{"id":3472,"date":"2017-06-05T20:51:49","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T00:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=3472"},"modified":"2017-06-05T20:51:49","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T00:51:49","slug":"an-idea-that-holds-water","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2017\/features\/an-idea-that-holds-water\/","title":{"rendered":"An Idea That Holds Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cynthia Koenig \u201900 and her WaterWheel are making a difference in the world<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Mary Howard<\/em><\/p>\n

Six hours a day. That\u2019s the amount of time a woman or girl in the developing world spends fetching water for her family. The lost hours keep her from attending school and engaging in income-producing activities that could pull her and her family out of poverty. Often she is traveling long distances carrying water in a five-gallon jug on her head. That\u2019s more than 40 pounds of pressure on her neck and spine.<\/p>\n

These facts do not sit well with Cynthia Koenig \u201900, founder and CEO of Wello, a company based in New York City and Mumbai, India, that works to improve the developing world\u2019s access to clean water.<\/p>\n

\"test-wheel\"<\/a>Wello\u2019s flagship product is the WaterWheel, a 13-gallon rolling drum that transports up to four times the amount of water possible with the traditional method of head loading. It also hygienically stores and dispenses water. And because the barrel is attached to an ergonomic handle, \u201cit\u2019s as easy to push as a baby stroller,\u201d says Koenig. \u201cBy using a WaterWheel, a woman regains 36 hours in her week.\u201d It also saves women from pain and injury caused by head loading.<\/p>\n

Koenig first encountered the global water crisis shortly after graduating from Trinity College with a degree in anthropology. She was working with an ecotourism company and living in remote villages in Guatemala and Mexico. With wells typically a 20- to 30-minute walk away, Koenig struggled to get enough water. \u201cIt struck me: How can anyone hope to get ahead if they can\u2019t meet their most basic needs?\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience stayed with Koenig and led her to the University of Michigan, where she earned M.B.A. and M.S. degrees through the Erb Institute, billed on the university\u2019s website as a partnership between the Ross School of Business and the School of Natural Resources and Environment. \u201cI was intrigued with the idea of business as a solution to intractable social problems, like the global water crisis,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The inspiration for a rolling water device came to Koenig on an exploratory trip to India in 2010. \u201cWhat was supposed to be a three-month trip became a full-time job,\u201d she says. With a $100,000\u00a0Grand Challenges Canada<\/a> prize, she launched an 18-month design process, relying on input from villagers in the desert region of Rajasthan, India. \u201cOur early ideas were all over the place \u2014 from water-carrying balloons to ergonomic panniers for donkeys.\u201d But what resonated most with the villagers was the idea of a rolling carrier.<\/p>\n

\"Cynthia<\/a>
Cynthia Koenig \u201900 near her Brooklyn, New York
Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though initially founded as a nonprofit in 2011, Wello soon evolved into a hybrid social venture by incorporating for-profit companies in India and the United States. \u201cNonprofits are not designed for efficiency because of the continuous need to fundraise,\u201d says Koenig. \u201cA for-profit model was the best option to meet Wello\u2019s goal of making our products widely available at an affordable price.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the nonprofit side of Wello raises awareness of the dangers of head loading, the for-profit side develops and sells products to consumers through third parties, such as aid agencies or government initiatives. \u201cWhen people make choices in a market economy, they are deliberately choosing the solution that best meets their needs,\u201d says Koenig.<\/p>\n

This business model has proven successful. Since unveiling the WaterWheel in 2016, Wello has sold approximately 10,000 units, impacting more than 75,000 lives. In February 2017, the company licensed India sales and manufacturing of the WaterWheel to Mumbai-based Nilkamal, Asia\u2019s largest manufacturer of molded plastic products. \u201cWe anticipate that by leveraging Nilkamal\u2019s expertise in manufacturing and widespread pan-India distribution network, they will better serve the market of more than 250 million rural consumers across India, who lack reliable access to safe water,\u201d says Koenig.<\/p>\n

\"Rajasthan\"<\/a>
Koenig, background, on a visit to Rajasthan, India
Photo courtesy of Wello<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After spending much of the last five years in India, Koenig is now based in New York City, growing the business with new products \u2014 like a filter that purifies water as it rolls in the WaterWheel \u2014 and expansion into Africa and other parts of the developing world.<\/p>\n

Koenig never set out to be a social entrepreneur. Nor did she come to Trinity to study anthropology. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know what it was,\u201d she says. But the study of human societies and cultures proved to be a practical choice. \u201cIt gave me multiple lenses \u2014 political, economic, cultural \u2014 with which to view the world,\u201d she says. \u201cI realized we are more similar than dissimilar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koenig\u2019s adviser, Professor of Anthropology James Trostle, was particularly influential in inspiring her \u201cto get curious about the world and take risks,\u201d she says. Trostle was impressed with Koenig for \u201cthe clarity of her focus on applied international development issues.\u201d At his urging, she studied sustainable international development in Costa Rica and taught English in China after graduation. \u201cBoth experiences were instrumental in shaping my future,\u201d she says. \u201cI developed a love of travel and learning about new cultures, as well as the confidence to follow a nontraditional career path.\u201d<\/p>\n

By her own admission, Koenig\u2019s success \u2014 launching a design and innovation company in a foreign country with no design or manufacturing experience \u2014 is an unlikely one. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t need those skills at the start,\u201d she says. \u201cMy background in anthropology and business was ideal for Wello\u2019s discovery and design stages.\u201d As the business matured, so did her skill set and her team.<\/p>\n

\"wheel\"<\/a>
Cynthia Koenig \u201900, founder and CEO of Wello, with a WaterWheel at a Gujarat, India, factory where the company made its first prototype
Photo courtesy of Wello<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michael Gordon, Koenig\u2019s mentor and a University of Michigan business professor, agrees that Koenig\u2019s success is exceptional. \u201cVery few social entrepreneurs have built a successful enterprise in a foreign country and then negotiated an exit strategy, like Cynthia did with Nilkamal.\u201d And Gordon should know. He recently interviewed more than 100 social entrepreneurs for his soon-to-be-published book, What I Wish I Knew Then: Becoming a Social Entrepreneur<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of sleepless nights,\u201d says Koenig on starting her business. With few models to follow and having to negotiate the bureaucracy of another culture, she learned to be patient and to trust her instincts. She urges other would-be social entrepreneurs to gain firsthand experience with the problems they are trying to solve.<\/p>\n

When not working on solutions to the world\u2019s water crisis, Koenig is climbing other mountains. Literally. Later this year, she will join an expedition to scale Mount Aconcagua, South America\u2019s highest peak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cynthia Koenig \u201900 and her WaterWheel are making a difference in the world By Mary Howard Six hours a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"parent":1464,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-full-width.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3472\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}