top221’s Blog

Prompt:

Lesotho is a small developing country contained within South Africa. You and your team of academic researchers (10 in all) are spending the next two weeks travelling to different communities throughout Lesotho to test water sources for disease-causing pathogens. The testing you need to do is simple but requires significant assistance from the community – showing your team all the different locations where individuals get their water from, and places/methods for storing the water. You do not see the need to pay the community members, considering if someone asked you about your water source, you would not mind driving them up to the lake! The ultimate goal of the project is to understand the lifecycle and characteristics of a specific pathogen, which is found only in this region of Lesotho. Several publications are expected from this research study. A comprehensive profile of this pathogen can help in many ways including development of chemical additives to make the water safe to drink. Is it ethical to conduct this research study? What will you do next? 

Step 1: Determine the facts in the situation – obtain all of the unbiased facts possible. Clearly state the ethical issue. 

• The research team (10 people, including you) is going to Lesotho for two weeks to conduct research on the pathogen in their water source
• The goal of the research is to investigate the lifecycle and chemical/biological features of disease-causing pathogen
• There are no stated benefits to the locals in their research proposal
• The results from this research could be used to develop chemical additives to make the water safe to drink.
• The researchers will release publications on their findings of the pathogen
• The researchers will need the help of the local people to locate where the people obtain and store their water.
• Assume we have all necessary approvals needed for research
• Ethical issue: As of right now, the locals are not benefitting from the research in any way, and the academic researchers have no intentions to pay the community members.

Step 2 & 3: Define the Stakeholders and assess their motivations 

• Academic researchers:
  • Test the water in Lesotho for disease-causing pathogens
  • Understand the lifecycle and characteristics of the pathogen
  • Write several publications from the research study → further your professional career
  • Possibly develop chemical additives to make the water safe to drink
  • Patent discover to possibly profit from findings 
  • Driven by social impact or fame in helping the local community
• Locals 
  • Provide location of water sources 
  • By providing access to the water sources, they contribute to the development of chemical additives in hopes of getting access to them for safe consumption of water

• Your research university/institution:
  • The findings could add to their reputation, making them highly regarded
  • Strengthen new/existing partnership with other funding agencies
  • Open rooms for future collaborations within the area/country (e.g., new ventures)
  • Create opportunities for students to gain experience on social impact projects (and make impact) 
• Sponsors of the research:
  • Want to gain the benefit of discovering a new pathogen
  • Gain the opportunity to develop chemical additives against any harmful chemicals that are found in the water
  • Can potentially earn monetary benefit from the chemical additives that will be developed
  • Gain a better reputation and have their name attached in the breakthrough of helping treat water issues in another country
  • Publicity that will aid in gaining funding for other projects or investigations
• Local government: 
  • Make sure the research team does not cause any harm (mentally or physically) to its own citizens (for example, poison the water sources, etc)
  • Validates whether or not the water source in the area is safe to drink for the community
  • Ensure that the citizens have accessibility to the research
  • Ensure the area have some sort of benefit to the chemical additives that is developed if pathogens are found in the water
  • Building/expanding relationships with other funding agencies/countries 

Step 4: Formulate (at least three) alternative solutions 

1. Potential Solution: Get a map to find the water source (Use sources like Google Earth which 3-D renders Earth)

1. 1. Pros:
      1. Not have to rely on locals for help/take time out of their day
      2. Less of an obligation to pay back locals in some way
   2. Cons:
      1. Maps may not be updated
      2. Local knowledge can be really useful, and we wouldn’t have that in this scenario
      3. Not using locals can create distrust with the researchers – conflicts can complicate things
      4. Do not have access or knowledge to places that the town is storing water (the storage area could be a potential location where the pathogen is entering the water source)
   3. Ethical Principle: 
      1. Concern for others: we would be doing the work on our own, reducing disturbance among the locals, keeping them in mind

1. Ask the government to assign some local leaders and supervisors to assist the research team to find the locations of the disease-causing pathogenic water 
   1. Pros:
      1. Local leaders might also help facilitate the communication between the researchers and the locals 
      2. Local government permission makes the research less intrusive 
      3. Researchers will obtain guides or a map of the locations of the water source and storage location
   2. Cons:
      1. Might be more work to set up beforehand
      2. Might cost a lot of money to train locals to properly extract the water sample (assuming locals do not have the education to do so)
      3. Local government may not welcome the research team to conduct investigation on their water
   3. Ethical Principle: 
      1. Respect for others: we would be communicating with local leaders to get their insight and expertise on the community, respecting them and their culture

1. Offer the local government access to the research and a promise to provide/implement water purification system to clean their water if harmful pathogens are discovered (could be through an organization such as Engineers Without Borders)
   1. Pros:
      1. Locals benefit from having clean water 
      2. Locals will have access to the researcher’s findings
      3. A relationship between the institution and the local government can be created
      4. School receives prestige through findings and project
   2. Cons: 
      1. Cost a lot more money to implement -promise to clean water
   3. Ethical Principle: 
      1. Promise Keeping & Trustworthiness: we will keep our promise to the community and earn their trust through them having access to all our research and us aiding them in implementing a water purification system

1. Share the information/results to the Lesotho government; make the publications accessible to the research community (who focus on researching disease-causing pathogen)
   1. Pros:
      1. Advance the knowledge frontier of disease-causing pathogen that can benefit the community (e.g., development of chemical additives that make water safer to drink).
   2. Cons:
      1. There might be competing interests among the researchers about the use of insight gained from this study (e.g., profits, reputation, service)
   3. Ethical Principle: 
      1. Transparency: We are giving the country of Lesotho access to all of our findings in exchange for conducting research in their country. This way they would see all that we did and not question any of our intentions. This can also add to trust worthiness.

