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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: Scojo Foundation
Focus of activity - Product/procedure
Year the initiative began (yyyy) - 2001
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Define the innovation - What is the main focus (product, services, etc) of your innovation? Who are the primary beneficiaries? How does it make health and/or health care more affordable, accessible, and simpler to achieve/use? How does it differ from what currently exists in the market? Scojo is transforming the face of vision care for the rural poor. Scojo brings basic eye care right to the village level and empowers the local community to manage their own basic eye problems without expensive doctors and costly infrastructure. Scojo’s rural customers can visit a trained Vision Entrepreneur in their own village, determine if they have presbyopia or a more serious eye condition, and purchase reading glasses for a price from $3-10. In most developing countries, eye health care and reading glasses are seen exclusively as services of opticians and eye doctors, making basic eye health care inaccessible for the rural poor, yet reading glasses are a health product that do not require a doctor or optician’s supervision. Scojo Foundation is demedicalizing basic reading glasses, mimicking the shift that occurred in the West over 30 years ago, which resulted in affordable reading being available in drugstores rather than just optical shops. Vision Entrepreneurs are not doctors; they are village-based entrepreneurs trained to raise awareness about eye health, sell eye health products, and act as a point of triage into the medical system, which reduces the burden on the strained eye care system. In the long term, Scojo’s model is helping to transform the mindset about how to deliver products and services to the rural poor. Scojo views marginalized people as customers who have the right to purchase quality products and deserve the dignity of choice. Scojo-branded glasses are designed pro-bono by one of the world’s top eyewear designers in a variety of styles and price points. Scojo’s model has proven that poor customers do not always choose the cheapest option; many choose a slightly more expensive product if they like the way it looks. Further, Scojo has found that, just like the rest of the world, poor customers are more likely to value products they purchase themselves and can take ownership over, rather than something that was given to them as aid.
Context for Disruption: - Describe how your innovation is transforming traditional health or related systems in the short and long term. Scojo Foundation improves vision and creates jobs in developing countries through its microfranchising model. Scojo disrupts the non-existent system for getting reading glasses to the poor by establishing a rural distribution infrastructure. Mimicking the shift that occurred in the West over 30 years ago that brought over-the-counter reading glasses to drugstores, Scojo aims to demedicalize reading glasses and get them into the hands of the world’s poor. The developing world suffers from a widespread market failure for reading glasses. People over 35 lose their near vision due to presbyopia, a natural affect of aging that can be treated with over-the-counter reading glasses. Yet this simple solution is not available to the over 700 million people who live in rural villages and can no longer see up close to work. For people such as tailors, mechanics, farmers, and housewives whose precarious working lives require clear up-close vision, a lack of access to reading glasses can have disastrous economic consequences. To purchase reading glasses, a customer would first have to recognize that he or she has an eye condition; travel to an urban center (often a day-long trip each way) to visit an eye doctor, paying for transportation and doctor’s fees while losing valuable working time; and purchase a pair of custom reading glasses for anywhere from $40-60, a price out of reach for those who live on $1-2 dollars a day. Through microfranchising, Scojo trains and equips village-based “Vision Entrepreneurs” to conduct vision screenings, sell affordable reading glasses, and refer those in need of advanced eye care to partner eye clinics. Vision Entrepreneurs live in the same villages as their customers; they teach their fellow community members about basic vision care and the benefits of reading glasses and help them to choose the correct strength. They sell high-quality, branded Scojo reading glasses for as little as $3, for which they earn $1 per pair.
