Let There D.light!

I hope you have heard about D.light’s new product we launched in October! Ned and I started this company to design and distribute low cost solar solutions to those without electricity.  At Rs. 499 ($10) we have released a product that will directly replace kerosene lanterns. It opens up an entirely new market segment – getting closer to those we really want to serve. And the initial feedback is looking great with distributors and partners purchasing volumes that we can all be excited about.

If you are a villager that has 2 kerosene lanterns (Rs. 150 or $3 each) and spend Rs. 40 per lantern on fuel you now have an option that is brighter, cleaner, more durable, and far more functional that pays for itself in 3-4 months (with zero recurring costs)!

I was in a super remote village outside of Rampur, UP during our “Go to Market” activity, where a 90 year-old man tried the light for a few minutes and slowly reached into his pocket to lay Rs. 500 on the table.  His family said nothing beats the price, durability, and brightness of the Kiran for someone who cannot carry a kerosene lantern and is afraid of burning himself. 

We have designed the highest quality product for the price and now turn our attention to the sales challenge – how do you gain access to the hundreds of millions of kerosene customers living in rural India (or East Africa) and provide them with solar education and an affordable alternative? 

Heres a blurb about our new baby:
Kiran (“ray of light” in Hindi) is the world’s most affordable high quality solar light, and was specially designed to enable all families to opt out of using kerosene, and immediately adopt a brighter, safer, less expensive, healthier and longer-lasting option. It is perfect for hanging, using on a table, carrying, or mounting on a wall, and can be used when walking, cooking, studying, bicycling, or virtually any other situation where electricity is not reliable. The Kiran is light weight, extremely durable, portable, and easy to charge and use. It provides up to 8 hours of light, has 2 settings, and is 3 times brighter than a kerosene lantern. Kiran comes with a built-in solar panel but also is AC compatible with a standard Nokia charger. The panel and the light are water and impact resistant.

And Congrats to our Product Design Team – Kiran recently won the Spark! Awards for Highest Design Honors.

Our fabulous BD fellow in China is moving on to be with his wife-to-be.  Apply to join our team and help us at this critical time of growth.  As our BD Fellow in India, Anay Shah, told me "the beauty of this fellowship is that at D.light if you have a good idea and the bandwidth to execute, you can literally shape the future of the off-grid lighting market around the world!"

D.light Design Fellows Program
D.light Design is seeking passionate and talented professionals to contribute to one of the world’s leading social enterprises through 6-month+ fellowship. As a company that strives for excellence and innovation, we are committed to providing our fellows with a uniquely invigorating, challenging, and life-changing experience. Fellows will be supervised by one of our senior managers and partner with our diverse team across three continents and multiple countries. Each fellow will be a major part of growing a multi-national, one-of-a-kind company that will alter the global landscape.

www.dlightdesign.com/fellows.html

International Business Development Fellowship Description
The Fellow will work in the Shenzhen, China office, and will be supervised by the International Sales Manager. The fellowship is for a minimum of 6 months, but individuals who are able to commit to 9 months or more are preferable. There may be some additional travel to international markets.

The ideal start date is before January 1st, 2010, but this is flexible depending on the candidate. The Fellow will be provided with a small living stipend and housing. The International Business Development Fellow will support D.light’s international sales efforts as well as lead various projects and studies in connection with D.light’s new market development strategy.

The Fellow will be expected to engage in:
* Market Research - Conduct a study to determine feasibility of entering strategic
* markets and monitor business landscapes in prospective countries in terms of both market and non-market forces
* Emerging Markets Development - Develop distributor relationships and institutional partners (public sector and NGOs) in emerging markets on an ongoing basis
* Marketing Support – Assist the international sales manager in providing marketing support to key distributors
* Partnership System - Create systems to identify new international partners and gather best practices for developing those relationships
* Field Work - Participate in field work as necessary

Qualifications
All fellows are expected to be passionate about D.light's mission to develop high quality solutions for families living without adequate electricity. They should be committed to completing their deliverables during the fellowship period and be willing to work long hours in order to do so.