1. Creating clean drinking water for Lesotho, which can increase tourism 
   1. Pro
      1. Tourism can bring more profit for the government, which could be a good motivator for why they should allow us to do research for them in order to create a potential solution for their contaminated water
      2. The locals will be able to drink clean water and not get sick as well as experience their country become wealthier through tourism
      3. Potentially create more jobs for locals as a result of the success of the tourism
   2. Con
      1. Not many foreigners might know that Lesotho is a tourist worthy-destination, so the government might not be able to afford the promotions to advertise their country as a tourist destination and they could have a low tourist turn-out.
      2. Might not be able to create a solution that is affordable or available to clean all the drinking water sources in Lesotho, so the deal would not be able to be met and the government/locals might not receive any benefits
   3. Ethical Principle:
      1. Care-based thinking: Create/maintain a relationship between the researchers and government/locals of Lesotho by being granted to find solutions to the contaminated water problem and in return, the clean water as a result of our solution can bring better health to the community and possible tourism for its beautiful scenery.

1. Reach out to healthcare workers in Lesotho and convince them to help educate the locals about the methodologies to have a safer way to drink/clean water/persuade locals to support researchers in their study. 
   1. Pros
      1. Healthcare workers would be able to understand the benefit of the research to the community and help the researchers in gaining access to the water sources
      2. Educate the community on methodologies in obtaining clean drinking water and improve their health
      3. Trusted by the local community
   2. Cons
      1. Not that easy to reach out and find the right people to trust or understand your research 
      2. Healthcare workers may be too busy or limited in number to help
      3. Healthcare workers may not know where the water sources are located
   3. Ethical Principle: Researchers would help educate the locals on methodologies in obtaining safe drinking water in exchange they would get aid in their research

Step 5: Seek additional assistance, as appropriate – engineering codes of ethics, previous cases, peers, reliance on personal experience, inner reflection 

• Peers: listening to other classmates talk about their thoughts and ideas, helped with creation of some of our ideas and overall collaboration 
• Treat a local for lunch to find out their thoughts and determine which approach would be the most appropriate solution

Step 6: Select the best course of action – that which satisfies the highest core ethical values. Explain reasoning and justify. Discuss your stance vis-a-vis other approaches discussed in the class. 

• Seemingly the best course of action is solution number 6. This solution would be the best because by getting health care workers to convince the locals, it already creates a deeper level of trust than having outsiders come into their land and begin testing their water. Even more so, leveraging the connections with the healthcare workers can allow for connections to the local government, this helps build even more trust because we now have community leaders advocating for the research to be conducted. Also by educating the health care workers on the importance of this research, the local community can now benefit from publishing the finding. This solution is more so mediating and facilitating the locals into pursuing this research for their own benefit with the guidance and support of the research team and local government. This solution also doesn’t allow the academic researchers to be the sole beneficiary, rather it allows the local community and government to benefit as well. 

Step 7: (If applicable) What are the implications of your solution on the venture. Explain the impact of your proposed solution on the venture’s technology, economic, social and environmental aspects.

 

• Economic:

 

• • The economic implications would be possibly using these findings to pursue the development of chemical additives to create safer drinking water. The money generated would be going to further research and to the Lesotho community. The academic researchers are serving as mediators so they would also be getting some portion of the money generated from potentially finding a solution to the disease causing pathogens. Also, the money generated can be used to enhance the medical sector of the community.

 

• Social:

 

• • The community will have more trust with the local government and healthcare workers. 

 

• Environmental:

 

• • If a chemical additive is created to allow for safer drinking water, there would be potentially an increase in wildlife if we assume the disease causing pathogens are affecting the wildlife as well.

 

Prompt:

• While trying to develop a low-cost syringe for the developing world context, you (the designer) hit a crossroads. Constructing the syringe to auto-disable after a single use, an important safety feature, significantly adds to the cost of the design – making it potentially unaffordable for some hospitals and clinics. However, if you don’t add the safety feature, you are enabling the potential for the spread of disease. How do you as a designer proceed? 

