Social Business Day, June 28

Hey people, it's Social Business Day! Bangladesh celebrates it.. do you?


In honor of the first annual Social Business Day, Bangladesh leading English paper The Daily Star interviewed Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize winner (2006) and founder of Grameen Bank. What's significant about this article is not its content or quality, but that it exists at all.

Like many of the achievements in social enterprise in Bangladesh, Social Business Day owes its existence to Prof. Yunus. According to the Yunus Centre:

Social Business Day will:
· encourage the participants to discuss the critical features of social business, merits, achievements, and challenges of social businesses
· discuss the plans for upcoming social businesses
· explore future social business opportunities, and
· inspire individuals, entrepreneurs, students, foundations, and companies to create their own social businesses

So get out there and celebrate! I really hope Social Business Day reaches its first birthday.

I still remember the first time I heard Yunus speak. I was in the car driving home from my Fortune 500 company job, stuck in the parking lot know as the Capital Beltway. I was listening to the radio... I suppose it must have been NPR, though I should clarify that I'm not one of those enlightened people who chooses NPR over talk radio or top 40.. I'm really not. I just sort of ended up on the station just when they were interviewing Yunus about his book.

Mostly I was bored and daydreaming, but at some point the words coming out of the dashboard managed to push their way through the cloudy fog of happy hours and weekend plans that made up 80% of my after-work brain activity and sink in.

I remember sitting up, stick straight, and listening intently.. I think I scrawled "Yunus" and "Grameen" on the palm of my hand (the gentlewoman's notepad).
And that was the moment my life changed..

Just kidding.

Actually I think I forgot about it, but you know how life has a way of shoving the same thing in your face, over and over, until you take proper note of it? Well, that is what happened. And here I am, working on a social enterprise in Bangladesh! Funny thing, life.

Creating a Social Enterprise

I realized the other day that I still have not mentioned what I'm actually doing this summer. I guess I've been busy... working? Anyway, a professional update is certainly in order.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm here as a WDI Fellow at CARE Bangladesh, country office of NGO CARE International. I got placed here at an amazing time. CARE BD is in the process of separating its innovative Rural Sales Program from the non-profit to form a joint social venture with global consumer product goods company Danone. I get to work on the final business plan and governance structure, preparing it for approval by Danone's social enterprise group!

Background on the Rural Sales Program

The Rural Sales Program is an initiative formed by CARE BD’s Economic Development Unit. It equips CARE BD's infamous "Aparajitas" (women who do not accept defeat) with training and products to sell to villages in rural Bangladesh. The program employs more than 2,000 women who source products at more than 50 hubs.

The model is based on CK Prahalad’s BoP concept and is similar to the Shakti model run by Hindustan Unilever. The big difference is that it was set up by an independent organization, allowing them to engage a number of for-profit companies and keep close measurement of social impact.

As a result, the Aparajitas sell a range of products, which ultimately mitigates risk. They sell shoes (Bata), daily packets of soap (Bangladesh Unilever), sanitary napkins (Square), seeds, animal feed, phones/minutes (Grameenphone), yogurt (Grameen-Danone Foods), and will soon be selling garments. Shoe sales, which earn the women the largest commission, fluctuate in a cycle of about one-two months, while soap sells daily but provides less commission. In the end, sales balance out into a steady income stream for the women.

The Aparajitas operate completely independently of CARE. They sell only what they want to sell and front the money for the goods themselves. This independence gives them full ability to tailor their sales to their geographic region so they can maximize individual profit. It also limits losses for the for-profit consumer goods companies.

In 2009, RSP generated $1M in sales for the companies it partnered with, and it is projected to generate $10M this year, almost 700 million Bangladeshi taka. In addition to providing the women with a regular income, the project also empowers the Aparajitas to become entrepreneurs and decision-makers in their families. RSP targets the most marginalized women in rural Bangladesh, so the impact of empowerment can be quite significant.

As one woman told us on a field visit, before she became an Aparajita, she couldn't approach even the poorest house in a village, and now she is welcomed at the home of the wealthiest.

