Reading the article and several blogs in Toms website about the how Toms Shoes and other enterprises involve in the controversial One for One Business Model, I am convinced that the model itself is a commendable course served as a channel to connect companies and consumers with the various people and society in need.
As a Chinese old saying goes, “give a man a fish and he ends for a day, teach a man how to fish and you feeds him for life”. Adrien Edwards, The Naked Hippie’s founder and CEO, notes that this kind of model can be differentiated in three ways:“1.0 businesses” — for which Toms is cited as a prime example — treats symptoms; 2.0 businesses — for which Warby Parker is the prime example — treat causes; and 3.0 business like The Naked Hippie, restore health.
Personally, Toms Shoes’s initiative is good but ends up not that good primarily because they just give away “things” that not what exactly people desire the most in poverty due to the fact that a pair of shoes can just last for couple years if keep wearing it and actually cause intended consequences that cultivate dependency and leading local footwear manufacturers damage their shares of the market. On the contrary, Toms Shows is the prime pioneer who shows the world how can a single shoe company make a little different in the world in a social-enterprise way.
There are criticism about how Toms as a shoe company market and operate its One-for-One Business Model in a wrong direction but for those people who really need a pair of new shoes to live their lives, a pairs of shoes couldn’t seem more pragmatic. From my experience, there are still a lots of people a hard condition though we have Imelda Marcos known for a collection of over 3,000 pairs of shoes. I went to Sichuan province in China before, I was shocked to see 8-year-old shepherd with no pants and then found out that there is only one big pants in his family and they take turns to wear it when there is occasion. I believe that people in rural areas and countries struggling with poverty and illness are in urgent need of supplies like clean water, safety food, shoes and clothing.
Solving the surface problems is emergency since you can’t teach a baby with diaper how to fishing and the secondary is to dig deeper to find the root causes and try to make transformations.
Actually, Toms are transforming from simply giving to more, such as creating more job opportunities where they give, increasing social enterprises involvement, contributing to an entire community’s access to health, education and well-being, supporting eradication of diseases and launching cause-related products to support and raising money for organizations around the world and most importantly identifying the needs better. Identifying the problems in the society is crucial and not easy, it requires engagement deep into each communities and local environment. Establishing local factories and organizing local workforces to manufacture is a feasible approach to accomplish the goal to help out sustainably.
Admittedly, a flaw about the Toms Giving Shoes Program of One-for-One Business Model is people as recipients have no choice but accept the stuff that given away since the donators have already made the assumption that whoever need these donations must be in disadvantageous conditions. However, “by charging for glasses in a decent price, Warby Parker make a needy beneficiary into a responsible consumer and treats them with greater dignity”, notes Neil Blumenthal, co-CEO and one of four founders of Warby Parker, Warby Parker improved the model to a new height. But, when we retrospect the model as a whole, we still make a lots of unnecessary assumptions that what we give away probably not applicable for everyone.
However, the T-shirt company, Naked Hippie provides us a nearly perfect example of making use of the One-for-One Business Model. Instead of training dependency, corruptions and other negative consequences, Naked Hippie sends 100% of its profits to organizations that make micro-loans in Africa, Asia and South America and only makes a profit if the loans are repaid.
Apart from the business model, another company called Sole Rebels engages in empower local workers in Ethiopia to have jobs in crafting shoes and focus on local development and eco-friendly productions.
The last two examples eliminate the threats confronted by local companies and make transformations rather than ameliorate in a short term. I believe The One-for-One Business Model will prosper since it connects enterprises, consumers and beneficiaries together to propel flourish for both economics and society.
In the end, quoting some impressive words I saw on the website blog “I had to answer the question “What does One for One mean to you?” After this experience more than ever I stand firm in my answer that we ALL have a responsibility to take care, uplift and love one another. I feel a tremendous responsibility to be the change I want to see in this world and make a powerful positive impact in the lives of those I meet along this journey called life.” This could be the essence for all social enterprises.
Sources:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/one-one-business-model-social-impact-avoiding-unintended-consequences/
http://www.solerebels.com/pages/solerebels-101
http://www.toms.ca/beyond-one-for-one
http://www.toms.ca/stories/category/giving
http://www.treehugger.com/style/solerebels-fair-trade-eco-friendly-shoes-with-plenty-of-soul.html