The International Business Development Fellow should also have the following qualifications:

* 2-5 years of professional experience in management consulting, business development or international sales within a multi-national company
* Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in related field; MBA or related graduate degree preferred
* Experience in developing countries and base-of-the-pyramid markets strongly desired
* Ability to think creatively about business development in new markets
* Solid project management, research and analytical skills
* Excellent written and oral English communication skills, with fluency in a additional languages preferred
* Advanced Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint skills
* Detail-oriented, highly-motivated, independent worker
* Desire to work in social enterprise
* Enjoys the fast-paced, high-pressure environment of a start-up
* Ability to live in China for the duration of the fellowship and travel to D.light markets as needed to conduct field visits

How to Apply
Interested applicants should complete the Fellows Program application (available at www.dlightdesign.com/fellows.html) and submit their most recent CV/resume.


 

We promise you'll roll up your sleeves at D.light! (d.light employees moving Novas during an office flooding)

As part of National Design Week, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is sponsoring a competition in which good design is chosen by the public.

The D.light Kiran is currently in the top 5 out of 170 entries!  Check out the description and if you like the design give us your vote! 
http://peoplesdesignaward.cooperhewitt.org/2009/nominee/2165

At $10, the Kiran (‘Ray of Light’ in Hindi) replaces 2 kerosene lanterns, provides 8 hours of light on one day’s charge and pays for itself in just 4 months. But it all begins with good design!

Thanks for your support! 
http://peoplesdesignaward.cooperhewitt.org/2009/nominee/2165

Customers are behind everything we do – particularly new product design.  But every time we go out to our consumers, the voices speak loud ... we need to reduce cost.  To go deeper we've got to become leaner, innovate and stretch ourselves to get to the people who really, really need our product solutions.

Usually, it's about getting to the next, higher, level.  But not for social enterprises working at the BOP.  We're looking to go the next, lower level, and this coming month we will do just that.

The D.light design team just returned from researching a new consumer base – one that has just experienced the latest product offering from D.light.  These potential users have very little grid connection and typically survive on 1-3 kerosene lanterns per household. Our proposition – an ultra-affordable kerosene replacement that is designed specifically for them.

It's often a nervous moment to release a new product, but like any singer auditioning for a music career, you do your best, and wait to hear the audience's response.  Will it be cheers, or jeers?

While interviewing a new consumer, a small crowd formed around us - everyone leaning in to listen intently to the conversation happening in their village.  At the center was a light source.  The villager was explaining his experience with this intriguing device.  He explained the benefits of the product to the interviewer, and the crowd around him nodded approvingly, commenting to one another.

After the interview, the crowd began to ask questions. One man in particular pushed his way forward and asked where he could get such a product from.  As this new item was yet to be fully sold, the interviewer explained that he would have to wait.  The man asked about the sample version that the design team was holding.  Could he purchase that?  He asked the price and immediately reached into his pocket.  The team insisted that the product was not boxed, was only a sample, and came with no instruction or warranty card.  This didn't matter to the man.  He wanted the product and he wanted it on the spot.

For the design team, this was the "moment of truth."  This product sells itself.  The design team executing the research were not sales people; they had no promotional materials with them; there was no fanfare associated with their activities; there was no intention to sell to individuals ... and yet there it was - "a sale."

When this happens, you know you've got it right. We are a design company that must constantly innovate to meet our ambitious goals and become the leading provider of off-grid modern lighting solutions. But there is always that wonder if the product you pour your love and energy into will really be what people want.  We are now going into the launch of this new product with a bit more confidence!

One year after the Lehman Bros. collapse, TIME has issued an interesting special on responsibility and service in business: how companies big and small, old and new — and consumers too — are changing the world.  D.light is featured as one of their 25 Responsibility Pioneers.

