The FABINDIA Model: Gandhi Lives

There is a company called FABINDIA that collects and markets the handicrafts of rural Indians. It's not the Indian version of Cost Plus World Market. The owners of the company believe in this handicraft form of manufacturing. They recognize that they are enabling a certain way of life to survive. They accept that the urban-drone model is not the only path of development for a society--which old societal patterns do not necessarily have to disappear as a culture modernizes. FABINDIA was founded, ironically, by an American--a buyer from the Macy's chain, John Bissell. That he, and subsequently his son, could keep a view that departs from the spirit of the age is admirable. Most of the time entrepreneurs lack a social conscience. Of late many seem to have installed one in the form of environmental consciousness, but this has adhered so closely to the herd-mind that it hardly counts as innovative thinking. On the other hand, those who recognize something in extant folkways worth preserving can be painfully ignorant of the world's realities. They can act; or rather react, as if economic dimensions don't exist.

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Contributed By:
Sumit Choudhury - PGDM 6
Marketing - Major
(Globsyn Business School)