Julia Novy-Hildesley
By the Grace of Invention
How Individuals Power Development
We live only by the grace of invention: not merely by such invention as
has already been made, but by our hope of new and as yet non-existing
inventions for the future.
—Norbert Wiener, 发明: The Care and Feeding of Ideas
Invention and innovation are critical drivers of prosperity. They hold the potential
to eradicate poverty and support sustainable development, yet their importance is
often overlooked. 现在, we are failing to engage the global community sys-
tematically and inclusively in innovation, and thus are likely missing opportunities
for breakthroughs that could address the most pressing issues facing humankind.
Start with global development. 那里, the center of gravity of the debate
among experts has been on the effectiveness of international aid, or lack thereof.
Thought leaders such as Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia argue that meeting the chal-
lenge of inclusion in global development will only be possible through dramatic
increases in direct foreign assistance. Aid skeptics such as William Easterly of New
York University and Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist, point out that there is
virtually no correlation between aid and GDP growth. Nicholas Kristof of the New
York Times recently moved the debate in the right direction when he argued that
we should discuss how best to achieve development, rather than debate whether or
not international aid works.1
实际上, the process of development is not as mysterious as it is often made out
成为. Human development happens whenever people have the skills to invent, 这
resources to innovate, and the opportunity to grow their ventures. Unleashing the
creative potential of individuals, 反过来, is also not a fundamentally complicated
事情. Give most people some empty space, rudimentary tools of expression, 和
the permission to create something new, and they will waste little time filling in the
blank canvas. Inventiveness is an essential human characteristic—fully realized in
很少, but available to all.
Julia Novy-Hildesley is executive director of the Lemelson Foundation.
© 2010 Julia Novy-Hildesley
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Human ingenuity is not only our most valuable natural resource, it is also our
most abundant. People are entrepreneurial by nature, particularly when it comes
to helping themselves and their families overcome difficult situations. The entre-
preneurial model of development, driven by humanity’s nearly limitless capacity
for invention and innovation, is the only one that is proven, and it is the only one
that can be scaled to meet the challenge of economic inclusion at a global scale.
Even if aid can be made effective, it cannot be made to scale. The levels advocated
for by Sachs in The End to Poverty, and by others since, are both inadequate and
fundamentally unsustainable. 反而, we must turn our attention to discovering
what government, 私营部门, and civil society can do to create an enabling
environment where individual creativ-
ity and entrepreneurship can thrive,
where people are empowered to lift
themselves out of poverty.2
Human ingenuity is not
only our most valuable
natural resource, it is also
our most abundant.
This new approach is not just
about growth in developing countries;
it is relevant to the challenge of devel-
opment everywhere. All countries
struggle with social injustice and eco-
nomic volatility. As globalization pro-
ceeds, development challenges become
more interconnected, with difficulties in one region creating instability in anoth-
是. 反过来, creating an environment conducive to invention, 创新, 和
entrepreneurship in one location can create positive ripple effects elsewhere, 带领-
ing to a virtuous cycle of global development. Recent discussions about global
security have built on this logic, with many arguing that clean energy innovations
will increase energy independence and reduce conflict, or that supporting innova-
tion and opportunities for self-determination in poor countries can lessen the
effects of fundamentalist extremism.
在这篇文章中, I advocate for an approach to development that derives from five
fundamental tenets:
• Shifting our focus to individuals and their potential—thinking of all people as
inventors, innovators, 和企业家
• Embracing a bottom-up, demand-driven view of the world, where people
design solutions, and government’s role is to create an enabling environment
for them to do so
• Emphasizing business principles, recognizing that the best ideas must reach
enormous scale in order to combat global poverty and achieve sustainable
发展
• Insisting upon linking evaluation criteria with evidence of effectiveness—will a
program or investment enable a larger pool of people to more fully unlock
their potential? And is the focus of their innovation directed toward advancing
sustainable development in a scalable way?
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By the Grace of Invention
数字 1. Driving Development by Enabling Invention, 创新, 和
Entrepreneurship
• Taking a forward-looking approach, focusing less on bailouts and much more
on start-ups
For the past 15 年, the Lemelson Foundation has experimented with strate-
gies and programs to implement this approach with its partners. The organization
promotes a focus on two dimensions: (1) building an innovation engine—a
diverse pipeline of future inventors, 和 (2) creating pathways to scale (见图
1).
This essay introduces both concepts and shares what we’ve learned. 论文
is organized into four parts. Following this introduction, I discuss ways to increase
the number and diversity of inventors. I then explore pathways to scale, emphasiz-
ing the importance of business model innovation and social enterprise investment
to extend the benefits of the innovation engine. I conclude with some thoughts on
the roles that governments, 慈善家, NGOs, and the private sector play in
implementing this new approach to development.
THE INNOVATION ENGINE
At its core, the innovation engine is about harnessing the full potential of human
creativity. To be effective, the engine must be large, diverse, and highly efficient. 我们
need large numbers of innovators to guide us in the 21st century. We must also rec-
ognize that good ideas may come from anywhere and from anyone, not just cor-
porate labs or Silicon Valley. 最后, the engine should be designed to generate as
many breakthroughs as possible.
The Lemelson Foundation’s approach to creating and nurturing a global inno-
vation engine has three pillars:
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• Engaging youth in science and engineering education programs, which help
nurture a large pool of future innovators
• Working to ensure that education programs attract and retain a diverse popula-
tion of young people so that the innovation engine will generate much richer
and more relevant ideas, 和
• Focusing on collaboration to improve the engine’s efficiency
Engaging Youth in Science and Engineering
Many countries are seeing participation rates in technical fields decline. 在里面
美国, 例如, among the more than 1.1 million seniors in the class of
2009 who took the ACT Assessment college entrance and placement exam, 更少
比 6% planned to study engineering in college, down from nearly 9% 在 1992.
