Description
Using the design mindset, work together to construct a problem statement for the FairPhone 3 case (case file attached below)
How does this exercise help?
We are crowdsourcing ideas about this case, starting with a problem (or opportunity) statement.
Sometimes, it’s hard to see what the exact problem (or opportunity) is. Please take a look at the notebook file (attached below) for the questions and other peers’ comments to help with generating ideas that you can refine later.
What to do-
You must: Jot down an idea about the problem or opportunity you want to explore in the case
Now, amplify/expand it by answering these questions (just type your answer/idea following each sentence, adding your name or initials so we can track participation):
1. Why is it a problem or an opportunity?
2. Who has a need for this problem to be solved or for this opportunity to be maximized?
3. When does the problem or opportunity occur?
4. How is it being solved or approached today?
You can: comment on other statements, add questions to the list, expand on ideas.
NOTE & Requirements: every student in the class will collaborate together in the Class Notebook! Each of you needs to do the tasks following:
– Responded effectively to the main prompt
– Replied to or interacted with other students’ contributions
– Create a problem statement and integrate the team design work from this discussion into your problem statement: The problem/opportunity statement should be a clear, concise statement of exactly what needs to be addressed: a specific problem OR an opportunity. At most, it should be two sentences. One sentence is preferred.
You may find yourself rewriting this problem statement several times as you continue with your analysis.0
2nd NOTE: Some cases are so complicated that it is difficult to prioritize the most pressing problems for the business. Other times, the cases may not present an obvious problem, but opportunities to improve an organization always exist. You can focus on opportunities for this case study.
Try to write the problem statement in one sentence.
Avoid stating that an executive must make a decision. Pushing analysis and responsibility off to the CEO is not helpful. Your job as an analyst is to provide stakeholders with defensible and credible information.
Do not recommend any solution.
Focus on what’s important to the business.
MATERIALS:
– Wendy Mahoney: Why Disruption, Innovation and Technology are not the same | TED Talk
– How to Make a Cultural Transformation | Simon Sinek (youtube.com)
– R&D Management: Are you ready to innovate? (youtube.com)
– The art of innovation | Guy Kawasaki | TEDxBerkeley (youtube.com)
– External innovation basics from an R&D expert | Michael Ringel | TED Institute (youtube.com)
– Diffusion of Innovations (youtube.com)
Unformatted Attachment Preview
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Fairphone 3:
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Commercializing Radical Sustainability
Source: Fairphone
12/2022-6585
This case study was written by Lisa Duke, case writer, and N. Craig Smith, INSEAD Chaired Professor
of Ethics and Social Responsibility. It is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion rather
than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation.
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Case Study
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“What we are trying to do is to change an industry. The company is actually a means
to an end. We’re making a tremendous loss year after year. We have investors, we have
enough proof points to show there is a market. Now we need to show it is a viable
market and sustainable. For me, that also means financially sustainable – a new proof
point to convince the industry that change is needed, that you can run a profitable
company based on a more ethical phone.”
Eva Gouwens, CEO
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Amsterdam, August 30, 2019. It had been an exciting and exhausting week for Eva Gouwens,
CEO of Fairphone. The social enterprise had just launched its third model – the Fairphone 3
(FP3). It was Fairphone’s most sustainable phone to date, made from fairly sourced materials
and designed with easily replaceable parts to extend its life. The handset came with a fiveyear promise of support. This was an attractive option for consumers who cared about the
climate and social issues and wanted products that lasted. Retailing at €450, the FP3 was
available direct from Fairphone and from exclusive dealers across Europe.
The mission was simple: “By establishing a viable market for ethical consumer electronics,
we motivate the entire industry to act more responsibly”. Beyond statements about its
sustainability credentials was a serious challenge for both the company and the CEO. What
started out as an awareness campaign that sustainability was possible in the complex
smartphone supply chain, had become a purpose-led enterprise producing its own ‘fairer’
smartphones, sold to consumers who embraced the principle of sustainability in every aspect
of their lives.
The FP3 was a critical make-or-break moment that would determine Fairphone’s existence,
transforming it from a relatively small-scale demonstration of the potential for a more
sustainable smartphone to a financially viable enterprise operating at scale, having an impact
by virtue of its own market share and sales. This meant targeting a wider audience. The FP3
was superior to its predecessors both in terms of sustainability and performance, but as a
mid-market phone the price remained a key consideration for consumers, especially those
more willing to compromise on sustainability. Would the FP3 gain sufficient traction in a
highly competitive marketplace dominated by giants with global brands?