Delivery Model - How does your innovation reach its target populations? What mechanism(s) (e.g., communications, distribution channels, etc.) do you have in place? What is your current market penetration? How do you measure this? To reach the rural poor, Scojo delivers reading glasses to village-based Vision Entrepreneurs for $1, who buy the glasses on consignment for $1-3 and sell them to their rural customers for a price between $3-10, depending on location and style. Scojo empowers Franchise Partners, including NGOs, corporations, and government agencies with distribution infrastructures to reach the rural poor, to implement Scojo’s Vision Entrepreneur model. Partners receive training and technical assistance from Scojo but take responsibility for day-to-day implementation, enabling Scojo to rapidly achieve scale without having to build its own costly infrastructure. Scojo has also developed distribution partnerships with organizations that can distribute Scojo reading glasses to urban and peri-urban customers. Scojo also employs a variety of social marketing and outreach techniques, such as wall paintings, skits, radio spots, and flyers. Vision Entrepreneurs are encouraged to speak with local leaders and ask them to refer potential customers, who in turn refer more customers and spread word around their villages. They also offer vision screenings and referrals to partner eye hospitals free of charge, a service that draws in potential customers and increases their visibility and credibility. The total market for reading glasses is approximately 75% of people age 35 and older. Scojo measures its market penetration by comparing the number of sales in a particular village to the population in that villages aged 35 and up. Scojo’s current market penetration is up to 50% in the villages where it has developed a significant presence over two years. We expect that percentage to rise, though it may never reach 100% because people who need reading glasses will be willing to pay for them. We also expect Vision Entrepreneurs to sustain sales in the villages they have already targeted because most customers need to replace their reading glasses with a higher power approximately every two years.
Key Operational Partnerships - What key partnerships have you established to make your disruptive innovation model possible? Who are your partners (business, social, government, other) and what are their roles? How central are these partnerships for your initiative. Scojo Foundation has nearly 30 partnerships across nine countries. These partners vary from eye hospitals which receive Vision Entrepreneur referrals to Franchise Partners which license and implement full Scojo programs without any Scojo staff present. Examples include:
India Bangladesh Central America Africa Scojo’s partnership with PSI, the world’s leading social marketing organization, leverages Scojo’s expertise in designing high-quality, affordable reading glasses for developing markets with PSI's vast pharmaceutical distribution infrastructure and local marketing knowledge. The partnership will make low-cost reading glasses available to virtually all sub-Saharan Africa. In Bangladesh, BRAC is training its over 57,000 community health workers to sell Scojo reading glasses, covering 80% of the country. Such partnerships are fundamental to Scojo's work. Financial Model - Describe the financial model for your innovation. What percentage, if any, of the total operating costs does earned income (from products, services, or other fees) represent? The cornerstone of Scojo’s innovative value chain is its ability to source low-cost, high-quality reading glasses and deliver them anywhere in the world for $1. Scojo sells the glasses to its network of village-based Vision Entrepreneurs for $1-3, depending on the country. Vision Entrepreneurs then sell the glasses to their customers for anywhere from $3-10, depending on location and style. This system creates revenue at each point on the chain, creating a sustainable income for Vision Entrepreneurs and generating revenue at the country level for Scojo. Scojo’s Franchise Partner helps expand Scojo’s reach while generating revenue for Scojo headquarters. The first stage of a partnership consists of a Feasibility Study, the price of which includes the cost of time and travel for Scojo staff. The feasibility study determines if the partnership will move onto a six-month Pilot Program in which the partner pays for Scojo to train the organization and the first cadre of Vision Entrepreneurs and supply the organization with micro-franchise kits, including products. Following the successful completion of a pilot is the Commercial Stage, a full-scale program in which each organization earns a profit on each pair of glasses sold. Revenue generated from Franchise Partnerships brings in unrestricted money for Scojo’s New York office, supplementing contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. As a result of these revenue drivers, Scojo is 95% self-sustained in Guatemala, 85% in El Salvador, and 25% in India. The reasons for these variations are: size of market (requires reinvestment in expansion), size of operations (staff size and operational capacity), and profit margin (less in India and greater in Central America). Scojo is 100% self-sustained in Mexico, Ghana, and Africa due to licensing fees we receive for technical assistance and products from our Franchise Partners. Overall, Scojo Foundation is 27% self-sustaining, including headquarters costs.