Ethical Issue:

• The designer is stuck between creating an affordable and accessible syringe that can be administered to LMIC’s while trying to keep the cost of the syringe low.
• The issue that arises is whether the designer will choose the side of either manufacturing a syringe that auto-disables and is more expensive or will he potentially allow the spread of disease, keeping the normal syringe currently in use. Keeping the current syringe allows for the spread of the disease which can affect medical personnel, which is detrimental to the medical system in a LMIC.
• The facts that we are presented with are as follows:
  • We (the designer) are working for the developing world
  • Constructing a auto-disable syringe will significantly add to the cost of the design, which can make it potentially unaffordable for some hospital and clinics
  • Single use syringes without the auto-disable function can enable the potential spread of the disease.
• Based on the facts the designer must decide whether to limit the availability and accessibility of the auto-disable syringe because of the economic barriers that arises for LMIC’s or whether to potentially spread the disease through the current syringe being used.

Stakeholders:

• Designer (Me)
• Medical Personnel / Healthcare workers
• Patients
• Hospital / Clinics 
• Company 

Motivations of Stakeholders: 

• Designer (Me)
  • Develop an affordable and safer syringe with a auto-disable function
  • Find a middle ground where the syringe can be administered safely without risking spreading disease while producing a product that is affordable for LMIC’s.
• Medical Personnel / Healthcare workers
  • Administer a syringe without risking spreading disease to other patients, people, and themselves.
• Patients
  • Get a safe syringe administered that is affordable 
• Hospital / Clinics 
  • Foster a healthcare environment where the risk of spreading the disease is low and patients can be treated in an affordable way.
  • Potentially subsidize patient treatment costs 
  • Care for both the healthcare workers and patients by allowing the use of a affordable and safer syringe 
• Company 
  • Fund the development of a auto-disable syringe 
  • Be a leading company in the development of safe syringes for the developing world 

Potential Solutions:

• Manufacture limited amount of auto-disable syringes for high risk situations
  • Pros
    • All patients would get some variant of the syringe. The higher risk patient would get more protection by being administered a auto-disable syringe while the lower risk patient would be administered the normal syringe. This can possibly be more affordable for hospitals and clinics. Since all patients get some variant of the treatment, it encourages more people to get treated, not fearing disease transmission. 
  •  Cons
    • Potentially spreading the disease by selectively choosing who gets the auto-disable syringes. This can produce some level of distrust with the hospital/clinic and patients. If we choose to charge everyone one base price, the price of the normal syringe would be higher and thus can limit the affordability and access of the treatment. Determination of the risk per patient might be too difficult to assess and can lead to administering the limited number of auto-disable syringes wrongly. 
• Use cheaper materials to make the syringes themselves in order to have money to add the auto-disable function
  • Pros
    • Larger access to safer to use syringes
  • Cons
    • Potentially lowers the quality of the syringe so defects might be more frequent. Research and development costs.
• Find alternative way of administering the treatment other than a syringe
  • Pros
    • Can be more easily administered without creating potential risks. Wide spread treatments because there are no limiting factors aside from potential economic barriers. 
  • Cons
    • Costs of research and development. It might not be possible to administer treatment differently. 
• Base supply of auto-disable syringes off of training of personnel. The less training means they would administer the auto-disable syringe, more training they would use the normal syringe. 
  • Pros
    • Everyone can have access to a variant of the syringe.
  • Cons
    • Medical training might be all around low so it would require more auto-disable syringes than normal syringes, thus the economic barriers would still be present. 
• Invest in better medical training and disposability
  • Pros
    • By ensuring high quality medical training, the likelihood of transmission based on administering the treatment would be low (transmission through other means can still be present). Education and training can be taught to new medical personnel from experienced ones so they can now ensure safely administering the treatment. Education and proper practices will continue to be present in the medical system of this country through generational education being passed down. 
  • Cons
    • Can cost a lot of money for high quality medical training. 
• Leverage economies of scale to reduce the price of production for auto-disable syringes
  • Pros
    • The mass production of auto-disable syringes would call for lower prices and thus more people can afford them. This leads to better access and affordability while simultaneously limiting transmission of the disease by using the auto-disable syringes. 
  • Cons
    • It would take too long for the company producing the syringes to grow large enough that they can produce them at a low enough price, comparable to the normal syringe. Might not be able to achieve that is low enough to make a difference (price reduction is too marginal).

Best Course of Action:

• Based on the potential solutions I have proposed, I believe the fifth solution would be the best course of action. By investing in proper medical training and practices it creates a generational chain where new medical staff can have access to the education and training needed to do their job safely. Education and training will be a long term solution, fixing a foundational issue rather than providing a bandage solution. This solution overpowers the need to produce a new product that is safer and instead it uses the same product in a safer way. Although this solution does have economic barriers, it provides developing countries with a platform to grow on by investing in education and training more. The rewards involved would be the country now having a better medical system that enables patients to be treated confidently and safely. The ethical issue of limiting the treatment due to economic reasons of not affording it are no longer an issue because patients can trust that the medical staff administering the treatment are greatly qualified and know how to handle high risk situations. Among the solutions brought up in class, the method of finding an alternative way of administering the test instead of using a syringe was probably the most popular. The downside to this is that it can very much be possible that after investing so much time and money there is no other effective way to administer the treatment besides intravenously. 