此外, these students are less certain of their major than those in the past,
with more than 40% indicating they need help deciding on their educational and
career plans.3 As President Obama noted on The Jay Leno Show in 2009, we want
our brightest students coming out of university to want to become scientists and
engineers, not investment bankers.
Research indicates that in order to expand the pool of tomorrow’s inventors,
we must focus on early intervention, out-of-school programs, and generating per-
ceptions of engineering as fun, collaborative, and relevant to making a difference
在世界上. A study of Nobel laureates in the sciences documents that 75% 是
inspired by early experiences outside of school, while other studies report that
teaching invention to young children generates tangible results, including new
technologies and increased interest in technical fields.4
The Lemelson Foundation has launched and supported a variety of programs
that seek to inspire and mentor youth in invention and technical fields. 这
Lemelson-MIT Program awards the world’s largest cash prize for invention, 还有
as mid-career and student prizes. It hosts an online resource guide for inventors
and supports high school InvenTeams that work to tackle problems in their com-
社区. 相似地, Ashoka’s Youth Venture program engages teenagers from
developed and developing countries in invention and entrepreneurship projects
and team challenges, offering prizes to reward and showcase the most creative
ideas.
Public television, media and government initiatives also have significant influ-
恩斯. WGBH-Boston developed a public television show called Design Squad that
inspires teenagers to invent, by showcasing real-time invention challenges tackled
by teams of fun-loving, creative youth. Design Squad is hosted by a peer role
模型, the charismatic Nate Ball, a former Lemelson-MIT student prize winner.
Hands-on exhibits at museums can also inspire young people. 例如, 这
Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian
Institution5 attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to Spark!实验室,
where children do hands-on invention experiments. President Obama’s Educate to
Innovate program, including a national science fair and laboratory day, has helped
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By the Grace of Invention
elevate the stature of this issue and has increased investment by private corpora-
tions in science and engineering education.
最后, in-school programs that support science, 技术, 工程, 和
math (STEM) are essential. The Gates Foundation and many other organizations
are striving to improve the quality of, and diversity represented in, STEM fields by
focusing on education strategies validated by research.6 National governments
must complement private-sector efforts by highlighting the importance of STEM
and strengthening education. Consider the impact that Jawaharal Nehru, India’s
first prime minister, had with his vision that the Indian engineer would drive the
development of the newly independent nation, through the design of communica-
tions infrastructure, power systems, roads, dams, and drinking water facilities. 在
the decades following his announcement, the government established a national
network of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), now some of the most respect-
ed engineering universities in the world. These IITs, and a host of other regional
engineering universities, collectively graduate over 500,000 new engineers each
year.7
Increasing the Diversity of Innovators
The innovation engine is most effective when it taps into everyone’s potential. 我们
need strategies to attract and nurture girls, minorities, and developing-country
innovators in science and technology fields. Without an explicit focus on this, 我们
will continue to miss out on the creative potential of well over half the population.8
Encouraging Female and Minority Participation
Research indicates that children of both genders and diverse backgrounds respond
to invention education by demonstrating increased inventiveness.9 Studies confirm
that programs designed specifically to engage women and non-majority individu-
als are effective in spurring inventive capacity.10 In order to increase participation
rates of girls and minorities, the Lemelson Foundation has designed and support-
ed longer-term mentoring programs that deepen students’ exposure and proficien-
cy in STEM fields.
One partner, MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement), engages girls
and minorities by creating collaborative student teams that tackle multiple inven-
tion challenges over a period of several years. This creates a supportive and inten-
sive opportunity to build technical skills. Shay Schlafle, a13-year-old African
American girl, illustrates the impact of MESA. Shay was born with brittle bone dis-
舒适, is sometimes confined to a wheelchair, and can easily break a bone by walk-
ing too much. After two years as a MESA student, Shay competed with three female
teammates in an 8th grade MESA competition to design a trebuchet, a catapult-like
设备. Despite coming from an underperforming school, Shay’s team won the
state competition based on the distance and accuracy with which their trebuchet
could hurl objects through the air. This success changed Shay’s vision for the
未来. While her mother did not attend college and Shay did not intend to pursue
higher education, she now plans to go to college and study engineering.
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Relative to their peers in public schools, MESA students demonstrate higher
high school and college graduation rates, as well as greater rates of participation in
STEM studies at the postsecondary level.11 Another partner, the Saturday Academy,
offers summer internships at local science and engineering firms and provides a
stipend (greater than the pay from a minimum-wage job) to remove barriers to
participation by underserved minority students.12 To test a new mentoring strate-
gy, the Lemelson Foundation launched Mentors for Young Inventors, with WGBH-
波士顿. The program pairs minority engineers in high schools with college student
and professional engineers of the same ethnic background to support them
through a multiyear, out-of-school engineering program.
Many programs have emerged at the international level. 例如, 这
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which has more than
365,000 members in approximately 150 国家, brings together students, 亲-
专业人士, 学者, and industry leaders to share ideas and present research
发现. The organization also offers prizes to the best engineers and houses an
exhibition for student and professional inventions.
So that programs can be improved continuously, governments should contin-
ue to fund research that helps us understand the key reasons why girls and minori-
ties do not participate fully in science and technology. In the United States, 这
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National
Science Foundation (美国国家科学基金会), and the National Academies of Engineering (NAE) 是
supporting such research.
Inventor Initiatives in Developing Countries
There is also a tremendous opportunity to benefit from the creativity of innova-
tors in developing countries. Providing tailored and catalytic support to individu-
als engaged in technological innovation in developing countries could both
increase the level of innovation globally and improve the relevance of technologies
for poor people. Imagine how many Einsteins are born in Africa, but lack access to
the education, 工具, and resources they need to realize their full potential. 因为
the ideas developed by innovators in developing countries are more likely to focus
on pressing local issues, engaging these inventors is a way to make sure that the full
range and complexity of global challenges is addressed.
