Shreyas Joshi
Monash University
Gitanjali Bedi
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The innovation of Secret Sisterhood lies in their unique logo on every jewellery piece they sell, which characterizes creating change and being recognizable. 100% of profits are donated towards women's charity to empower women out of poverty and give them quality education and promote gender equality. Every piece they sell, the margin of profit goes to women's charity, working on empowering women across the globe.
The innovation of Secret Sisterhood is the unique product, business model and vehicle of social change. Developing the business along with her boyfriend Colin, and other two employees, Ray and Sarita, Jacquie developed the idea of business for social change into the reality.
Secret Sisterhood stands out from the rest of the jewellery businesses due to its symbol of the female with a heart on it. Jacquie loves to call it a “symbol of sisterhood.” The mission statement of the business is to create a change to empower. Their range of products includes the founding sister necklace, which is worn by women and girls who wish to champion the sisterhood movement; the sisterhood symbol jewellery; and the intentions words jewellery to spread love, kindness, and gratitude. The jewellery is designed in Australia and produced in India.
The business model of Secret Sisterhood is very different from the other jewellery-making businesses. The main objective of Secret Sisterhood is donating 100% of profits generated to the charities for women across the world. The revenue is reinvested into the business to run the operations. The main aim of Secret Sisterhood is to address the SDGs through zero poverty and providing quality education to women to achieve gender equality. Uplifting the conditions of women across the world is on the agenda and heading towards a better world with equality and no poverty.
The profits generated are used as a vehicle to create social change. All the profits are donated to charities across Australia that are working for women's empowerment. The profits are donated to the various charities across the globe such as Grameen Australia, UN Women, White Ribbon, Malala fund, One Girl, and Entrust foundation, addressing issues like women's education, family violence, and human trafficking.
Inspired by the work of Malala Yousufzai for women, Jacquie Love, a fashion designing student, took an assignment on the human trafficking problem of women. Jacquie came across the devastating confronting conditions of women and the vicious cycle they are in of getting married at a young age and having children, which halts their education. As she quotes, “It was eye-opening.” Driven by social change initiatives, Jacquie decided to start her own business enterprise, which will create profits so that she can work for the underprivileged women across the world.
The unique business model of the Secret Sisterhood set up the platform for Jacquie to generate profits through the selling of different types of jewellery, with each design having the purpose attached to it. The sales of the jewellery helped in generating funds to uplift and empower women from gender discrimination. Associating with the Malala event in Australia put Secret Sisterhood on the map. The proceeds and profits were donated towards the Malala fund to educate more and more girls. Domestically Secret Sisterhood got much recognition for their work in fighting against domestic violence affecting women.
The personal high point for the business, as Jacquie said, “It’s not just about a piece of jewellery, people are celebrating the sisterhood and spreading the happiness and awareness,” and the feedback speaks about our achievement.
More than two years old, Secret Sisterhood is making its name in the market for their unique designs and social cause-driven initiatives. In the initial days of the business, when the business was not making profits, Jacquie was donating certain percentages to keep her commitment towards the main objective, sometimes sacrificing her own happiness. While doing promotions and ideas to generate sales, the lucrative discounts in other services for Secret Sisterhood members gained a lot of popularity for the brand. The association with international charities expanded Secret Sisterhood’s network.
Through Secret Sisterhood, Jacquie is working towards creating awareness among people regarding the Sustainable Development Goals. Working towards gender equality and no poverty, the business is educating people regarding gender equality benefits for future generations. When asked about why women’s issues, her reply was, “We deal with so many issues just because we are born a certain gender,” which is self -introspective for everyone.
Along with addressing the change, what it's achieving is customer satisfaction and awareness about choosing the businesses which are working towards sustainability. Jacquie and her team are fully committed to creating a better world where every part of society is equal.
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