Fairphone – From Campaign to Commerce
Industrial designer Bas van Abel launched an awareness campaign for ‘fairer phones’ in
March 2010. He wanted Dutch consumers to know about the ‘conflict minerals’ in their mobile
phones, particularly tantalum, a mineral that enabled components to be made smaller. Most
tantalum was found in the war-ravaged eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where
rebel forces controlled the mines, using the proceeds to fund the conflict. Legally required to
ensure their materials did not finance the rebels, electronics companies 1 switched their
1
The US Dodd Frank Act section 1502 of July 2010 required publicly traded companies to ensure that the raw
materials they use are not tied to the conflict in the Congo. In August 2012, the Securities & Exchange Commission
(SEC) issued its conflict minerals rule with guidance on reporting on the source of the following conflict minerals
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The campaign gathered momentum through the national press and social media, and even
won a prize to fund its awareness activities. Van Abel and two fellow activists visited the DRC
in 2011 to see for themselves the lives of copper and cobalt miners. 2 To step up the
campaign, they decided to launch their own ‘fair phone’. Dutch national phone operator KPN
agreed to purchase 1,000 conflict-free handsets when they were produced. This bolstered
the campaign but added pressure to get a handset launched.
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Unsustainable Smartphones
Smartphone production results in enormous negative social and environmental impacts
throughout the complex supply chain. From a social perspective, poor factory working
conditions in China and elsewhere are common. In terms of environmental impact,
researchers have found mobile handsets to be the most damaging of all devices.3
Approximately 62 different types of metals are used in the average handset, 4 16 of them rare
earth metals. 5 Mining destroys natural landscapes and pollutes the soil and drinking water.6
Mines and mining methods are dangerous. Iron (20%), aluminium (14%), and copper (7%), the
three most common metals by weight in smartphones, 7 produce significant volumes of
waste during extraction, with spillages regularly occurring. 8 In Brazil, gold and tin 9 mining
contributes to deforestation of the Amazon. The environmental issues are not confined to
raw material extraction: 85% of smartphone carbon emissions come from the production
process. 10 At the end of a phone’s life, it is either discarded in landfill or sent to potentially
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
– tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold – see: https://www.ecovadis.com/us/dodd-frank-act-section-1502/ (accessed
October 2019).
How our smartphones are hurting the environment. The Irish News, March 2 2018,
https://www.irishnews.com/magazine/science/2018/03/02/news/how-our-smartphones-are-hurting-theenvironment-1268849/ (accessed February 2020).
Nield, David. Our smartphone addiction is costing the Earth, Techradar, August 4 2015,
https://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/our-smartphone-addiction-iscosting-the-earth-1299378 (accessed October 2019).
There are 17 rare Earth metals in total. They are difficult to mine as they are not typically found in sufficient
quantities to extract economically (geology.com – https://geology.com/articles/rare-earth-elements/ – accessed
October 2019).
Nield, David. Our smartphone addiction is costing the Earth, Techradar, August 4 2015,
https://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/our-smartphone-addiction-iscosting-the-earth-1299378 (accessed October 2019).
Iron – speakers, microphones. Aluminium – strong glass and as an alternative to steel. Copper – wiring.
In 2015, 33m3 of waste (23,000 Olympic swimming pools) washed through local villages killing 19 people into the
River Doce, Brazil. The waste travelled 650km for 17 days until arriving at the mouth of the river – the Atlantic
Ocean – https://phys.org/news/2018-08-ways-smartphone-environment.html (accessed October 2019).
Gold was used for connectors and wires. Tin was used for soldering.
Matthews, Kayla. What’s the environmental cost of cell phone manufacturing, really? Born2Invest, November 21
2018, https://born2invest.com/articles/environmental-cost-cell-phone-manufacturing/ (accessed October 2019).
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sourcing to Australia and elsewhere. As a consequence, miners in the already povertystricken DRC became worse off, with few alternative employment options. To survive, some
joined the rebels and the tantalum trade became increasingly opaque to disguise its origins.
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Globally, e-waste is becoming the fastest-growing waste stream, estimated to have reached
48.5 million tonnes in 2018 (worth $62.5 billion annually), 12 of which 9% is small IT items like
mobile handsets. In addition, over 100 million old devices remain in our homes. 13 Recycling
the raw materials in mobile handsets alone was estimated to be worth $11.5 billion. 14
Fairer Phones
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Raising social and environmental awareness was one thing; building a phone quite another.
