{"id":3956,"date":"2022-01-14T10:03:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T10:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iese.edu\/standout\/?p=3956"},"modified":"2024-04-22T06:15:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T06:15:38","slug":"gopala-krishnan-india-social-entrepreneur-success-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iese.edu\/standout\/gopala-krishnan-india-social-entrepreneur-success-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Gopala Krishnan, Indian social entrepreneur, aims to improve the health of his nation. Success stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The pandemic has forced many people to take stock of their lives. But for Gopala Krishnan<\/strong> \u2013 or G.K. as everybody calls him \u2013 it was a different personal health scare many years ago that made him stop and change direction<\/strong>.<\/blockquote><\/span><\/div>[vc_column_text css_animation=”bottom-to-top”]Running a mobile media company in China and India, he suddenly decided in 2008 to \u201cquit the corporate club. I started getting conscious about my health, exercising, and checking food labels.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he saw on those labels startled him and led him down a very different path. Today, he is a social entrepreneur with bold ambitions: to transform the health of millions of women and children in India.<\/p>\n

It seems a Herculean task in a country where two-thirds of the population live on less than $2 a day and where COVID-19 has pushed an estimated 75 million more people into poverty, reversing the progress of recent years. Yet G.K. believes he may have cracked the code on a model that works for delivering large-scale impact.<\/p>\n

In knead of change<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It all started with a humble loaf of bread. In researching what all the chemicals were on the label, G.K. discovered one was potassium bromate, a bleaching agent that had been banned in the U.K. and E.U. for years. \u201cI saw a food toxicity problem for millions of people every day. I wasn\u2019t an activist, I had no power to change the law, but I definitely understand corporations and I knew how to get them to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armed with his research, G.K. met with the leading local manufacturer. \u201cThey were all very nice, they said they would do something, and then nothing happened. They assumed I would just go away, but I didn\u2019t. I kept following up. Every week for six months. Then I escalated it to the U.K. headquarters of the food manufacturer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, the multinational banned the ingredient from its Indian loaves. That was G.K.\u2019s first light-bulb moment: \u201cI realized that if you could leverage companies or organizations that had very large distribution networks for a social intervention,<\/strong> then you could actually create impact at significant scale, without having a lot of resources yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The business model takes shape<\/strong><\/h3>\n

That lesson was in the back of his mind when he had a conversation with his health worker cousin, Janani, who mentioned how low vaccination rates were the cause of many sick and disabled children in India. The vaccines were free and vaccine awareness was high, yet \u2013 in a question many are asking today \u2013 why did so many people skip their jabs?<\/p>\n

It came down to people simply forgetting their appointments. Once again, G.K. had research, this time showing that vaccination reminders significantly improved compliance.<\/p>\n

Given his business background in mobile communications, using tech to send a vaccination reminder via SMS or email wasn\u2019t the problem. What he needed was a large distribution network.<\/strong> \u201cAfter all, why develop a solution for just one or two hospitals when you could create a national program?\u201d<\/p>\n

With the help of a leading neonatologist, Dr. R. Pejaver, they got the Indian Academy of Pediatrics on board, which lent the effort nonpartisan credibility<\/strong> \u2013 another important piece of the business model.<\/p>\n

Finally, he secured Vodafone as a corporate sponsor, appealing to their \u201cmobile for good\u201d CSR program. Creating win-win financial sustainability<\/strong> like this completed the picture: \u201cIf Vodafone writes a check, I want them to realize they\u2019re getting much more value back in terms of reputation and stakeholder engagement.\u201d[\/vc_column_text]

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