Great Innovations or Good Intentions?

This week’s blog will be geared towards social innovations that are occurring in some developing countries abroad. The readings for this week’s class focused on specific organizations around the world that are looking to help the citizens of a particular country, or have already done so. From the reading, my key takeaway was that in every pocket of the world there are people devoting their lives to helping those less fortunate than themselves. Giving to someone who is less fortunate is something I believe every human should do at some point. But when I stop to think about the amount of time some of these endeavors take, it forces me to rethink my position.

When you come from a lower class family, or even lower middle class family, and you are suddenly put in a position to migrate to the next level it is hard to turn down. Should someone who is capable of helping the greater good put their family before everyone else, or society first? Some of the social innovations introduced in these articles are innovations that I would not consider time demanding. By time demanding, I mean over a decade to bring to the market. But when you look at something like the Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Research and the self-adjusting glasses, the time it takes for the product to be brought to market is much longer. These innovators are the people that are truly making the world for everyone – not just the rich or privileged – a better place, but their return on investment is not coming from a place of certainty. This is especially the case the SCD research center. They are looking to fight a problem that has been around for decades, and even if they are able to find a cure or a way to decrease the number of children born each year with the disease, the people they are targeting are not very wealthy.

If you juxtapose something such the SCD research center against social innovations such as the Voto, the Gravity Light, or the Window Socket, there seems to be a major difference. The latter products are tangible objects that have a potential to make a profit if cost to manufacture can be reduced, or the object is placed in the right market. With the SCD research, they are targeting a very specific market with no end goal in sight. Even the innovations that target water purification have a higher chance of adding value to the creator. I think all of the innovations are taking daunting task that add value to globe, but I do think some are more commendable than others, based purely on the difficulty of the goal and the time spent to bring any findings to market. In all, I think highly of those who set out to with the aspirations to become social innovators.

I believe that all great innovations take time. More importantly I believe that giving to others is part of what makes us human. I say this because the amount of time is not the primary reason for me rethinking my position. The primary reason is the time that it takes away from what you are able to provide for your loved ones. Those born into privilege homes and give back are great humanitarians - but those born into poverty and forgo the opportunity to ascend socioeconomic levels to help the greater good are truly selfless. I added this portion because after reading these articles, I wanted to get a better sense of the people leading these social initiatives. I want to do a job that I love... It is not about the money, but the money does matter. I commend those that choose this path where success of successful implementation is low and reaping tangible rewards for their hard work is even lower.