The past Wednesday, I had the opportunity of attending a Rose Cafe where Professor Garrick Blalock was talking about how difficult it is to change a population’s habit even if the population knows that it is the best option. Because this is my second year participating in the Rose Scholars program, this is my second time going to a discussion about this topic. Although I had heard this before, there were some more things that I took away from this discussion that I had previously missed. The entire process of adapting to a new platform or more specifically replacing a current way of life, is difficult. Prof.Blalock’s experience is not unique to one situation, rather it is representative of the difficulties of product adoption.

Prof.Blalock had gone to Uganda to help people adopt a new and healthier option of cook stoves. The current cook stoves that many people in Uganda used were very inefficient and hazardous to their health. The new cook stoves were not only more energy efficient and healthy but they also took less time away from an individual. For example with the old cook stoves, the women would go to the forests to find fire wood, thereby spending a large portion of their day on one task. If they adopt the new cook stoves, there would be less time spent going to the forest to search for fire wood, leaving more time for other things. One of the interesting things was that even though the people were educated on the benefits of the new stoves, they did not incorporate it in their lives. One of the first things that comes to my head for adopting a new technology is to make sure it is at a right price point for the target market. Prof. Blalock’s team had created financing solutions which made it easier for people to purchase the stoves. Although they had covered most of the hindrances to adopting a new technology, the people did not seem to adopt it. It is interesting to try to understand what really stops an individual from using a new technology. Although it is a complicated question, part of the reason might be that people care a lot about short term benefits. Overall, I found the discussion very intriguing and thought provoking.