First vocational visit

One of the best parts of this exchange is our vocational visits. As Rotarians are fairly well-connected, we have the opportunity to meet with top people in our fields. Yesterday I met with Helge Dietrichson from Telenor, the Norwegian telecommunications company. This organization helped build Grameen Phone, part of the Grameen Bank, the most recognized microlender in the world. Telenor built the first cellular communications in Bangladesh, after the Grameen Bank approached them about this social need there. Grameen Bank saw this as way to empower the people with access to communications, as well as a way for women to start micro-businesses, selling minutes to neighbors in their communities. Dietrichson, who was in charge of the program abroad, was extremely generous with his time and information. Cell-phone banking and communications has been gaining close ties to micro-entrepreneurs, so I really appreciated the first-hand information. Also, Mohammad Yunus, the head of Grameen Bank, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, awarded in Norway. I have met him twice and have also enjoyed his simple, but brilliant ideas for reducing poverty. At my meeting with Helge, I heard wonderful information about how cell-phones and access to information have reached the far corners of rural Bangladesh. So I was surprised to hear that Yunus has a sour relationship with Telenor. Grameen Phone is the social entrepreneurship wing of Telenor, meaning a business wants to further social and environmental goals, while earning a profit. Telenor has clearly done this. In the developing world, access to cell phones means access to banking, bill paying, health-care, and other consumer products. Cell phones connect small rural areas with information that could not afford or access otherwise. The issue is that Telenor has been very profitable from the business venture in Bangladesh, and Yunus would like to see that revenue going into Bangladesh. He even used his Peace Prize acceptance speech as a platform to fight with Telenor. I think the important thing to realize is that profit and social gains are not mutually exclusive and both needs can be met with a good business model.

The opportunity to meet with someone so close to the international microlending field was really eye-opening and something I would not have been able to do on my own. Never would I have learned such inside information and about the growing pains in the field. I definitely feel that this meeting and the ones coming up will keep me fresh in my field and excited about new opportunities.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/04/news/international/yunos_telenor.fortune/index.htm