香蕉樹(shù)皮變護(hù)墊:哈佛創(chuàng)業(yè)冠軍的印度夢(mèng)
????上周二,哈佛大學(xué)(Harvard University)2014屆MBA學(xué)生阿姆瑞塔?賽加爾和她的創(chuàng)業(yè)伙伴、甲骨文公司(Oracle)工程師克里斯汀?卡蓋楚在哈佛商學(xué)院(Harvard Business School)主辦的頂級(jí)創(chuàng)業(yè)大賽中出盡風(fēng)頭,一舉囊括了新創(chuàng)業(yè)大賽(New Venture Competition)社會(huì)企業(yè)家組別大獎(jiǎng)和最受觀眾喜愛(ài)獎(jiǎng)。 ????她們的創(chuàng)意是什么呢——成立一家叫做“薩蒂”(Saathi)的社會(huì)企業(yè),為印度農(nóng)村婦女提供低成本衛(wèi)生巾和工作機(jī)會(huì)。這兩位都持有麻省理工學(xué)院(MIT)機(jī)械工程學(xué)位的參賽者獲得了賽事評(píng)委和滿堂現(xiàn)場(chǎng)觀眾的交口稱贊,最終擊敗了其他參賽者的創(chuàng)意——在尼日利亞建立一家采用農(nóng)戶加企業(yè)模式的番茄醬生產(chǎn)商,在哥倫比亞創(chuàng)設(shè)一個(gè)學(xué)費(fèi)計(jì)劃,以及一個(gè)教育咨詢服務(wù)。兩人打算攜帶5萬(wàn)美元獎(jiǎng)金,去印度實(shí)踐她們的創(chuàng)業(yè)夢(mèng)想。 ????薩蒂大獲全勝后不久,社交網(wǎng)站Poets&Quants在哈佛商學(xué)院對(duì)賽加爾進(jìn)行了獨(dú)家專訪。她敞開(kāi)心扉,暢談了這個(gè)創(chuàng)意的靈感源泉,以及哈佛商學(xué)院課程和教授對(duì)這次創(chuàng)業(yè)做出的重大貢獻(xiàn)等話題。 ????這個(gè)創(chuàng)意是如何產(chǎn)生的? ????我此前在麻省理工學(xué)院(MIT)學(xué)習(xí)工程專業(yè),上大三那年,我在寶潔公司(Proctor & Gamble)女性衛(wèi)生事業(yè)部獲得了一個(gè)實(shí)習(xí)機(jī)會(huì)。那時(shí)我21歲,還沒(méi)有意識(shí)到寶潔女性衛(wèi)生產(chǎn)品指的是好自在(Always)和丹碧絲(Tampax),我還以為是海飛絲(Head & Shoulders)和潘婷(Pantene)。 ????說(shuō)老實(shí)話,上班第一天,我就發(fā)現(xiàn)了一件讓我萬(wàn)分震驚的事情。我是一位設(shè)計(jì)師,那個(gè)暑期正在設(shè)計(jì)設(shè)備,一個(gè)事實(shí)橫亙?cè)谖颐媲埃河《绒r(nóng)村的婦女竟然沒(méi)有護(hù)墊可用。由于護(hù)墊問(wèn)題,女孩沒(méi)法去上學(xué)。這就是靈感源泉。這個(gè)創(chuàng)意就是這么來(lái)的。我知道我可以讓人們對(duì)它產(chǎn)生濃厚的興趣。 ????大四那年返回校園后,經(jīng)過(guò)我的一番勸說(shuō),我的設(shè)計(jì)團(tuán)隊(duì)開(kāi)始開(kāi)創(chuàng)一個(gè)小規(guī)模的制造工藝,利用印度農(nóng)村現(xiàn)有的纖維制造護(hù)墊。我們觀察了許多種纖維,還跟麻省理工學(xué)院的一個(gè)化學(xué)工程團(tuán)隊(duì)展開(kāi)了合作。他們透露說(shuō),香蕉樹(shù)的樹(shù)皮是世界上最吸水的纖維,而且它是現(xiàn)成的。 ????香蕉樹(shù)有一個(gè)很有意思的現(xiàn)象。我當(dāng)時(shí)還不知道,從種樹(shù)到收獲香蕉需要9到12個(gè)月,但香蕉樹(shù)只能結(jié)一次果,果農(nóng)每年都得砍掉主莖。他們通常會(huì)把它砍成許多小塊,其中一些被用作化肥,但絕大多數(shù)都被果農(nóng)簡(jiǎn)單地堆積起來(lái),等著腐爛。 ????最終的產(chǎn)品是如何生產(chǎn)的?消費(fèi)者是否接受這種用樹(shù)干做成的護(hù)墊? ????我們把樹(shù)皮加工成纖維,就這樣,它最終變成一種干燥的粉末狀纖維質(zhì)材料,完全可以用來(lái)填充護(hù)墊。所以說(shuō),它是一種非常蓬松的材質(zhì),我們都嘗試過(guò)了,消費(fèi)者對(duì)它很滿意。 ????最近獲得的這個(gè)獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)對(duì)你意味著什么? ????有了這筆錢,我們就可以去印度真正啟動(dòng)這項(xiàng)事業(yè)。也就是說(shuō),我們能夠走進(jìn)印度鄉(xiāng)村,直接跟婦女們合作。 |
????Harvard MBA candidate Amrita Saigal (class of 2014) and her co-founder, Oracle engineer Kristin Kagetsu, swept Harvard Business School's top entrepreneurship contest on Tuesday, nabbing the grand prize and the audience choice award in the New Venture Competition's social entrepreneurship category. ????Their idea? Saathi -- a social enterprise startup that provides low-cost sanitary napkins and jobs to women in rural