Let Go to Let In
In the 80’s, while working on the British Aid Programme in Zambia, healthcare entrepreneur Simon Berry observed something that baffled him.
In remote rural areas of Africa, children were dying every day because of diarrhoea, an easily treatable condition. All that was needed was Oral Rehydration Salts and Zinc (ORSZ). But these were failing to reach far-flung areas.
What was finding its way to these remote villages instead, was a bottle of Coca Cola!
Simon came up with a remarkable idea.
Why not use Coca Cola’s massive distribution network to bring the ORSZ sachets to places that needed them the most?
He and his wife designed an anti-diarrhoea kit that could fit in the space between the Coca Cola bottles in a crate. Now wherever the crates went; the kits could go along.
Absolute genius!
Simon and his team gained tremendous international recognition and won various awards for this innovation. His unique insight into using an established distribution network seemed to be the answer to solving the problem of last mile access for OTC life-saving medications.
Now, this is a wonderful story in itself!
It demonstrates astute awareness and broadens our thinking around innovation as the ability to reimagine and reapply what already exists to create change.
But it doesn’t end here.
After the newly designed kits were launched, any guesses how many were actually transported in the Coca Cola crates? Almost ZERO.
This seemed unbelievable. But the market was telling something different, and Simon listened carefully. After all, a genius idea transforms into a brilliant solution only if it solves the problem at hand.
On the ground feedback revealed that the issue was not as much in fixing the supply chain as it was in generating demand. It wasn’t Coca Cola’s distribution network that had to be tapped but the techniques they used to enable deep product penetration.
Instead of doing last mile themselves, Coca Cola’s strategy was to create a desirable product, market it heavily to spur demand in villages and price it at a point where the local distributors and retailers were incentivized to meet the demand.
And so, Simon pivoted from a “push strategy” focused on enabling supply to a “pull strategy” focused on creating local demand at the right price point which motivated the existing distribution network to source, stock and sell the kits.
And that is how the anti-diarrhoea kits reached thousands of children.
What Simon did was brave. He let go of the idea that brought him international accolades to let in a new idea that actually solved the problem of last mile access for life saving drugs.
Often, we get sticky about our ideas and find it difficult to alter our course. We resist change. But what we must realize is that only when we let go, do we make space for new ideas.
So keep an open mind and don’t be your own bottleneck.
“Let go to let in”
Simon Berry is the founder of Cola Life, an award-winning social organization that works to bring lifesaving, over-the-counter medicines to low-income communities. He is an Ashoka Fellow and an international speaker on access to medicines in developing countries, design, and open innovation.
