Abstract

In 2008, a team of students from Harvard, MIT, and Wellesley College in the US and Qinghai Normal University in China worked together as One Earth Designs (“OED”) to create technologies to help off-grid communities in western China. These communities often have no access to readily available energy sources, nor clean air and safe water. The initial success of OED’s first product in China — SolSource, a solar concentrator for clean cooking —encouraged the organization to build a global business to bring efficient and affordable solar energy to the world. OED has a unique business model for a social business: while many businesses with social goals cooperate with charitable foundations at arm’s length and through partnerships, few have set up a non-profit and for-profit integrated group structure with technology licensing business relationships between the two distinct arms. Scot Frank and Catlin Powers, the co-founders of OED wondered how they could scale their business model and keep their vision.

Learning Objectives

Through the case, students will be able to:

1) learn the concept of social entrepreneurship;

2) observe how community value at the grassroots can be unlocked;

3) understand the differences between creation, innovation, social innovation, and invention;

4) understand the challenges of scaling up a business internationally and in diverse markets; and

5) understand the risks and opportunities presented by an innovative business model for business with social goals.