Design for Affordability or for Quality

For a very long time now (almost two semesters) we have been told continuously that the poor need products that are affordable. I get this and I think that we all get this. The poor cannot afford a car, so we sell them a bicycle. But over time, they no longer want a bicycle and they come back demanding a car. Why? Simply because it troublesome to drive 30 km or ~15 miles carrying a heavy load to make money delivering goods to the market. Now they want a car. Fine…we will give them a car that is a Toyota corolla but without air-conditioning and all the other fancy accessories so that it is affordable. Well…really… a four-seater car for a poor person who wants to deliver goods to the market. This is exactly where our team comes in. Before I go ahead I want to inform you that I used the car analogy to describe our situation of working with diesel engines and their need by the farmers.

We spent the entire last week interviewing 100 odd farmers in the northwestern region of Bangladesh asking them what they wanted. The unanimous answer is that they want a smaller car not a Toyota corolla. We took a step further and conducted an exercise with them. “All of you claim that you want a smaller car, but what should this small car be? Please tell us what features you would like this car to have?” So we went through an exercise called Building a Super Engine (my teammate Angie’s brainchild idea). In this exercise the farmers built the type of diesel engine they wanted with features like intended horsepower, weight, size, water pumping capacity, land irrigation capacity, utility, price, etc.

What ended up happening was that farmers were desiring an engine that is 1-2 hp, small in weight (25-30 kg), irrigated 2 acres of land (at least), lasted for 15 years (at least), priced at 6000 – 7000 Taka ($80 - $100 using $1 = 68 Taka conversion factor) and could be used for irrigation mainly but also for post-harvest activities. We asked this of all the farmers we interviewed and consistently this was their response.

Wait a minute; I was under the impression that poor people desired affordable products only. Where did all these other requirements for quality come from? Well, turns out they are people too and they too like all of us desire the most for the least. So, this means that a product needs to be designed that is not only affordable but has quality as well. Why is quality important? According to them, if they can use the product for 15 years straight without major repairs and lower fuel consumption, that is their operational costs are low; then they have the potential to increase their income even more.

It then seems that products for the poor or the base of the pyramid (BOP) market have to be designed not only for affordability but for quality also. Well then here’s a question for you, would rather buy a mp3 player from a Chinese company or from a Japanese company like SONY, the difference being the former is affordable and the later is durable. I guess you might answer that it depends; maybe it depends on its functionality, which is to listen to music. If the same question were about buying a car, you would go with a Japanese manufacturer and not a Chinese one because now you want durability and efficiency. In our diesel engine case then the need is for both functionality and durability i.e. a Japanese product made in China.