Business in a Bag

Caroline Misan recently returned from her first trip to the field as VisionSpring’s Partner Manager for Latin America. Caroline brings to VisionSpring a valuable fresh set of eyes along with her experience growing businesses in the developing world. I sat down with her to learn more about what’s new with VisionSpring in Latin America and hear her newly garnered insights into the challenges and opportunities in the region moving forward.

Check out Caroline’s VisionSpring Central America photo here!

Welcome back to New York Caroline!

Thanks!

So what was your goal for your first time in the field?

My goal for this trip was to gain a deeper understanding of how VisionSpring works and establish solid relationships with our local teams. Since I will be working mainly in Latin America, it was important that I go to El Salvador to see our direct channel, where VisionSpring innovates its business model and strategies. I was also excited to visit our partner in Nicaragua, Cause for Hope, because VisionSpring’s partner channel is the key to growing our micro-franchise model throughout the region.

What was the biggest takeaway from your trip about VisionSpring’s Central America programs?

That we have a phenomenal resource in Heidy Serpas, the VisionSpring El Salvador Country Director. She is honestly a superstar. Heidy understands every aspect of our business – how to recruit and train VEs, how to connect with the customer base, and the role of the field staff in generating ideas for the improvement of our product and service offering. Beyond that, she understands the importance of building up a team of Vision Entrepreneurs as stakeholders. She manages a core group of 13 VEs, and has infected them with her dedication to the program. She invests a lot of time, and is always finding ways to build their enthusiasm and revenue-generation.

I’d say that my ten days in El Salvador convinced me that local resources are key to the success of any organization that wants to create real impact on the ground. The VisionSpring team really values her, and we’re looking forward to working with her to train and empower other managers in the region.

What is the main challenge you identify for VisionSpring in the region over the coming year?

A main challenge is establishing good channels of communication to provide the local managers the support they need to create significant, scalable impact. As I just hinted at, local managers are critical to the success of the VisionSpring model because they are the ones running the program in real time. We need to make sure we’re assisting them as much as possible. This will mean things like checking to make sure they have the tools they need to deal with managing inventory, or asking if they would like help interacting with institutions like banks, which they can be uncomfortable doing. The right lines of communication will unlock their potential and really help the region flourish.

Beyond this greater challenge of communication, what are some next steps you want to take as Partner Manager to help the programs succeed?

I have a bunch of goals. I want to improve our sales and franchise partner materials to ensure quality control. For example, I’d love to see us supplying our VEs with functional, one-pager VisionSpring “cheat sheets.” This will ensure that our local partners have more clear guidelines and materials to support their VEs.

I also want to work on firming up our incentive structure to make sure managers have a way to keep VEs interested and selling. Oh, and create material to drive regular “refresher” courses for managers on eye care and VE recruitment and training.

Any exciting developments in the Latin American innovations realm?

Yes, there are some very exciting new developments on the ground. While I was in El Salvador, the team was getting ready to pilot a new service: the VisionSpring full-service optical shop. Up to this point, VisionSpring has been solely focused on providing reading glasses, so all patients that needed eye care beyond reading glasses had to be referred to eye doctors or clinics. Now we’re going to test hosting an optometrist in our office and at our major campaigns so that we can provide glasses to patients with more advanced vision problems. Patients will continue to be screened by our VEs first, but those that do not have presbyopia will be referred to our optometrist so they can purchase affordable prescription glasses.

Our VEs are really happy about the optical shop idea because it will let them serve customers, both young and old, that they were never able to cater to before. The pilot launch will take place at a large church with over 9,000 congregants next Sunday. I’m very excited to hear how it goes.

What are you most looking forward to achieving in the region with VisionSpring?

Creating self-sustaining programs and growing – but carefully, with a purpose. We need to constantly ask ourselves – is this expansion going to create value for VisionSpring, our VEs, and our customers in the long run? I look forward to finding the answer to this question in Latin America and integrating it as part of VisionSpring’s global strategy.

Can you share one of your highlights from the trip?

One day in El Salvador I was accompanying a Vision Entrepreneur, Nelson, who was meeting with local leaders in a few villages. We stopped by a church that Nelson had never visited before and spoke with the pastor, who told us he had recently purchased a $90 pair of sunglasses to provide relief for his extremely light-sensitive eyes. Nelson asked him how he would feel if he could have the same protection with VisionSpring glasses for $5.The pastor immediately saw the value of the program and scheduled a vision campaign in his church for the end of the month.

