Entrepreneurship Process: Soloshot

Read the following articles on the BD Soloshot (auto disposable, single use syringe)Soloshot Article
My write up involves application to the five steps of the social entrepreneurship process pertaining to the Soloshot syringe.

An entrepreneur will firstly be able to recognize an underlying issue to help envision a solution for the problem at hand. The social problem identified is a serious one, for it concerns the health of the human population. Every year there are about 12 billion injections given. In the underdeveloped countries 50% of them are considered unsafe. In these countries, needle reuse is a large problem and leads to increase risk of communicable disease, arising from the transfer of blood borne pathogens via repetitive use of the same syringe.

Moving onto the concept development, an entrepreneur will identify great social rewards in attempts to abrogate or at least lessen the spread of disease. The social reward will be: much healthier generations for the future in these developing countries, which may in turn prove to assist economic growth because there will be a greater number of able people to engage in productive activity to support infrastructure. This leads to a new product idea: the SoloShot. This product is an auto-disposable, one-time use syringe and the primary target markets are developing countries.

Next, we take a look into the resource determination. To produce such a life saving product, there needs to be financial requirements and also human resources. Resources for this product will include the WHO(World Health Organization) and also the Expanded Programme of Immunization. These organizations gather information and have sufficient data on which parts of developing countries are most affected by disease transfer. PATH will need to align a company for mass production of the auto syringe. Path, since they are a non-profit organization, needs to help other companies produce similar syringes to help promotion of competition to lower prices of the product itself. After all, the goal of the social entrepreneur firstly is to benefit society. The financial result is secondary and as Joseph Schumpeter said, is “a symptom of victory.” As far as start-up costs are concerned, PATH needs to receive donations, or take out a bank loan for its new product endeavors. Perhaps they can receive money from the sale of the product idea to other manufacturers. Along with the prior mentioned resources, needed are human logistics for the physical delivery and demonstration of this SoloShot product in developing countries.

The time has now come to plan the launch and expand. PATH will have to strategically launch the SoloShot in a country with a high concentration of disease transfers via syringe. Once launched in this one location, the product will need to be measured for progress. The WHO can then monitor the % of disease spread after the SoloShot has been implemented to examine whether or not there is improvement in the developing country. If successful, the SoloShot can be marketed to the other needy countries.

The setting of goals can inspire further innovativeness in other healthcare products. PATH should start by using numerical goals. I.e. Issue two million SoloShot immunizations by such and such a date. In addition, there needs to be a proper flow of supply and distribution of the SoloShot. This is a product that can be successful, but should be continuously spread not only to developing countries, but it can find new application in developed countries in hospitals. One goal could be to have new nursing students use the syringes in clinical settings during their education. This will be safer for inexperienced students. These opportunities are most vital to the health of an ever growing, over populated world where disease spread rates are extremely high. Hopefully the future is bright for health care innovation.