Effectiveness - What has been the measurable impact of your project to date? How many people have benefited from your program in total? What policies, communities, or institutions have been influenced to make fundamental changes because of your work? Scojo has impacted the lives of over 383,133 people in nine different countries; our network of 1,046 Vision Entrepreneurs has screened over 248,161 people for eye conditions, sold 62,340 pairs of glasses to customers, and connected 71,586 people with advanced eye conditions to partner eye hospitals. For Vision Entrepreneurs, the sale of just one unit of reading glasses doubles their previous daily income. In addition, we have empowered 26 Franchise Partners to implement our model, bringing affordable reading glasses to previously underserved communities and generating revenue for organizations focused on providing products and services to the rural poor. Our clients’ lives are impacted by wearing reading glasses, which improves their productivity, enabling them to earn more money to invest in healthcare, education, food, housing, and clothing for their families and creating an economic ripple effect with more goods and services being bought and sold in marginalized communities. Vision Entrepreneurs and social marketing campaigns raise awareness about causes of vision loss and where to receive treatment. Scojo’s programs also empower communities. Through organizing eye campaigns and training Vision Entrepreneurs, communities learn how to better mobilize themselves, recognize their rights as consumers, and respect dignity of choice. As a result, many local village mayors and councils prioritize vision care and partner with Vision Entrepreneurs to publicize and host vision campaigns. In addition, the global eye care community, including WHO and UNESCO, is taking note of the impact of sustainable innovations such as Scojo Foundation and connects eye hospitals with Scojo’s programs. Partner eye hospitals rely on Vision Entrepreneurs to refer patients who live far from urban centers. Scojo is also working to make reading glasses a non-prescription product in India through social marketing campaigns and meetings with government officials and health policy makers.
Scaling up Strategy - What is your priority for the next 3 years and please describe why. Recognizing that innovative techniques are necessary for continued rapid expansion, Scojo is beginning to implement a network model to further empower high-performing Vision Entrepreneurs and expand its impact. Top-performing Vision Entrepreneurs will each manage a small team of lower-performing Vision Entrepreneurs, serving as role models and teaching techniques to improve sales. Top Vision Entrepreneurs will earn a commission based on the sales of their team. This model will allow Scojo Foundation to manage a larger network of Vision Entrepreneurs, thereby increasing sales of reading glasses and creating a greater number of sustainable jobs, without expending additional resources to hire full-time, salaried staff. Based on the success of this model, Scojo will empower its partners to implement similar techniques and deepen the impact of existing programs. As Scojo expands, we must maintain a higher inventory of products and microfranchise kits, thus exposing ourselves to greater financial risk. As such, Scojo is carefully moving its products from a consignment to a cash-and-carry model, allowing Vision Entrepreneurs to choose from a variety of payment plans and freeing up capital to allow Scojo to expand on a cash-positive basis. In addition to developing new sales and marketing techniques, Scojo will seek out more distribution partnerships with organizations like PSI that have the ability carry out the entire distribution process with limited direct assistance from Scojo. In this partnership model, Scojo Foundation supplies the organization with high-quality, affordable eye care products, which translates into additional revenue for Scojo Foundation and continues to further our mission. After three years, as Scojo’s brand recognition and reputation become increasingly respected, we will consider leveraging our infrastructure to distribute additional health products to rural consumers, such as nutritional supplements, sanitary napkins, and mosquito bed nets.
Origin of the Initiative - Tell the personal story that will help people connect to your work. How did the initiative start? Was there a particular individual or event driving the idea? Tell the reader the story behind the innovation. When Dr. Jordan Kassalow, a practicing New York optometrist and founder of the Global Health Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations, traveled on medical missions to developing countries, he noticed that most eye care programs are not equipped to provide reading glasses due to a focus on more complex eye problems, yet presbyopia affects nearly 40% of the population needing eye care. Although reading glasses have long been available in every drugstore in the developing world, he saw a widespread market failure of affordable reading glasses to the world’s poorest consumers. He knew he could change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people by providing them sustainable access to affordable reading glasses. Along with his business partner, Scott Berrie, Dr. Kassalow founded Scojo Foundation in 2001 with this expressed mission.