None of the activists knew how to create a mobile phone and they lacked funds. They applied
to an accelerator in London and were accepted to attend a three-month boot camp. Their
subsequent business plan secured them a €400,000 investment to start to build a fairer
phone and register Fairphone as a social enterprise.
While at the boot camp, they had to make some hard choices; primarily, how ‘green’ the phone
should be. ‘Utopian’ sustainability meant working with the most sustainable companies and
using only recycled materials. While this was possible for Fairphone given the low volumes
of materials required, it would be impossible for larger players to adopt as the volumes of
sustainable and recycled materials were insufficient to fulfil their orders. Rather than simply
create a highly sustainable ‘niche‘ phone, the team decided instead to take the harder path
to sustainability: setting an example of good practice that could be emulated and choosing
which issues to highlight, demonstrating to the industry that the change to more sustainable
practices was possible.
“We feel that really focusing step by step on different topics that are important for the
industry – where we think ‘OK that is something that another industry player could
adopt as well’ – that way we have more impact and create more change.”
Laura Gerritsen, Head of Value Chain, Fairphone
The investment was insufficient to build the handsets, so the team launched a crowdfunding
campaign. Within two months they had secured orders for 25,000 smartphones at €325
each. 15 Finding a manufacturer was difficult, the order size being too small for big factories.
Nor would the relatively small order size allow them to make demands about raw material
supplies and working conditions. Eventually, they found Guohong, a Chinese manufacturer,
and work started using an off-the-shelf design, although it had much lower spec than typical
11
12
13
14
15
The US Environment Protection Agency estimated 350,000 mobile phones were dumped every day in 2010
(https://www.bankmycell.com/support/e-waste-cell-phone-recycling-facts#stats1 – accessed October 2019).
https://www.weforum.org/reports/a-new-circular-vision-for-electronics-time-for-a-global-reboot
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_A_New_Circular_Vision_for_Electronics.pdf
Baldé, C.P., et al. The Global E-waste Monitor 2017, UNU, ITU, ISWA, 2017.
Approximately 240 million smart phones were sold in Europe in 2013 according to Statista,
https://www.statista.com/outlook/15020100/102/mobile-phones/europe (accessed October 2019). Global sales
to end users were 968 million units in 2013 according to Gartner, https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/pressreleases/2014-02-13-gartner-says-annual-smartphone-sales-surpassed-sales-of-feature-phones-for-the-first-timein-2013 (accessed October 2019).
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toxic waste dumps in Africa, where slum dwellers scavenge for copper and gold. Handsets
are rarely recycled. 11
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After several production problems caused delays, the “fairer” handsets were finally delivered
to customers in 2014. A second batch of 35,000 FP1’s was produced and sold. It was an
achievement for a company that had no finance department and employees who had virtually
no experience of producing mobile phones.
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Having sold 60,000 FP1’s, Fairphone decided to create its own, modular sustainable phone
with higher specs. The Fairphone 2 (FP2), a more sophisticated phone followed in 2015, again
crowdfunded. Modularity meant increased sustainability as users could replace parts,
extending its life. The value proposition was a five-year lifespan for the handset and software
upgradability. Customers were asked to send their old phones (of any brand) to Fairphone to
be recycled. The FP2 ran on Android 5.1, had a touchscreen, dual-SIM, and front and rear
cameras. Priced at €525, it cost considerably more than smartphones with the same
specification. Nevertheless, 17,000 phones were pre-ordered. Production 17 started in
December 2015 and shipped in early February 2016.
Mixing Campaigning with Production
Fairphone had a single assembly supplier but that supplier had at least a further 102 subsuppliers that Fairphone had been able to directly identify (the total number was closer to
several hundred). 18 According to Fairphone, each handset assembly manufacturer typically
had around 700 further sub-suppliers. Each component had its own supply chain, creating a
massive tree of producers who were difficult to identify. Different materials were sourced
from different suppliers. For example, the vibration motor contained 40 different materials
and the display more than 100.
Fairphone undertook a working conditions research project that revealed systemic social
issues, including excessive overtime, low wages, and lack of representation for wage and
conditions bargaining. While factories participated in audits including questions of
compliance with International Labor Organization regulations, health and safety,
management systems, etc., Fairphone believed that these were often a box-ticking exercise.
To address working conditions, Fairphone tried to create a dialogue between management
and workers, suggesting to owners that happier workers led to lower turnover.
16
17
18
Solutions for Hope sourced conflict-free Tantalum from the DRC under the auspices of the UN. The Conflict Free
Tin Initiative was sponsored by the Dutch Government.