The Future of RSP

The new social venture will be headed by the CARE staffer who formed, tested and ran RSP from the beginning, and who is also my supervisor. The work has be incredible so far. CARE has never been in this position, despite 65 years of experience, so we are essentially flying by the seat of our pants. I've been working on the new enterprise's governance structure, valuing the model to support CARE's ownership share (thanks to Ross finance professors Sreedhar Bharath and Gautam Kaul for imparting on me the most valuable knowledge I have so far gained as an MBA student).

We had a meeting with Danone on Monday and things are looking good. I have a few more numbers to clarify, and then I'll send my calculations to someone much smarter than I to make sure I didn't mess anything up. Once I'm done with that, I'll start work on refining the full proposal CARE will be submitting to Danone's social enterprise team for final approval (has been in the works for about six months).

It's all so exciting... and terrifying! I really hope I don't mess everything up.

Field Visit to Rangpur

After weeks of working in a cubicle, we finally got our first chance at a real field visit, six hours outside of Dhaka. Rosie and I headed out to Rangpur last week and got to see implementation of the projects we've been working on - Strengthening the Dairy Value Chain* (Rosie) and Rural Sales Project (me).

I took a small notebook with me. With no access to e-mail, gchat or facebook, this flimsy, unassuming, no-tech instrument became my vehicle to the outside world. I barely recall what I wrote. Flipping through it now I see pages of the illegible scrawl of a hand used to typing and the unstructured, stream-of-conscious rambling of a mind trained for e-mail. Surface level, it's all bulleted notes, circled questions and sections starred for further research. Looking closer, amid the interviews are disjointed speculations on life, poverty and happiness.

If someone found this notebook, they'd have to assume I had schizophrenia. (Maybe I do! In high school I watched A Beautiful Mind at 2 a.m. in the dark by myself, and couldn't sleep for two hours, convinced my family was not aging, and were therefore a figment of my psychosis)

One page in the book starts with a list of the quantity of milk a cow is producing for a family we visited (according to the farmer - an older man, about 65, it went from 6 to 10 liters, thanks to SDVC), followed by notes on a woman's role in cow rearing, social empowerment, thoughts on mangoes (hari banga!) and then randomly in the middle of the page "lovely wife - beautiful smile." Why did I write all that? How is it relevant to anything? No idea.

Being in Rangpur was a moving experience. The people we met were the poorest of the rural poor. Most owned no land themselves and instead worked as farmers on other people's land. Oddly enough, I didn't register their poverty at all. The whole experience was in stark contrast to Dhaka, where you can't help but be perpetually aware of poverty and malnutrition. In Rangpur people were poor, but they were incredibly vibrant and strong. They glowed. It was like they knew something, like they had a secret - not a secret to happiness, but to completeness. I forgot to feel sorry for them.

And I wrote this:

Looking at them you do not see what they don't have, you see what you are missing. You feel your own gluttony... the tragedy of your own over-consumption, your unfair, unbalanced taking. You think that maybe some wanting is good, that complete satiation can be lazy and destructive - to the world, certainly, but also to yourself. Seeing them you realize maybe living without means gaining quite a bit.

Ok, enough of that. Here are some photos!



Father's Day Note: To the man who bought me this camera (and gave me a way to share my experience), and without whom I would not exist (or know how to build furniture, install ceiling fans and buy groceries at the lowest per unit price), Happy Fathers' Day, Dad!

*SDVC, or Strengthening the Dairy Value Chain, is a project CARE BD's Economic Development Unit is working on to help farmers make the most of their milk. The project has an educational component that shows farmers how to increase their cows' milk production (safely and organically), and it connects them in a sort of cooperative that gives them greater bargaining power with milk processors (resulting in more income), while providing the processors with easier access to more sources of properly produced and handled milk.

For info on the Rural Sales Program, check out my first field visit.

WC in the Desh

Sorry I haven't posted in a while - things in Dhaka have certainly picked up! I guess this is what happens to would-be bloggers - they get a life and no longer have time to blog. Only the strong, friend-resistant ones survive. It's like natural selection in the blogosphere.

Since I know the internet is just dying for more of my rambling drivel, I won't keep it waiting. Let's talk about .. sports!

There's a sports tournament going on that has gotten a bit of attention. It's called the World Cup. Perhaps you've heard of it?

