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Reflection Paper On William Kamkwamba

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A Reflection Paper on William Kamkwamba
Japanese producers were able to reduce the prices of videocassette recorders (VCRs) from $1300 to in 1977 to $298 in 1984 by emphasizing product design before production and by reducing the number of parts in VCRS.1 It is obviously clear that design plays an important role in product development. It is at the design stage a product’s cost can be either lowered (either by using low priced inputs or reducing the number of parts by standardization) or a product can be differentiated by adding features. Also it is at the design stage that a product’s marketing strategy is decided either as a cost leader (low priced compared to the competitors prices) or differentiated (creating something unique).2 In …show more content…

Malawi is an extremely poor country and because of drought people were dying of hunger. Being a poverty stricken country opportunities were difficult to …show more content…

However in 2001 the maize crops failed, plunging the countryside into famine and near social collapse. Despite the surviving a famine in Malawi, young William was determined to find a way to support himself and his family. His inability to pay the eighty-dollar-a-year tuition for his education forced him to drop. This did not shatter his confidence. Still he managed to teach himself on his spare time. His inquisitive nature and love for learning was hard to suppress. He was very determined and did not give up his efforts. At this time he found a book called “Using Energy” and this was the turning point of his life. I find it pretty surprising that he came up with a decision to build a windmill merely looking at diagrams and stuck by his decision till the very end that was very evident since he eventually succeeded in it. He saw diagrams of windmills but he could not even read the English text. From this bit of information, he managed to build his own version from scraps of wire, an old bicycle hub, and flattened PVC pipe for blades by his sheer focus and persistence. Though poor, his determination to achieve never allowed his poverty to shatter his confidence. Over time he clearly identfied what he needed to build the windmill. He adapted things he found in the junkyard, or took odd jobs to get money to buy what he could not make. Sometimes he used to take three or four hours because he

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