WHAT IF

Your production didn’t

depend on weather
conditions?
Imagine a world where severe and
harsh weather conditions could not
hinder your product’s availability.
CCAFS is working to develop weather
index-based insurance schemes that
help secure farmers’ livelihoods and
give them the capacity to invest in
climate-smart technologies, thereby
helping to secure the world’s food
supply.
WHAT IF
Your customers could
not read?
14% of the world’s population is still
illiterate, and only 20% speaks English.
Keeping that in mind, Mercedes-Benz
and Thai Health Foundation have
created the ‘Universal Language of
Pain,’ transcending the borders of
language and helping doctors identify
pain and diagnose every known illness
without using verbal language. Each
pain symbol is designed based on
instinctive shapes and forms that are
instantly relatable to everyone.
WHAT IF
Your customers did
not have access to
electricity?
Electricity is just one way to bring
people light, but it’s not the only one.
For example, GravityLight’s innovative
lighting device is bringing clean, safe,
affordable light to families without
electricity. Shell is collaborating with
this unique start-up to help change
lives in Kenya and around the world.
WHAT IF
You could piggyback
on existing networks to
offer something new?
Imagine if you did not need to invest
in infrastructure to supply your new
products. ColaLife is piggybacking
on Coca-Cola’s distribution system
to bring life-saving medicine to the
places, like Zambia, that need it most.
WHAT IF
Your customers had no
bank account?
Imagine if your revenue streams could
not be realized via ordinary bank
accounts. BIMA, an insurance company,
has partnered with Tigo Honduras, the
largest mobile operator in the country,
to supply groundbreaking micro-
insurance products that are tailored to
Tigo subscribers, are mobile-delivered,
and are paid through mobile money.
WHAT IF
Your customers had no
fixed address?
Imagine that you could not use fixed
and known addresses to reach your
customers. For example, MSF had to
deliver aid in Lubumbashi, a city in the
Democratic Republic of Congo that
is home to 1.5 million residents and
where addresses were not available.
The solution was to partner with the
American and British Red Cross, and
the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap
Team, to create the Missing Maps
Project, crowd-sourced mapping that
can be done by anyone with a laptop,
anywhere.
WHAT IF
You could access a
market with no banking
facilities?
Imagine reaching the most remote
areas of the world with no facilities for
financial products by using a mobile
phone. The company myAGRO sells
packages of seeds and fertilizers
using a mobile layaway system that
allows customers to pay little by little
in advance. myAGRO relies heavily
on full-time staff (equipped with
smartphones) to register customers
and mobilize layaway payments
through regular mobile phones.
WHAT IF
You could ship to
where no transport
infrastructure is
provided?
Imagine shipping to a very isolated
area of the world inaccessible by any
land-based mode of transportation.
Zipline operates the world’s only drone
delivery system at national scale to
send urgent medicines, such as blood
and vaccines, to those in need – no
matter where they live.
WHAT IF
Your family lived far
from its main income
holder?
New work opportunities in cities are
increasingly attracting rural youth,
drawing them away from agriculture.
The money they send back to their
smallholder families can help to drive
on-farm investments and cope with
shocks. Armet Microfinance and CGAP
designed new digital remittance
products that allow Cambodian
migrant workers in the city and their
parents on the farm to open linked
savings accounts.
WHAT IF
You could integrate
marginalized groups
into the labor market?
Think of maximizing the number
of employees in your company
by considering… neurodiversity!
Indeed, neurodiversity can be a huge
advantage for companies, yet people
on the spectrum have often been
marginalized. Now, some firms are
specifically seeking them out. One
example is Auticon, an award-winning
IT business that employs IT consultants
with Asperger’s syndrome to check
code.
WHAT IF
Your customers’ lives
were conditioned by
traditional beliefs?
In Nepal, ‘Chhaupadi’ is a hundred-
year-old practice dictating that
menstruating women have to be
isolated in so-called ‘Red Huts’ to
prevent destruction and death to
their family. But during this forced
isolation, it’s not unusual that women
die from snake bites, smoke inhalation,
or fire. In the Dadeldhura district,
local government economic support
is now denied to families who keep
their daughters out of school during
menstruation, and ‘Chhaupadi’ is now
punishable with a 3,000 rupee ($40)
fine.
WHAT IF
Your business aim
was to create jobs and
deliver capabilities?
Saraman is a start-up that produces
affordable, earthquake-proof, pre-
fabricated steel structures for houses,
schools, and hospitals in Iran. Saraman
trains young graduates to later
implement their construction practices.
The company has 12 permanent
employees and more than 60 workers
on construction sites, with other jobs
being created for the lower-income
communities that engage in the
construction projects. While creating
jobs, Saraman delivers capabilities and
grows its business.
WHAT IF
Your goal was to
create a collaborative
ecosystem?
For many of India’s rural poor, selling
milk is essential to their income.
Amul Dairy has organized almost
