Our Vision:
To enrich lives through accessible eye care and eye wear.
Our Mission:
Providing affordable eyeglasses, decent eye examinations, enabled by technology.
Why
Typically, optical stores selling lower-end spectacles tend to do just a quick prescription check, online stores need you to fill in your own prescription, while practices offering comprehensive primary eye care tend to be more expensive with branded goods which not everyone may want to pay for.
Hence, we created this with two goals in mind: to produce affordable eye wear and provide a decent eye examination.
The eye wear has to be functional and of reasonably good quality, suitable for the many people while remaining cost-effective. The eye care has to be simple yet effective and be of good value to the customer. The buying experience should be as fuss-free as possible.
The Sweet Spot
Combining the best of both worlds is tricky, as there needs to be a fine balance between being the levels of eye care service and glasses pricing. Hence, the aim isn’t to sell the cheapest pair of eyeglasses, or be the most comprehensive in eye care tests, but find the sweet spot in between.
This sweet spot has to also be financially sustainable, and we leverage on technology and continuous improvement to maintain operational efficiency. This includes taking a leap and going appointment-based, a taboo move for traditional optical retail shops.
The liberal use of technology and focus on creative and innovative solutions will enable everything from efficient stock management for greater cost savings, to making prescriptions available to customers – again going against the norms.
The Yak,
A high altitude ox, a symbol of strength; represents our daring entry into a mature and saturated eyeglasses market, and our wish to remain accessible to as many people as possible while continuously progressing in providing an increasingly holistic primary eye care system through innovation.
Our Core Values
Openness, Connectivity, Value, and Advancement
Openness in how we deal with customers, not withholding their scripts, being honest and transparent about pricing, and about what we offer.
Connectivity in us looking at vision as part of the entire holistic panorama of healthcare, connecting the dots.
Value in the goods and services we provide, not by being the cheapest but by being the most cost-effective and value additive.
Advancement in whatever we do, to strive to continuously improve in meeting the demands of our clients and the needs of society at large.
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Doing good for the many people
The WHO (2021) estimates that there are at least 1 billion cases of vision impairment worldwide that could have been prevented or have yet to be addressed, with uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts as two of the leading causes.
In exercising our corporate social responsibility, we hope to raise awareness of having good vision. To achieve this, we aim to provide subsidised or free eyeglasses and eye examinations to the less well-off members of our community who may find it very difficult to afford good vision – something that we feel should be fundamental for the many people making up our society.
With good vision, not only is one more likely to be employed[1], but also be more productive at work[2]. Knowing about one’s eye condition such as cataracts can also assist one in making decisions about vision care. These can improve one’s overall standard of living and quality of life, which will make an impact on the society and economy at large. A study has shown how just a simple pair of eyeglasses can improve the lives of tea-pickers.
Giving back to society is an important part of our business, and we also hope to extend our social work to communities in other countries in the future.
If you know anyone who may need a pair of glasses or an eye examination but cannot reasonably afford it, or wish to work with us, whether as an institution that also serves the lesser-privileged community or as a sponsor, feel free to contact us and let’s work something out!
CSR Contact Form
[1] (University of Pittsburgh, n.d.)
[2] (Reddy et. al., 2018)