Contact Information:
Graham Macmillan
Senior Director Scojo Foundation (NGO) gmacmillan@scojofoundation.org 180 Varick Street Suite 1430 New York, NY 10014 United States Tel: 212-375-2599 x215 Fax: 212-375-2597 Website: www.scojofoundation.org Discussions about this entry
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Scojo Microfranchises Deliver Affordable Reading Glasses to the Rural Poor
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The Scojo Foundation was created out of a greater good, and the bottom line to bring eyeglasses to millions was done through the sales of their line of reading glasses. Through a wonderful product line and history of marketing a niche product at a great price for all, scojo reading glasses became a primary source of funding for the Scojo Foundation. Almost a year ago, the scojo reading glasses side of the business was sold to an eyeglass company and the question and fate of the scojo foundation was up in the air.
Or so it seemed. It appears the scojo foundation is now Vision Spring and is apparently still providing eyesight to millions in need of simple eyeglasses.
The approch to make reading glasses available & affordable through Vision Enterpurners plays an important role. Primerly, it will make the life of those people with the problem full & help lead thier livilihood. And, secondly it supports as an income generation opportunity for the low income people particularly of women by making reading glasses accessible for people at the bottom of the pyramid. Thus, it is contributing its share on poverty alivation while saving the eye sight of many.
So, Scojo would have my vote too.
As you know Dr. Silver, Physics Prof of Oxford has his adaptive glasses with a focus that can be adjusted as below - website, www.adaptive-eyecare.com.
How does this fit into a plan to correct the vision of 90% if the billion people needing glasses, especially children with changing vision adjustment requirements over time?
The Technology
Around one fifth of any group of people will need vision correction to get the best acuity (ie. image sharpness or accuracy) their eyes can achieve. As a population get older, this fraction also rises, as a condition known as presbyopia develops. Presbyopia is caused by a diminution in the power of accommodation of the crystalline lens. For example, it has been estimated that around 89 million people in the USA are presbyopic, and this number rises as the average age of the population increases.
The starting point for the development of Adaptive Eyecare's technology was the astonishing statistic that according to the World Health Organization there are currently around one billion people - including 10% of school children - in the world who would benefit from vision correction, but are as yet uncorrected. Most of these people live in the developing world, and the problem arises principally because the numbers of personnel trained to deliver vision correction in the conventional way are simply inadequate to meet the needs of the people. These statistics have profound implications - they mean that hundreds of millions of adults do not have the vision correction they need to be socially and economically active, and many children are educationally and socially disadvantaged.
The approach of Adaptive Eyecare has been to develop a completely new ophthalmic lens technology which permits us to manufacture revolutionary new spectacles which are universal, in the sense that one pair may be used to correct the vision of over 90% of people requiring correction. The special feature is that the wearer can adjust the power of each lens to his or her own requirements - this is particularly useful for developing world populations in areas which do not have adequate numbers of those specially trained personnel normally associated with the provision of vision correction.
The lenses in Adaptive Eyecare's spectacles operate in a manner which is somewhat similar in its optical function to the crystalline lens in the human eye - our lenses have the feature that the curvature of the lens surfaces is under the control of the wearer of the spectacles, and a simple manual adjustment is all that is needed to vary the power of each lens. In use, the wearer adjusts each lens so as to get clearest vision. This process takes less than a minute for both eyes. Having found the best setting, the lenses are then set, and the ancillary device used for lens adjustment is removed and discarded.
Adaptive Eyecare's adaptive lenses are fluid- filled and the power is changed by varying the amount of fluid in the lens. The power range of our lenses is +6 to -6 Dioptres, and the optical quality is similar to that of the typical human eye.
Scojo's success is well documented by citizen sector and health organizations everywhere. How rapidly has the franchise model been able to expand geographically? Has your organization pondered alternative distribution networks to expand your reach in a much more rapid manner? Microfranchises do not have a perfect record, do your franchisees go door to door or establish their own mini-distribution networks using local markets? Where do people go to purchase these glasses?
