Model
Business

Habitat for Humanity uses volunteers often teamed from their corporate office to build housing for those without decent shelter. The buy back plans for the housing insists that the new owners will participate in the building as well as pay fairly for their new home. more

reCAPTCHA is currently digitizing the archives of The New York Times. By using unknowing volunteers, fraud is prevented online, and small cognitive spurts are used to digitize texts indecipherable by automated software. more

Cargill worked with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition to fortify their edible oil products with vitamins needed in poor regions. more

Pepsi took their advertising money and instead spent it on attracting a community of people who want to improve their neighbourhood. This increases Pepsi's reach as well as benefits customers. more

Leading supermarkets are looking at how to design their operations for disassembly. Tesco Property Services is transforming their old business model for store construction into a new, sustainable model to deliver 100% recyclable stores and eliminate all construction waste to landfill. more

Walmart has one of the largest private trucking fleets in the world, and its running on diesel. They're looking for new sources of fuel and making their trucks more efficient while running through truck design and operations. This boils down to a savings for Walmart amplified by the magnitude of their fleet. more

Zappos makes buying shoes online and act of ease through multiple customer service innovations. They simply try to exceed expectations at every touchpoint. A strong culture makes the tele-operations more attractive for customers and cuts delivery and storage costs for the producer. more

Aravind eye-care is out to be the McDonalds for those with failing sight. Though they have a very social mission, cutting costs is key to their success and they do this through breaking the eye-care process down to a level which does not require medical expertise. For the surgical stage, they use tele-experts to conduct operations. more

Micro lending has become a burgeoning trend that is likely here to stay. But lending is just one of many financial services that is inaccessible to the bottom of the pyramid. Micro insurance has the potential to provide security to small scale business owners who are subject to harsh environmental or societal conditions while also give institutions a place to grow their financial services. more

Emerging markets, including Africa, provide a high return and work as a way to diversify investment, with increasing transparency and governance, these places could do better from investment than from aid. more

Threadless is an online apparel store which uses the community to design their apparel lines. The submissions are voted on and the winners are produced. This both tests future demand and cuts production costs by outsourcing the design to a willing community of volunteers. more

GrameenPhone provides phones as a service (see block below) by having phone ladies in villages with access to a cellphone. The ladies get a commission for providing the phone service, and GrameenPhone reaches new customers. more

Carsharing companies provide a car to those who need it on an hourly basis. This encourages the providers to maintain the cars and maximizes the use of the goods. Moving from products to services is a profitable and ecologically sound trend. more

Betterplace saw that a major barrier to electric vehicle adoption was the speed at which the battery could charge. Much like carsharing, betterplace has designed a system to rent out car batteries at gas-station-like kiosks. more

Novartis has opened a great deal of their research to the commons to see if others can follow leads and discover new information. They keep some IP private and open other research up in order to foster new developments which will ultimately benefit Novartis and the whole industry. more

Developing or adapting a product to the developing world affords a rethink which often can inform products in other markets. Also, with some aid assistance the production or research can partially be funded by development agencies or impact investors. more

International firms attract the best talent through more than money. Increasingly professionals are looking for work which provides autonomy, growth, and working on purposeful projects. Good work attracts good people. more

Google and others in silicon valley attract the top brains of the industry not just through the perks, but through laying out a clear vision of how the company will impact the world in a positive way. The mission to organize the worlds information and the caveat to do no evil are key to attracting and motivating talent, but also helps them to know where they can help: in engineering for impact. more

SolarEar trains their customers as master electricians in addition to providing them with hearing. Not all students make it through, but this is their mandate, that hearing is the first step toward education. To add to that, education is often the first step before purchase. more

Product development is only a first step to sustainability. Tide developed a cold water detergent, but consumers were not convinced enough so they continued to opt for warm water. A new technology must go hand-in-hand with education to incite behaviour change. more

Many governments provide feed in tariffs for renewable energy. This can be used to jumpstart energy projects in Developing and Developed countries. more

Foundations and Non-profits are looking to investment as a viable way to have impact. Foundations are sustained through investment portfolio's which are separate from their mission. There exists and opportunity to blend investment and mission through impact investing. more

Treating customers with respect while also helping them gain access to credit can build trust with customers who will grow in the future. Casas Bahia is an example of a company that understands quality deliver for the bottom of the pyramid. more

Danone has partnered with Grameen to bring a high nutrition yogourt to Bangladesh. The project has been zero-profit for Danone, but many leaps in innovation have been reaches to do this on a small scale with a low price-point. The project has also increased the brand trust within that part of the world, allowing access to neighbouring markets. more

Ryanair was at the head of the trend to cut costs in the passenger air industry in Europe. They did this through charging a very low base price, and building added value services such as better seating or priority waiting. They also charge for things which were traditionally covered such as in-flight catering. This cheap price-point allowed them to gain access to lower-income segments who traditional used ferry or bus. more

The XO laptop was a concept out of MIT media lab but became a reality a number of years ago. The idea was that if children had access to a computer, education would improve. The approach was to cut down all of the costs and make a durable product. more

Aravind charges customers who can pay and others who cannot are given free treatment. This works because the paying customers value the charity given by Aravind. As well, since the Aravind process is so efficient, serving more customers puts less of a drain on the system. more

Groupon is a classic economic example of the benefits of price discrimination. When customers get together they can get a cheaper price. Bulk buying is enabled through online mechanisms and ensured through prepayment. more

Cemex prepares customers for their cement services. When a house is such a crucial purchase, customers must be sure they can pay off the financing. more

The Centre for Social Innovation is a community hub that has constructed a mortgage-backed investment which seeks to provide a fair and steady return to investors. By backing this investment through support from the city and breaking the contributions up, a near risk free return is able to be established while also benefiting the community of Toronto. more

From Jigar Shah: "The thing that people have had a hard time understanding about solar is that it’s part of the energy business. While new energy technologies come up all the time, technology is not the driver of the energy industry. The driver is the business model: how you get it financed and how you apply traditional risk-management methods to solar and wind and biomass. That to me is the key to solving global warming." more

Starbucks signed on to the fair trade label because consumer demanded an ethical coffee. This ethical brand assures more money goes to the farmer, and is one way both producers and distributors can benefit. more

Product (red) was introduced to both raise awareness around AIDS and fund research. Companies from apple, to Dell, to Nike, to windows have paired with this brand, both helping the cause and their reputation. more