In developing countries, educated and uneducated innovators alike have
demonstrated their innovative capacity. In Malawi, 14-year-old William
Kamkwamba had to quit school because his parents could not afford $80/year to send him. But poor farm yields and a food crisis inspired him to invent his way out of poverty. Using an old textbook from a local library and parts from bicycles and tractors, William built a 16-foot-tall, 12-watt windmill to generate electricity and pump water on his family’s farm. He has since published a book and become a spokesperson for the importance of supporting local innovators in developing countries. 12 创新 / winter 2010 从http下载的://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/5/1/7/1838398/itgg.2010.5.1.7.pdf by guest on 07 九月 2023 By the Grace of Invention Dr. Sathya Jeganathan, a doctor from the Chengalpattu hospital in rural India, provides another example. She invented a low-cost baby warmer and had it built by local craftsmen. The invention has cut the neonatal mortality rate at her hospi- tal in half. With help from the Lemelson Recognition and Mentoring Program (RAMP) in Chennai,13 博士. Jeganathan intends to refine the design and apply for the certification she needs to distribute it throughout the Indian government’s health system and perhaps beyond. As Mukesh Ambani, CEO of Reliance Industries, India’s largest company, stat- ed recently, “I am quite clear that 20 years from now, we would not talk about garages in Silicon Valley. We will talk about projects in the villages and rural areas in India, which are then scaled all over the world.”14 The Honey Bee Network has documented over 100,000 grassroots innovations in India alone. The Ashoka- Lemelson Fellows Program has identified and supported over 100 inventor-entre- preneurs, largely from developing countries, who have launched successful social enterprises in the areas of clean energy, mobile technology, and water and sanita- 的, 除其他外. While the literature is thin, there is an ever-growing body of evidence on how to nurture local innovators in developing countries. The Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) provides workshop space and busi- ness support to rural, uneducated engineers and entrepreneurs in Central America. 相比之下, Stanford-India BioDesign targets professional doctors in India, leveraging international universities and intensive training to spur the invention of biomedical technologies that serve Indians. The Lemelson RAMPs in India, Indonesia and Peru work with national universities and local non-profits to design mentoring and financing plans for competitively selected local innovators working on sustainable development. The university partners offer prototyping facilities, technology validation and access to networks. Non-profit partners pro- vide business development support and help negotiate intellectual property and licensing agreements. A group of these organizations meets annually with incubators from industri- alized countries to share best practices and replicate successful approaches. Examples are the Santa Clara University Global Social Benefit Incubator Program, the Design that Matters Program of MIT, and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. Companies based in developing countries are also working to harness the potential of in-country engineers to develop new products highly adapted to local conditions. A recent Wall Street Journal article describes a shift in focus among Indian firms, from serving Western companies to providing meaningful products to India’s 1.1 billion people.15 Mumbai’s Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company (known for a range of products from padlocks to pest management) developed a low-cost refrigerator called the Little Cool. It sells for $70 and runs on a cooling
chip rather than a noisy, breakable compressor. The unit uses high-end insulation
to stay cool for hours without power, is portable for use by migrant workers, 骗局-
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sumes half the power of rival low-end refrigerators, and has only 20 部分 (as com-
pared to the usual 200).
The article also notes that the growing awareness of this new market has
sparked new business divisions within established Indian companies. To develop
its tiny $2,200 Nano car, 例如, Tata Motors employed a division of nearly 300 engineers over four years. The group rethought all aspects of the development process, from design, to manufacturing, to distribution and financing. Fueling New Discoveries Through Multi-Disciplinary and Cross-Cultural Collaboration Engaging a large and diverse pool of innovators is necessary, but insufficient, to create a highly efficient innovation engine. Evidence suggests that fostering collab- oration can accelerate invention and innovation outcomes.16 The Lemelson Foundation has created several programs to experiment with this approach. 在 1995, Jerome Lemelson created the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), modeled after the successful National Inventors Council (NIC) that was launched in 1940 during World War II.17 The NCIIA funds courses and multidisciplinary student teams in the fields of technological innova- tion and entrepreneurship. It has yielded 48 patents and 55 start-up companies through its $5.1 million investment in 347 student collaborations. This appears to
be more efficient than most angel investors and university tech transfer offices,
although it is difficult to do direct comparisons.18
An evaluation of the NCIIA grants program for the years 1997 到 2005 报告-
ed that 17 “high-impact” grants produced the following outcomes:
• $40 million in new investment for student start-ups • Creation of at least 700 jobs locally, and • An estimated $35 million annually in regional economic impact19
The Lemelson Foundation has helped launch new programs at the NCIIA and
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to foster cross-cultural teams of stu-
dents and faculty. These programs and others have demonstrated exciting results
when diaspora students and faculty, and their colleagues, partner with communi-
ties in the developing world. NCIIA’s Sustainable Vision program has resulted in a
new device to test for counterfeit pharmaceuticals in developing countries. MIT’s
International Development Initiative has yielded a soy milk maker for an orphan-
age in Peru, a chlorinator for community water systems in Honduras, 和一个
portable solar cooker for the Himalayas.20 Local innovators have a deep under-
standing of local needs and of the sociocultural context. University experts can
offer new perspectives on engineering, 材料, and design principles, 也
connections to investors and distribution systems.
