Harmony with Society

Creating new business opportunities to address local issues

While rapid economic growth is being witnessed in many emerging and developing countries, there are still considerable population groups in these nations living in poverty, often referred to as the BOP (Base of the Pyramid). These people are suffering from a wide range of social challenges. Merely bringing products that have been developed to market in developed countries will not solve these issues. Ricoh therefore started its efforts by understanding the issues that poor people are facing. Ricoh staff stay in a local community to experience life there and build trusting relationships with local people. We believe that we can contribute to sustainable development in local communities only after understanding their culture and customs and identifying their problems and by making a concerted effort to find solutions.

Staying at the project's location to build trusting relationships with, and listening to, the local community

Ricoh and Drishtee, a local social enterprise and partner for the project, selected a rural village in Bihar state located in the northeast of India as a target village. Employees selected from among more than 100 volunteers stayed in the village twice, for a month each time. During the first stay (October–November 2010), emphasis was placed on building relationships with villagers. Local people do not speak frankly about their problems if you suddenly turn up to conduct a survey, so we organized events including cricket, debates, singing songs and painting exhibits, with the hope of spreading information on Ricoh so that as many people as possible become familiar with our company. The staff staying there visited local people many times to talk with them and tried to understand their culture and how they think. This kind of continual face-to-face communication fosters a sense of security, making it easier to observe their living environment. After taking sufficient time to build trusting relationships with villagers, group interviews and other surveys were conducted to gather information, which was classified and organized.

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  Helping farmers
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  Cricket event for young people
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  Developing a resource map with local women

Through our local stay, determining approaches for identifying new business opportunities

We concluded that in order to ensure sustainable business in this rural village facing many challenges, we should start the project by identifying business opportunities and finding and supporting entrepreneurs who would be able to run such businesses. After this initial phase, we intend to move on to the next phase, which will involve continuing our support for local entrepreneurs and their businesses, helping to maintain and develop them by simultaneously searching for opportunities for Ricoh's own business interests.
Accordingly, in our second stay (January to February 2011), we focused on activities to identify ideas for new businesses and entrepreneur candidates with a business-oriented mindset by following the two approaches below:

Tapping into the insight of the local people and identifying future entrepreneurs

In February 2011, we held a competition of business ideas to tap into local people's insights and identify future entrepreneurs. Among 31 proposed ideas (13 from female applicants, 18 from male), three were selected using the following screening criteria: entrepreneurial passion, how determined the applicant is to start a business, the possibility of developing the business, and its contribution to local employment. We provided them with training on business management, marketing and other knowledge and skills required for starting business. Since May, two of the successful applicants have started their own small businesses. While helping these entrepreneurs to make their new businesses successful, Ricoh will continue to search for more ideas to support their businesses.

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  Prospective entrepreneur training
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  Entrepreneur who started her own business

Developing Ricoh's business ideas based on local survey results

After two rounds of staying in the local village, we obtained in-depth understanding of local needs and issues and reviewed many business ideas that would benefit the local community. As a result, we selected the following two businesses and started pilot tests of them at the end of 2011:

• ① Photo Print Shop: A shop to support photo-loving locals through utilization of Ricoh's resources
• ② Woman's Shop: A shop for the empowerment of women and job creation for women, operated by women

For both businesses, we will be selecting prospective local entrepreneurs who wish to operate their shops in the village, and providing them with necessary training and support for the opening of their shops. We are planning to open 4 Print Shops and 10 Women's Shops by the end of fiscal year 2012. In parallel with supporting the businesses of local entrepreneurs, we will help them grow by developing Ricoh's own businesses that will provide useful products and services toward this end.

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  Entrepreneur running the first Women's Shop
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  Scrunchies (hair accessories) making event for women in February 2012
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  Training for prospective Print Shop operators