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  • July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
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Vineet Nayar and Sampark Foundation: Frugal Innovation at Scale (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:28
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Abstract

In 2005, Vineet Nayar, the former CEO and Vice Chairman of HCL Technologies, and his wife, Anupama Nayar, committed $100 million of their personal wealth to found Sampark Foundation—a grant-making philanthropy with a mission to transform learning outcomes for 20 million children in rural government schools by 2025. By 2013, it was clear that Sampark was never going to reach 20 million children by writing grants. Vineet stepped out of the corporate world and over the next six years, applied the lessons he learned about leading change at HCL to transform Sampark into a “disruptive design shop” that leveraged frugal innovation and a “Teachers First” model of change to revolutionize India’s primary education system. By 2019, at $1 per child per annum, Sampark’s 130 employees had touched the lives of over 7 million students and 200,000 teachers across 90,000 public schools—unprecedented scale in the Indian education context and evidence that their “Teachers First” strategy was working. Demand for Sampark’s program was growing rapidly and Vineet now had the opportunity to reach 50 million children. Vineet had always believed in the transformative power of technology and had to determine whether Sampark could transition to a “Digital First” model.

Keywords

Organizational Behavior; Organizational Alignment; Culture Change; Digital; Innovation; Experimentation; Metrics; Education Reform; Non-profit; Frugal Innovation; Scale; Ecosystem; Government; Education; Social Enterprise; Leadership; Leading Change; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Alignment; Innovation Leadership; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Technology; Digital Transformation; India

Citation

Hill, Linda A., and Emily Tedards. "Vineet Nayar and Sampark Foundation: Frugal Innovation at Scale (A) (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 421-021, July 2020. (Revised January 2021.)
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About The Author

Linda A. Hill

Organizational Behavior
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Related Work

    • July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
    • Faculty Research

    Vineet Nayar and Sampark Foundation: Frugal Innovation at Scale (A) (Abridged)

    By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards
Related Work
  • Vineet Nayar and Sampark Foundation: Frugal Innovation at Scale (A) (Abridged) By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards
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