The Ashoka-Lemelson Fellows Program also enhances innovation through
cross-cultural collaboration. The program identifies early- to mid-career innova-
tors from industrialized and developing countries, offers a stipend, and connects
fellows to professional networks, including other fellows. Joseph Adelegan, 一个
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By the Grace of Invention
Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow from Nigeria, collaborated with researchers at the Biogas
Technology Research Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, as he designed a fixed-filter
anaerobic biogas converter that could remove slaughterhouse effluents from air
and water. David Kuria, a Fellow in Kenya, is working with the University of
Colorado to refine his business model. David has launched technology-enabled
sanitation “kiosks,” transforming run-down toilet stations in Kenya into mini
shopping malls where customers can even get their shoes shined. Customers can
use mobile phone technology to pay for using the toilets and other services.
Beyond civil society collaborations, there is a growing movement to partner
with the private sector to spur innovation for global development. To increase the
momentum of this movement, the Lemelson Foundation funded the “Design for
the Other 90%” exhibit in 2007,21 initiated by Paul Polak of IDE and developed by
the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The exhibit chal-
lenges us to reverse the current situation in which most of the world’s cleverest
designers cater to the richest 10% of consumers, designing haute couture clothing,
Maseratis, and elegant cell phone cases—while people around the world are wait-
ing for $2 eyeglasses, $10 solar lanterns, 和 $100 房屋. The exhibit offers a glimpse of what could be achieved if the industrialized world’s professional design community focused on the challenges of eradicating poverty and conserving the environment. Many designers are responding to this challenge. Idealab, a solar technology innovator in San Francisco, designed a low-cost solar home-lighting system for families living off the grid. Idealab reached out to the Lemelson Foundation’s net- work of clean energy entrepreneurs in developing countries—such as SELCO, IDEAAS, and Emergence Bioenergy. After collaborating to learn about local mar- kets, customer preferences, and their ability to pay, Idealab dramatically changed its technology design and began field-testing with India-based SELCO, drawing on SELCO’s in-country experience. Transnational firms are also beginning to engage their design teams in cross- cultural collaboration. 最近,some of the best designers at Philips,the multina- tional electronics company, worked in rural India with local nongovernmental organizations, self-help groups, and local industrial entrepreneurs. 一起, they developed an affordable,low-smoke solution for healthy and safe cooking that fit the sociocultural and infrastructural conditions. The intellectual property and design was donated to local stakeholders and the company is working with Indian partners to establish a self-sustaining distribution model for the stove.22 The Leap Frog Fund, a joint initiative of the Schwab and Lemelson foundations, has shown that these exchanges are particularly effective when the “exporting” innovators work with “importing” entrepreneurs to support the integration of the technolo- gy or innovation in the new setting.23 After a recent visit to Asia, Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, brought attention to another dimension of cross-cultural collaboration: reverse innovation. “Most American multinationals go through stages of globaliza- tion where you export, start to localize, and ultimately get to the point where you innovations / winter 2010 15 从http下载的://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/5/1/7/1838398/itgg.2010.5.1.7.pdf by guest on 07 九月 2023 Julia Novy-Hildesley build local capability. And then you can start transporting ideas back to the devel- oped world.”24 Many ideas have already been successfully transferred. 例如, bus rapid transit systems developed in Curitiba, 巴西, were transferred first to Bogota, 哥伦比亚, and more recently to cities in the United States, including Los Angeles, 克利夫兰, 波士顿, and Eugene. Treatments derived from medicinal plants have been identified in developing countries, and then developed into phar- maceuticals in the industrialized world. While these types of experiments are gaining momentum, we must work to make these collaborations more systematic and scalable. Technology Development Centers, such as those designed by KickStart in Kenya, and IDE and SELCO in India, root innovation in local contexts and make use of developing-country facil- ities and engineers, while providing national and international connections. These centers are logical hubs for cross-cultural collaboration and hold the potential to accelerate technological innovation for development. By failing small but learning big and tapping the “wisdom of the hive,” we can generate the collective learning necessary to rapidly evolve a range of viable strategies and models.25 PATHWAYS TO SCALE A robust pipeline of future inventors will take us part way, but in order to eradi- cate poverty and build sustainable economies, we must create pathways to scale for key innovations. The innovation engine’s greatest technologies will have the poten- tial to improve lives and help individuals reach their full potential. They will gen- erate income by serving as tools that enable people to lift themselves out of pover- 蒂, thus increasing self-determination and global participation. 最后, the greatest innovations will enhance, rather than deplete, the environment and natural resource base on which we depend. Twenty-first century sustainable products are needed in both industrialized and developing countries. Bringing such technologies to scale requires three ele- 评论: (1) creating an enabling environment for their production and adoption; (2) building appropriate business models for their dissemination; 和 (3) driving large-scale investment to those social enterprises. In rich countries, because the business and investment environment is generally strong, the focus should be on creating incentives for the design, mass manufacturing, and purchasing of sustain- able technologies. Where there is political will, scaling such technologies is relative- ly straightforward. Consider Germany’s success creating jobs and generating clean energy on a vast scale as a direct result of strategic and consistent investments in solar technology. 相比之下, in developing countries, all three elements require attention. Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto and MIT economist Daron Acemoglu doc- ument the primary importance of building the rule of law, formalizing land tenure and intellectual property rights, and creating a “governing system that offers opportunities to achieve and innovate.”26 In addition to political will and a strong enabling environment, we need radically different business models to reach the 16 创新 / winter 2010 从http下载的://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/5/1/7/1838398/itgg.2010.5.1.7.pdf by guest on 07 九月 2023 By the Grace of Invention five billion people living on less than $10 a day. As these innovative enterprises
emerge and become proven, we must then drive greater investment to them.
Because the literature on strengthening enabling environments is quite rich, 这
section describes business model innovations and investment strategies that help
launch and grow successful enterprises.