2.8 million dairy farmers into an
integrated system that brings more
than 10 million liters of milk to market
daily. Amul has transformed the milk
value chain by organizing farmers
and creating an efficient handling and
marketing system. Milk is collected no
more than 10 miles from the farmer
using an automated computerized
collection system that speeds up
weighing, quality testing, and payment
processing.
WHAT IF
Your market had no
access to schools?
In 2007, Opportunity International,
an international NPO micro-finance
institution, launched its Microschools
of Opportunity program. It provides
loans to teachers who open schools in
poor neighborhoods where children,
especially girls, would otherwise
lack education. ‘Microschools’ enroll
about 200 students. By July 2008,
they operated in 50 neighborhoods
and towns in Ghana and 9 locations
in Malawi. ‘Microschools’ are now
expanding their pilot project to Asia
and other countries in Africa.
WHAT IF
Your business supported
the employment of
minorities?
Denmor Garments, Inc. is a Guyana-
based private company with 98% of
its employees being women from
poor rural communities. The company
spends $250,000 annually on training
and provides benefits, such as free
transportation to work. Denmor invites
experts to speak to the women on
issues such as domestic violence and
child support. Paid time away from
work is provided for these sessions.
These high labor standards improve
workforce productivity and make the
company’s products more attractive to
foreign customers.
WHAT IF
Migration was not ‘the’
solution?
Hathay Bunano Proshikhan Samity
produces children’s toys and clothes
by working with around 3,500 poor
local women artisans from rural
villages. Its products are marketed
through wholesale and retail buyers in
the EU, USA, and Australia. Payment,
while made on a product basis, is in
general estimated at Tk 10 per hour
(about $0.14). This is much more
attractive than the Tk 3 that rural-
handicrafts typically earn. Thanks to
this attractive income, women no
longer have to migrate to urban areas
to find work. Moreover, their economic
independence has helped to lower
early marriage rates.
WHAT IF
Your products could
save people’s lives?
Diarrhea remains the second leading
cause of death among children, with
about half of these deaths occurring in
South Asia and Africa. Amanz Abantu
was set up in 1997, and since then,
it has been providing water supply
and sanitation to peri-urban and rural
communities in the Eastern Cape,
through infrastructure that meets
international quality standards. Each
household gets 25L of water for free
from the State. Additionally, individuals
can buy water using pre-paid
smartcards. Amanz Abantu has already
provided access to clean water at low
cost to 2.5 million people.
WHAT IF
You could combat
desertification with your
business?
In 2000, Huatai Paper Company, Ltd.,
launched a new strategy to substitute
wood pulp for straw pulp. Mobilizing
local farmers to plant fast-growing
trees. Farmers get support through
technology, education, and irrigation.
The trees were planted on salinated
land, helping to combat further
desertification and contributing
to carbon-dioxide absorption.
Meanwhile, Huatai has grown its
newsprint business while reducing its
environmental impact and minimizing
the risk from volatile import prices for
pulp.
WHAT IF
Your customer
didn’t have access to
healthcare services?
Refrigerators, lamps, and stoves
enable vital health services, including
vaccinations, and they need fuel to
operate. Rural health centers operated
by the Mozambique Ministry of Health
have relied in the past on dangerous
and inefficient kerosene. In 2002,
Seattle-based VillageReach and its
local partner, Mozambique Foundation
for Community Development (FDC),
established VidaGas to provide rural
health centers with safer propane
services. A pilot was launched and a
micro-lending scheme was developed
to ensure affordability.
WHAT IF
Your ROI depended on
your employees’ health
conditions?
The Health Enables Returns
(HERproject) is a multi-company
initiative run by BSR and supported by
the Levi Strauss Foundation and the
Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency. HERproject raises
awareness of women’s health issues.
In a factory in Karachi, HERproject has
reduced absenteeism by 11%, thanks
to education about menstrual hygiene
and provision of sanitary napkins in the
factory clinic at a subsidized cost.
WHAT IF
You created your
product to avoid a law
built on questionable
ethics?
US skincare brand Ceramiracle has
launched stockless pop-up stores to
avoid China’s mandatory animal testing
laws. Customers can try the products at
the pop-up stores in China, but to buy
them, they need to scan a QR code
that orders the product from a
warehouse in a free trade zone in
China or Singapore.
WHAT IF
Your company was
honest about what they
were selling?
Honest is a company that wants to
support ethical consumerism by
providing safe household products.
They ensure that you don’t have to
choose between what works and
what’s good for you. They support
R&D that focuses on finding new ways
to maximize the use of renewable
resources, like plant-derived
ingredients and recycled materials.
WHAT IF
Your company used a
one-for-one business
model?
TOMS Shoes’ gives one pair of shoes
to kids in developing countries for
each pair of shoes sold. Based on the
success of this one-for-one business
model, other companies began to
follow it.

