R&D team
5 peopleLed research, sourcing and product work.Enactus SCMS Pune · Research and product development
Enactus · Social Enterprise
Research, sourcing and product development for student social enterprises.
Result so far
Led a five-person R&D team and negotiated a roughly 20% raw-material cost reduction for Zuri.
My contribution
As Head of R&D in 2022–2023, I led a five-person team across research, sourcing and product development for Zuri, Nicobin and Beej. With the team’s help, I also curated a shared database of AI and other online tools for our project work.
01 / The problem
Where it started.
I joined Enactus SCMS Pune in September 2021 and worked on student ventures with practical sourcing and processing problems. Nicobin explored useful products from cigarette-butt waste. Beej turned coconut shells into plant pots. I became Head of R&D in September 2022.
The decision
Work through the sourcing and processing problem behind each idea, then choose tools that help the team do the work.
The practical work behind a simple idea
Nicobin and Beej sounded straightforward when described in a sentence. Turning cigarette-butt waste into something useful, or a coconut shell into a plant pot, still raised questions about how to source and process the material.
After becoming Head of R&D, I also worked with the team on a database of AI and online tools. It gave us a shared place to look for tools that could help with research and execution. I have not measured a team-wide productivity gain from it.
02 / The approach
How I worked through it.
- 01
Understand the community need and the potential customer.
- 02
Compare materials and production options.
- 03
Negotiate sourcing costs while checking quality.
- 04
Develop product versions and decide what a pilot needs to test.
03 / The evidence
What the work produced.
Zuri sourcing
~20% lowerRaw-material cost reduction; not a claim about total venture profit.Projects
Zuri, Nicobin, BeejStudent social-enterprise work with the Enactus team.This was student-team work. The roughly 20% Zuri figure refers to raw-material sourcing; it is not venture-wide profit. Product sales, reach and tool-related time savings are not claimed here.
04 / Looking back
What I took away.
Working on these products made the practical questions harder to ignore: who would buy, how much production would cost, and whether quality would hold up.
- The people who benefit from a product and the people who pay for it may be different.
- A cheaper material is only useful if the product still meets its quality requirements.
What I would measure next
Check whether the sourcing savings can be maintained without affecting quality, then test demand through a pilot.
Scope & confidentiality
Team work is credited to Enactus SCMS Pune. Participant information and private research records are excluded.