Business Model Innovation
The most innovative businesses will engage customers and help build a middle
class from the bottom up by innovating across four dimensions: 设计, 市场-
英, 分配, and finance. But we don’t yet know which approaches will scale
up most effectively. As with seeding collaboration to improve the innovation
engine’s efficiency, we must increase the number of business model experiments
and the speed with which knowledge is transferred between them in order to reach
规模. 要做到这一点, the Lemelson Foundation and many others are investing in for-
profit and nonprofit social enterprises working in developing countries across
these four dimensions.
设计
The Lemelson Foundation has invested in and learned from several pioneers in the
field of affordable design. International Development Enterprises (IDE), a non-
profit working in Asia, 非洲, and Latin America, focuses on ways to design
around various cost drivers. IDE makes two trade-offs: exchanging capital for
劳动 (as labor is abundant in most poor countries) and quality for affordability.
例如, during the design process for its drip irrigation kits, IDE reduced the
amount of plastics needed by thinning the pipe. This reduced system pressure by
80%, requiring hands-on management from farmers to run the systems.27
尽管如此, it brought the IDE product within the price range of farmers with less
than one-sixteenth of an acre of land. IDE’s approach allows customers to “get on
the technology ladder,” make money, and then move on to a superior model once
they can afford it.
In regions with dispersed populations and few shops to provide service and
spare parts, products must be designed with minimal maintenance requirements.
Because of such conditions, Kenya-based KickStart28 has invented a range of irri-
gation pumps that are highly robust. KickStart’s pumps are stronger, but more
昂贵的, than IDE pumps.
Like the agriculture sector, the health sector tends to generate products that are
beyond the reach of poor consumers. Conversion Sound (CS), a U.S.-based for-
profit social enterprise, worked to rethink hearing aid design. Its prototype costs
one-tenth the industry standard ($77 与. $800). By drawing on lessons from the
consumer electronics industry, CS has also reduced—by 96%—the cost of equip-
ment for fitting hearing devices. CS employs simple hand-held wireless systems to
measure hearing capabilities, enabling village-trained health workers, who are
much more cost effective than doctors, to provide testing services. CS has also
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designed a low-cost device that fits hearing aid molds on the spot, obviating the
need for multiple visits.
Marketing
Once design challenges are overcome, social entrepreneurs must convince cus-
tomers with severely limited resources to invest in their 21st-century sustainable
产品. Lemelson Foundation partners have had particular success using prod-
uct demonstrations and public media to engage customers.
在肯尼亚, KickStart attends agricultural fairs where it sponsors water-pumping
contests among farmers to build awareness of its products. Winning farmers
return home with new treadle pumps. Retailers and distributors use the fairs to
create customer awareness through local language flyers, and potential customers
can provide contact information, enabling retailers to follow up with them after
the event. In rural India, IDE broadcasts local music from traveling vans to attract
potential customers. Staff members then set up demonstrations of IDE’s agricul-
tural technologies, such as micro-drip systems, sprinklers, and treadle pumps.
The most creative organizations use radio, film, and music to promote new
技术. In India, 例如, IDE developed a feature-length Bollywood
film of a couple whose marriage was saved by the income generated from a treadle
pump. Millions of rural Bangladeshis viewed this film, leading to the sale of over
one million treadle pumps in the region.29 In Kenya, the Maasai rap artist, 先生.
Ebbo, recorded a song and video for KickStart to tell the story of treadle pumps
ending the poverty of African farmers. It was broadcast throughout East Africa and
helped KickStart reach hundreds of thousands of new potential customers.30
Distribution
Design and marketing are parts of the puzzle, but distribution is also a major chal-
许久. The Lemelson Foundation’s partners have developed creative strategies to
diffuse their innovations through community-based partners, the local private sec-
托尔, and government.
Distribution through community partners accelerates the diffusion of prod-
ucts, because it enables social enterprises to operate in a highly decentralized way,
informed by local knowledge. Conversion Sound plans to use thousands of com-
munity-based health entrepreneurs to distribute its low-cost hearing aids. This will
enable CS to expand distribution rapidly because it will not be limited by the
shortage of government-run health clinics in remote areas. As CS founder David
Green says, “Our distribution concept is disruptive since the product can be dis-
tributed outside the existing exclusive hearing aid distribution channels, 哪个
have a pricing system and mentality that is often the primary bottleneck for reach-
ing the hard of hearing client in an accessible and affordable manner.”31
SELCO has decentralized distribution by engaging unemployed youth in
Indian villages to market and sell its solar home-lighting systems on commission.
To expand SELCO’s distribution, the Lemelson Foundation supported a partner-
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ship between SELCO and SEWA (the Self-Employed Women’s Association), 一个
established community-based organization in India. SELCO trains SEWA mem-
bers to become “clean energy entrepreneurs.” In turn, these entrepreneurs sell
SELCO’s clean energy technologies to SEWA’s 700,000 members. 相似地,
Grameen Phone (GP) relies on the Grameen Bank, a community-based micro-
finance institution in Bangladesh, to select entrepreneurs for GP’s “village phone”
模型. Grameen Bank identifies women with strong loan repayment histories who
then purchase a cell phone (often using a loan from Grameen Bank) and provide
a shared phone service to fellow villagers for a small fee.
有趣的是, transnational corporations are also forming partnerships with
community-based organizations. In India, Hindustan Unilever has leveraged over
one million village women through self-help groups to become low-cost distribu-
tors of Unilever products.32
The local private sector is another powerful distribution resource. Across the
developing world, millions of village shops provide customers with basic foods,
paint, building materials, 种子, and more. Social enterprises partner with shop
拥有者, adding their products to the shelves. KickStart and IDE, 例如, 迪斯-
tribute most of their products through such shops, which can also provide access
to replacement parts and repair services. They also provide a method of capturing
customer feedback, which enables social enterprises to address design, 营销,
维护, or financing concerns quickly.
最后, some organizations piggyback on government distribution channels.
