Facilitating Women Prosperity with Higher Purpose at Vyomini

Abstract

The theory of conscious capitalism is based on the idea that when business is done consciously, it promotes humanity intrinsically. This philosophy is rooted in the four tenets of higher purpose, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership and conscious culture and management as given by Mackey and Sisodia (2013). All social entrepreneurs are motivated by a higher purpose to provide sustainable solutions to neglected problems with the help of positive externalities (Santos, 2012). They have the capacity to envision, share and execute the deep-seated higher purpose (Mourkogiannis, 2006). Such a higher purpose with a social angle has been depicted in the case of Vyomini. The case is about a social entrepreneur Prachi Kaushik, the founder of Vyomini. She works for menstrual health and hygiene of unprivileged and rural women in India. Prachi’s constant endeavour was to create an ecosystem for the economic and social upliftment of these women through financial inclusion and livelihood training. She understood the problem, empathized with the women and provided a simple, economical manufacturing technique using locally available, biodegradable raw materials to provide an inclusive solution. This case describes her journey in creating an innovative business model by the adoption of design thinking and implementation of higher purpose in the business. Dilemma: For ensuring menstrual health and hygiene among less privileged rural women should the sanitary napkins of big brands be distributed at a subsidized cost or design and develop a special product suitable for this segment of the market? Theory: Entrepreneurial inclusive business model Type of the case: Experience-based applied single case study Protagonist: The owner of the firm Options Distribute existing brands at a subsidized cost. Develop a new product that is biodegradable, free of carcinogenic compounds and cost-effective. Get it manufactured by subcontractors. The design also a cost-effective manufacturing process and empower women of less privileged background to manufacture and sell. Discussions and Case Questions How can the sources of supply and manufacturing be made robust so that they can be scaled up? Should the product be offered to different segments of the market with differential pricing? In order to expand reach, which channels should be added for a taboo product like sanitary napkins?

Rural Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of Current and Emerging Issues from the Sustainable Livelihood Framework

“…As such, rural entrepreneurship plays a critical role in alleviating extreme poverty (Sutter et al 2019) and reducing inequalities in rural areas where institutions are weak (Díaz et al 2019;Bawa et al 2007). Furthermore, it helps create an inclusive and sustainable future, especially in emerging economies (Mishra 2021;Mishra et al 2020). In short, rural entrepreneurship has the potential for rural entrepreneurs/enterprises to create value for the community and create more resilient localities (Pato and Teixeira 2016).…”

A Case Study on the Entrepreneurial Process of Push and Pull Women Entrepreneurs

“…The next is the sheer grit, determination and a feeling of higher purpose exhibited by both of them. This grit has been found to be a success factor in various instances (Cao, 2020; Mishra et al, 2020; Vardhan & Mahato, 2019). According to Bandura (1997) and Mueller et al (2017), grit is linked to positive outcomes.…”

“…The boutique entrepreneur, being pull or necessity-driven, succeeded in the backdrop of her ‘counter-productive’ husband as presented by Välimäki et al (2009) and Mishra et al (2020). Her survival was derived from various antecedents.…”

“…Her survival was derived from various antecedents. Some of them include acute poverty, the unique personality possessed by the individual, the skills acquired by her, the successful networking she established, her marketing capabilities, the customer satisfaction and loyalty she was able to gain, her education and so on (Mishra et al, 2020; Vardhan & Mahato, 2019). Added to this is the ‘motherhood’ factor as proposed by Brush et al (2009).…”

“…It is commonly accepted that grit is the perseverance and passion towards attaining aspirations (Duckworth & Gross, 2014; Mueller et al, 2017; Schulte-Holthaus, 2019). For both the cases discussed, it can be seen that all the components of grit, including passion, consistency, perseverance and the pursuit of long-term goals, are involved (Mishra et al, 2020; Vardhan & Mahato, 2019).…”