Impact of Solution:

• The economic impact of the solution would be rather small. It would allow for the continued development of the normal syringes so there wouldn’t be an increase in patient treatments costs. However, there would be an increase in costs for the hospitals or medical clinics to provide better medical training to administer the treatment more safely to mitigate the risk of spreading the disease. In terms of the technological impact, there would be no difference. However, the social impact of this decision to educate and provide better medical training and practices would be long-term educational growth in the medical industry of this country. The country can now have education passed down through training to help the medical system of the country be better fit to deal with high risk situations. 

 

 1.Refine the detailed income statement for your venture for two years (at six month intervals) or a more appropriate time scale. Explicitly state the assumptions that underlie your financial model.

	July 2022-Dec	Jan 2023-June	July 2023-Dec	Jan 2024-June
Revenue:
Revenue from Schools	5,000$	12,000$	20,000$	28,000$
Revenue from Advertisements	0$	1,000$	2000	3500
Small Business Partnerships	0$	200$	300	500
Revenue from Grants	2,500$	2,500$	2,500$	2,500$
Team Investment	500$	0$	0	0
Total Revenue:	8,000$	15,700$	24,800$	34,500$
Overhead Costs:
Person A: School Relationship Manager*	3,000$	$7,200	$12,000	16800
Person B: Sponsorships/Biz Dev	2,500$	5,000$	5000	5000
App Upgrades ($100/upgrade)	600$	300$	300	200
Traveling Costs	3,000$	3,000$	3,000$	3,000$
Marketing	1,000$	700$	500	500
Total Costs:	10,100$	$16,200	$20,800	25500
Net Profit:	-$2,100	-$500	$4,000	$9,000

 

2.Refine the Business Model for your venture based on your revenue model. You may use the Osterwalder BMC to refine your business model but prepare one or more visuals that explain how your venture will work and accomplish your BHAG.

3. Develop an M&E plan for your venture.

Clearly list all assumptions.

Identify short-term and long-term success metrics.

Identify specific methods to measure the metrics.

 

Assumptions: 

• App is successfully developed and accepted by schools
• Cooperation between our venture and teachers.
• Students respond to incentives and are willing to cooperate
• Availability of recyclable material
• Schools find benefits behind supporting our venture 
  • In terms of offering help to manage logistics in the area

Short Term Success Metrics:	Methods to measure metrics
# of Schools w/ app integrated	N/A
# of students that have downloaded the app	-Usage data
# of students actively using the app every month	-Usage data -# of students who have completed each cycle of levels
Participation of small businesses	# of available incentives
Long Term Success Metrics:
Liters of material available for recycling	-General estimate based on consumption of goods in Almaty. This will be done through analysis of behavior and based on current recycle rates.
Liters of material recycled	-Collect data from app based on pictures of recycled material. This way we can have a close estimate of the amount of recycled material -Categorized system
Percentage of people recycling	-Collect data from app based on pictures of recycled material. Number of people that are new to recycling and are now recycling.
Growth/Proficiency in education on sustainability	-Have a pre-test to measure knowledge on importance of sustainable and compare with later tests in the app -# of quizzes completed -Scores on quizzes
Household water consumption	-Collect data (through government?) on how much water was being consumed on average before and after our app implementation in households with those students
Household energy consumption	-Collect data (through government?) on how much energy was being consumed on average before and after our app implementation in households with those students
Increase in biking	-Collect app data based on people riding bikes as sustainable actions -Compare previous data with new projections

 

1. Develop a detailed income statement for your venture for two years (at six month intervals). Explicitly state the assumptions that underlie your financial model:

	July 2022-Dec	Jan 2023-June	July 2023-Dec	Jan 2024-June
Revenue:
Revenue from Schools	5,000$	7,000$	10,000$	15,000$
Revenue from Advertisements	0$	1,000$	2000	3500
Small Business Partnerships	0$	200$	300	500
Revenue from Grants	2,500$	2,500$	2,500$	2,500$
Team Investment	500$	0$	0	0
Total Revenue:	8,000$	10,700$	14,800$	21,500$
Overhead Costs:
Person A: School Relationship Manager	0$	$7,500	$5,000	5000
Person B: Sponsorships/Biz Dev	2,500$	5,000$	5000	5000
App Upgrades ($100/upgrade)	600$	300$	300	200
Traveling Costs	3,000$	3,000$	3,000$	3,000$
Marketing	1,000$	700$	500	500
Total Costs:	7,100$	$16,500	$13,800	13700
Net Profit:	$900	-$5,800	$1,000	$7,800

In the first 6 months after our app launch, we won’t be making much money from advertisements and partnerships, but as we expand the app use to more schools, our revenue will increase significantly. We won’t need a school manager, we will need to upgrade the app more often, and we will need to spend more on marketing to help build our brand. Travelling costs remain the same throughout.

In the second period after our app launch, our revenue from schools will increase, given our expansion to at least 2 more schools. We will have a built brand name, thus our income from advertisements and partnerships will increase. In terms of cost, we will begin hiring individuals (2) to help us with maintaining the business in terms of business development and general management. We won’t need to spend as much on marketing because our brand name will grow with the number of schools we have in our arsenal.

These trends will continue in the third and fourth periods.