Fairphone moved production to Hi-P Suzhou in Suzhou China. The company originated in Singapore and had a
social responsibility policy of people, environment, and communities –
http://www.hi-.com/index.php?c=article&a=type&tid=76.
Of the 102, there were 58 Tier 1 suppliers, 42 Tier 2 suppliers, and 2 Tier 3 suppliers –
https://www.fairphone.com/wpcontent/uploads/2019/05/016_005_List_Suppliers_and_Smelters_05_19_DEF.pdf (accessed October 2017).
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European consumers would expect. The team sourced fair tantalum and tin from two multistakeholder initiatives, Solutions for Hope and the Conflict Free Tin Initiative. 16
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“We facilitate that dialogue with management and workers to get a sort of
representation structure that can guarantee continuous improvement rather than a
single audit. We co-invest in this because we don’t have the leverage to say, ‘You have
to do this, or you have to do that’.”
Beyond the social issues, the technical challenges in producing smartphones were
substantial. The team undertook three studies in 2017 to raise awareness of the minerals,
their supply chains and possible recycling options for handsets. These would help them
identify where Fairphone would have the most influence, as well as getting others interested
– civil society as well as industry players:
1. A Scoping matrix that identified over 40 minerals used in handset manufacturing
(Exhibit 1). Each mineral was then rated against 14 social and environmental
criteria. 19 The Responsible Business Alliance 20 promoted the study to its members.
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2. A Recyclability report investigated three different methods of recycling the FP2
handset at the end of its life: smelting, dismantling and selective smelting, or
shredding. It concluded that dismantling/selective smelting offered the greatest
recovery of materials by weight – 19% metal recycling, 28% total material recycling
and 31% recycling/recovery, as well as the widest variety of materials recovered. 21
3. The Ten Mineral Supply Chains used in FP2 22 identified opportunities where change in
terms of social and environmental issues could lead to a positive impact (see Exhibit
2 for a snapshot). From this, Fairphone selected eight materials 23 to highlight in its
2020 Roadmap (see Exhibit 3, Materials in Scope). The team decided to focus on
component supply chains for the FP3, believing this would likely deliver better results
than spreading themselves thinly across the many supply chains involved.
To implement its mission, for example, Fairphone used Fairtrade gold in its handsets. It
formed a partnership with various NGOs and Royal Philips (the health technology/electronics
company) for responsible sourcing of gold, where child labour was a particular focus.24
19
20
21
22
23
24
Criteria: electronics industry consumption %, smartphone composition %, criticality for phone functionality, end of
life recycling rates %, potential to recycle, estimated depletion rate, proportion of global production %, association
with conflict, association with serious health problems, association with radioactive waste, association with
water/soil pollution, association with use of toxic chemicals, association with significant biodiversity threats,
relative association with high CO2 emissions.
The RBA is the world’s largest industry coalition dedicated to corporate social responsibility in global supply chains
http://www.responsiblebusiness.org
Smelting involved feeding the phone into a metallurgy reactor and recovering the materials as metals, alloys and
inorganic compounds. Dismantling/smelting involved removing the component parts and putting them through
the most suitable metallurgical and plastic recovery processes. Shredding involved removing the battery and
feeding the remainder through a cutting mill and then separating the small pieces into different scrap fractions.
Fairphone’s Report on Recyclability, February 2017.
Cobalt, copper, gallium, gold, indium, nickel, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin, and tungsten
Cobalt & Lithium (battery), Copper, Gold & Tin (PCB), rare earth elements – Neodymium (speaker), Tungsten
(vibration motor), and plastic (casing).
Partners included Hivos/Stop Child Labour, Solidaridad, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, UNICEF, Fairtrade
Foundation, EWAD, Nascent, and Royal Philips – https://www.fairphone.com/en/project/partnership-forresponsibly-sourced-gold/ (accessed October 2019).
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Laura Gerritsen, Head of Value Chain
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Fairphone stressed, however, that with so many other material supply chains and suppliers,
the incidence of child labour was unavoidable across its supply chain; it therefore continues
to build fairer material chains.
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Despite its success in launching two handsets, Fairphone suffered from a lack of commercial
rigour and control measures. It was still focused on awareness campaigns and its mission,
rather than product commercialization. Staff joined Fairphone because of its beliefs and
mission but lacked the skills to scale a commercial organization and did not focus on cost
management. For example, marketing wanted recycled paper for all printed materials;
software developers wanted open source coding; and technicians wanted total modularity
and repairability, which came at a premium. HR wanted HR policies to be based entirely on a
democratic, bottom-up approach, which delayed decision making.