At VisionSpring we were happy to see The New York Times kick off 2010 with an article highlighting the enormous need for affordable eye care in the developing world. Check out the article – “Better Vision for the World, on a Budget” – here.

Sharing the same goal as the technology-oriented organizations profiled in Heingartner’s article, VisionSpring focuses on another area of innovation necessary to achieve affordable vision care: distribution. VisionSpring works to provide affordable reading glasses, a “technology that has been around for over 800 years yet cannot be found in much of the developing world. Fifty percent of all the eyeglass needs in the world are for ready-made eyeglasses – the kind that can be purchased at any drugstore in the United States. To improve vision and economic productivity for individuals around the world, VisionSpring is working to tackle this critical piece of the puzzle.

This month VisionSpring welcomes Sean Mayberry as Chief Operating Officer.

Mr. Mayberry will be responsible for providing leadership to the Senior Management Team and driving the organization’s global growth. He comes to VisionSpring from Population Services International (PSI), a leading global health and social marketing organization where he has served as Managing Director for India since 2007. In this position he directed a 1,500 person, $35 million social marketing program with field presence throughout the Indian sub-continent.

On Decemember 9th, two weeks after relocating his family from India, Sean Mayberry’s arrival was celebrated by the VisionSpring community at a special reception held at the Rockefeller Foundation.

In the evening’s opening comments Antony Bugg-Levine, Director of the Rockefeller Foundation, compared Mr. Mayberry’s decision to join VisionSpring a comment made by hockey legend Wayne Gretzky: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” In joining VisionSpring, Bugg-Levine explained, Mr. Mayberry shared his own belief in the bright future of the organization.

Speaking to members of VisionSpring’s board, staff and friends Sean said he was “humbled at the vote of confidence” and assured he would “exceed expectations.” He also praised Graham Macmillan, who is moving on after six years of dedicated service to VisionSpring, for his critical role growing the organization to where it is today.

The team is delighted to have Sean on board. Welcome, Sean!

Peter Eliassen, Vice President of Sales and Operations, discusses the challenges VisionSpring faced working with BRAC in 2009 and the pay-offs for the organization moving forward .

In October 2008, two months after I joined VisionSpring, I went to BRAC’s offices in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The eyeglass pilot we launched with BRAC’s network of Shasto Shebikas had proven successful, and this visit’s purpose was to discuss future expansion.

Immediately upon sitting down to speak with the Chief Procurement Officer, a key player in senior management, I was told “VisionSpring cannot deliver. I do not believe that you can provide products to us on time without the hassle that has arisen in previous orders.”

Gulp. A jumble of thoughts ran through my head: we just recently hired a logistics expert in Shanghai to help us manage the finer details of an extremely thorough Letter of Credit importation process, we were planning on upgrading suppliers, is it hot in here? I hoped he would break into a smile with “just kidding, you guys are great”. Nope, didn’t happen. I expressed my confidence in our abilities to deliver, and promised that the next few orders would be smooth and on-time.

In the first few months of a job, a moment like this can really help you prioritize. In this case, our biggest partner, the one who could take us to a new level of scale, doubted VisionSpring’s ability to execute on our orders.

Over the following months, we made serious investments of both time and financial resources:

1) hiring a logistics manager to help with order execution and factory liaison work
2) visiting and upgrading to two new suppliers who had the capacity to produce at our projected levels for BRAC and other partners
3) reducing costs (thus speeding up the path to sustainability) by changing to shipment by sea
4) placing a priority on understanding and executing the Line of Credit importation process
5) setting clear quality and lead-time expectations with our manufacturers to ensure that we could exceed the expectations of our biggest partner

On December 10th a shipment of 112,000 pairs of reading glasses will land in Bangladesh, kicking off our expansion from 4 to 15 of BRAC’s operating districts in the next 4 months. I am proud to say the order was delivered in less than 90 days. By the end of 2010, we will expand to 30 districts, at which point monthly sales will require a nearly quarterly inventory infusion. We will be ready.

The supply side is only the tip of the iceberg. Our focus in the next few years of expansion is to ensure that BRAC’s 80,000 rural health workers feel sufficiently trained and have the correct inventory to provide screenings and reading glasses to those in need. Improving the Vision Entrepreneur experience will require frequent analysis of our sales metrics and a continuous feedback loop.

