The Jaab Design Company: The "Cool" Original Hand Painted Cards...

After sharing my project idea with business-savvy Aunt Bonnie on Monday morning, she immediately phoned her friend Mrs. Judith Saengprathum (Mrs. S), CEO of The Jaab Design Company, for us to meet. On that Wednesday, I started my transit from the highly congested Saphan Khwai district, maneuvered my way through Bangkok’s infamous bottle-neck traffic, and made discrete left and right turns onto several Sois (Thai word for ‘small street’) to finally arrive at the company’s homely headquarters. Seated in her office, Mrs. S and I discussed everything Jaab (Thai slang for ‘cool’)…

I invite you to browse through the selection of The Jaab Design Company cards, one of which I have sampled for you below. If our aesthetic tastes are remotely similar to each other's, you are to fall in love with these cards (I say this without any intention of influencing you ;). Reading the back flap of each card will give you even more reasons to enjoy these social works of art:

"Part of the proceeds goes to: The Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer Foundation who run a Breast Cancer Outreach Project that offers Breast Cancer education, screening and treatment to Underprivileged women in Thailand.

Also supporting:
· Traditional Thai Handicraft
· Fair Trade employment for women
· Environmentally safe Thai mulberry paper"

After having been in the fashion industry for most of her career, Mrs. S fueled her business idea from the materialistic excesses produced by the 80s’ and 90s’. Mrs. S moved from the UK to the Lat Phrao suburb of Bangkok on a contract with Channel in 1996. During her first few months in Bangkok, she was disturbed by the living conditions in the slums and decided to dedicate her time to help alleviate the poverty level within these geographic confinements. She met a couple from New Zealand who had given up their privileged lives to live amongst the slum villagers and who made their living by teaching their neighbors how to produce mulberry paper, a traditional Thai product made from fibers from the bark of the mulberry tree.

Mrs. S developed the business idea of selling greeting cards crafted on mulberry paper by an underprivileged population. She brought art supplies and her card designs to the Suan Plu slum and essentially outsourced the production of her cards to the local slum dwellers. Business was running smoothly until the slum suddenly caught on fire on April 23, 2004. Hundreds of people lost their homes and Mrs. S had lost all of her investments. Fortunately charities and civil society groups were organized to assist the victims of the big fire and Mrs. S moved her business a little closer to home…

Mrs. S’ neighborhood is neither affluent nor comparable to Bangkok’s many slums. Its population dances around the margin, which means that there are individuals who fall above the margin and those who fall short of it. Unfortunately, these are the communities which are often overlooked by local governments as the income inequality is buffered by the average GDP of both the better off and the not-so-well off. The most vulnerable group within this community includes young women with either or all of the following characteristics:

a. Come from low-income families
b. Sexually abused
c. Pregnant and disowned

Mrs. S took it personally when she discovered that her housekeeper lived in an illegal house (landlord rented out 8 rooms to different individuals/families) and was pregnant with her first child at the age of 16. Mrs. S gradually converted her home into the headquarters and working studio of The Jaab Design Company. She reached out to local girls of her community who were looking for employment and set out to teach them the business of card production in exchange for a generous package. Mrs. S also has offered the young women the opportunity to move up the business. For example she sent one of the girls to night school to develop her computer skills.

Mrs. S now has a full staff with an executive assistant, an accountant, a chief painter, and usually about12 ‘makers’ at a time. The card production process is modeled after a ladder system:
Mrs. S designs each card -> the chief painter reproduces it and gets it approved by Mrs. S -> the chief painter teaches the makers how to mass produce them.

The mass production does not require any use of machines or modern technology. Each card is hand-painted by the makers, placed on drying racks and packaged in sets of 6. They are then sent to the 13 outlets in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Int’l Airport or sent to their happy owners all over the globe who place their orders online.

Although today’s economic recession has provided a great challenge company operations, The Jaab Design Company has managed to retain its head over water. The gross profits earned from the net card sales, are distributed accordingly:

• 10% of it goes directly to the The Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer Foundation
• Each young woman earns a salary equivalent to Thailand’s minimum wage (210 baht per day, or approximately 7 US dollars), social security benefits, healthcare, sick and maternity leave, and rice for lunch.
• Overhead cost, but relatively low with help of internet sales
• Business tax
• Mrs. S' salary

Being that the definition of a social business remains an ongoing debate, it is always challenging to categorize any organization as a social business. So is The Jaab Design Company a social business? In my humble opinion, it is a loud 'yes'.