The past few weeks D.light has also been featured in a number of different publications.  Check out:

o Outlook Business: Lighting Up Lives.  50 people are featured in this great round-up of social entrepreneurs in India.

o Financial Express: D.light is one of three firms in India on the Global Cleantech 100 list

o From the Global Atlanta to the New Zealand Herald – interest in lights is spreading fast!

o And if you are interested in some of the challenges we are facing along the way, see  Measuring Life at the Base of the Pyramid.

And stay tuned for a major D.light announcement coming in the days ahead….

Greetings, Social Edge readers, from Ned Tozun, President & Co-Founder of D.light. Sam and I have been working together since day one of this great adventure, when we paired up as graduate business students in the "Design for Extreme Affordability" class at Stanford University.

First, a quick introduction to me: I have an engineering background, having studied both Computer Science and Environmental Studies at Stanford as an undergrad. After that I started up several companies, including one focused on making customized music for children in the US, Europe, and Japan. I am an entrepreneur at heart; I love to come up with great ideas and bring them to fruition.

By far, though, D.light is the most exciting, meaningful, and challenging enterprise that I have been a part of starting. The scope of what we're trying to do, and the pace at which we are attempting to meet our goals, is occasionally daunting but always motivating.

While Sam has been setting up the India office, in parallel, I've been establishing our Manufacturing and Development office, located in Shenzhen, China.

Almost exactly 20 years ago, Shenzhen was designated as a Special Economic Zone, an area in which the Chinese government deliberately invested significant capital to create a thriving economic environment that would attract foreign investment and foster domestic economic growth.  By all accounts, they have succeeded tremendously in their goal. Formerly a fishing village, Shenzhen today is a bustling metropolis of over 15 million people.  The city attracts workers from every province and corner of the country, many of whom leave their families behind to try to make a living in this fast-growing urban center.

Shenzhen is also one of the manufacturing capitals of the world, with nearly every product you can imagine, from textiles to electronics, produced within 100 kilometers of the D.light office. The pace and volume of growth and activity in this city is phenomenal, spawning a local saying that things here happen "at Shenzhen speed." Across from the 35-story apartment complex in which my wife and I moved into a year ago, a 40-story building has sprung up across the street in a matter of months.

The D.light China office consists of our product engineering and manufacturing team, as well as a small finance team for the company. About one-third of the staff are expats from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the USA and the other two-thirds are Chinese Nationals. True to the character of the city, we have staff from Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Heliang provinces. I appreciate that the cross-cultural experiences are not limited to the expats, as even our Chinese staff need to spend time understanding one another's home regions.

There are many ways in which Shenzhen feels like the Silicon Valley of China: It's the upstart business environment that is significantly newer than cities like Beijing and Shanghai; it's full of young, well-educated professionals who are talented, adventurous, and ambitious; it's the technology hub of the country, with everything from PDAs to mobile phones to watches to LCD screens to iPhones being designed, manufactured, sold, and shipped from here. Quality can vary widely, so supplier selection, vetting and monitoring is critical; but in short, it's the perfect place for D.light to find the best manufacturing partners and suppliers in the world to provide affordable and high quality products for our customers.

And it's certainly a fascinating place to have both professional and personal cultural adventures, such as learning the local languages and getting accustomed to the local cuisine (the residents of Guangdong are notorious throughout the country for their extreme love of eating every kind of meat imaginable). We also cater our team-building activities to appeal to both locals and expats, having organized multiple badminton competitions, karaoke nights, and team dinners.

This is the first in a series of posts I hope to contribute over the coming months, so stay tuned!  Now that you have an image of where D.light China is, I will share some more observations about our role in helping D.light execute its mission.


 

Twenty-seven days ago I received a clear reminder that D.light is moving in the right direction – by hiring Mandeep Singh – a highly successful senior professional with a fascinating background – as our new COO. Bringing on board talented, Indian staff with experience in sales and rural marketing, is extremely difficult and even more time consuming.  But few things are as important to the future of a growing enterprise. I am really excited to have Mandeep help run operations in India, after over 25 years working for everyone from Kodak to rural marketing start-ups.

