- Each year, about 20 million premature,
low birth weight babies are born around the world.
This is a challenge everywhere,
but especially in developing countries.
Incubators are extremely expensive.
So most hospitals don't have any.
Some hospital may have donated incubators,
but these can be confusing to operate
and difficult to maintain and repair.
The result, a high rate of mortality for these infants.
In 2008, a student team in a Stanford University course
designed for extreme affordability,
came up with a groundbreaking solution that cost only $25
versus the $20,000 price of a traditional incubator.
This incubator, called Embrace, is like a sleeping bag
with an innovative high-tech wax pouch embedded in it.
The wax maintains the baby's body
at exactly the right temperature for four hours.
After that, the pouch can be recharged
by dipping it in boiling water for just a few minutes.
The incubator has no moving parts
and does not need electricity.
It's small, light, portable,
inexpensive to transport and intuitive to use.
The entire sleeping bag can be sanitized in boiling water.
Embrace Innovations is now an award-winning
for-profit social enterprise.
The portable incubator has already helped
more than 200,000 babies in 20 countries.
The company recently launched
a new line of products for the U.S. market
called Little Lotus baby.
Whenever a customer purchased a Little Lotus product,
the company donates a Embrace incubator
to a baby in a developing country.
Embrace incubator is an example
what I call social innovation,
that is an innovative solution
to a social problem that is far superior to,
and more sustainable than current solutions.
By definition, a social innovation must aim
for what's often called the triple bottom line.
It must address a social need,
be environmentally sustainable and financially viable.
With sustained commitment from leading institutions
like Stanford, the Gates Foundation
and the World Economic Forum,
the concept of social innovation has now become mainstream.
This approach is also politically acceptable
across ideological lines.
The solutions come from and are sustained heavily
or entirely by private sector and community-level efforts
rather than government handout.
Khan Academy, a nonprofit education company
launched by Salman Khan in 2006,
is another well-known example of social innovation.
What was Sal Khan's goal?
To provide a free, word-class education to anybody anywhere
on a variety of subjects,
including maths, sciences and humanities.
The organization produces short lectures
in the form of YouTube videos.
The website also includes supplementary practice exercises
and tools for educators.
All the resources are available
to users of the website at no cost.
For specialized content,
Khan Academy partners with organizations like NASA,
the Museum of Modern Art,
the California Academy of Sciences, and MIT.
On the financial front,
the organizations backers include a who is who list
of the world's leading institutions,
including the Gates Foundation, Google and Tata Trusts.
So what are the core principles of social innovation?
First, think of an important social need
that's currently ignored, unmet, or inadequately met.
Second, design a novel solution.
Like Embrace incubator or Khan academy,
you almost always need to look at technology
as the basis for truly groundbreaking solution.
Next, be extremely user centric.
Will the product be intuitive to use?
Will it be used as it should be?
Fourth, pay attention to whether or not
the novel solution can be sustained and scaled?
The graveyard of social innovations
is paved with good intent and novel ideas
that remained one-off novelties.
Finally, whether you set it up
as a for-profit or nonprofit organization,
never ignore the economic viability of the venture.
Otherwise, your innovation will touch only a few people
and only temporarily.