This can be particularly relevant for health technologies. After designing a low-cost
single-injection device called Uniject, PATH (the Program for Appropriate
Technologies in Health) partnered with the Indonesian government. The national
health system trained 60,000 village midwives (one for every village in the nation)
who then administered over 40 million doses of Hepatitis B vaccine to newborns.33
PATH is now working with several countries to test the viability of using Uniject
to administer oxytocin to women in the third stage of labor, thus minimizing post-
partum hemorrhage, a leading cause of death for women in developing countries.34
Finance
For-profit and nonprofit social enterprises must bring their products within reach
of poor customers. Sometimes this requires helping customers access finance.
Other times, it calls for leasing arrangements or innovative pricing strategies.
SELCO brought its $400 solar home lighting solutions within reach of cus- tomers by working with banks and microfinance institutions. SELCO encouraged them to lend to poor customers by working with bank loan officers to help them understand the productivity that often follows the adoption of solar products. The training helped unlock loans, but interest rates were still high. To jumpstart the market, SELCO bought down the rates and covered a portion of the downpay- ments for early adopters. 创新 / winter 2010 19 从http下载的://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/5/1/7/1838398/itgg.2010.5.1.7.pdf by guest on 07 九月 2023 Julia Novy-Hildesley IDEAAS, a nonprofit provider of solar energy in Brazil, took another approach. The organization offers leasing arrangements to compensate for the lack of microfinance in regions where it works. This enables customers in remote Amazonia to afford solar home-lighting systems by paying a low monthly fee.35 Other organizations have innovated tiered pricing models to increase access to technologies. This approach enables the poorest customers to get products and services for free, while the enterprise as a whole earns a healthy profit. David Green, the founder of Conversion Sound, has coined this “compassionate capital- ism.” Conversion Sound employs tiered pricing to complement its many other cost-cutting measures. Cross subsidies from profits derived from well-to-do clients lower the prices for the poorest customers. 相似地, the Aravind Eye Hospital in India performs 70% of its cataract surgeries for free or below cost, 和 30% at market rates.36 It offers the same doctors, 程序, and equipment to all patients, but higher-paying customers have access to a more comfortable and quiet waiting room and to private overnight rooms. This seems to be sufficient to drive self-selection to the different pricing options. 最后, organizations may employ a hybrid structure, where a for-profit arm supports the mission of a nonprofit social enterprise. The nonprofit World Bike manufactures and sells cargo-carrying bicycles in East Africa at a very low cost, while its for-profit arm generates a surplus by selling similar bicycles as “sports utility bikes” (SUBs) to bicycle tourists at a higher price. Driving Investments in Social Enterprises All of these innovations help poor customers access life-changing technologies. Technology entrepreneurs serving these “base of the pyramid” customers also need financing to launch and grow their businesses. 现在, many such enterprises are stuck in a “missing middle” where they cannot access capital. The loans avail- able from the microfinance institutions that serve their customers are far too small, and the scale of private equity investments available to large firms exceeds the absorptive capacity of these businesses. The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) was created to fill this gap. Collectively, ANDE members represent over $750 million in investment
capital directed toward small and growing enterprises in developing countries,
which need investments in the range of $25,000 到 $2 million.37
ANDE members provide loans, equity investments, and technical assistance to
businesses that are not being served by local banks because they are perceived to
be too risky. One ANDE member, E+Co,38 finances new solar energy enterprises
serving rural Tanzanians. Local banks are not interested in such start-ups. E+Co
also provides business development training, making the new entrepreneurs more
likely to succeed. On a larger scale, the Gates Foundation awarded a $10 million loan and $5 million grant to Root Capital,39 another ANDE member, will extend
financing and training to 500,000 farmers and producers in Sub-Saharan Africa as
a result of a new $10 million loan and $5 million grant from the Gates Foundation.
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These businesses also need funds for inventory and capital equipment. 在
tough economic climates, banks are particularly hesitant to offer credit lines to
new businesses or small companies. The United States Agency for International
发展 (USAID) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) 有
successfully used loan guarantees to create incentives for local banks to make such
funds available.
The Lemelson Foundation employs a similar technique: “first-loss” capital. 它
used this tool to facilitate access to inventory financing for D.light Design, 专业人士-
ducer of affordable, solar-powered LED lanterns. While D.light had raised signifi-
cant equity and had orders on its books, it couldn’t access a credit line because it
was perceived as a high-risk start-up. After the Lemelson Foundation provided a
first-loss loan to the Calvert Social Investment Fund (CSIF), CSIF financed D.light,
offering twice the amount of the Foundation’s loan because of the risk reduction
provided by the Foundation. The relationship with Calvert enables D.light to
establish a credit history with a lender (rather than a foundation), 潜在地
enabling the company to secure a larger line of credit from banks in the future.
With continued efforts from governments, foundations, and nonprofit organ-
izations to “buy down” the risk for banks, private capital flows to start-ups and
small businesses are likely to increase. There is a new world on the horizon, 在
which local banks open dialogue with small enterprises and individual loan offi-
cers become less risk averse. We are seeing the emergence of local financial inter-
mediaries in developing countries that are helping small businesses develop the
financial controls and systems required by the banks, so they are more likely to
qualify for loans and other investments. 最终, we may even see a new, 更多的
patient form of venture capital emerge. This will be necessary to reach the kind of
scale we need to support social enterprise models. Government and foundation
investment will be dwarfed by the resources of the private sector, should we be able
to harness it in the direction of small business experiments.
结论
We find ourselves at a turning point in human history. We know that development
is driven by technological progress. Rich countries have experienced substantial
benefits since the Industrial Revolution—electricity and vaccines, computers and
互联网, to name a few. But we are also living with unsustainable practices. Five
billion people are not participating in the global economy. Some of the technolo-
gies that drove development in the rich world have had negative environmental
and social consequences.