Keeping with D.light tradition (and policy!), we planned a trip to the field within Mandeep’s first month. He and I spent two days visiting with distributors, dealers, rural entrepreneurs – our company's primary "touch points" across India. Coming from an FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) background, Mandeep quickly recognized our growing open market sales infrastructure of distributors and dealers as similar to how the best companies began to move razors and batteries to every corner of India.  But, as usual, our most memorable moment came from one of our customers.

We travelled to the villages near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh to visit Amit, one of our top rural entrepreneurs, who has sold 265 Nova lights in a matter of months. We entered a few villages that do not fit the typical demographics of our customers -  these richer villagers were owners of tractors, inverters (battery back-up for a home), and even solar water heaters. They were not the customer with no electricity that we are used to serving. Despite the supposed lack of need, every fourth home in this village had a Nova! 

When we asked around to understand why, one couple exclaimed “Aap to Bhagvan roop ho aur yeh light Bhagvan ki den he” (You are like a God and this product is like a gift from God). While we are not that good (yet), I was surprised to find our products useful and loved by customers who are quite rich by rural standards. They had recommended it to relatives coming from over 1500 km away because kerosene was still a high cost for portable light and after 10 months of useage they had not had any technical glitchs. One night, the husband recalled, the Nova even saved him from getting bit by a cobra!

There are few products sold in the rural market that are featured at the center of someone’s home, where important items for the entire family are kept. Despite their relative wealth, this family from Aligarh still found the Nova a precious investment and showed us how they kept it 20 feet from the entrance.  As a CEO, I spend a majority of my time solving problems and hearing about what is wrong – as I leave for a much needed vacation, it’s nice to remember the emotional connection our diverse customers have to our products.

The family from Aligarh

 

When I joined D.light 10 months ago, I posted a blog about my first day.  Now in my last week after unbelievable learning with a great team of people, I’ve got a few takeaways to share: 

Technology seems to become obsolete every few months.  So do start-up plans, processes, and organizational structures. I remember when I started and asked Sam if I could see their strategic plan as I got up to speed.  He laughed and said, “Ha! Oh, that won’t help you now – it’s 2 months old!”  Even though technology becomes outdated, the fundamental science allows for its continued improvement; in the same way, if the fundamentals of a business are solid, changes can be powerful and necessary enhancements to the organization’s guiding principles.  I started reporting directly to Sam in a six-person office.  Sam now is a true global CEO of a 71-person company, and there are (rightfully so) two layers between us (a COO and a Head of Business Development).  Two weeks ago our newest BD fellow came onboard.  He asked me if there was a strategic document he could read over.  I smiled and said, “No – but why don’t you join me on a call with our newest strategic partner?” 

Understand reality & the full context.  We work with financing institutions to get people consumer financing for our lights.  For one of our initial pilots with a rural regional bank, we had designed a loan structure, fulfillment process and marketing plan that we were feeling pretty excited about.  But when we launched, not a single order was placed.  We discovered then that many branch managers at this particular institution had apparently become accustomed to receiving bribes for the large tractor loans they typically saw.  Processing our small loan applications was not a priority in that environment.  We learned to pay a lot of attention to incentives and context from then on! 

Young people can do anything! (Kind of) Growing up in the Bay Area where you see 20-somethings building successful businesses left and right, I was told and believed that I could achieve anything.  My Mom still believes this.  But my 26-year-old confidence that I can do anything I set my mind to has been tempered by my experience at D.light recognizing how valuable people who have had years of experience with sales and marketing in India have been on our team.  Yes, we have energy, are smart, and can do it!  But I have been humbled by how crucial deep functional expertise is when working in an established field. 