Warby Parker donates eyeglasses to

people in need, while companies like
Soapbox Soaps and Two Degrees Food
employ the model to help with poor
hygiene and hunger.
WHAT IF
Your company could
employ accessible
resource to perform
humanitarian work?
SAVE volunteering was established
in 2006 in Cape Town, South Africa.
With the assistance of volunteers,
they develop and provide effective
programs to local communities,
pre-schools, and schools to assist
with educational programs, youth
development, sports, and skills
development that will enable young
people to rise above the vicious circle
of poverty.
WHAT IF
Your business could
have a positive
environmental impact?
Interface makes carpeting for
commercial buildings. All of their
products are carbon neutral across
the entire product lifecycle. Thanks to
their efforts, they’ve redesigned the
entire manufacturing process to make
it circular and less wasteful. One of
their products uses discarded fishing
nets and collaborates with fishermen
from poor rural communities. These
fisherman recover the ghost nets
that are polluting their oceans and
indiscriminately killing sea life,
therefore helping conserve and
sustainably use the ocean.
WHAT IF
You did not need energy
to safely store vaccines
and other drugs?
Nova Laboratories Ltd. has developed
innovative vaccine stabilization
technologies inspired by nature.

Some plants, animals, and bacteria are

able to survive in a dehydrated form
for hundreds of years. They do this
using a process called anhydrobiosis.
Mimicking this strategy enables a cost-
effective and simple way of making
vaccines and other pharmaceutical
products stable for long-term storage,
eliminating the need for refrigeration.
WHAT IF
You could locate your
customers in a simpler
way?
What3words is a simple way to talk
about location. They have divided the
world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares
and assigned each one a unique,
3-word address. This means anyone
can accurately find any location and
share it more quickly, easily, and with
less ambiguity than using any other
system. The service can be used via
their free mobile app or online map.
It can also be built into any other app,
platform, or website with just a few
lines of code. UK Emergency Services
rolls out what3words in control rooms
to save resources, time, and lives.
WHAT IF
You needed to be
rescued during
a humanitarian
catastrophe?
UN-ASIGN Crowd is a free application
used by the humanitarian community
to facilitate the collection of photos,
assessments, and geo-located text
messaging in the field. It is specifically
designed to work over low bandwidth
connections, reducing bandwidth
consumption by close to 90%. Photos
appear in real time as long as the
volunteer has a GSM or Internet
connection; otherwise, they are stored
and uploaded when connectivity is
restored.
WHAT IF
You could leverage
refugee talent to partner
with them?
Under the Global Compact on
Refugees, refugees are now active
participants in the economies and
communities where they reside.
Pearson’s Every Child Learning
partnership with Save the Children
aims to improve the learning outcomes
and wellbeing of refugee and local
Jordanian children using gamification.
As part of the partnership, Pearson
has collaborated with refugee and
Jordanian children to design Space
Hero (Batl Al Fada’a), a fun and
engaging learning app to strengthen
the math skills of children aged 9-12.
WHAT IF
Your business did not
need international aid
but… a local market?
Many current aid strategies risk
undermining, rather than supporting,
local markets’ capacity to support
refugees. Instead of traditional
humanitarian aid models that give
away supplies and services such as
food and materials, Mercy Corps is
trying to build up local market systems
to meet these needs. For example, it
is using cash-based assistance and
matching local businesses’ needs with
refugee skills so that earned income
channels back into local markets.