Business with a Purpose
December 22nd, 2009, Posted in Uncategorized by wang weiliang
Me at Shokay
The long awaited visit to Shokay finally arrived today, 17 December 2009. I was among the 21 aspiring entrepreneurs from NUS iLEAD program to visit the retail outlet in Shanghai located at Tian Zi Fang, a alley rich in history and culture.
Chinese name of Tian Zi Fang engraved on the pathway
iLeaders in the alleys of Tian Zi Fang
Upon stepping into the shop, we were welcomed by a cosy interior design filled with beautiful clothes, apparels and soft toys made of yarn. The iLead group was split into two groups. Half to listen and interact with the co-founder of the company, Carol, and the other half to go for a tour of Tian Zi Fang.
iLeaders touring Tian Zi Fang
The tour around Tian Zi Fang was absolutely insightful and interesting. I learn that it was an area where refugees of opium war lived in Shanghai when the French was occupying that area. The refugees had to squeeze in the small little houses where they did practically everything in a house no larger than an average master bed room size. Due to its rich history and unique outlay of buildings, the government decided to transform it into an entertainment site and tourist attraction.
After about 20 minutes of the tour, we made our way to meet Carol, CEO and co-founder of Shokay. Based on her introduction, we learn that she graduated from the Kennedy School of Public Policy and she has a dream to bring transformation to the lives of people in China.
Hence, in 2005 she opened Shokay with a liked minded classmate, Marie, to help address the social and economic challenges in Tibet. A few useful and interesting pointers were brought back in that visit.
I was a little surprise that social enterprise is something very new in China and it has only been gaining in momentum the past 3 years. In particular, the Sichuan Earthquake gained people’s awareness on the social issues prevalent in China and sparked off many social enterprises setting up in attempt to deal with these issues.
Besides, I realize that the way a business is run for a social enterprise is very different from the normal for-profit business. In a normal business start-up, the founder will identify the target market and pain point as its starting point. However, for a social enterprise, the founder finds the target beneficiary as its starting point and then find ways to produce a product or service that will benefit these needy people indirectly.
Shokay Logo with faces of Tibetans
Carol and Carie decided that their target beneficiary would be the poor Tibetans herdsmen. They did research and discovered that 13 million Yaks are located at the Tibetan Plateau and realized that they could tap on the Yaks’ yarn (hair) to benefit the Tibetans. In elaboration, a fashion enterprise can be set up by using yarn to make knitted clothes and accessories, generating income for these villagers. In addition, the business model is planned to use the profits to invest back on the people’s long term livelihood such as education.
However, a problem faced by Shokay is that it has to balance between profits for the company to expand and helping the needy. As of now Carol says that that the company is very small and it needs to use these profits to expand the company for long term viability and success which will bring sustainable living for these villagers.
Interestingly, in terms of benefits to the Tibetan herdsmen, Carol said that the greatest impact on the Tibetan society was the change in relationship between husband and wife, which is the same positive impact of another social enterprise we visited earlier called Xinggeng. This is because in opposition of the past chauvinistic culture against woman, more respect and credit are given to wives as they have become the breadwinners of the family.
The visit ended after about an hour and take home from Shokay’s visit is indeed awesome and unique. Not only did we take back information of a social enterprise, we also experienced the rich culture and history of a part of Shanghai. That is not forgetting the 1 hour shopping treat at Tian Zi Fang after completing our Shokay visit.
