Ann Rogan is Founder/ COO of Loop Environmental Solutions, that focuses on serving the energy and water needs of the Bottom Of the Pyramid by distributing a range of high quality, affordable environmental products. Ann joins us at SOCAP/Europe, having received the SOCAP/Europe Scholarship. Read how an intriguing meeting in 2008 showed her the value of listening, and see how she translated this experience in her own business now.

What experience was influential in getting you to this place?

Talking: Conversation with a Housewife

There I was, having a conversation with a young woman (we’ll name her Dipali) in early 2008, in a remote part of the northeastern Indian state of Assam. We had been informally chatting after my team finished interviewing her to become a member of our inaugural class of health franchisees. I asked her why she thought she should be considered for the inaugural class - and, bold woman that she was - she flipped the question back to me: instead asking why she should consider working with us, when this was only our inaugural class.

It was a funny learning for me; I never thought I would have to pitch to an unemployed housewife about the opportunity to get trained, and earn a living delivering health care services.

Dipali was, of course, very correct to pose her question.

I eventually guessed why. She had options in front of her, and ultimately she would have to pitch these options to her family. Where I come from, the challenge of taking a risk on a new idea sometimes represents a professional growth opportunity. But where she came from, a new unproved business idea seemed more like a pre-corporate hobby - at worst, a distraction from the household and the family.

Listening: Give Us Options! (And then the pitch)

My time in Assam influenced me in two very big, but distinct ways. Until we figured out how to differentiate our offering from that of subsidized government services, Dipali and her community were not interested in paying for health care.

We have incorporated that learning into our own business now. Customers tell us they want to power their homes; we, in turn, make certain that we connect them (directly or indirectly) to a range of vetted solar energy products. It’s much easier for a customer to say “no” to something when they see only one product, and it doesn’t exactly match their need.

These experiences have forced me to ask the question: what is the landscape of a social market, where low-income markets are very remote, harder to reach, customers are not well-informed, and returns are split between social impact and financial returns?

The answer I’ve come to is that there is a fair bit of ambiguity in serving such markets. As curators of social businesses, we need to demand focused buy-in from stakeholders at every level.

The second learning was that patient aggregation mattered in health care. We eventually did stumble across a solution for health care delivery. Our women-owned franchises offered a village screening point where she could diagnose basic cases and refer health complaints to others - whether to a local chemist, a nearby doctor or the far-away hospital. She was the one-stop village shop and it mobilized the community.

In retrospect, my pitch in 2008 seemed weighted more in favor of our program and our needs - less in favor of the beneficiary / customer. As Dipali’s response made clear, our pitch preceded our service offering. Three years later, we’re now out to get the best range of product options in front of communities, not just individual customers - letting them tell us what they want.