“I can’t remember any targets for sustainability nor concrete clear commercial targets.
We had ideas and a mission, but they would not translate into ‘How much? How many?
How are we going to measure it? How are we going to monitor? How are we going to
make difficult decisions on it?’”
Monique Lempers, Commercial Director
There was passion and commitment, but no clear plan. Democratic decision making resulted
in postponed decisions due to insufficient numbers at critical meetings. The management
team suffered from political infighting. Bas came under considerable pressure as the final
arbiter of disputes. This eventually affected his health and he took a sabbatical. One team
member said, it was like “working for a highly political NGO”. Change was needed.
The intervention of major shareholders, Phalanx and PYMWYMIC, 25 in 2017 brought things
to a head. They insisted a more commercial approach be taken, with KPIs that combined the
social ambition and mission with professionalizing Fairphone (Table 1).
Eva Gouwens joined Fairphone in September 2017 as Managing Director, just after Bas’s
sabbatical. She became CEO in November 2018 and Bas moved to the Supervisory Board.
Eva previously ran Tony’s Chocolonely, a sustainable chocolate brand. When the owner and
‘Chief Chocolate Officer’ returned to his position, she looked for another leadership position
and ‘clicked’ with Fairphone. Eva believed that she could contribute her experience of running
and scaling a larger social enterprise and could build her leadership capabilities thanks to
Fairphone’s more mature governance system, a bigger team, and a more complex industry.
She added Market Performance to the five existing ‘Impact KPIs’. While some KPIs would
only show progress in the long-term, they were reported quarterly, as Eva explained “to keep
our focus”.
25
PYM stands for Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.
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Forced Change
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1.
Market performance (phones sold)
2017
85,686
2.
Reduce environmental impact
2.1 % phones in use vs sold (FP1+FPNext)
2.2 Percentage of phones recovered to be recycled vs. sold
54%
0.5%
59%
1.6%
25%
25%
5,200
5,296
6
10
3.
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Average % of 8 focus materials (in weight & separately
measured) sustainably sourced by Fairphone (recycled or fair
or conflict-free)
4. # of people benefitting from FP’s social interventions with
supply chain partners (cumulative) 26
5. # of points scored on key industry players that participate in
and/or follow on Fairphone initiatives (cumulative, by points
and per initiative involved in) 27
6. EBITDA
2018
108,398
Source: Fairphone
With no single majority shareholder, Eva wanted to ensure alignment between them all. None
had excluded an exit at some point. She focused Fairphone on the importance of delivering
on the yearly business plan and aligning and improving internal processes to produce it. Her
aim was to shift the company culture to take a more forward-looking perspective, where they
defined, together with investors, what they considered to be ‘success’ at Fairphone. This
would primarily be achieved through the KPIs.
With these changes, 60-70% of Fairphone’s employees left; some because they found the
changes difficult, others were invited to leave so changes could be made. Nearly every
member of the management team moved on, leaving Eva free to appoint a team with
commercial experience. Ewa Skotnicki, previously at ethical bank Triodos, joined as Head of
Brand. Rens ter Weijde, formerly of McKinsey & Co, joined as Head of People in September
2018. Aki Nummela, following 15 years at Nokia, joined as Chief Technology Officer in
November 2018.
As time went on, the KPIs became more and more a focus for the broader company, which
helped improve decision making.
26
27
This number took into account people both at the assembly manufacturer and their suppliers, as well as in the
mines. The target for 2019 was 7,900 people directly involved in producing the Fairphone (rather than their
families, etc.)
This KPI was a rating system that rated companies or organizations that partnered with or joined initiatives
instigated by or with Fairphone.
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Table 1. Fairphone KPIs and 2017/2018 Results
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“I think we are 80% there… The sustainability targets for impact are starting to become
part of all our processes. We are now financially accountable for our decisions and we
make different decisions. But you still see people spending a lot of time on less
relevant topics when we need to move faster.”
The culture started to shift from being ‘mission-driven’ to ‘results-driven with a mission’.
“There is an ongoing debate about how quickly you can retrain the NGO folks in
business logic, and if you hire businesspeople can we train them in the social
enterprise way of thinking? We are in transition – it feels like a place where it’s half
surfers, half climbers, half an NGO, half a business.”
Rens ter Weijde, Head of People
Overall, Fairphone had sold just under 100,000 FP2 handsets between 2015 and 2018
(Table 2), generating approximately €38.7 million.
