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Inclusive Growth in a Mobile Way: m.Paani*

CASE STUDY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP & STARTUPS
ET Cases - FLAME, 11 pages
AUTHOR(S) : Dr. Dipasha Sharma (Asst.Prof., Finance), Dr. Dipali Krishnakumar (Asst.Prof., Finance), Shagun Thukral (Asst.Prof., Finance) - Symbiosis Centre for Management & Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune.

Case Preview

Inclusive Growth in a Mobile Way: m.Paani

 

Time: 5 am, Location: A Home in Dharavi, Mumbai

The alarm tone song Aai chikni chameli, chhup ke akeli… a Bollywood1 song was blaring on a Chinese mobile handset.

Sudha Deshpande, the 35-year-old, woman of the house, wakes up, looks at her ringing mobile and switches the alarm off. She picks up 5-6 empty buckets from her home and goes down the stairs to place the buckets in a long queue to fill water from a shared water connection in her basti2. It is a usual morning, as she wakes early to fill enough water for a day. However, even at 5 a m there were ten people ahead of her in the long queue of blue-red-yellow-grey buckets from different households in her locality. She cribs about her fate, abuses her neighbors and keeps her buckets, haggling her way to the 6th position. The local Municipal Corporation provides water around 10 a m, but to get enough water for her family she has to struggle daily. This was just the start of her struggle for the day as she heads back home on the first floor, which has a single room with an open kitchen.

Sudha lived with her three kids aged 6, 7 and 12 in Dharavi one of the largest slums in the world, with the populace of 1-1.5 million people and covering an area of only 1 square meter, which was not the only appalling fact of this slum. Post dealing with her first step towards her regular battle of water, she has to rush to a community washroom, where the queue is endless as there is only one toilet for 1400 odd people.3

Her kids usually went to the nearby railway tracks to attend their nature’s call, as for them it is very difficult to wake up so early to stand in line at the toilet. In fact, they actually enjoy the railway tracks.............

m.Paani – Leveraging the Mobile for Water

We live in an ironical world, where more than 2.5 billion people do not have access to sanitation, 1 billion do not have access to safe drinking water but 5.1 billion have access to a mobile phone.............

About Akanksha

Akanksha Hazari, a MBA graduate from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, was awarded $1 million as the winner of the Hult Global Case Challenge..........

Bottom of the Pyramid – An opportunity?

India with an estimated population of about 1.25 billion in 2013 (Exhibit I (a)) is expected to cross China (Exhibit I (b)) to become the most populous nation by 2028. These prospects are scary because of the tremendous strain on resources and infrastructure that a population explosion could cause...........

Mobile Penetration in the Developing World

Mobile phone usage in the world has grown exponentially, driven primarily by emerging markets like India, China, Brazil, Nigeria, etc., (Exhibit III). India’s mobile penetration is 73% as of January 2014, up from about 30% in 2009. Nigeria, Africa’s largest mobile market with more than 125 million subscribers in early 2014 has a market penetration of 75%.............

How does m.Paani work?

m.Paani uses the familiar concept of ‘loyalty programs’as the driving force behind its business model. Loyalty programs are used across industries to incentivize customers to remain ‘loyal’ to a particular company and build a long-term relationship with the customer.................

How Digits of Loyalty Program is Changing Lives (Digital Finance to Development Finance)?

m.Paani follows the concept of digital finance but it is noteworthy to understand their mechanism and their business model. How do they create digital finance into development finance?

m.Paani operates as a vital link between their alliance partners and communities and helps both of them through their innovative services. m.Paani’s alliance partners include major Indian telecom companies, FMCG companies, local retail shops, marketing retailers, local education & health partners...........

Assignment Questions

I. What is distinctive about m.Paani’s approach to entrepreneurship? How would you compare and contrast it with the traditional approaches?
II. Comment on the sustainability of loyalty based reward point model to target BOP customer base. Emphasize its strength and weakness.
III. ..............

Exhibits

Exhibit I (a): Total Population by Age Group, 2013 (in thousands)

Exhibit I (b): Population growth in China, India, Nigeria and USA (1950-2100, actual and projected)

Exhibit II: Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation Facilities

Exhibit III: Top 10 Countries with Mobile Population (in the hands of millions)

Exhibit IV: Mobile Usage in India

Exhibit V: m.Paani Points

Exhibit VI: m.Paani - New Rewards

Exhibit VII: m.Paani – Business Model

Teaching Note Preview

Inclusive Growth in a Mobile Way: m.Paani

 

Synopsis

The present case study aims to address the issues of social entrepreneurship, emerging market at BOP, development finance and digital finance in India in context to m.Paani and its two pilot projects in Sewri and Dharavi slums of Mumbai.

Akanksha Hazari, a young social entrepreneur and her team sensed these statistics as opportunity to develop a mobile-based loyalty program. Their venture m.Paani focuses to make a social impact through the spending of the communities on their mobile recharge into redeemable loyalty points for the cause of sanitation, water, education, etc. The objective is to change the lives of underserved communities by channelizing their mobile spending into significant loyalty based points, which they can utilize for specific causes of education, sanitation, water, energy.

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • • Introduce innovation in the area of social entrepreneurship
  • • Understand the opportunities to improve the quality of life for the BoP
  • • Develop low cost digital finance solutions to cater to BoP
  • • Identify innovative ways of using the mobile phone in a sustainable business model

 

Case Positioning and Setting

  • • The case study focuses on pilot social venture and can be used in the Entrepreneurship course in regular MBA Program. This case also provides a way of Innovation and Technology in Business Model and therefore can be used in topics like Disruptive Business Models and Technology
  • • In the setting of Social Entrepreneurship topics, this case can be utilized as a study and discussion material

 

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Abstract

**ET Cases – FLAME Case Innovation Award - 2015

Award Winning Case Study
Technology in the last decade has evolved exponentially with the mobile phone probably being the leader. India has the world's second highest penetration of mobile connections with 73.9 connections per 100 citizens. That is a startling statistic considering that the penetration of toilets in rural India is only 30.7%. For instance, one may believe that the people at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) prefer mobiles to sanitation. However, given that a mobile is the way that the world communicates today, it is no longer a luxury but a necessity.

Akanksha Hazari, a young social entrepreneur, along with her team, perceived in the above seemingly divergent statistics an opportunity to develop a business model that would provide inclusive social growth for the BoP population using a mobile-based loyalty programme. Their venture, 'm.Paani' focuses on making a social impact through the spending of the communities on their mobile recharge into redeemable loyalty points for the cause of sanitation, water, education and much more. The objective is to change the lives of the underserved communities by channelizing their mobile spending into significant loyalty based points, which they can utilize for specific causes of education, sanitation, water, energy, etc.

The present case study aims to address the issues of social entrepreneurship, an emerging market at BOP, Development Finance and Digital Finance in India in context to m.Paani and its two pilot projects in Sewri and Dharavi slums of Mumbai.



Pedagogical Objectives

  • To introduce innovation in the area of social entrepreneurship
  • To understand the opportunities to improve the quality of life for the BoP
  • To develop low cost digital finance solutions to cater to BoP
  • To identify innovative ways of using the mobile phone in a sustainable business model

Case Positioning and Setting

  • The case study focuses on pilot social venture and can be used in the Entrepreneurship course in regular MBA Program. This case also provides a way of Innovation and Technology in Business Model and therefore can be used in topics like Disruptive Business Models and Technology
  • In the setting of Social Entrepreneurship topics, this case can be utilized as a study and discussion material

*FLAME Case Conference 2015


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- Teaching Note (**ONLY for Academicians)


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