Pei Sien Poh
Professor Martin
d.light Case Study

Executive Summary d.light is a social global enterprise providing affordable solar-powered solutions designed for the two billion individuals in the developing world without access to reliable energy, founded by Sam Goldman and Ned Tozun. There are offices located in Africa, China, South Asia, and the United States. d.light has successfully improving lives of over 50 million people by selling over 10 million solar light and power products in 62 countries. d.light’s dedication is to provide the most reliable, affordable, and accessible solar lighting and power systems for developing world, with a goal of reaching 100 million individuals by 2020 ("About Us," n.d.). For Profit or Non- Profit? “d.light is dedicated to providing distributed solar energy solutions for households and small businesses that transform the way people all over the world use and pay for energy ("About Us," n.d.).” The mission of d.light is mainly focusing on providing distributed solar energy to households and small businesses. Unlike missions of other organizations, d.light does not mention that one of its mission, nor its goal and vision, is to provide a return for its stakeholders. Therefore, based on what d.light is doing, it is reasonable to turn d.light into a non-profit organization. However, before making decision on which module to apply on d.light, the organization must understand the difference between for profit and non-profit organization. One of the largest differences is source of capital. The current situation for d.light is shortage on high liquidity assets, in other words, cash. A for profit company receives its capital from investors who often look for short term return, but it hardly fits d.light’s identity as a social enterprise. In addition, there are not many investors willing to invest a large amount of capital into a social enterprise. First, the return is not guaranteed, especially for a social enterprise. Second, even though investors are willing to take the risks, they are lack of patience, since “social return” is not as immediate as regular cash returns. Another thing to consider is that, if d.light decided to adopt the non-profit module, then where should the organization seek for funds and donations? The process of receiving legal funding and donations might take long, especially from governments. Can d.light survive with cash shortage while enduring the “arrival” of funds? How much does d.light can get from it? Secondly, if it switched from for profit module to non-profit module, its accounting system must switch accordingly as well, since proper financial statements are needed while seeking for funds and donations. If either module does not work quite well for d.light, then why does not d.light create another organization (assuming d.light has enough resources for now)? One is for profit and the other is non-profit. The for profit organization could raise money from capitalists, but the first criteria is that these investors are aligned with d.light’s social mission and vision, willing to be patient for their “social return” from investment. d.light may pay a royalty for the shareholders for every product is sold, if the investors seek for short term return "Should Your Business Be Nonprofit or For-Profit?". The for profit organization would be able to focus and be responsible for works that are capital intensive, such as manufacturing, research and development, sales, and distribution. This allows d.light keep focus on the bottom pyramid market, while producing and selling solar lamps and lights to regular consumers, such as offices and homes that stress for sustainable work and living environments. On the other side, the non-profit organization may focus on the safety issues of those who are at the bottom of the pyramid. It may help training the locals for selling its products, educating the locals, administer and evaluating the process "Should Your Business Be Nonprofit or For-Profit?". It is hard to create a social enterprise, but it is harder to keep operating the social enterprise. Yet, human intelligence has the ability to create every possibility. If either module for a social enterprise, then why not combine both modules into one, and fill in each module’s weakness? Lastly, the difficulty and efficiency of combining modules is heavily depend on the level of cash shortage that d.light is facing. Works Cited
"About Us." D.light Design. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.
"Should Your Business Be Nonprofit or For-Profit?" Harvard Business Review. N.p., 01 Feb. 2013. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.