Social Entrepreneurship - Ruby Cup - Case Study Example

Ruby Cup TABLE OF CONTENTS: 2 Introduction 3 The Purpose 5 Their Motivation 6 Characteristics 9 Conclusion 11 Abstract: Ruby Cup is an initiative started by Maxie and her friends, with a focus on improving the menstrual hygiene, and thereby raising the quality of lives for women and girls. They particularly wanted to improve the personal as well as the societal conditions for the women. In that direction, they addressed their product with new business methods that provided not only hygienic solution to their menstrual needs but also health education, awareness and financial opportunities for the women. They focused mainly on the poor and developing nations, where sanitary solutions of women are unaffordable and unattainable. They first started their mission to foster menstrual hygiene along with the women empowerment in the poverty-stricken slums of Kenya. In addition, through the product, they wanted to decrease the school drop-outs of girls, due to cultural taboos and menstruation issues. In spite of their barriers in fund raising and acceptance of their product, they kept their business strongly motivated towards attaining their goal. They rely on providing a sustainable solution taking into consideration financial, social as well as environmental aspects. Their innovative approach towards solving the social problem by educating women and facilitating them to generate income has gained greater recognition among the global business. And the result of which, Ruby Cup is the winner of The Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition in 2012 and also Venture Cup in 2012. Introduction: When I was a junior at Amherst Central High School in 2002, one of my best friends was an exchange student from Osterby, Germany named Maxie Matthiessen. Along with two other girls from her business college in Copenhagen, she developed her own menstrual hygiene product. It was six years ago when Maxi and her team were curious about their vision of changing the world for a better tomorrow. By challenging the existing methods of business and development, they started to hunt ways to develop an initiative, focused towards societal issues. When Maxie and her friends got introduced to the menstrual cup, they found it beneficial, cost-saving and a hygienic solution to the menstrual needs. Furthermore, they got to know about the societal problems faced by the girls and women in the developing countries. The unaffordability of these women in getting the sanitary pads and the resultant struggle in the society, made Maxie and her friends to contemplate about launching this product in an widespread manner in those countries.. Soon in March 2011, they started gathering the needed information about Kenya, its political, economic and importantly social conditions, in order to set up the production of their menstrual product there. Now, Maxie is co-founder and managing director of a social business called Ruby Cup, running in Nairobi. Since women in the Western countries did not have major problems in maintaining their menstrual hygiene, Maxie and her team decided to make this product available to the women in the poor as well as the developing countries. They want to distribute this menstrual cup to girls and women in those Third World countries who struggle because of their menstrual cycle every month. The menstrual hygiene of women in these parts are very poor due to lack of health education and awareness. As feminine sanitary products are either unattainable or unaffordable, these women are forced to use dangerous unsanitary products such as sheets, rags, mud, and bark. They even found that some women were using dirty pieces of mattress. In addition, girls were also forced to stay in their homes, away from their work and school, mainly due to their unaffordability and lack of sanitary solution during their menstrual period. The Ruby Cup is an ideal solution to them from feasible, health as well as economic angle, as it is washable and re-useable for up to 10 years, making it even a long-term solution for the women. In addition, this is not a disposable one; so it helps in maintaining a healthier environment with less wastage disposals. Also, the non-disposable as well as re-usable nature of this product makes it cost effective when compared with the tampons and sanitary pads, which are disposed immediately after use. Thus, the Ruby cup provides these women with an affordable, sanitary, and environmentally friendly way for managing their menstrual hygiene each month. This would help them to lead their usual life, even during the menstrual days, without hindering their work and school education. “They are offering a cup that is reusable and affordable to a community of women who lose out on economic and social opportunities due to existing, sub-par menstrual products or no products at all.” (“$34,000 for best’, 2012). Because of the menstrual taboo in the society as well as lack of proper health education, many women were silently suffering from various health problems. Today, Maxie and her team are in Nairobi teaching women on how to educate other women in their communities about the proper use the cup, and about reproductive health in general. When they started their mission of health education to girls, they found that most women in these developing countries do not even have a basic understanding of their own reproductive system. Girls and women would ask them questions like “Why do I bleed every month?” and “Where does the blood come from?” as they were not provided with such awareness or education about it either at home or school. When introduced to the menstrual cup, one more concern often raised is "how can I urinate when wearing the cup?”