Two primary obstacles impede our progress. We have failed to build an effi-
cient and inclusive innovation engine focused on the triple bottom line. And we
have failed to create pathways to scale for the sustainable breakthroughs that are
生成的. All sectors must play their part in overcoming these barriers.
Governments must invest in education and build enabling environments that fos-
ter invention, 创新, and entrepreneurship. Social enterprises must increase
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Julia Novy-Hildesley
their efforts to innovate ways to serve the more than five billion people excluded
from participation in the global economy. The private sector must harness its
设计, 营销, 分配, and financing capacity toward this same end. 和
foundations must continue to take risks, backing new ideas with great potential.
We have had a glimpse of this opportunity through leapfrogging mobile tech-
逻辑的, clean energy innovations, and child and maternal health products. 现在
we must extend this vision globally, and to every individual. Thomas Friedman of
the New York Times recently described the need to incubate 10,000 inventors in
10,000 garages to fuel American economic recovery. Stuart Hart of Cornell
University echoes Friedman in his article “The Green Leap.” He advocates incubat-
ing “thousands of small-scale, yet radical business experiments aimed at leapfrog-
ging today’s unsustainable practices, each with the opportunity to grow and
become one of tomorrow’s sustainable corporations.” 40 By focusing explicitly on
cultivating human ingenuity, we have an opportunity to transform development.
With a strong innovation engine and all actors focused on enabling and support-
ing pathways to scale, we will unleash the power of invention and entrepreneurship
to create sustainable solutions to the great challenges ahead.
致谢
This essay stems from the wisdom of Jerome Lemelson, founder of the Lemelson Foundation and
one of the most prolific inventors in U.S. 历史 (与超过 600 patents). Jerome Lemelson articu-
lated the need to focus on invention and entrepreneurship to advance development more than thir-
ty years ago, long before the global community embraced such ideas. It also emerges from the lead-
ership of Dorothy, Eric, and Robert Lemelson, Susan Morse and Jennifer Bruml, the family of
Jerome Lemelson and the Board members of the Lemelson Foundation. Their clear vision and
whole-hearted embrace of creativity has given life to the many experiments I have described here. 我
am grateful to my bright, creative, and committed colleagues at the Foundation. Without them and
the brilliant and inspiring funded partners (“grantees”) with whom we have the privilege to work
and learn from, I would not have written this essay.
Peggy Reid served as a great brainstorming partner as the article was taking shape. She helped
frame different outlines, developed content and brought her gift of strategic clarity to the various
ideas. Bob Kennedy was very generous with his time and exceptional writing skills, reviewing sever-
al drafts and providing cogent feedback at each opportunity. Phil Auerswald offered ways to frame
the article to strengthen its message. Helen Snively was a great editor.
I am grateful to Art Molella, Phil Weilerstein, David Coronado and Thea Sahr who crunched
numbers, provided content, and found references. I thank many wonderful colleagues who also con-
tributed: Jill Tucker, Patrick Maloney, Anand Krishnaswamy, Rosa Wang, Joshua Schuler, Timothy
Prestero, Geoff Groesbeck, Paul Polak, Matthew Bishop, Angela Shartrand, Tricia Edwards, Jane
Wales, Teofilo Tijerina, Tom Kalil, Gordon Conway, Stu Hart, and Michael Free. Thanks to Abby
Sarmac and Roswitha Swensen for keeping me on track. Will Novy-Hildesley reviewed drafts and
offered great feedback. Many thanks especially to Will, who was very supportive as I escaped family
duties to work on this essay.
1. Nicholas Kristof, “How can we help.” The New York Times Book Review, 十一月 22, 2009, p. BR-
27. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/books/review/Kristof-t.html
2. Paul Polak, Out of Poverty. 旧金山: Berrett-Koehler, 2008. Julia Novy-Hildesley, “Funding
Invention for Sustainability,” 创新, 冬天 2006, 31–42.
3. United States National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics
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http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ ACT, http://www.act.org/aap/index.html
4. Lucy N. Friedman and Jane Quinn, “Science by Stealth.” Education Week, 二月 22, 2006.
Robert Tai, Christine Liu, Adam Maltese, and Xitao Fan, “Planning Early for Careers in Science.”
Science Vol. 312, 不. 5777, 26 可能 2006, 1143–1144. DOI: 10.1126
5. Lemelson Center website, http://invention.smithsonian.org/home/.
6. http://localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/opinion/blogpost/5861012/
Jacquelyn F. Sullivan, Lawrence E. Carlson and Denise W. 卡尔森, “Developing Aspiring
Engineers into Budding Entrepreneurs: An Invention and Innovation Course.” Journal of
Engineering Education, Oct 2001, 571–576. Jacob Blickenstaff, “Women and science careers: Leaky
pipeline or gender filter?” Gender and Education, 卷. 17, 不. 4, 十月 2005, 369–386.
7. Lav R. Varshney, Private Engineering Education in India: Market Failures and Regulatory
Solutions. 剑桥, 嘛: 麻省理工学院, 十一月, 2006.
8. 在美国, women represent approximately 20% of the students at engineering schools.
Minority women represent approximately 5% of those employed in a science and engineering
occupation. Asians, African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians together make up only
18%.
9. Allison Druin and Carina Fast, “The Child as Learner, Critic, Inventor, and Technology Design
Partner: An Analysis of Three Years of Swedish Student Journals.” International Journal of
Technology and Design Education, 卷. 12, 2002, 189–213.
