Scojo Foundation
Team: Nico Clemminck '08 and Sachin Kadakia '07
Areas: micro-franchising, international development, health - success factors assessment
Supervisor: World Resources Initiative
 Scojo Vision Entrepreneurs conducting a screening in a rural village in Andhra Pradesh |
World Resources Institute (WRI), launched in 1982, is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people's lives. WRI partnered with Columbia Business School’s International Development Club (IDC) to engage MBA students to identify innovative private sector approaches to business development that are replicable, scalable and sustainable in emerging markets. IDC and WRI selected Nico Clemminck ’08 and Sachin Kadakia ’07 to travel to India to identify the key elements that make Scojo Foundation (Scojo), a successful micro-franchisor for reading glasses.
Scojo has developed an innovative, market-based solution to address presbyopia, or blurry up-close vision, which currently affects 700 million people worldwide and can be solved with readily available reading glasses. Since 2002, Scojo has launched operations in India, Bangladesh, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Ghana. Scojo India, headquartered in Hyderabad, is the largest and fastest growing operation today, due primarily to strategic investments, strong networks and rapid replication of the business model by local staff.
Successful distribution network
Scojo began operations in India by training and supporting a proprietary distribution network and 20 partner networks. Scojo trains micro-franchisees, or Vision Entrepreneurs (VE’s), to run profitable businesses conducting vision screenings within their communities, selling affordable reading glasses and referring those requiring advanced eye care to reputable clinics. This business model is built on the belief that the “bottom of the pyramid” is better served when involving some payment, so that products are more highly valued, costs are covered and programs are financially self-sustaining.
By creating profit at each stage, Scojo’s model ensures financial incentives exist to sustain the distribution network. Eyeglasses were previously inaccessible or too expensive for many people in rural areas. Scojo's low-priced, high quality products are warmly welcomed in these communities.
Shifting the paradigm and creating multiple benefits
It was originally believed that the cost of developing infrastructure in rural Indian communities is too high to sustain a franchising model for low-cost products. However, Scojo has proven that such a model can be successful, with the following key strategies:
- Focusing on profitability and sustainability from the earliest stages of program development;
- Aggressive growth through partnerships, to quickly achieve economies of scale;
- Building barriers to entry through branding and leveraging first-mover advantage;
- Refining the model through replication across different regions; and
- Delivering social impact—both economic and health benefits.
 Scojo Vision Entrepreneurs advertising an "eye camp" to perform free screenings for an entire village in a day - these camps can yield sales of 20-25 pairs of eyeglasses |
As a result, Scojo has created new income opportunities for over 450 VE’s to date. On average, VE’s allocate 20-30 hours per month to the Scojo program and earn approximately $15-20 per month. As many participants had previously earned $1 per day, the potential to boost their income while also serving the community is an attractive prospect.
The MBA student consulting team had the opportunity to apply its experience in business strategy to scrutinize the micro-franchising model and identify specific leverage points. While in India, they worked with local management team to analyze and improve their partnership strategy, to ensure continued growth of the franchise network. "This project gave me insight into the large, untapped market opportunity that exists," says team member Sachin Kadakia, "and how the concept of 'Bottom of the Pyramid' provides a tangible and significant improvement to the quality of life of people in these communities."
The team’s travel costs were supported by the World Resources Institute and the Social Enterprise Program through its International Development Consulting Project Travel Fund.