1. Identify two SPECIFIC funding sources for the design phase of your project and two SPECIFIC funding sources for the dissemination (implementation / distribution / commercialization) phase of your project. For each funding source, explain why this is a good fit for your project, and what SPECIFIC aspect of your project might the funding source support.
   1. Design phase:
      1. GreenFund Grant through Lehigh awarded to facilitate green projects. Our project’s end goal is to make Almaty a greener city. We could use the $2,000 to create a wireframe of our app and even create our first version. The money could be used to hire a team to code the app if we need.
      2. Experiential Learning in Health (GELH) Grant through Lehigh. Up to $4,000 for projects/research focused on health, but has a wide definition of it. Our goal is to improve the health of citizens of Almaty by decreasing pollution and making the city more sustainable. We could use the funding to again help develop our app, but also to do more research on the roots of the pollution if/when we do fieldwork in Almaty, to help our app be more impactful with the sustainable actions we choose to incorporate.
   2. Dissemination phase:
      1. Development in Venture grant from USAID under the Environment and Global Climate Change category. This is a good fit because the goal of our app is to make Almaty a more environmentally sustainable city and teach the citizens there how they can help the environment. The money from this source might be able to help us research better ways to combat pollution in Almaty specifically, help us implement more recycling institutions, and possibly help us find ways to quantify our progress in Almaty.
      2. If the app takes well in Almaty schools, and teachers see a value in using our app to teach sustainability, the schools themselves could possibly be a source of funding for us. If schools pay for the use of our app as a teaching tool in their curriculum, that could help fund us to sustain the app (to make sure it functions well and make updates) and make improvements and expand the app. 
2. Identify five specific partnerships that you need to forge to advance your project forward with the ultimate goal of positively impacting at least one million people. Describe exactly how that partnership might help you achieve scale and why that entity might be willing to work with you.
   1. Schools in Kazakhstan. This is possibly our most important partnership. In partnering with them our app will be used by their students to receive incentives on acts of sustainability they perform. When schools embed our app into their curriculum it will establish a much more interactive approach to teaching and exciting students about recycling and sustainability, leading to a greater impact on the greater picture of Almaty and Kazakhstan.
   2.  Students in Kazakhstan. Students are our ultimate target audience. With the students using our app on a daily basis to complete acts of sustainability, our venture will grow and a brand name will be established inside households. We will also have ambassadors among the students whom we will have as a medium between us and the school(s) to discuss feedback, usage, and logistical matters to do with the app.
   3. Teachers in Kazakhstan. Teachers will have a major role as they will be the ones giving the students their incentives for the sustainable acts. Teachers will also have to have a good understanding of how the app works to provide help for students when asked. The teachers will also provide key insights on the performance and perception of the app.
   4. WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), World Resources Institute (emphasizes sustainable cities), The Nature Conservatory (again emphasizes healthy cities and preserving land and species). In partnering with these three environmental NGOs, we will make our app and our venture more credible. If we can get these NGOs to support us even just enough to allow us to use their logos in our app, we will be able to reach a lot more people. Kazakh schools may be more inclined to take our app and use it as a teaching tool in their schools. In addition, if these NGOs “tweet” about our app, or advertise about us in any way, that will also expand our outreach.
   5. Partner with local stores in Almaty. If we partner with them, we can ask them to provide a real voucher or prize to their store when the students achieve a certain goal in the app. In doing so, people will be more motivated to do more in the app, and they will also be more connected with their local community. We also may be able to educate the stores also and convince them to be more environmentally sustainable as well. 

 

Ten practical lessons from the business (revenue) models of ventures we reviewed today (or others you research) as they relate to your venture.

1. There can be two levels to models. Barefoot doesn’t directly make a profit, they get the money to train people through grants and contracts. But once they train people, those people bring it back to their communities and are able to sell and make a sustainable profit there. In other words: value creating is self-sustaining.
2. It can take a long time to see revenue or to see your business finally get off the ground, Barefoot took 40 years.
3. Reel Gardening donates their product when a customer buys from them. That is a way that they are making revenue, but also maintaining their social enterprise aspect.
4. Greystone partnered with Ben & Jerry’s, which not only boosted their credibility and “popularity,” but also increased their revenue.
5. Practically all these enterprises gain their revenue through various aspects, not confined to one item/product. Barefoot, for example, have campuses that sustain themselves, campuses that bring profit, donations, and other minor sources of income.
6. In all of these social enterprises, while revenue is a major aspect, I feel like they focus more on their social impact than just getting the most money.
7. It is important to be flexible and change your business as the market changes to keep revenue flowing.
8. Appeal to emotion plays a significant role in attracting customers. Greystone are not innovating in their product (they’re just brownies), but their hiring policy plays a big role in attracting consumers that view discrimination against inmates as a problem.
9. Envirofit focused on producing a product that is very simple to use and distribute, leading a wider range of potential customers. This can be applied to our venture (smart cities) by ensuring that our app is easy to use among the children in schools.
10. Scale at the right pace to maximize impact. Envirofit invested in education programs before they launched their product and that led to the demand for clean stoves rising, thus before launch, they knew it was a success.

