people. After it became successful, they didnot want to sell. They said the agreementis not legally enforceable. They legally stillresist. It is not done yet, but it could be.

it to the customer. You do the dialling, andwhen you hear the response sound, yougive it to the customer.), but sensing thedoubt behind the question, she replied Iwill do it blindfolded. Tell me any number,and I will dial it. If I cannot do it, I returnthe phone to you, since then, I do not deserveit. I had never expected this. Shechallenged me, I was shocked. It is so easyto undermine the capacity of others. Today,there are more than 300,000 phone ladiesall over Bangladesh, doing rolling business.In total, we have sold more than 15 millioncell phones. Grameen Phone is the biggestcompany, with more than 50% of themarket share. Like Grameen Bank, wewant Grameen Phone to be owned by poorwomen in Bangladesh. We originally madean agreement with Norwegian foundingpartner Telenor, that after nine years, theywould sell their shares to the Grameen

... "Another hugely successful venture is

Grameen Phone.We believe in information technology. Oneproblem of poverty is isolation from theworld. This is why we thought about startingGrameen Phone, for bringing mobile phonesto the villages. So, I started talking togovernment officials to receive a licensefor setting up the Grameen Phone program.This was not as easy as I thought. Iencountered some unexpected situations.

The first question ofthe governmentofficial was Why?I was puzzled, and Ianswered So theycan call people byte lephone . Hereplied They havenobody to ca l lanyway. It took mea w h i l e t ounderstand what hewas saying, because

this is a way of thinking I could notcomprehend. Of course, they have peopleto call. So, I explained the idea to him. Wewill be selling the phone to individual peoplein the village, so they can rent out the phoneto others in the village who pay for usingthe phone. We will only sell it to women,

m a k i n g t h e m t h etelephone ladies. We sellit to them for a loan thatthey can pay back in smallrates over time.He was not convinced.She has never seen aphone before in her life.I was surprised again.Remembering my ownexperience in discoveringa cell phone, I replied Well, there is a firsttime to everything! For a cell phone. Forme, for you, too. And we still stumble usingthem. She cannot read the numbers.Well, there are only ten numbers in theworld. If she knows pushing these numbersmakes money, she will learn them in tenminutes. These people are poor. But theyare not dumb.He was not convinced. Finally, we got thelicense. Six months later, after we had solda lot of phones, I went to the villages toask questions to twenty phone ladies about their experience. They were all enthusiastic,and while I was talking to them, the phonekept ringing all the time, and they wentWait a minute. Wait a minute.I remembered the talk I had with thegovernment official, and I asked Do youhave any problems pushing the numbers?No. We do it all the time. (We have arule when selling the phones. Do not give

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INNOVATIONS-STADTPLAN SchoenesB! Sep 2011 www.schoenesb.de seite 11

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ON THE ROAD SchoenesB Sep 2011 www.schoenesb.de seite 17

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