Vijay Govindarajan, Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Photo: Tuck School of Business
In 2011, Vijay Govindarajan, Professor of International Business at the Tuck
School of Business at Dartmouth, USA, one of the world’s most influential management
thinkers, outlined an idea on his Harvard Business Review blog which has since taken off.
In order to transform the lives of the world’s poorest citizens living in
slums, he wants to help create a 300-dollar house.
According to Govindarajan, the house would “transform the lives of hundreds
of millions of desperately poor citizens. It would turn strangers into neighbors,
slums into neighborhoods. Despite the ultra-low price point, it could include
basic modern services such as running water and electricity. More important, it
would create a community that shared access to computers, cell phones,
televisions, water filters, solar panels, and clean-burning stoves. In doing so,
it would enable the poor to leapfrog the limits of slums. It would make healthy
and safe living possible and a good education achievable.”
Since the launch of the idea, he has created a website,
www.300house.com, and has
enlisted the help of more than 30 advisors, or thought leaders, a mix of
academics and businesses to take the project forward. He and co-author Christian Sarkar are calling upon businesses, students, individuals, institutions,
teachers and governmental agencies to participate in the elaboration of the
project.
Govindarajan imagines the house as a single room structure with drop-down
partitions for privacy. The furniture would consist of sleeping hammocks and
fold-down chairs. The roof would boast an inexpensive solar panel and battery to
light the house and charge the mobile phone and tablet computer. An inexpensive water filter would be built in.
The idea of a low-cost house is an example of reverse innovation, or
innovation occurring in the developing world prior to the industrialized world,
an idea for which Govindarajan has been recognized in the Thinkers 50, the
listing of the world’s top 50 business thinkers.
Further Information:
web: www.300house.com
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
100 Tuck Hall
Hanover, NH 03755 USA
Tel.: +1 603 - 646-8825
web:
www.tuck.dartmouth.edu
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