Business Model

1.Value Proposition:

We are trying to combat the extreme levels of pollution by minimizing waste and promoting recycling. This would be considered a need for the citizens. We are trying to improve their quality of life.

2.Customer Segments:

Start with students and school teachers. They will use the app because it is entertaining, educational, and has actual rewards.

3.Channels:

• App MarketPlace
• Social Media Marketing
• Internet 
• Education market

4.Customer Relationships: We start by connecting with teachers who will integrate the app into the class in some form. They are the direct connection to our target customers: children. We get the customers from the teacher-student connection and keep customers through a semester long curriculum integration. We grow customers by first expanding to more schools, and then hopefully to adults. The app will promote user communities as well.

5. Revenue Streams:

• Character development (micro-transactions) 
• Advertisements 
• Sponsorship
• Potential usage fees

6.Key Resources: 

• Physical: capital (money)
• Intellectual: licensing for the app, technology to create apps
• Human: people who know how to code our envisioned app, teachers to accept the app in Almaty, individuals on the main team to implement the application effectively

7.Key Partners and Suppliers:

• 1. Team at KazNU 
  2. School teachers
  3. Kazakh Government/Municipalities (potentially) 
  4. App Development Team (software engineers, graphic designers, advertising, etc.)
  5. Local stores/companies that would provide vouchers, incentives, etc.

Strategic alliances between non-competitors

8. Activities:

1. 1. We are producing a mobile application so we are not required to have a production line or supply chain. Our solution would be considered problem solving. We are aiming to solve the issue of recycling through the development of an app.
   2. Maintaining the application
   3. Possibly gathering data

9. Costs:

1. 1. 1. Development costs to maintain and update app (variable cost)
      2. Costs to conduct market research (fixed cost)
      3. Costs to have developers code the app (fixed cost)
      4. Costs of advertising (fixed cost)–will help our economies of scope 

Takeaways:

1. Want to develop a method and process that is the same and can be used around the world (make the solution simple and reproducible). His inspiration from McDonald’s is interesting because you see how they’ve managed to sell the exact same thing everywhere.
2. Need to evaluate business to make sure you are accomplishing the goal (reaching the people, and amount desired) and various points in the business growth process.
3. Need to develop ways to optimize processes (speed, low cost, and high quality).
4. Still treating some people for free, those who cannot pay, because people are the most important part. Those who could pay were only paying market cost. Making eye care affordable was their goal. In the second year because there were many more operations, they began to make a profit, and were able to bring down the cost even more.
5. Productivity, focus on quality, patient centered care, efficiency, cost control, and achieving scale can solve the difficult conditions of; large population, cuts across all economic strata, equity issues, and cost-effective interventions.
6. Creating compassion and having people own the solution is important.
7. Sometimes we can overlook how much people around the world are in need of basic amenities, and these are the shortages in the world that should be approached.
8. Investing in the younger generations as they will be the carriers of the experience and knowledge. In this case, they were the backbone of the logistics involved.
9. Impact on competitors can be very significant and should be accounted for. In this case, the venture caused certain hospitals to double their output.
10. Growth in spirit and empathy heals yourself of exploitation and bias and allows the implementation of successful need-oriented solutions.

1. List five compelling take-aways from the Art of the Start.
2. • It is important to have a mantra for an enterprise rather than a mission statement. Mission statements are long and meaningless to workers. Mantras drive and motivate employees to work for a specific goal. 
   • It is important to have a product that is unique but also valuable to customers. If it is unique but not valuable to customers, you are an “idiot”, if it is not unique and not valuable, you joined the “dotcom” issue, and if it isn’t unique but it is valuable, you are now only competing on “price.”
   • Once your enterprise/product is out in the market, the market you thought would buy your product might not be, but another market is. That is OK! Do not try to fix it/advertise differently. Instead, work with this new market.
   • Flattening the learning curve. Don’t ask people to do something you wouldn’t do. Make everything simple and intuitive and “embrace your evangelist.”
   • Break the barriers. Gather feedback and make sure to act on it. Ask the correct people for feedback, “find the influencer.” Guy gave an example of talking to customer support to understand the environment and culture, likewise should be applied for the product/solution.

2. Articulate your value propositions for your diverse customer segments. 

• Help citizens of Almaty become more environmentally conscious and sustainable by creating an app that is informative and engaging to users.

3. Discuss your Total Available Market and Total Addressable Market. List all your assumptions and hypotheses.

• Available Market: All the citizens of Almaty (1.77million) with access to smart devices (particularly smartphones/tablets 
• Addressable Market: Elementary/middle school students and teachers (classes). Start with one school, and expand from there. Assuming it catches on well, expand to other schools and even possibly create a different version of the app for older citizens. 

1. Summarize and report out on the results of the SKS exercise. 

We all agreed that we wanted to start having better communication within our team. This includes more frequent check-ins over text to make sure we are all getting done what needs to be done. We also want to start having a meeting with just us (our group), in addition to the meeting with Khanjan, so that we can talk in person to check-in. By meeting, we can assign roles and start looking deeper and at different sectors of Smart Cities in our research. But most importantly, we want to start communicating with our partners in Kazakhstan over the Whatsapp that was created. We will start to get a better understanding of Almaty if we all respond effectively to their texts.