If you’re running a social enterprise, guess what?  You’re running a business.  I was psyched to join D.light and do work that would be personally fulfilling and directly help underserved populations I cared about.  While that motivation is still true, I realized I was surprised to find the day-to-day work of a real business.  I’m not walking door to door giving poor people light.  I’m often sitting in an office at my computer.  And once in a while I remember that what we’re doing is having a huge impact on poor households, and think, “Yay!” and smile.  Then I go back to work building sales projection tools and designing the incentive structure of a marketing campaign.

What D.light is doing is hard.  I could have told you that 10 months ago, but I wouldn’t have internalized it.  We initially focused on a skeptical market of poor rural Uttar Pradesh households (not your easiest sell).  We have to distribute in deep rural areas where the largest multinationals struggle to set up shop.  We make electronic problems (unlike potato chips, they sometimes – very rarely, but sometimes – have problems and need repairing).  It takes a lot of effort to hire the right people (in India most high-performers would prefer a stable job with a big multi-national over a riskier one with a start-up).  I could go on.

But you know what?  We’re doing it.  And doing it pretty well.  From cracking the model of consumer financing partnerships to get our products into the hands of poor rural consumers who need it most, to launching innovative market education campaigns in new states, to creating innovative new (get excited!) products in our product design room, D.light is on its way to making kerosene lighting a thing of the past, and bringing bright affordable light to households everywhere.  That is awesome, and it’s been a privilege to be part of this organization.  Sam, Ned and the rest of the leadership team deserve huge accolades for commitment, leadership and smarts like I’ve never seen.  There’s a reason VC firms are said to invest in people, not just ideas.  I think they made some good calls investing in D.light.
 

India office bowling goodbye to Christina

The energy at the event was palpable, as Rob Katz from Acumen Fund describes in his blog about the event.  As D.light was one of the award finalists, the Sankalp team created a short video on D.light - check it out below. 

It’s all about Finance.  We know that the poorest customers often need consumer financing to purchase our lights – and that they often do not have the cash flow to pay for the full amount up-front.  When these customers have access to a microloan for the light, they can repay it incrementally with money they would have otherwise spent on kerosene.  We are working with financing institutions that can offer loans to their clients for our lights; Shell Foundation will help us with risk capital to jumpstart these relationships. 

And it’s all about Marketing.  People need to understand how solar works and know about D.light for us to convert them into customers.  With Shell funding we can test out a variety of marketing activities, from grassroots promotions to mass media radio ads.  Once we identify the most effective strategies, we’ll integrate those into our ongoing operations. 

These two pieces – market education and financing – will help us effectively reach more people closer to the base of the pyramid.  The planning for these activities is underway!  The timing is perfect as we’ve been setting up our distribution network across specific Indian states.  We are excited to use Shell Foundation funds to reach deeper rural than we could on our own, to test out marketing activities, and to learn what combinations of consumer financing and market education will allow us to achieve higher penetration and truly move the needle in eradicating kerosene.


 

We have sales offices in India and East Africa, but do sell to other countries worldwide, primarily Asia and Africa via large distributors and partners.  And now going full circle back to my roots, through Peace Corps volunteers in West Africa!  Well, we haven’t exactly gotten that channel sorted yet, but we do have my cousin, a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal.  Here is an excerpt from a letter from my cousin Dana:

“Nothing solar is available in the markets around me. People tell me you can get solar lights in Dakar but they are expensive and not that great. The people in my village, especially the teachers, are in love with the dlights. Everyone keeps asking when they will be able to buy them in Senegal and how much they cost? How much do you sell them for now? The teachers at my school are all ready to set up distribution points and make loads of money selling the lights. They even think they would be a big hit in Dakar because power outages are so frequent. They also want you to send a container of the lights for them to sell as a "test batch". Lots of ideas, as you can see...”

Lots of ideas, and lots of them being tested and refined, both here in India and beyond.  We’re excited to continue sharing those with you as we roll-out new sales channels, market education campaigns, and more!

