Forget Micro-ROI. Focus on Creating Real Value.

Dick Roosenberg, Founder and Executive Director of Tillers International, with two oxen at MODA

In the realm of social innovation and entrepreneurship, there is great debate over the role of financing and investment. Amid the trends of micro-finance, micro investment, micro-enterprise, and Micro Machines, one might assume that today’s social innovators take a close look at the context of their efforts, given that financial instruments have been adjusted to the scale of individuals. One might also assume that most social ventures simply require the infusion of financial capital to complete the development of developing countries.  Unfortunately, these assumptions are false.

Despite numerous examples to the contrary, too many aspiring innovators take the “missionarydesign” approach to innovation and attempt to apply pre-determined solutions to a context with no examination of the realities and implications for users and stakeholders. This includes financial development strategies which fail to account for the afflictions of the poor in developed nations where legions of people still live in abject poverty amongst abundance. Wealth and development can bring tremendous advancements to societies, but development necessarily leaves large portions of the population without access to necessities and increases within-country inequalities according to the WTO. 

Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara

Contemporary economies have razed our ability to subsist and survive outside of the prevailing vernacular of commerce. We celebrate the selective development of wealth through the channel of “investments,” a practice which allows the investors to retain their position of control and authority. As Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara said, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” The fallacy of applying the conventional financial lens to social innovation is that it is inherently incapable of accurately capturing the real value of its effects and so further propagates economic disparity. If we are serious about social innovation, we must commit to eschewing the traditional notion of investments predicated on financial returns and instead focus on investments designed for creating real value.

Fortunately, there are antidotes to the well-intentioned but misguided efforts of would-be social investors and innovators. There are organizations which examine the existing assets of a population and work towards meeting their latent needs, creating real value. There is a form of capital which can transform entire economies: Knowledge. Without getting all Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in this post, knowledge really is the most valuable asset of a society and the most important form of capital. Knowledge investments and the free-flow of intellectual “property” would do more for achieving the ends of social innovation than any amount of currency.

A model organization to this end is Tillers International. In some ways, Tillers International is like a renewable energy company. Renewable energy (solar, wind, water) has always been accessible for human use and was the modus operandi for millennia. Only in the last several hundred years, after the massive adoption of fossil fuels, did such renewable energy become the “alternative.” In a similar way, the mission and methods of Tillers International seem like quaint “alternatives” in the current climate of social innovation, but they actually represent the future of current trends and serve as an example to other socially oriented organizations which are serious about creating lasting, sustainable change.

Tillers' mission is “to preserve, study, and exchange low-capital technologies that increase the sustainability and productivity of people in rural communities” 

 

The Elements of Tillers' Approach

• Our principal product is inspiring rural innovation.
• Low-capital rural technology is the medium through which we build attitudes of experimentation.
• Grassroots people-to-people exchange is at the core of Tillers' approach.
• Listening before acting is critical.
• The knowledge and skill base for our work has become scarce.
• Partner organizations support our innovators overseas.
• Quality tools and facilities inspire world-class innovations and re-invention.

Sanding the Ox Yoke - Tillers workshop 2012

While some may dismiss Tillers International for its unsexy focus on rural development, such dismissers would be exemplifying the fallacies of misplaced metrics of value. The preservation, cultivation, development, and distribution of low-capital rural technologies have literally advanced the state of the art in some communities by thousands of years. Tillers International enriches the lives of communities by providing access to flourishing and sustainable agricultural practices and not by providing access to convoluted financial systems.

Human Centered Design (HCD) practices are inherent to the Tillers process. All solutions are developed and adapted in the communities they are designed to serve with the active participation of the intended users and with careful consideration of the impact on stakeholders. This local knowledge is then disseminated across geographical and political boundaries to be adapted for use in other communities on other continents. Iteration after iteration leads to some of the most advanced, most affordable, and most important technology on the planet. But rather than hoard this intellectual “property,” Tillers shares this knowledge. In doing so, Tillers eschews the micro-trends for a macro perspective of the world while meeting the specific needs of individuals.

There is no possibility of meeting the required ROI in contemporary financial terms, but there is no need to either. The Tillers approach completely bypasses this kind of investment. Instead of injecting cash into an economy with the hope of development, Tillers injects knowledge and sees an immediate return through the creation of real value which can be shared ad infinitum. The beauty of Tillers’ business model is that it is inherently sustainable and scalable to any level. Its products and services are all designed for absolutely minimal capital requirements but facilitate the satisfaction of essential and universal human needs.

By creating real value, Tillers International has completely bypassed the micro-hurdle which stops so many would-be social innovators.