At this point in our project, we want to keep working on our mid-semester presentations, dividing work/delegating work well, learning what we can about Kazakhstan and current smart innovations, and keeping our contact with the KazNU students and continuing to ask them lots of questions. At this time, we especially want to focus on continuing to put in a lot of time into our Engineering for Change articles and our other publications to make them as good as possible. We can do this by helping our other team members by editing and offering suggestions.

What we need to stop doing is depending too much on Khanjan’s guidance, and just go for it instead. We believe we need to stop being told directly what to research and just start reading whatever we can to explore ideas and gain as much knowledge as we can about the topic. We also want to stray from completing things just to meet the deadline, but rather taking the time to do it completely and most effectively to better advance our project.

2. Develop a detailed Collaboration Plan for your team clearly articulating your Goals (Small g and Big G), Roles,Procedures, and Relationships.

Team Name: Smart Cities  Date: 3/17
Goals	Project Goal: To create a smart innovation that can be efficiently used by most of the citizens in Almaty, that will make some aspect of their lives easier/better. To measure the success of our project, we need to collect data on how many people use the innovation, and possibly do interviews to see how people think it has changed their lives. Personal Goal (Alli): To broaden my knowledge on smart innovations and gain a better understanding of the culture in Almaty and how we can use our skills to help make the city smarter. Personal Goal (Ugochi): To understand the in-depth process behind successful and impactful smart innovations, and leave the project with an ability to implement similar innovations in other cities. Personal Goal (Tommy): To understand the process and methodology behind creating a solution to existing issues. Learn the steps it takes to successfully implement a social venture that impacts the lives of people.
Roles	All of us are expected to have an Engineering for Change article published, along with another partner article published on another forum.  Right now we are all researching innovations we think will work in Almaty, but once we decide what we are doing more specifically, then we can create subgroups. Right now, especially because our group is pretty small, we depend on each other in almost every aspect of our project, so we don’t have a project manager at the time.
Procedures	For decision making, I think we should strive for consensus, but if we hit a specifically difficult topic, then it might have to be majority rules. Right now we have been doing a lot of communication online, and it seems like it is going to have to continue to be that way. However, as many zoom meetings, or “face-to-face” simulations we can have, the better. For meeting roles, it depends on the meeting, as our roles will shift. However, usually we all do a good job of each taking notes, and all keeping time in mind, and facilitating together. Our plan is to “meet” an additional time (aside from the one with Khanjan). As per what time works best for everyone, since we are all still getting home, we have to figure that out still (because we are in different time zones).
Relationships	Everyone on our team has different strengths that play well into making us work effectively. We have various majors and disciplines across our team, including computer science, engineering, and international relations. This allows us to use each other’s strengths to solve any issues we may come across. We also all have different cultural backgrounds which helps us look at everything with different perspectives. Our team name is Smart Cities in Almaty.

 

3. Plan if we cannot do fieldwork in Kazakhstan this summer.

If we are unable to do fieldwork in Kazakhstan this summer, we will just continue to reach out to our partners in Kazakhstan more. We will have to depend on their knowledge and research of what the culture is in Almaty. If we planned to interview citizens of Almaty on how they believe they would respond to our (potential) innovation, we will just have to depend on our partners at KazNU to do that and report back to us. Of course we will be helping them the whole way too, but they will have to do the physical ground work. 

If we are unable to go this summer, we may have to have a physical prototype of the innovation we are planning for the next opportunity we get to go to Kazakhstan. In other words, we will have to be a lot farther along in the process the next time we get to go, and hope that we don’t have to go completely back to square one (that our innovation doesn’t completely fail).

Does your work require IRB approvals?

If Yes, articulate your detailed IRB strategy.

If No, explain why you don’t need IRB approval and identify situations when you might need IRB approval.

We do not believe that we will need IRB approval because we do not have the intent to use human subjects in our research. Our goal is to create a smart innovation for the city of Almaty that will enhance citizen’s lives, that could potentially be used in other cities after that. Our work therefore qualifies as research according to the IRB because we will be collecting data, and hopefully adding to generalizable knowledge by publishing our work and making presentations. However, we do not intend to manipulate people in any way or use people to gather specific data in a type of experiment. Because our plan, as of now, is to focus on something along the lines of the environment, infrastructure, heating, or transportation, the data we will be looking at is mostly on how machines or products or the system works. Not so much on people. 

We will, however, be talking to people in Kazakhstan, and citizens of Almaty. If we changed our project idea, and needed to start collecting private information from the citizens of Almaty, then we would need an IRB approval. In addition, if we decided we needed to see how people in Almaty acted differently with our innovation, and needed to collect data on their new behaviors, then we might need IRB approval because we would be using human subjects.

Develop an outline for your mid-semester presentations. What supporting evidence will you provide for each point? How will you boost your credibility every step of the way?

