A social enterprise or social business is a business that has specific social objectives that serve its primary purpose. Social enterprises seek to maximize profits while maximizing benefits to society and the environment. Their profits are invested back into their social programs.

In this episode, my guest Kirti Poonia, who heads Okhai, takes us through the ins and outs of running a social enterprise. While we all generally assume for a non-profit organisation to be laid back and to produce sub-standard products under the name of charity, Kirti is determined for Okhai to have high productivity internally, high expectations externally and very very high delivery to the customers.

By identifying the inherent skills of the women in Gujrat and developing the ‘milk route’ that enables them to make a living respectfully by working from home, Okhai has managed to replicate this model in almost all states of India to foster craft and artisan empowerment.

Today, Okhai has helped improve the economic conditions of around 3200 people directly, and aims to be a lakh strong in the next 5 years.

Don’t miss this episode as this is probably the only business in fashion that has not only managed to survive but also grow in this global unrest caused by the pandemic.