Purpose Over Profit
Social enterprises exist to tackle social problems, but they are always struggling with making money and attracting investments. Therefore, social enterprises are seldom able to scale and create a more widespread impact in the society. Diamond Cab, a social enterprise that offers barrier-free taxi transportation for wheelchair users in Hong Kong, have seen challenges since a decade ago when it began operation; yet none of these challenges have beaten Founder and Chief Executive Officer Doris Leung, who vows to keep the business alive and bring in new services to serve physically disabled people.
Doris Leung, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Cab
A personal need
The story of Diamond Cab started from a personal need. Leung’s mother was diagnosed with brain cancer which greatly affected her physical movements. “I did not know how difficult it was for wheelchaired people to commute within the city until I have become a carer,” Leung recalls. “Finding transportation to and from the hospital for my mother made me aware of the deteriorating dignity and quality of life of the physically disabled.”
She began to work with Social Venture Hong Kong, an organization that seeks to invest capital in and provide capacity building and results measuring to social enterprises, to set up a point-to-point transportation service for wheelchair users.
A vision
“In Hong Kong, only licensed taxis and hire cars are allowed legally to take paid passengers,” Leung explains. While hire cars require the government to issue permits on a car-by-car basis, taxi licenses can be traded in the open market. She therefore decided to partner with a taxi license holder to kick start. “I also envisioned that other taxi license holders will see the market potential and copy our business model.” That is the difference between a “purpose-over-profit” social entrepreneur and a profit-driven businessman – Leung is not looking to monopolize the market but to enlarge it so that more wheelchaired people can be benefited.
Yet, conventional taxis are not wheelchair accessible. Leung not only needed to find a taxi license owner who shares her vision, but also a car dealer to import appropriate and legally approved vehicles.
A start
After three years of brainstorming, pitching and preparation work, Diamond Cab was finally launched in 2011. Previously,wheelchair users could hardly make immediate bookings of the Accessible Hire Car or Rehab Bus operated by the Hong Kong Society of Rehabilitation, or order privately-owned modified vans which are not licensed, regulated or insured to provide passenger services. The launch of Diamond Cab, even with just a handful of taxis, has surfaced the huge demand for barrier free taxi service. They broke even in the second year of operation and received corporate sponsorships and advertising contracts that lasted a few years.
“We won a few awards and got quite some media attention at the beginning,” Leung remembers. “But by the fourth and fifth year, car maintenance fees have jetted up.” What added to the operational pressures was that she was right, a large taxi group SynCab entered the market with a fleet of wheelchair accessible taxis. “They have certainly taken some business away from Diamond Cab. Combined with the end of the advertising contracts, we were in trouble. But still I felt happy that SynCab finally made the move to import more barrier free taxis.”
A hiccup
The rent and commission collected from the drivers could barely sustain the business with a small but round-the-clock call center. Leung was so stressed out that she even took up the office cleaning work herself to save operational costs. Her body could not take it any longer and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has become a Diamond Cab passenger herself.
“Luckily a new advertising contract saved Diamond Cab.” Leung delegated her role to a colleague and took a break to fight cancer. Now that she is back, the company has sought new capital from the taxi license holding partner to keep the business running. “We have created an irreversible trend. Although there is another taxi company who offers similar services, their drivers are not having the same commitment to the disabled passengers.” Leung stresses that Diamond Cab drivers never cancel orders that they have taken, and she will not close the company.
As a step further to show their care to the underprivileged, she has even rolled out Diamond Leisure, a program that takes disabled elderly nursing home residents to concerts and karaoke in the evening. “There are usually fewer orders at night so we take them out to enjoy life, giving them a ‘prison break’,” she jokes.
A diamond
“Diamonds are usually associated with rarity, preciousness and eternity. We believe that every passenger, even with physical disability, is a diamond who deserves love and care.” Leung says that disabled people always feel unloved and worthless, and consider themselves a burden to others. She wants to turn around that negative self image by providing her customers mobility and opportunities to travel around town.
Talking about the future plan, Leung plans to tap into the middle-class elderly market. “We are planning for a new service to not only drive passengers around for sightseeing and fun, but also have someone accompany them.” To grow the business, she hopes the government can establish new policy to facilitate the import of wheelchair accessible taxis.
A future
“By 2030, a quarter of the Hong Kong population will be aged 65 or above,” Leung says. That means two million people. “Even if there are only 1% of them use wheelchairs, there are 20,000 potential customers.”
It is never easy to run a business. It is even more difficult for purpose-over-profit social enterprises. But since environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance has increasingly topped many corporate agendas in recent years given that ESG criteria have become an important consideration in investing, this positive trend could bring the objectives of investors and social enterprises closer together. Only time will tell.