My work for Better World Idea Competition

In 2016, I took part in The First better World Idea Competition. It was the first competition that I won a prize. This competition is not about marketing communication, but I think all competitions are worth trying and participating as all works are about solving a problem. Therefore, I want to share my work in 2016 to you this time.

The subject of the competition was to solve a problem with clever ideas, which could be policies, technologies and so on, for the better world. What we focused was clothes boxes on the streets.  Almost all of the boxes were saying clothes donated in the box were used for the poor, but the reality was pretty different. It was private property owned by private entrepreneurs and they were using those to make money. people who got some clothes from a box to avoid the cold was charged for stealing private property in reality. Moreover, many clothes boxes were jumbled up close together without being managed by the governments at the time.

Luckily, It was a timely issue as Anti-corruption & Civil Rights Commission advised local governments to improve and solve the situation. So we decided to come up with an idea to solve the problem and make the better world.

The key issues on the problem was to make clothes boxes function well as a way to help the poor in a proper management.

In the process of communicating with each other, we seized the chance of connecting a solution to the elderly roaming around the streets to pick up waste paper. We thought they had enough time to manage boxes and they could be a good source of income for the elderly.

Considering poverty and a lack of jobs in the elderly picking up waste paper on the streets is also serious problem. We believe it was a good association which can solve each problem at the same time.

So, we came up with the solution of giving the elderly the authority to manage clothes boxes.

Here is the specific solution suggested in the report.

The concept falls into three steps overall.

The first step is to separate a region into zones according to the specific number of clothes boxes so that a person in charge can properly manage the boxes.

The second step is to select people who will be responsible for managing them depending on the level of the support that they are getting from the governments.

The last step is to establish system of helping the elderly in charge can enter into partnership with junk shops nearby, so that they can have stable dealers for clothes that they got from the boxes.

Considering the price of used clothes at the time, we thought it wouldn't be a big burden for local governments in terms of budget. According to our calculation, it was just one hundred fifty thousand won that the local government have to pay provided that a person in charge sell 1 ton of used clothes.

We thought every player in the program can get benefits. I don't want bore you with the details...

In addition, We thought just the system alone could not solve the problem that some clothes boxes were perceived as trash cans, which can make the elderly difficult when managing the boxes. So, we ended up thinking new clothes boxes needed to set up on the streets with a new design.

The above is a prototype. I know it is quite flimsy, but please just focus on the intention.

To vitalize the program, we figured some guidance were necessary. So, we suggested putting a map about locations of the new clothes boxes in websites of local governments.

Personal Comment
At the time when I submitted the report and gave a presentation with it. I thought it was a great idea. After I got a prize I sent this paper to diverse local governments through the function in websites of them, Proposal. The result? Yeah the proposal was rejected. Looking back, however, the idea was not appropriate for a governmental program.
I think the main agent which can control and handle the elderly in charge is necessary in the program, but the local governments themselves won't want to be the agent because It takes so much time and efforts to build and maintain the system. This program would need over one person consistently. Sadly, their workforce is limited. If the benefits of this program was huge for them, they would change their organizational structures. However, the benefits are not that big objectively. The idea lacks the discussion about it.
I think it would have been better if this idea had been about societal corporation, not the governmental program because if an organization get in get in charge of dealing with issues when managing the program, it would be easier for them to accept. All they need to consider is budget and the effectiveness of it. Nevertheless, there are so many things to consider to realize this idea in the form of societal corporation. For example, the right for survival of existing organizations would be a big issue as they are also small entrepreneurs. Employees in the company would lose their jobs. If so, would it be effective and efficient in the shoes of the local governments? I am not sure of it. In their shoes, looking for a way to control and regulate them would be better as it costs less. For these reasons, I don't think it was a good idea. Although, however, it was not a good idea, I am sure this process of planning something, reviewing and learning will definitely leads me to better results.