Innovation

The innovating company, Matita, consists of an ecological pencil with a double purpose: to write and at the end of its use, it will generate a plant. The principal innovation of Matita is to implement an engraving on a seed so that when it grows, the image would appear on the first leaf. The engraved seed is encapsulated in the pencil that must be planted in a pot once the pencil has come to use no longer, so that afterwards we can use the seed to have a plant emerge.

The engineer, Manuel Garcia, explained that the innovation began unexpectedly, but it was thanks to the combination of a series of ideas that everything began. It all started when Manuel worked with people in an agribusiness company that wasted raw material and were not efficient. “We would throw away a lot of grains and beans; that is where I found the opportunity of business.” That is when he started to look for a way to use the seeds in the form of transformation, which consisted in looking for a manner to insert images and names.

On one occasion, Manuel tried to label a USB memory stick that he needed for a report in the university. At this moment, he connected his ideas and began to be more interested on how to record an image on the seeds with the elements and machines that he has already used: “And then I thought, ‘What will happen?’. So, I started to investigate the type of seeds, their growth, their methods of emerging, analyzed the kind of seeds with the best quality to imprint and which would give me the sought-after effect. This brought me to grow and obtain positive results”.

Proceeding with the investigation, he found in Croatia a pencil in which there was a seed implanted and used the same idea to pack his seeds with engravings, inserting them in the eraser section inside a capsule that would activate once it contacts water. “The interesting part here was not simply packing the seed and letting it grow a plant, but that the plant would have an effect of having an image with the logotype and the image that one desired”.

Having that innovating idea, he could start his business initially selling to his classmates from the university, which they thought was a very good product. The innovation has a relationship with the mission, purpose, and significance that Manuel had; a person interested in using his available resources with an ecologic objective through the company Matita, where the seed did not go through any type of damage throughout the process of the engravings.

Inspiration

Manuel's original idea started with the passion he had as a young boy towards gardening and botany: “I have always liked to have plants in my home, especially ornamental and since I was a kid I enjoyed to grow, for example, radishes and cucumbers. I would get excited watching them grow as a plant and be able to eat them”. In a similar way, Manuel mentions that he had the opportunity to come in contact with the production and market of seeds in a region where he discovered that the people didn’t appreciate the value of the peas that they would grow. “When a producer had a bag of peas in his hands that had a cost of ten Mexican pesos, he would only see the seeds, while I would see money, I would see millions of Mexican pesos in that simple bag”.

That was when Manuel realized he truly loved the process of the transformation of raw material and felt a duty to begin a deep investigation unlike other people who would have the idea but never develop it. His goal of creating a micro-enterprise grew over time and Manuel started learning from different companies. Throughout his entrepreneurship, he would look at corporations that he would dream of working in or to develop in some day and think about having his own business. Down the road, he always had an attitude of persistence and discipline that would help him complete his dream of starting his business, Matita. Regardless of how many people doubted his invention, he kept knocking on doors offering his product as a way of publicity where the companies try to insert their logotype as a stamp on a plant. “Don’t resist, if you are going to start something, don't let it be until the very end because there are going to be a lot of people that will tell you that it will not work. In these 5 years, the only things that I have found are boundaries, but the art is to jump them”.

After having the first sales of his product, he was approached by different companies. This allowed him to learn from successful people and also turned out to be part of his inspiration that helped him achieve something big. “It was really after this that I received advice of people that were where I wanted to be”. Ultimately, the combination of his desire in plants and his urge to create his own company were the principle factors that helped Manuel manufacture Matita.

Overall impact

The impact of the innovation of Matita, is principally built with the ecologic education and supports the realization of “green publicity”. These days, it’s fundamental that all companies be interested in generating a market that does not harm our planet and can create awareness to the consumers about the importance of sustainability. Manuel mentioned that his main clients are Mexican companies that impact the world socially and ecologically.

Just like that, Matita is a company that has impacted society with their social responsibility and found a way to help a specific sector of people of scarce recourses: the penitentiaries. For the product, Manuel decided that the last process of fabrication in Matita should be made handcrafted. Therefore the pricing is such that it helps to compensate people for the time it takes for the elaboration and is able to help the crafters re-adapt to society. “So then, it is then when I see the opportunity to have these handmade products them be elaborated in the penitentiaries and this is where I’m heading.”

Another important social impact that Manuel has had is to support the association Miriam & Eric, kids with cerebral palsy with low resources. Manuel spoke with the president and made an agreement to provide a certain amount of earnings of sold pencils.“This part of the responsibility is simply not just make a product to enrich and generate riches, but we must also find a way to help and have a cause to stand for.”

Business benefit

The principle benefit that the innovation brought to Matita was that it turned into the company that fabricates the only pencil in the world that once it’s planted generates a plant with a message or image imprinted on its first leaf. The strategy of sale started with the utility of the electronic marketing, which made it possible to sell to all of the Mexican Republic and make it to the Chilean and Costa Rican market. They sold the products through their official Matita page, making it it’s principle form of marketing and income generation for the past five years. They obtain an earning of thirty-five Mexican pesos per pencil and twenty Mexican pesos per wholesale. The benefit lies also in having a double win thanks to the use of third parties in the process of fabrication.

Social and environmental benefit

The benefit of the innovation brought the community a possibility of having a product that can be used with endless educational centers or as a gift for a loved one, since it requires enough care to fulfill with its correct purpose. In Matita, they are always finding the way to satisfy the clients through the fun, eco-friendly and innovating product, since the pencil not only generates no waste from its growth in its inner eraser, but forms a decorative plant that will eventually become a supply of oxygen.

Interview

Manuel García Campa, Matita