India. The two, who both hold mechanical engineering degrees from MIT, wowed both the judges and the jam-packed audience at the Harvard event, drawing top marks – enough to push them ahead of a farm-to-market tomato paste producer in Nigeria, a school tuition program in Colombia, and an education consulting service. The two will use their $50,000 prize to move to India and open up shop. ????Poets&Quants caught up with Saigal at HBS shortly after Saathi's big win. She explains everything from the inspiration behind the idea to the HBS classes and professors that played a pivotal role in creating the business. ????What gave you the idea for Saati? ????I landed an internship my junior year as an undergraduate engineering student at MIT with Proctor & Gamble (PG) in the feminine hygiene division. I was 21 years old and did not realize that feminine hygiene meant Always and Tampax -- I thought it meant Head & Shoulders and Pantene. ????I showed up on the first day and was honestly shocked at what I found. I was a designer, and designing equipment that summer, I was confronted with the fact that women in rural India didn't have access to pads. Girls were not going to school because of pads. So that was the inspiration. And I knew I could get people passionate about this idea I really cared about. ????So I came back to MIT my senior year and convinced my senior design team that we should create a small-scale manufacturing process to make pads out of some type of locally available fiber. We looked at a number of fibers and partnered with a chemical engineering team at MIT who told us that the bark of a banana tree is the most absorbent fiber in the world and it's readily available. ????The interesting thing about banana trees, which I didn't know, is that from the time you plant the tree to the time you get the bananas takes nine to 12 months. But they only produce the bananas once, and then you have to cut down the main shoot every year. The farmers cut it up into little pieces and use some of it as fertilizer, but they just stack the majority of it in piles and piles, waiting for it to decompose. ????How do you produce the final product? Are consumers okay with tree trunk? ????We process the bark into fibers so it comes out as stringy pieces, which are dried and pulverized, and that provides filling for the pads. So it's a nice fluffy material that we've all tried and the consumers are fine with it. ????What does the recent win mean for you? ????That we'll be able to go to India and actually launch the business – we'll be on the ground and able to work directly with the women. |