Call of the Mountains
“We didn’t set out to start an enterprise. The Good Doll was accidental,” confesses Suhas Ramegowda, cofounder of this conscious business. “Seven years ago, we quit our city jobs and headed to the Nilgiris to get away from limiting societal and administration structures. We chose to build our dream home on the mountain, living in contact with wild animals and consuming natural resources – water from the mountain stream and solar energy. We chose this kind of living. The people from the local community were concerned about our safety, thinking of us as foolish city folk. They had to pass our home to catch the one bus that took them to and from work. They would come bearing gifts like pumpkins and bunches of bananas while checking on us. Some would help us with our farming as we grew our produce. They’d worked alongside, and we had meals together. As we got integrated into the local community, we realised there was a livelihood issue, and the problem became personal for us.”
Toying with an Idea
Suhas and Sunita were keen to create dignified jobs for the community that would provide equitable income. What the couple lacked in experience as entrepreneurs or development sector expertise, they made up by applying common sense. “We started learning from the ecosystem and our own mistakes. The conventional donor-dependent NGO route was not for us. So, the solution needed to be commerce-driven. This required a product, and it had to be tied to the environment as that was the life we had chosen,” explains Suhas. When a friend’s child questioned why the Barbies she plays with don’t look like her and vice versa, it got the couple thinking. “We realised that the concept of toys in the Indian market today, including dolls, is borrowed from either the West or China. Sunita had played with rag dolls made by her grandmother, growing up. In fact, that was what was available to us back then in many of our homes. The arrival of plastics wiped these toys out. We kept getting feedback that indicated a need in the market for handmade toys. Sunita, being a crafts practitioner, started working to meet this need. Putting the problem and concept together, we started off with a small batch of sustainable fabric dolls. We weren’t sure the concept would take off,”admits Suhas.
Dressing for Success
To their delight, the market responded beautifully to the Good Doll, calling it the Indian Barbie. Sunita and Suhas could see that their product was solving a real problem. “We started creating new versions. Some ground rules were that the dolls had to be relatable, body positive and colour inclusive. And the garments are core to the Good Doll. They have to look real with attention to detail, so the child has a fantastic experience playing with the doll. So, we started creating garments from different regions. This again has evolved over the last one and a half years.” By upskilling and learning much of it herself, Sunita has been able to design garments that are not just authentic to different regions and aesthetically pleasing but are also practical. She’s good at passing on this knowledge to the team too,” says Suhas with quiet pride.
Getting Enterprise-Ready
The garments are now produced by a team of women from the local community at a centralised manufacturing unit in Ooty. The other production steps are completed by women in their respective homes. The couple spent the first three years building human capital with the focus entirely on skill development and capacity building. The women had to get used to working professionally and sticking to timelines to take on roles within the organisation. The more enterprising ones are nudged and given responsibilities. The positions of workflow coordinators, trainers, production supervisors and QC checkers are held by women from the community. Most importantly, they had to be able to see value in what they did for this project to succeed. “And we were able to do that. From just 5 women, the team has grown to 95. There is no canvassing or recruitment drive to get them to come. It has all happened organically through word of mouth. We take them on only when we have enough work, as we don’t want to give them false hopes. As our ability to create a market grew, we kept calling them in and upskilling, and this strengthened our credibility.” To further build capacity, full-time professionals for operations and design have been hired to streamline the efforts of the local group.
Beyond Playing House House
Working with The Good Doll has transformed the household dynamics for local women. “When they came to us, their family, including the husband and children, had been conditioned to think that these women were only meant to cook and clean. The family had no faith that they could do anything outside their home. Today, these same women are paying school fees for their kids, taking out loans to buy two-wheelers and to build homes. Starting with nothing, they now have a seat at the table. In some cases, they contribute more than their husbands, and their spouses notice that! “We see this shift when we visit them, and the husbands head to the kitchen to make us a cup of tea. Husbands conditioned over the years to think that their wives are only meant to be homemakers, are now changing because they see their spouses make a difference outside of the home. When they’re able to see their capability, they switch gears. They step in to take care of the household and children.”
Championing Sustainability
The material that goes into making The Good Doll also comes with a feel-good story. The team has tied up with a few factories, mostly in Tamil Nadu and others from Madhya Pradesh and Jaipur, to source waste material. “We work closely with several large textile-related corporations such as Synergy and Trident, where we upcycle their production waste into value, some of which they use for their CRM gifting,” elaborates Suhas. The team’s work in marketing over the last couple of years has seen positive results. “We’ve been featured by BRUT India, Better India, Startuppedia, The Hindu, ETV and other platforms. Each time we are featured, we have suppliers and customers reaching out to us!” Though they have no background in marketing, Sunita’s interesting concepts, brought alive by Suhas’s engaging stories, have helped them capture the imagination of the market.
From the Mountains to City Stores
Once their merchandise was accepted in 10 stores, the following 50 came organically for Suhas and Sunita. But to get to the 10 stores, they had to put in a lot of hard work. They’ve walked into retail outlets like door-to-door salespeople. “We were in Chennai for an event, and I walked into Chamier’s Cafe and showed our products. They loved our story and agreed to stock it!” What interests people in The Good Doll is that it’s unique, relatable and generates an emotional response that retailers believe would appeal to their customers.
Nilah, her Family and the Future
This year’s focus would be to create engaging and relatable stories through The Good Doll, Nilah, to make it a holistic experience for the users. Nilah belongs to the Nilgiris mountains, and her tale will revolve around her family, their farm and the wild animals they coexist with. “Nilah is the protagonist, featuring stories of sustainability, inclusivity, environment and adventures. The packaging will have a QR code that will lead to the stories on the site. Our mid-term focus is to develop comic books around these characters. We’re already in final talks with a leading Indian comic books publisher,” says Suhas, elaborating on their plans.
While their pitch at the Shark Tank did not get them the investment they were looking for, the very fact that they made it to this prestigious forum is proof of their success. In Suhas’s own words: “The purpose of The Good Doll has kept us current, centred and happy. We’re energised when we think of the impact of our work. Each morning, we’re waiting to jump out of bed to solve problems. It’s a very fulfilling journey for us.” The Good Doll is a perfect example of how a conscious enterprise can help its creators, the community and the planet. Here’s to many more such ventures.
You can shop for The Good Doll here thegooddoll.in
