SELCO India is a Bangalore-based social enterprise which makes solar lighting technology accessible to the economically impoverished people of India. SELCO was founded in 1995 by H. Harish Hande. Since his graduate student days, Harish steadfastly believed in the potential of solar energy for improving productivity of rural homes. This case describes the evolution of SELCO as an organization and the various challenges that SELCO and Harish had to confront before they could construct a viable business model of supplying the poor with solar light. Two critical success factors of the business model of SELCO have been its ability to customize its products to arrange finance for its customers and to address particular needs of the poor.
To date, solar light has been sold by SELCO to 120,000 rural homes and several other associations, such as practices, seminaries, and schools in the Indian state of Karnataka. Employing about 170 individuals, these households are serviced by SELCO from 25 service centers. Although SELCO has been able to build a sustainable business model that realizes Harish's vision of bringing a low-cost energy solution to the economically impoverished, its challenge today is to create greater impact by scaling its business and creating an organization that keeps up its success beyond the tenure of its founding members.
SELCO Harnessing Sunlight to Create Livelihood case study solution
PUBLICATION DATE: October 01, 2010 PRODUCT #: IMB321-PDF-ENG
This is just an excerpt. This case is about GLOBAL BUSINESS
Related Case Solutions & Analyses:
Procter & Gamble in Eastern Europe (B)
IBM and Siemens: Revitalizing the Rolm Division (C)
Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group Utility 3
ACTC Customer Service Department
Montecito State College
Chaparral Steel: Rapid Product and Process Development
Labor Movement Between the Wars
Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale (A)
Saudi Arabia -SAGIA
Solving the Problems of New Product Forecasting
