Book Review - You Can Hear Me Now by Nicholas P. Sullivan
Category Book Reviews
To the typical American (and other developed nation citizens), the cell phone has become part of the normal fabric of life. Communication with anyone at any time from anywhere is just expected. But in countries like Bangladesh, only a very small number of people have access to any type of telephone communication. The book You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World's Poor to the Global Economy by Nicholas P. Sullivan does an excellent job of showing how something as simple as the cell phone can break the cycle of poverty and aid for millions of people.
Contents:
Part 1 - The GrameenPhone Story: Connectivity Is Productivity; Dish-Wallahs of Delhi (and Other Early Models); Cell Phone as Cow - A New Paradigm in Search of Investors; On The Money Trail in Scandinavia; Building a Company; Building a Network
Part 2 - Transformation Through Technology: Wildfile at the Bottom of the Pyramid; Cell Phone as Wallet; Wealth Creation and Rural Income Opportunities; Beyond Phones - In Search of a New "Cow"; Eyeing the Dhaka Stock Exchange
Epilogue; Notes; Resources; Index
The book is split into two parts. The first part covers the story of GrameenPhone's launch in Bangladesh, and the second part is more of a look at the forces behind using technology at the "bottom of the pyramid" (the vast number of people who globally live at poverty level) to connect them to the world's trade economy. Iqbal Quadir was a Bangladeshi who studied and worked in the US and was doing quite well. But he was also concerned about the massive levels of poverty in his home country. Once day he was standing on the street and had an epiphany about communication equaling productivity. His people worked hard, but they had no way to reliably communicate with others except by face to face meetings. All that wasted time meant there was untapped potential just waiting to be utilized. He started talking with Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank (originator of microloan programs) to see how communication technology could be rolled out to the entire country, making a phone available to anyone near a village. Without government aids and grants, Quadir put together a consortium of foreign investors and Grameen Bank to build GrameenPhone, a life-altering company. Using a fiber-optic line already laid next to the country's rail line, they were able to place cell towers in areas to cover all the rural areas of Bangladesh. Then using microloans from Grameen Bank, "phone ladies" could buy a cell phone for the village, offer the phone service, and sell the time in small increments. The cell phone gave a business to the village, in addition to creating subsidiary jobs and opportunities with the communication that was enabled by having phone service throughout the country. It's this use of technology that's advocated in the second part of the book as an example of how business opportunities can remove the grip of poverty from nations and lead to living wages instead of handouts.
You Can Hear Me Now is an inspirational book with plenty of lessons for those who are willing to look outside the normal constraints of what we consider business opportunities.
To the typical American (and other developed nation citizens), the cell phone has become part of the normal fabric of life. Communication with anyone at any time from anywhere is just expected. But in countries like Bangladesh, only a very small number of people have access to any type of telephone communication. The book You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World's Poor to the Global Economy by Nicholas P. Sullivan does an excellent job of showing how something as simple as the cell phone can break the cycle of poverty and aid for millions of people.
Contents:
Part 1 - The GrameenPhone Story: Connectivity Is Productivity; Dish-Wallahs of Delhi (and Other Early Models); Cell Phone as Cow - A New Paradigm in Search of Investors; On The Money Trail in Scandinavia; Building a Company; Building a Network
Part 2 - Transformation Through Technology: Wildfile at the Bottom of the Pyramid; Cell Phone as Wallet; Wealth Creation and Rural Income Opportunities; Beyond Phones - In Search of a New "Cow"; Eyeing the Dhaka Stock Exchange
Epilogue; Notes; Resources; Index
The book is split into two parts. The first part covers the story of GrameenPhone's launch in Bangladesh, and the second part is more of a look at the forces behind using technology at the "bottom of the pyramid" (the vast number of people who globally live at poverty level) to connect them to the world's trade economy. Iqbal Quadir was a Bangladeshi who studied and worked in the US and was doing quite well. But he was also concerned about the massive levels of poverty in his home country. Once day he was standing on the street and had an epiphany about communication equaling productivity. His people worked hard, but they had no way to reliably communicate with others except by face to face meetings. All that wasted time meant there was untapped potential just waiting to be utilized. He started talking with Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank (originator of microloan programs) to see how communication technology could be rolled out to the entire country, making a phone available to anyone near a village. Without government aids and grants, Quadir put together a consortium of foreign investors and Grameen Bank to build GrameenPhone, a life-altering company. Using a fiber-optic line already laid next to the country's rail line, they were able to place cell towers in areas to cover all the rural areas of Bangladesh. Then using microloans from Grameen Bank, "phone ladies" could buy a cell phone for the village, offer the phone service, and sell the time in small increments. The cell phone gave a business to the village, in addition to creating subsidiary jobs and opportunities with the communication that was enabled by having phone service throughout the country. It's this use of technology that's advocated in the second part of the book as an example of how business opportunities can remove the grip of poverty from nations and lead to living wages instead of handouts.
You Can Hear Me Now is an inspirational book with plenty of lessons for those who are willing to look outside the normal constraints of what we consider business opportunities.
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