I sound like I'm being facetious, but honestly, I've never noticed the World Cup. A few weeks ago, you could have told me this was going to be the first World Cup ever and I would have believed you. Then I would have asked you which sport it was for. I have only paid attention to soccer long enough to notice that, of professionally played sports, soccer has the best looking guys. I'm saying this as a completely objective observer.

I would have remained blissfully unaware of the World Cup this year as well had it not been for one small factor: I'm in Bangladesh.

World Cup team flags are on sale at every street corner, in every store, at every stand. The WC has created an entirely new revenue source for street hawkers, tailors and sports apparel sellers. Flags are all over office buildings, in people's homes, hanging on walls and on door frames, I even saw someone's gate painted blue, white, blue, exactly like Argentina's flag.

Most of the country is divided into two camps: those for Brazil and those for Argentina. When I ask people why these two in particular, they say, "Because they're the best." Alright then. Bangladesh likes winners. Meanwhile, Bangladesh's soccer team is ranked 157th.

So how strong is this rivalry? Three weeks before the WC started, two villages - one supporting Argentina and the other supporting Brazil - actually came to blows fighting over the teams. According to Gulf News, village residents used "sticks, clubs and sharp weapons" in violent defense of their respective teams, and police had to fire a round of shots in the air to control the fighting.

This past week, Rosie and I joined a CARE colleague on a trip up to Rangpur for a field visit. On the six hour drive north, we saw lush green paddy fields, burgeoning towns, and... you guessed it, flags. Brazil came out ahead as the clear winner of Bangladesh hearts. Check out some of the WC loyalty we saw on our way up!



What I didn't catch on memory card were the dozens of people huddled around a single TV in a cha shop, the distinct change in traffic density depending on whether an important game was on, and all the kids who exchanged their cricket bat for a soccer ball in their playtime endeavors, at least for a now. Bangladesh has WC fever, and it has it bad.

One question kept coming to mind, "Is this normal?" I haven't figured out whether the Desh is unusual in its loyalty to teams that have little to do with it (is this happening in other countries?) .. and if either the Brazil or Argentina teams has any inkling of the passions they are sparking around the world.

We didn't see any random acts of WC madness on our field visit (bummer), but we did get a close-up look at some impressive social business at work. Will post about field visit soon..

Dust off your lungis...

Thanks to Rosie, my bff here in Dhaka, I know far more Australians in Bangladesh than Americans or Sri Lankans. The Aussies in B'desh take theme parties to a whole new level..

Welcome to Luke & Sophie's 30th Rickshaw Party!

If you're wondering what a Rickshaw Party is, or how someone has 30 of them, you're not the only one. The idea: dress like a rickshaw, a rickshaw wallah, or your favorite rickshaw art character and dance the night away. The party was on Friday and at it was a myriad of "lungis" (sarongs), colorful shirts, bird costumes, festive garments and more - all in all, an impressive display. The B'desh Aussies could rival mid-west American business schools on theme party enthusiasm.

How was it, you ask? The most fun I've had in... 4 weeks!
Highlight #1: arriving at the rickshaw party in a rickshaw... driven by Andrew, one of Rosie's roommates. Highlight #2: smoke machine and disco lights. Highlight #3: John Farnham (keep reading).

I didn't know Luke and Sophie before I got there, but now that I've met them, danced with them in my bare feet, broken glass on their floor (and cleaned it up!), I couldn't be prouder to say that I was there to witness their entrance into "the fourth dimension," as they termed it - their 30s.

Sarah (UMich Law School) and Charlie (Ross B-School) joined me as proud representatives of "low context Americans*." Sarah: "It's like Rick's!" Charlie: "Like Rick's but with more clothing removal... so like Peace Corps."

Conclusion: Aussies know how party! And they get quite sentimental over this song, by John Farnham (notice the photos of us dancing in a circle, arms around each other).

Cheers!



*"Low context" is a situation or person that does not require environmental or situational analysis when deciphering its/his/her meaning. In the cultural briefing the Aussies receive when participating in AusAID (similar to Peace Corps), they learn that Bangladeshis are "high context," and Americans are "low context." In other words, we're blunt. True dat.