As VisionSpring’s partnership with BRAC continues to expand – both wider to new districts and deeper within existing districts – we plan to utilize this analysis and feedback to introduce new products, services, and marketing strategies in rural Bangladeshi markets. In being the best partner possible to BRAC, we are accumulating invaluable operational learnings for VisionSpring’s whole global network of partners.

Turns out a challenge from BRAC is a pretty great welcome gift.

At the end of August, VisionSpring launched its first South African partnership in partnership with microfinance organization Women’s Development Businesses Group (WDB). Halfway through the pilot, the word from the women in the field is that VisionSpring glasses are “selling like hotcakes!”

Indeed, a record 280 pairs of glasses were sold in the first month. What have been the keys to this early success?

For one, WDB Group’s hybrid for profit/non-profit structure provides a solid structure for achieving sustainability. Housed under the WDB Trust, the two main branches of the Group are an Investment Holdings body, which manages a portfolio of investments, and WDB Micro Finance, the operational engine that ensures financial resources are made available to poor women in rural areas through micro loans. The established culture of problem solving and collaboration is a huge head start for a third party social enterprise looking to join forces.

Another key factor has been the batch of entrepreneurs WDB assembled for the VisionSpring pilot. Nineteen highly energetic women were chosen to participate based on their previous success running businesses through WDB Micro Credit. The intimate knowledge these women already had of their customers allowed VisionSpring to extract invaluable market feedback quickly, price our glasses appropriately, and send the right mix of products for the local consumers. Participating in this feedback loop immediately increased the entrepreneurs’ motivation.

At the close of the first Vision Entrepreneur training, the excitement was palpable as the women of WDB got up and improvised a song and dance about VisionSpring, caught on video by VisionSpring’s Carrie Magnuson. Join the celebration!

VisionSpring is pleased to announce the release of InFocus, an innovative quarterly newsletter connecting our Vision Entrepreneurs and franchise partners around the world. A forum for sharing stories and sales strategies, the newsletter aims to strengthen the ties between VisionSpring’s outstanding global team. Working oceans apart, we share a mission- to provide clear vision to those in need – and are eager to improve on our ability to progress as one.

In the inaugural issue of InFocus, Sudhir, a District Coordinator in India shares his training technique, Vision Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh and El Salvador give suggestions on how to increase sales, and Dr. Jordan Kassalow gives tips on how to prevent a common eye disease. Take a look at what people around the world are reading!

Marta Perez is one of VisionSpring’s inspiring Vision Entrepreneurs. Born into an impovrished family with fourteen children, Marta experienced more than her share of hardships early in life. Resolved not to feel sorry for herself, Marta has was determined to fight for her dreams, and for the dreams of her community.
Marta joined VisionSpring in El Salvador as one of our very first Vision Entrepreneurs in 2002. According to Marta, the job appealed to her because she could help low-income people while making a living. When asked why she has stayed with VisionSpring for so long, Marta enthusiastically responds “ I make money selling eyeglasses, but most of all, I earn many people’s respect. Customers stop me in the street to tell me how wonderful it feels to see again, and that makes me happy.”

For Marta, VisionSpring has become a family enterprise. When her husband saw how successful and respected Marta had become, he decided to become a Vision Entrepreneur as well. With their combined savings, they have been able to send their oldest son to university, where he is now studying optometry. Impressed by the difference that his mother has made in people’s lives, his dream is to one day provide affordable eye care to low-income communities himself. Marta’s fourteen year-old daughter also looks up to her mother as a role model and hopes to work in vision care when she grows up.
On a recent visit to El Salvador, we sat down with Marta, who told us of one particular experience that stuck out in her mind. “One day, all six of my children begged to come with me to a vision camp. They just sat there watching me for hours while I screened customers and sold glasses!” she recalls, laughing. Then, more seriously, she adds, “It feels good for me to have their support and admiration.”

At the end of the interview, Marta made a comment that encapsulates the spirit of VisionSpring, our partners, and our Vision Entrepreneurs around the world: “I have so many dreams, and these dreams are so important to me that I have no choice but to keep fighting for them.”

