Susan Matteucci, founder and executive director of SCC says that the operating model she created for her business evolved from her experience in the field of micro-finance.
In forming the peer lending groups Susan learned that the women in her peer group wanted to stay together, even when there was no business reason, for the social support they provided each other. Without a micro-loan business, peer groups could not give each other economic support, but they still gave each other social support.

Susan realized that if she could create an environment where employees felt connected and provided each other social support, she could create a business where they would be motivated to stay not just for the income from the job, but also for the stability they got in their family life by being part of the larger business enterprise. SCC’s social mission became a strategy that delivered lower workforce turnover as well as higher quality production that comes from having reliable employees. Susan calls the business model leading with economics.

Leading with economics means providing for employee welfare as a business need and managing its associated costs just as you would other business costs.

SCC provides employment as well as education, child care, health care and other family support services to its employees. Having given employees something they value, SCC holds them accountable to the highest standards of performance.

SCC was started in 1994. In 2004, SCC had half a million in annual revenue and was cash flow positive on an operational basis, providing full time employment to 35 women with families to support. By 2009, estimates are for revenues of two million and complete self sufficiency with no philanthropic or grant investment needed. Total grant investment in getting SCC to sustainability is expected to be approximately $3.7 million. The first $3 million achieved self sufficiency. The next $660K will fund expansion and growth on the road to achieving sustainable economics. (4)

SCC provides a stable family life to low income workers by giving them social support in addition to a job. Initially, their women employees have low skills but given training, become high performing workers while keeping SCC labor costs low. This allows SCC to provide value such as custom work to their customers cost effectively. Examples of business competitiveness that arose from a reliable workforce in this cutthroat business where they compete with off-shoring are:

• domestic on-shore production capacity to quickly produce custom orders


• flexibility and just in time delivery for custom orders


• daily drop-shipping

SCC’s social mission has given them employee loyalty and a highly motivated workforce that has led the way to creating growth and a profitable self sustaining business.

Digital Inclusion: Technology for Education

In the year 2000, Gurcharan Das made famous the story of a destitute boy living in a remote corner of India. Fourteen-year-old Raju cheerfully waited tables at a roadside village café, serving hot South Indian coffee and vadas, earning less than 40 cents/day. His mission? To take evening computer classes and one day run his own company. (5)

What is it about this story that launches the imagination?

“The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations” said Adam Smith succinctly summarizing that poverty is a result of lack of motivation. Raju’s story shows the way for climbing out of the social abyss that is poverty.

Raju was poor but not his aspirations. Raju had seen a TV show about software startups that gave him hope for his own future. Such is the miracle of technology.