Thank you in advance for your response!
Changemakers Team
Thanks for your very insightful questions. Let me answer them below:
1) How rapidly has the franchise model been able to expand geographically?
When looking at our franchise model, it is important to note that there are two levels of Scojo franchisees. The first is the microfranchisee which is the individual on the ground who runs their business selling reading glasses. This individual is given all of the tools necessary to successfully make a living selling reading glasses and related eye care products. The second is the Franchise Partner model. The Franchise Partner model is when another organization licenses the Scojo model and operates it on their own after the provision of training and techical assistance by Scojo.
Therefore, we have over 1,000 microfranchisees operating right now. We are currently working with Franchise Partners in nine countries. These countries include Bangladesh, India, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Only two of these locations are Scojo-operated subsidiaries. So, our franchise model has been able to rapidly expand geographically. Furthermore, we have more requests for creating new Franchise Partnerships in new locations. Our challenge now is to hire a new staff member to dedicate 100% of his/her time supporting this growth of Franchise Partnerships.
2) Has your organization pondered alternative distribution networks to expand your reach in a much more rapid manner?
Yes. We recently signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Population Services International (PSI) to distribute our Scojo reading glasses to all of their sub-Saharan country programs. The glasses are being sold through PSI distributors who own peri-urban and urban pharmacies. This new distribution model has the potential to scale rapidly as we are both leveraging each other's respective strengths.
3) Do your microfranchisees go door to door or establish their own mini-distribution networks using local markets?
Another great question. Scojo Vision Entrepreneurs utilize two primary methods for selling their products. Door-to-door campaigns utilizing referrals is one method. The second and more effective method is through campaigns. Scojo Vision Entrepreneurs set up marketing efforts days in advance to promote a one-day camp, usually held on the weekends. This campaign method is advategeous because of economies of scale.
Looking forward, we are now introducing a networking model to increase the number of Vision Entrepreneurs without increasing the fixed costs of paid staff who support them. We pair "Super Vision Entrepreneurs" with a team of 2-3 "Associate Vision Entrepreneurs". The "Super Vision Entrepreneur" supervises and manages the team of "Associate Vision Entrepreneurs". This exciting development has already produced greater results.
4) Where do people go to purchase these glasses?
I am going to assume that everyone understands where the glasses can be purchased through Scojo Vision Entrepreneurs--at the village level. The more important part of your question, to me, is where are glasses currently being purchased if there is no Scojo Vision Entrepreneur available? Currently, reading glasses remain very difficult to purchase due to barriers of access, affordability, and awareness. Most reading glasses, excluding the very poor-quality glasses sold in urban market stalls, are sold by eye doctors or opticians. There are two major challenges with this distribution channel. First, readymade reading glasses are an unattractive product offering for eye doctors/opticians because they are not customized. Customized reading glasses create margins that make a greater profit than readymades. Second, most eye doctors and opticians are located in urban centers far from rural villages. So, if a villager wanted to purchase a pair of reading glasses, they would have to take a day off of work, travel on a long journey (upt to 10 hours) to a major urban center, spend $30-100 for customized reading glasses, and return to their village. The trick is they have to repeat this ardous and expensive process because the glasses can't be available immediately. Therefore, you have large costs associated with the product, transportation, and opportunity. Finally, most customers are unaware that high-quality, affordable reading glasses are available to correct for presbyopia. Most older people in these communities just accept the loss of up-close vision and attribute it to age. Scojo Foundation overcomes these three major obstacles by making high-quality, affordable reading glasses available at the village level.
Thanks for your thoughtful questions. We are happy to answer them.
Scojo has always been one of my favorite models of successful microfranchising. I have blogged about them a couple times on microfranchising.blogspot.com. They have also been highlighted by such networks as NextBillion.net.
I think part of their genius is in isolating their service to a small segment of eye care. They don't try to solve all eye problems with their Vision Entrepreneurs, instead refering patients to appropriate care, which allows them to focus on target customers and streamline distribution and training etc.
Scojo would have my vote.