Upon joining the VisionSpring family, I had the opportunity to look through photographs taken on recent trips to the field. These images – from communities all over the world – capture the striking impact made by the simple act of selling reading glasses. Journey with us as we visit our entrepreneurs and customers in villages across Ghana, India, Bangladesh and Nicaragua.

At the Talberg Forum last month, Jordan Kassalow gave a presentation on “What Works in Microfranchise” based on VisionSpring’s experience selling reading glasses to create jobs. The audience? A group of entrepreneurs organizing to sell low-cost solar-powered lights to the developing world (the event was put together by D.light Design). This kind of sharing is inspiring: the lessons of microfranchise can be applied among a wide range of ventures, and we’re seeing that practitioners across the board are eager to learn.

As it happens, John Keane of SolarAid recently visited VisionSpring India to see our Vision Entrepreneurs in action. Take a minute to read what parts of the VisionSpring approach he plans to carry forward.

I spent today in the district of Mahbubnagar visiting VisionSpring’s Vision Entrepreneurs as they tested the eyes of local villagers to see if they suffer from presbyopia (blurry close up vision that becomes more and more common after the age of 35), and offered glasses for sale to those who needed them. During my visit I met up with VisionSpring’s District Coordinator Sudhir Kumar and Vision Spring Entrepreneurs Mr. and Mrs. Neeli who explained that since joining vision spring, they had virtually tripled their previous income, selling over 150 glasses. Inspiring stuff!

Even from my short visit, it was clear that the people living in the village were not used to having a health service available ‘on their doorstep.’ I also saw many parallels between the work of Vision Spring and SolarAid. Like Vision Spring, SolarAid is working with entrepreneurs in rural areas. The difference, of course, is the product. SolarAid trains entrepreneurs to set up microsolar businesses which offer people viable, solar powered energy alternatives to kerosene, candles and disposable batteries.

While there are many challenges when trying to reach people living in often remote rural areas, I was impressed by the professional approach VisionSpring takes. All of its entrepreneurs are provided with the tools and resources they need, such as branded T shirts, receipt books and identity cards, in order to look credible, professional and give their customers the confidence that the warranty they offer on the glasses they sell will be honored. From our own work at SolarAid we have also seen the importance of providing entrepreneurs with these tools to give them a strong platform for making their business a success. After all, starting a new business in any context is never easy. But I feel that the microfranchise approach Vision Spring have adopted really is a strong one and I’ll be taking what I’ve learned back to SolarAid’s programmes in Africa.

I left Mahbubnagar wishing the entrepreneurs the very best of luck for the future and with the knowledge that VisionSpring will give them continued support and training to help them on their way. Of course I couldn’t leave without buying a pair of sunglasses – which I can honestly say look far better quality than the pair I bought in a market in Delhi just weeks before which have already broken! In fact, I’m wearing them right now!

Peter Eliassen, Vice President of Sales and Operations, recently went to Nicaragua to visit VisionSpring Franchise Partner Cause for Hope. Reporting back on conversations with Vision Entrepreneurs, Peter reminds us that the VisionSpring model is unique because not only are we a Social Enterprise, the businesses we create are too. While making money is a main driver for all of our Vision Entrepreneurs, many of them stay with the program because they also have the opportunity to help our communities.

“Yesterday and today I met with a bunch of Vision Entrepreneurs (VEs) here in Nicaragua, and I asked each one what motivates them. Although the women generally want to discuss their sales – how much money they make, and how they would change this or that style – when I ask them about what motivates them, it always brings a smile to their face. Each has told me mas o menos the same thing, that the best part of what they do is sharing the joyful moments when their customers can see clearly for the first time in many years (the “ah-ha!” moment). The VE’s are given titles by their customers like “Savior of Sight”, or “Angel of Vision” and that’s what really fuels them.

Today in Managua we brought three new potential VEs to a vision camp for them to see what it actually looks like. During our brief interviews in the morning, the focus was primarily on how much money the VE could earn by participating in the program. Then, when we got to the camp, the active VE explained to the three new potentials that the primary goal of the program is to expand the access to affordable glasses. When asked what motivates her, she told the new potential VEs that she is driven by the joy that she brings to her customers and that the money is like icing on the cake. She explained in detail the referral process, the screening process, and her favorite VisionSpring models.

I applauded afterwards. It is so great to see how the dedication and excitement about our work is adopted by the program coordinators, trainers, and the VEs.