. So it was essential for the team to provide with useful learning sources for the women and girls to get a clearer knowledge about these issues. Thus, the Ruby Cup organization has developed educational materials which it distributes to educate the women about their own bodies and menstrual hygiene. “They developed educational material with drawings showing the woman’s reproductive organ from the inside, explaining where the baby comes from and why you bleed, and that this is not connected to the urine system.” (“Our Adventure”). This probably created a good awareness to the economically as well as educationally backward societies, where health education and menstrual hygiene are insufficiently acknowledged. The Purpose The ultimate mission of the Ruby Cup team is “to create and foster a business model, which will provide a sustainable solution to the problems of menstrual hygiene, while facilitating empowerment and growth for women entrepreneurs at the ’base of the pyramid’(BoP).” (“Makit Ltd”, 2012). In many of the Third World countries, women are normally suppressed in various spheres of human activity, and are maximally restricted within their homes. In addition to this “general” suppression, because of the cultural and religious taboos about menstruation in those countries, girls and women are further oppressed in the society resulting in sizable school drop-outs, lack of self-esteem among them, infringement of their rights and privacy. These kinds of issues are caused mainly due to “the gender–unfriendly school culture and infrastructure, the lack of adequate menstrual protection alternatives or clean, safe and private sanitation facilities for female teachers and girls,” (Ten, 2007). Due to these issues, menstrual hygiene is being viewed as a key issue which needs to be focused, in order to promote healthier individuals and environment. The Ruby Cup team headed by Maxie is exactly doing this as they through their product are improving the menstrual hygiene within the communities, and thereby raising the quality of life of women and girls. Another major focus for the organization is to distribute Ruby Cups to school girls in poor and developing countries, so they do not have to miss a week of school once a month because of their menstrual cycles. As per the UNICEF report of 2005, the societal and cultural taboos about menstruation have restricted the girls from attending schools, either permanently or temporarily, which had eventually led to increased number of school drop-outs. “In some cultures, many girls are kept at home when they start menstruating, either permanently (drop–out) or temporarily.” (Ten, 2005). Apart from providing health and hygiene awareness as well as benefits, Ruby Cup also facilitates women entrepreneurship and wholesome societal development for the women. Using their unique distribution model, they provide income for the women entrepreneurs who sell the products in their community. These members educate their peers in managing their cycle about menstrual hygiene and thereby help them in improving the quality of their lives. When the women are able to manage their menstrual cycle and importantly improve their quality of life, they are not stigmatized a lot and thus their self-esteem also does not suffer. “Education about menstrual hygiene leads to less stigmatization, increased self-esteem and empowerment of girls and women.”(“Ruby Cup”, 2012). On the whole, the main purpose of this product, as spelled out by Maxie is women and school going girls should be given access to the right sanitary products, so that they would not be held back from their profession, education and even social life because of their menstrual needs. “We believe that no woman or girl should be held back because of her period. That’s why we have created a company where women can support women.” (“Ruby Cup HUB”, 2012). Their Motivation Maxie and her partners are all intelligent and caring women who want to make a difference in the world. Their aim and motivation was to launch a business that will bring about innovative solutions to the societal problems, along with business profits. They believed that this would ensure better sustainability for their business and at the same time would also help grow and expand their business into new markets. Maxie was first introduced to a menstrual cup by her sister, years before she even had the idea to start the organization. She has been strong endorser of such products ever since. Using her own experience, she started her business plan of producing and selling menstrual cups. Though it was an expensive product, as it was not necessary for the user to dispose it like the tampons or other sanitary pads, it is a cost-effective solution in the long-term.. She also liked the fact that it was environmentally friendly and saved money by not forcing the struggling women to buy other feminine products for a long time. It also frees your body from the chemicals and perfumes that are found in some tampons and pads. All these facts only positively impacted Maxie and her friends to start their business based on the menstrual cups, which successfully evolved into the Ruby Cup. Their idea of forming a social business company got outputted first in the Kenyan society. As Maxie and her friends learned how girls in the poor and developing countries including Kenya struggled with issues relating to menstrual hygiene particularly the use of sanitary products, they immediately thought that a menstrual cup was an excellent solution for those women. As discussed earlier, the women in Kenya like other Third World countries did not have major awareness about the menstrual hygiene, and so they had to face various problems including stigmatization, low self-esteem, detrimental health issues, etc., affecting their personal, professional, education and also social lives. All these issues strengthened their belief that the product has to be first introduced in Third World countries like Kenya. Also, before they introduced these menstrual cups into the Kenyan market, there were no such products available for the low income people there or in other Third World countries. In addition, Kenyan people were open towards accepting and understanding such innovative products. This motivated them to start marketing their business product, initially in the slums of Kenya. They also had to face various challenges on their way, even negatively affecting their motivation. Raising the funds was their biggest challenge. The Innovation Against Poverty (IAP), which focused on supporting small organizations who had innovative ideas for their welfare of the society, aided them. Ruby Cup won the support for their business from IAP with an initial grant of €20,000 in July 2011, which helped them majorly to expand their business in a larger scale, improving the lives of millions of women, in an environmentally friendly manner. Including this they started creating jobs for the local sales members motivating them to generate an income as well. Gaining a positive response from the users and vendors, they expanded marketing their products in the local market. However, due to high expensive price level, the operating market could not afford it. Later in 2011, they applied and receive their large grant of €128,000 from IAP, which gave them a chance to focus on the right distribution and marketing for their