Acumen Fund is committed to sharing the learnings we have collected over our past 10 years. In this spirit, we have published a document called “10 Things We’ve Learned About Tackling Global Poverty.” Each week on the Acumen Fund Blog, we will be posting the next lesson in this series of “10 Things,” along with a guest response from a valued member of our community.
6. Great technology alone is not the answer
“Innovations in delivery are often more important than elegant designs.”
We often say, “Build it and they won’t come.”
Our office is littered with “the next great technology” – water filters, cookstoves, you name it – that have gone nowhere. Occasionally a new product—like the Rotavirus vaccine or the long-lasting anti-malarial bednet—can truly move the needle, especially for large-scale problems that require a single, public intervention. Usually, though, technology isn’t enough. No matter how great a new product is for the poor, it almost never sells itself. People buy services that they understand: they don’t buy technologies alone.
Innovations in delivery – which require genuine input from customers, working partnerships with distributors, and getting economic incentives right – are often more important than elegant designs. No matter how great an invention is, the business has to function in the real world where dealers, distributors, business partners, employees, and especially customers must vote in favor of your product each and every day.
Also read response posts on Lesson #6 from Tim Brown and Paul Polak, and click here for the full “10 Things We’ve Learned About Tackling Global Poverty.”
Tags: 10 Things We've Learned About Tackling Global Poverty, cleantech, technology