The Power of Creative Constraints

What if a hospital decided to serve anyone who came to its doors, regardless of whether they could pay, and still committed to providing world-class quality care? Can such a self-imposed constraint actually help drive innovation? And what if that constraint is geared toward solving a problem of global proportions, without any outside funding? An almost incomprehensibly ambitious vision to rid the world of curable blindness may sound like a vision doomed to fail. Yet more than 35 years after the first Aravind Eye Clinic was set up in South India, one man's mission to rid the world of this form of suffering is surpassing even the most optimistic expectations. This article describes how a precisely defined set of creative constraints became the basis for a world-class organization characterized by all the hallmarks of sustainability -- financial health, massive scale, continued relevance, and longevity -- proving that compassion and business can indeed be compatible.

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