product. (“Ruby Cup”, 2013). They started educating and communicating with the local community members about their product, eradicating their myths and increasing their market for the product. Gaining the trust and acceptance for their products among the developing nations, where there is little or no awareness of health and hygiene, was their biggest obstruction. So they took it as a challenge and started working with new strategies towards marketing and promotion of their products. “To gain greater acceptance, Ruby Cup is working with a wide range of marketing strategies, such as working through media, approaching positive advocates, product give-away, competitions, education material, door to door sales and women’s groups.” (“Ruby Cup”, 2012). They have estimated to reach a target of 20,000 women in the forthcoming year through their direct and bulk sales and thereby to sell a half million Ruby Cups in the next five years. Characteristics Maxie and her co-founders of the Ruby Cup organization are social entrepreneurs through and through. These girls had a driving passion to make this company work, and it is striving. They took an innovative and practical stance to solve a social problem for women. They strive to educate women and increase their quality of life. They first visited Africa to get insight on how to start and run the organization in March of 2011, and were up and running by June of the same year. After that, the company has gained a good acceptance for its products among the slums as well as a great recognition for its social mission in the global business arena. They developed this company with social impact being their number one priority, not profit. Indeed, they achieved a positive social impact from their users, as the products are getting accepted among the people in the recent times. Unlike the other commercial menstrual cup brands, Ruby Cup targets mostly on the developing countries’ low income areas, where it is essential to create awareness for hygiene and benefit the women. Education is the key to success for the Ruby Cup. For overcoming the acceptability and understanding issues for the product, they concentrated on peer to peer education on the marketing ground. Various market studies were conducted for knowing the current market acceptability and impacts among the society, which showed positive effects on the people’s awareness level. “However, an acceptability study of menstrual cups in Kenya by the African Population and Health Research Center showed that a positive spill-over effect of using a menstrual cup was that users increased their general hygiene level and understanding.” (“Ruby Cup”, 2012). Their potential growth has contributed to increased health awareness among women in slums, generated incomes for them, and educated them about menstrual hygiene. The unique characteristics of this product are that it impacts various aspects of the society economically and environmentally included with health related concerns for the people. As it is reusable for up to 10 years, the product is an affordable one time investment for the people. Also the medical grade silicon material has no side-effects as in case of other sanitary products, which include harmful chemicals, absorbency gels, additives or perfumes. The safe and convenient usage along with the non-disposable nature of the product makes it environment friendly with no disposables wastage. Perhaps the most important characteristic of the organization is its sustainability. Menstrual cups are indeed a preferred solution for the worldwide women, and they give this opportunity to the Kenyan women in the rural slums for choosing this sustainable solution to manage their periods. In places of water scarcity, this product would sustain well as it requires little water to clean. With just a one Ruby Cup, a girl can afford for up to 10 years without worrying about the menstrual needs every month. The high quality medical grade silicon keeps it re-usable giving a cost-saving, safe and environment-friendly solution. Also the income generated for the female entrepreneurs through selling and distributing the products makes them financially sustainable. As a business enterprise, they market their product online in the western market and use this revenue to subsidize the cost for the girls and women in poverty. “By selling Ruby Cup online to women worldwide, we do not only address social and environmental needs, but also strive to create a financially sustainable business that will allow us to expand and reach more women and girls.” (“Menstrual Cups”, 2012). The concern relies on sustainability of their product socially, financially, as well as environmentally, by valuing integrity and trust from the business relations. Conclusion: With innovative products and new business models, Ruby Cup serves to be one of the leading social businesses, which is focused mainly on the societal issue of menstrual hygiene of poor women. Their sustainable solution to the menstrual needs of the women and girls in the poverty-stricken society helps them in providing health education and awareness. Also, their focus towards empowering women of the low-income community has greatly contributed to the success of this organization. It could be evident from the shift positive changes of the Kenyan society towards the menstrual hygiene and women empowerment that this Ruby Cup creates a favorable influence towards the societal problems of the women and girls in particular, which is desired to continue for the future years with the same motivation and growth. Works Cited “Makit Ltd.” Ruby Cup, 2012. Web. 14 Mar 2013. Ten, Varina Tjon A.” Menstrual Hygiene: A Neglected Condition for the Achievement of Several Millennium Development Goals.” Impressum Europe External Policy Advisors, 2007. Web. 14 Mar 2013. < http://www.ruby-cup.com/img/user/file/Menstrual%20Hygiene%20Millennium%20Development%20Goals.pdf> “Ruby Cup,” Change Makers, 15 Mar 2012. Web. 14 Mar 2013. “$34,000 for best social entrepreneur ideas of 2012.” Washington.edu, UW Foster School of Business, 2 Mar. 2012. Web. 14 Mar 2013. < http://depts.washington.edu/foster/34000-for-best-social-entrepreneur-ideas-of-2012/> “Ruby Cup HUB Copenhagen.” 26 Oct 2012. Web. 14 Mar 2013. “Ruby Cup, The Number-One Choice.” Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, 28 Oct 2012. Web. 14 Mar 2013. < http://www.sida.se/English/Countries-and-regions/Africa/Kenya/Programmes-and-projects1/Ruby-Cup-a-number-one-choice/> “Menstrual Cups to all Women Worldwide.” Ruby Cup, 2012. Web. 14 Mar 2013. Read More