TiE - a global entrepreneurs' network - has sifted through over 1,500 nominees to select 150 finalists for the TiEcon 2009's 50 "Hottest Emerging Companies" award.  D.light is honored to be among the finalists, and if you have have a chance before voting closes on May 7th, go to http://www.tie50.net/polling/ to cast your vote!

Our staff has certain favorite neighbors – our chaiwalla, who makes delicious ginger, cardamom and masala spiced chai for us several times a day; the “shack” around the corner that makes the best lunches around; and, of course, our samosa lady.  Ms. Gupta is out there first thing in the morning making puri (common breakfast food) and stays into the evening satisfying customers with her vegetarian samosas. 

Five weeks ago our product development team gave Ms. Gupta a Nova S150 – our flagship solar-powered lamp – and watched.  She immediately replaced her expensive Petromax lamp with the Nova, charging it from her stall during the day, and switching it on as evening descended.  A few things about Petromax – it’s expensive, bright (often “too bright”, shining directly in customers’ eyes), liable to spills and gives off a lot of heat – a negative in summers as temperatures rise to more than 45 degrees Celsius.  Switching to the Nova she reported a number of improvements – softer bright light, ability to hang it from the corner of her cart and get a better lighting angle to see what she was doing, and a true money saver.  She would recover the cost compared to her Petromax expenditure in just 5 months!  And free solar-powered light for years thereafter…

The last interesting tidbit is that the Nova acts as her cart’s “headlight” as she wheels it back to her home each night.  She couldn’t keep the Petromax turned on while moving the cart for fear that it would spill, but with the Nova lighting her route she feels safer and less likely to get hit along the road.

While we generally think of our products as being for the rural market, there exists a ready market with urban street vendors that we are excited to continue exploring!

Ms. Gupta cooking during the day - panel is on the wall behind her charging the Nova.

Ms. Gupta and customers under the light of the Nova.

• Fortune Magazine, “Making money with tech products for the developing world”
• Business Week, “America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs”
  • Ned and I are listed among the top 25 – read through the many awesome businesses in the slide show, and if you think D.light holds the most promise, feel free to vote for us to be in the top 5!
• Business Week, “Making a Profit and a Difference”

Every morning when we walk in the office Sushila greets each of us with a cheery, “Good morning, Didi [sister]!” or “Good morning, Sir!”  Sushila brightens the office environment both literally as she tidies up the office, but more importantly with her cheerful disposition and great attitude.

Last weekend we took an office retreat to Rishikesh, a town nestled in the hills of the Himalayas, through which flows the sacred Ganges River on its way to the Indian flatlands.  We trekked, played fun team building games, were led in morning stretches by Rajendra (our head of open market sales), and went rafting.  Rafting on the Ganges in the Himalayas is gorgeous, and an activity I have fond memories of as a teenager growing up in Delhi, but hadn’t done since being back in India with D.light.  We strapped on our life jackets and helmets, and were off down the turquoise river cutting through the canyons.

This weekend reminded me how awesome our team is – everyone was adventurous, good natured, and just fun company!  But Sushila wins the prize for most gutsy.  It was her first time on a boat, and she did great plowing through the rapids with the rest of us.  But the real kicker came later, when we stopped downstream alongside a 20 foot rock that jetted out over the river.  Cliff jumping, anyone?  Shashank, one of our product designers, and I decided to go for it.  Easier said then done – after climbing up onto the cliff and peering down, that water looked veeery far away, and I paused, thinking this may have been one of the stupider ideas I’d had recently.  But my team counted down, and I joined the glacial water below.  Slowly more team members decided to take the plunge, and at one point Sushila stood up, and announced she’d do it too if Christina and Aarthi would.  Sushila doesn’t swim.  But this brave woman, mother of several teenagers who with D.light is working in her first formal job in her life, marched up to the top of the cliff, and jumped.  We swam out and pulled her to the side, and she was overcome with emotion for a moment – she said she didn’t think she’d be under water for that long, a scary feeling if you don’t swim indeed!  She told us later that it took her a lot of courage to do this, but she wanted to make the most out of this special trip, and was really proud of herself.

