change at every direction.
At GE, my internship is to create a market entry strategy for a mid-end medical device from India to China. GE India has been developing innovative medical devices for hospitals that require high quality yet can't afford nor have sufficient training to use these complicated equipments. Even though the challenge is less significant in China, the gap between urban and rural is still significant.
Meanwhile, Compare to most of WDI my fellows who are directly impacting the base of pyramid (BoP), my work is yet at the BoP Plus environment, as many multinationals do not have the simplified infrastructure to deliver a quality solution affordable to the BoP... Yet! Witnessing a number of GE initiatives to tackle rural challenges, It's hard not to get excited about what technology and business innovation can bring scale solutions to the BoP!
As the IT capital of India, Bangalore is a fast growing city with both city and villages mixed together. In the last ten years, the city radius from 12 km to 20 km (12 miles). On my daily walk to work, I bypass a village where mud built houses are commonly found and people wash clothing at the nearby lake. And cows--they are everywhere! There is probably no other country that has cows more integrated to people's life (and not eating them) than India does. Most interesting among all, this village is located between two technology parks.
 |
| Village nearby work |
 |
| Western mall with busy traffic at any given time |
Even though the city is going through growing pain (India's rich culture, thousands of dialogs, and traditions such as class system make things even more difficult,) people there are active and hopeful. At a local social enterprise meet-up, entrepreneurs and NGOs are eager to change. While the city doesn't have a good trash collection infrastructure nor recycling system, an environmental NGO has been successfully teaching people to compost. On the other hand, a group of young people spend every weekend at a rural village to build ultra low cost, locally accessible house to see whether there's a better housing solution for farmers. At India, social enterprise is not a buzz word but apply innovation or change at every direction.
 |
| Test out new housing solution with using all local materials |
At GE, my internship is to create a market entry strategy for a mid-end medical device from India to China. GE India has been developing innovative medical devices for hospitals that require high quality yet can't afford nor have sufficient training to use these complicated equipments. Even though the challenge is less significant in China, the gap between urban and rural is still significant.
Meanwhile, Compare to most of WDI my fellows who are directly impacting the base of pyramid (BoP), my work is yet at the BoP Plus environment, as many multinationals do not have the simplified infrastructure to deliver a quality solution affordable to the BoP... Yet! Witnessing a number of GE initiatives to tackle rural challenges, It's hard not to get excited about what technology and business innovation can bring scale solutions to the BoP!
No comments:
Post a Comment