Soni Ferdinandus
Case Western Reserve University - Weatherhead School of Management
Chris Laszlo
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Danone AQUA is a bottled water company in Indonesia that has developed a sustainable program by encouraging the empowerment of women, which is called AQUA HOME SERVICE (AHS). AQUA HOME SERVICE is a long-term partnership concept between Danone AQUA and AQUA Ladies, who are in charge of running the business to distribute its products directly to end users, especially household consumers. Danone AQUA has a social-business mission in which it can generate business sales and at the same time, also encourage women in the community to be entrepreneurs.
Clean water is important for public health in areas of Indonesia where access to clean water, especially drinking water, is still a big problem. AQUA approached housewives in several communities to join the AQUA ladies program to become official AQUA business partners. AQUA encourages these AQUA ladies to contribute more to their communities by educating them about the family hydration campaign in order for these ladies to be able to educate other families. This campaign encourages people to consume clean water which they can get from bottled water rather than drinking unhealthy tap water. AQUA also used this program to encourage women’s empowerment by offering AQUA ladies the opportunity to increase their income by selling AQUA products without leaving their home so that they can still care for their family.
Clean water is essential for family health in areas of Indonesia where many families do not have access to clean water. Housewives play a vital role in maintaining family health, especially through the use of clean drinking water. Poverty is also a big issue in Indonesia, especially for women, but this can be minimized by giving job opportunities to women who are unemployed. This issue is one of Danone AQUA’s biggest concerns, to empower women to improve their family welfare. AQUA sees possibilities for reducing poverty by providing business opportunities to housewives, without requiring them to sacrifice their primary responsibility of taking care of home activities. These housewives can sell the products of AQUA in their own home to the community around them.
Danone AQUA Indonesia contributes to improving the quality of life of women in Indonesia, especially that of the poor and unemployed women by offering them a job opportunity to become distributors of Danone Aqua in many neighborhoods. By joining this program, the AQUA Ladies are able to generate at least as much as the national minimum wage to support their families. The Aqua Ladies also educate the communities around them about healthy hydration, especially regarding the quality of household drinking water. This program will improve individual's health quality by teaching them the importance of good drinking water.
Aqua Home Service (AHS) contributes not only to society, including its potential customers, but also increases Danone Aqua’s revenue since this program was launched. Danone Aqua generates an additional 14% in sales of general trade (GT) within its overall business. Danone has also expanded its distribution channel using AHS to enlarge the market share in the drinking water business.
This innovation reduces the unemployment rate because this program encourages entrepreneurship for unemployed women and for each AHS stall one additional employee is hired. Danone Aqua currently has approximately 30.000 AHS stalls, meaning this program has provided an additional 60.000 jobs thus far. Furthermore, this program also improves the health quality of citizens by promoting the benefit of consuming clean water rather than tap water or processed drinks.
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