We at D.light have a team willing to take risks.  This is not just exhibited by the fact that our staff of all backgrounds and experiences went white water rafting, and some cliff jumping, but that they’ve chosen to take a chance working with a start-up.  They don’t know what rapid is coming up around the bend - but they do know there will patches of rough water.  They don’t know if they’ll fall out of the boat – but they do feel confident that people on this team will pull them back in.  But they do know that they will experience exhilarating moments they never anticipated – be it jumping from a cliff, or meeting rural customers whose lives have been changed with solar technology.  Congratulations, Sushila.  And thanks, Team India, for reminding me how fortunate we are to have each of you on board to take D.light’s vision closer to reality each day.

Sushila ready to start rafting!

India office team before hitting the Ganges

Check out the encouraging article in the New York Times about D.light and other organizations addressing social problems through business ventures!

I was sitting in my office sorting out salaries with our accountant when the volume of noise from our lobby got decidedly noisy.  Not the usual clanging of construction work that we’ve become accustomed to next door, but loud high-pitched voices arguing, or yelling, or…singing?  

Within minutes the din magnified itself when the doors to our office opened and a handful of very large and imposing Indian women entered, undeterred by a rattled security guard.  They wore flamboyant saris, heavy makeup and jingly bangles.  I think of this as D.light’s hazing and initiation to being a real Indian company that has made it on the “list” – our first visit by eunuchs, or “hijras”.  

Historically eunuchs served royal harems, but as royal traditions faded and society changed, so has their place in society.  There are about 1 million eunuchs in India today.  They are believed to have the power to bless and curse, but live at the fringes of society and are generally denied formal employment.  Many today make their living by performing at ceremonies, begging and prostitution.  

Today a half a dozen hijras paid our office a visit, expecting a fee for the good luck they would bring to our new office, and expecting we would pay them so that our employees could also avoid what many in India consider an embarrassing and disrupting spectacle that should be hastily dealt with (to those who don’t comply, a hijra may lift her sari and expose herself).  They hung out in the middle of our office, clapped and sang, and argued loudly with our admin about paying their fee for a good hour or two. But we don’t pay bribes, and, quite frankly, I could care less what they do.  I offered them chai, but that was not of interest to them.  At some point the police came and insisted our visitors leave, but not before making our office environment more animated than usual!

Our next unexpected visit that afternoon was from an Uttar Pradesh labor representative.  He warned me that we need separate registers for men and women.  Also, April 14th is a holiday; if anyone works, we will get fined.  

The office day ended around 7pm when an impromptu game of catch turned into a full-blown game of cricket.  Laptops and posters were moved to safety and the biz dev area was taken over by outfielders and a pitcher.  With an empty cardboard cylinder as the bat and a tennis ball, the game was on.  The athletic side of our staff was unveiled as Devendra made wild full-body pitches, Christina swung like a baseball player, and Vinod made mad dives under desk to retrieve successful hits.  Another lively Friday with D.light Team India!

Devendra pitching

Ashish at bat

The D.light Design Fellows Program connects passionate and talented professionals with one of the world's leading social enterprises. Fellows will be able to use their unique skills and experiences to contribute in a significant way to our mission of replacing kerosene lanterns with safe and bright light. We are committed to providing our fellows with a uniquely invigorating, challenging, and life-changing experience.

Fellows will be located in one of our field offices in India, China, or Tanzania for 3 to 10 months. They will be supervised by one of our senior managers and partner with our diverse team across three continents and multiple countries.

For a more detailed description of the program requirements and benefits, click here.
To download a program application, click here.

The next application deadline is February 15, 2009. We are currently recruiting for the following fellows:

New Delhi, India
Business Development (application deadline March 1, 2009)
Marketing
Product Design

Shenzhen, China
International Business Development
Marketing & Communications
Reliability & Testing
Research & Development
Supply Chain & Operations

Global
Photography Fellowship (rolling applications accepted)