For our mid-semester presentations, we will start by explaining that Kazakhstan is a very resource rich country and is very developed. Their cities have been growing significantly over the years. In order to make the cities the most efficient they can be, smart city innovations should be developed to help fix infrastructural, environmental, or overcrowding issues. Coming up with a smart innovation that will effectively work in Almaty, will help make the city more efficient and hopefully be able to expand to other cities in Kazakhstan, or even around the world. Our goal is to develop a device that improves life in Almaty but can generally be applied to other cities around the world that are experiencing this surge of growth. The smart innovation will also be able to improve each citizen’s lives too. The magnitude of which will not be able to be determined until we decide on the exact innovation that will work. 

We will then explain all the research we have done on smart, digital, urban, and in use innovations on parking, pollution, short term travelers, and quality of life. We will describe, with specifics, how certain innovations have been successful in other countries, and how we see that something similar might work in Almaty. If we have been able to get our article published on Engineering for Change by this time, then we will make sure to mention that in our presentation at this point. The importance of the Engineering for Change article is to establish a brand for our project. We want to educate people about the significant roles that small but impactful smart innovations can have on developing cities and countries. 

We will continue by explaining that our project is new, so our goal as of now is to work with our partners in KazNU and AlmaU (name drop), the two major universities in Kazakhstan to figure out potential issues in Almaty that can be improved. We will work with them via Skype calls, and email/texts, to build our relationship and understanding of the city. The use of partners currently in Almaty brings credibility that our project is focussing on social and cultural integration as well as acceptance. At the end of the day our product could be great but it needs to be accepted by Almaty residents to ensure success. 

Once we understand the issues, we will begin to brainstorm solutions and potential innovations that could work. Then over the summer, when we travel to Almaty, we will use that time to prototype our products and continue to search for effective solutions. In the end our presentation will show the process in which we took to determine the reason why we want to introduce a product, what potential benefits would this product have, how will this product improve life in Almaty, and how can we use this same approach to apply our success to another developing city not only in Kazakhstan but around the world. 

 

1. List ten things that make you feel human.
2. 1. The ability to consciously make decisions
   2. To be aware of my role in society
   3. Learn from making mistakes
   4. Have the power to help others
   5. Feeling emotions
   6. Make someone else happy
   7. Have friends and family
   8. Do what I like to do 
   9. Ability to learn and gain knowledge
   10. Feeling disliked

2. Articulate your philosophy of engagement as it pertains to your work with the GSIF / LVSIF. Specifically discuss 

Using my position, skills, and academic background I am able to provide help to others that may not be able to help themselves. When I say this I mean that I am in a position that allows me to pursue my academic and career goals, while some people in this world may not be able to even get food for dinner. My position in comparison to the scale of the world is one that allows me to engage in research and service to help others. 

In Almaty, Kazakhstan the increasing population calls for change in subtle ways. Instead of taking the bottom up approach in which we would modify city infrastructure and allocate resources into redeveloping the city as it grows, the better way would be to start at the top. Implementing change at its source would produce results that are far better than the trickle up approach. Not only does implementing change at the top produce direct results by tackling the issue directly, it inspires others to do the same through social entrepreneurship. In Almaty, we seek to introduce a device that will increase the quality of life for people, through monitoring water contamination in households, measuring heating system efficiency, or by quantifying the amount of pollution a household is producing. The goal of these introductions is to produce valid change that can be replicable not only in Almaty but also other cities that are growing at rapid rates. Additionally, we want to inspire social entrepreneurs to also take responsibility and tackle these problems, because the odds are if one city in the world faces them another will to. 

Our project focuses on using smart technology to improve the quality of life of Almaty residents. This means we must work directly with those who live there, luckily we will be working with students from Kazakhstan National University and Almaty University. This provides a direct reflection as to whether our product is culturally and socially viable there. The fact that our product can produce viable, long lasting, beneficial results is just as important as being accepting for use. We must work within the constraints of cultural and social bounds in order to produce a result that can bring about change and ultimately improve life in Almaty. Given that the product we want to implement needs to be caters to cultural and social constraints means that the parameters for acceptance can be modified in order to make this a globally used device. 

Aside from cultural and social barriers, the funding needed to produce a device capable of improving life might be hard to come by. It may be difficult to persuade someone to fund our project to produce a device if it is mostly original because the results are yet unknown. However, using a currently implemented device already with results will be much easier to gather funding for. This leads us to find a balance in between creating a whole new device that can be implemented versus using one that is already on the market. Using this mindset we hope to find an equilibrium so that we can be most beneficial to the residents of Almaty. We currently are researching 

Engagement comes from the people being aware of their position of value, the fact that they can bring about change from the position they are in. My epitaph would be something encompassing the idea of using one’s position to bring value to someone else’s life. My analogy for life is a video game. Everyone starts at different levels given the circumstances that were given in life, everyone works towards leveling up, becoming better, and improving themselves, but while doing so they inadvertently improve the world around them. After reaching a certain threshold in this game of life, their life improves marginally or near nothing, so this leads them to use their position to help others. Although I don’t know exactly what my epitaph might read, it would be about improving the world around us by not only helping ourselves but most importantly helping others.