10. Noah Finkelstein and Laurel Mayhew, “Acting in Our Own Self-Interests: Blending University
and Community in Informal Science Education.” Paper presented at Physics Education
Research Conference 2008, Edmonton, 加拿大, July 23–24, 2008.
http://www.compadre.org/PER/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=7957&DocID=6
11. Personal communication with David Coronado, Director, MESA Oregon. Statistics from:
http://www.nchems.org,
http://www.higheredinfo.org/dbrowser/index.php?submeasure=63&year=2006&level=nation&
mode=data&state=0
http://www.pathwaystocollege.net/StateLibraries/ListArticlesByCategory.aspx?cat=IN&钥匙-
word=Access%20and%20Participation
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/enroll.cfm
http://www.act.org/news/releases/2002/11-15-02.html
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_318.asp
12. The Strategy Symposium, held in December, 2007, included thought leaders in science, technol-
ogy and invention education from around the United States. For a symposium report, 请
visit www.lemelson.org.
13. www.l-ramp.org
14. Jeffrey Immelt and Mukesh Ambani, “An Indian Cure for Global Ills.” Dialogue in New Delhi,
十月 5, 2009. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Interviews/The-Immelt-
Ambani-dialogue-Indian-cure-for-global-ills/articleshow/5087831.cms
15. “Indian Firms Shift Focus to the Poor,” Wall Street Journal, 十月 21, 2009.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125598988906795035.html
16. Carl Smith, Tameka Douglas, and Monica Cox, “Supportive Teaching and Learning Strategies in
STEM Education.” Chapter 2 (PP. 19-32) in Climate for Undergraduate Teaching and Learning in
STEM Fields. 纽约: Wiley Periodicals, 2009. 不. 117 in series New Directions for Teaching
and Learning. DOI: 10.1002/tl.341.
17. The NIC illustrated the potential of amateur and independent inventors by “crowd sourcing”
ideas from the general public to solve pressing war challenges. 经过 1957, scientists and inventors
on the NIC board had reviewed more than 250,000 inventions from amateur and independent
inventors. Many solutions were adopted by the US armed services, including the tropical cell
battery, the signal mirror, and the mine detector by Charles Heddon. Science News-Letter, 四月
6, 1957, p. 218.
18. 例如, data from the Association of University and Technology Transfer Officers (AUTM)
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Julia Novy-Hildesley
indicates that in 2007, $48.8 billion was invested in university research, yielding 3,622 patents and 555 start-up companies. 因此, each patent cost $13 million on average and each start-up
$88 百万, as compared to the NCIIA results of $106,000 和 $92,000, 分别. This huge
discrepancy is somewhat misleading, 然而, as not all research dollars were intended directly
for innovations with commercial application, whereas the NCIIA grants were specifically for
this purpose. 尽管如此, it indicates what could be achieved by an explicit focus on translat-
ing research into commercial application.
19. D. Roessner, J. McCullough, 中号. 乙. Mogee, J. 公园, 中号. Hancock, and A. Tyler, Effectiveness of
NCIIA Grant Programs, Annual Conferences, and Invention to Venture Workshops in Realizing
NCIIA Goals. 华盛顿, 直流: SRI International, 2006.
20. http://web.mit.edu/idi/ and http://www.nciia.org
21. Donald McNeil, “Design that Solves Problems for the World’s Poor.” The New York Times, 可能
29, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/science/29cheap.html
22. Chulha: Healthy indoor cooking. Brochure produced by Philips,
in collaboration with
Philanthropy by Design.
23. Rick Aubry and, Patrick Arippol, “IDEAAS and PSA: Replication in the Amazon Academic Case
Study.” Stanford, CA: Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2007.
24. Immelt and Ambani, “Indian Cure for Global Ills.”
25. Stuart Hart, The Green Leap.
http://coyneclients.com/cornell/global_forum_smpr/Taking_the_Green%20Leap.pdf
26. 达龙·阿塞莫格鲁, “What Makes a Nation Rich? One Economist’s Big Answer.” Esquire, 十二月
2009, PP. 124-126. http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2009/world-poverty-
map-1209
27. Polak, Out of Poverty, Chapter 2.
28. www.KickStart.org
29. http://www.ideorg.org/OurMethod/RuralMarketing.aspx
30. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIDzBQ6meYY
31. David Green, update to the Lemelson Foundation, 一月 2009.
32. 中号. Porter and M. 克莱默, “Creating Shared Value: The role of corporations in reducing malnu-
trition and poverty through rural development. Talk at Creating Shared Value Forum,” New
约克, 四月 28, 2009. http://www.nestle.com/Resource.axd?Id=8D9A063B-3C17-42CC-808E-
86D2BFDCEEA0
33. Burness Communications, Indonesia launches nationwide program to protect newborns
against hepatitis B: New injection device hailed as breakthrough in global effort to improve
immunization in poorest countries, 九月, 2002. http://www.scienceblog.com/communi-
ty/older/2002/G/2002037.html; http://www.path.org/files/RMER_uniject.pdf
34. V. D. Tsu, A. Sutanto, K. Vaidya, 磷. Coffey and A. Widjaya, “Averting maternal death and disabil-
性: Oxytocin in prefilled Uniject™ injection devices for managing third-stage labor in
Indonesia.” International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 卷. 83, 不. 1, 十月 2003,
103–111. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T7M-490H3T8-
4&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId
=1140978274&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_useri
d=10&md5=9548de3958fbce1e485a378d34a58705#aff1
35. http://www.ideaas.org.br/
36. http://www.socialprofitnetwork.org/cs/david.shtml (see full citation on PDF available on the
site)
37. Founding members of ANDE include intermediaries who work directly with small enterprises
and foundations such as Gates, Rockefeller, Lemelson, Shell and Citi.
38. www.eandco.net/
39. www.rootcapital.org/
40. Stuart Hart, The Green Leap.
http://coyneclients.com/cornell/global_forum_smpr/Taking_the_Green%20Leap.pdf Citation
on p. 2 of pdf.
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