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Table 2. FP2 Sales
Year
2015
2016
2017
2018
Units Sold
1,258
55,244
29,032
22,712
Source: Fairphone
It was, however, struggling financially. The price was lowered in late December 2018 to €399
to boost sales and reduce the high inventory level. After investment and operational costs,
€9 profit (on €525) was made on each handset before corporate tax 28 (see Exhibit 4, Cost
Breakdown).
Fairphone 3 – The Challenge and the Opportunity
The new FP3 handset provided an opportunity to rethink the market proposition and
positioning. One option was a “Tesla” high-end strategy, similar to the FP2 but with better
specifications.
28
Taxes & reseller margin was €118. For direct sales, the final profit was higher than €9.
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Monique Lempers
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Eva Gouwens
FP3 would combine fairness and sustainability with mid-market specifications 29 (see
Table 3).
Table 3. Fairphone 3 Specifications & Attributes
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Operating
System
Performance
Technical Specifications
Android 9
Storage
Battery
Display
Cameras
Wireless &
Location
Network
Connectors &
Sensors
Media & Audio
Design
In the box /
Not included
Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 4GB
RAM
64GB internal storage
Expandable with a microSD card
3,000mAH removable Li-ion
battery
5.65-inch Full HD+ 18:9
12MP rear camera f/1.8 Dual Pixel
PDAF
8MP front camera f/2.0
2.4 & 5GHz WiFi / Bluetooth 5+LE
NFC for card payments & more
Dual Nano SIM
4G (LTE)
USB Type – C
Fingerprint scanner
3.5mm Headphone jack
Dark Translucent color 158mm x
71.8mm / Thickness 9.89mm /
Weight 189g
Handset, mini screwdriver,
bumper, 2-year warranty, quick
start guide / USB-C cable, charger,
earphones
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sustainability Attributes 30
7 modules for easy
repair/replaceability
Keeping the FP3 longer can save
30% CO2 emissions or more
(according to the LCA study
performed by Fraunhofer 31)
Collaboration with final assembly
partner Arima to improve
employee satisfaction, worker
representations, health & safety,
paying a bonus to workers
Phone is made from conflict-free
tin and tungsten, recycled copper
and plastics, and Fairtrade gold
Rewarding buyers for using
Fairphone’s recycle program
An initiative for fairer sourcing of
cobalt was being researched
which would connect to the FP3
supply chain
Source: Fairphone
The FP3 was benchmarked against the Motorola G7, HTC, and Samsung’s camera
performance. Unlike many of the top branded phones (see Exhibit 5 for comparable
29
30
31
The FP3 included components produced by well-known manufacturers – Qualcomm, Asahi, Ricoh, Texas
Instruments, Samsung
https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FP3-Press-Release-INT.pdf
https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Fairphone_2_LCA_Final_20161122.pdf
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Purchased for use on the Innovation and Entrepreneurial Growth, at Central Washington University.
Taught by Elizabeth Fountain, from 1-Jan-2024 to 31-Mar-2024. Order ref F495052.
Usage permitted only within these parameters. This PDF may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or uploaded to any LLM (e.g. ChatGPT).
“With our capacity, we are not able to compete on tech specs with Samsung and Apple
right now. We could not match the technical pace and level. To achieve our mission,
we want to be the sustainable alternative within the smartphone market. With a lower
price point, we are able to make a profitable phone as we reach a broader group of
people.”
723-0002-1
Fairphone’s value proposition was that it would strive for the availability for replacement for
each of the seven modules for three to five years from purchase. This meant the user with
tools and parts provided could replace the battery, camera, display, audio and fingerprint
sensor (see Figure 1 of the phone’s components).
Educational material supplied by The Case Centre
Copyright encoded A76HM-JUJ9K-PJMN9I
Figure 1. FP3’s Component Parts
Source: Fairphone documents
A challenge for Fairphone was to ensure it had sufficient spare parts for the lifetime of a
handset, particularly towards the end when production had ended. This meant at some point
forward planning to stockpile components.
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Purchased for use on the Innovation and Entrepreneurial Growth, at Central Washington University.
Taught by Elizabeth Fountain, from 1-Jan-2024 to 31-Mar-2024. Order ref F495052.
Usage permitted only within these parameters. This PDF may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or uploaded to any LLM (e.g. ChatGPT).
specifications), the FP3 had two sim slots and an external memory card. This was also not
typical of other top brands where the tradeoff was between a second sim and an external
memory card. One drawback wa
