You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World's Poor To the Global EconomyISBN: 978-0-7879-8609-4
Hardcover
272 pages
February 2007, Jossey-Bass
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Bangladeshi villagers sharing cell phones helped build what is now
a thriving company with more than $200 million in annual profits.
But what is the lesson for the rest of the world? This is a
question author Nicholas P. Sullivan addresses in his tale of a new
kind of entrepreneur, Iqbal Quadir, the visionary and catalyst
behind the creation of GrameenPhone in Bangladesh.
GrameenPhone—a partnership between Norway's Telenor and Grameen Bank, co-winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize—defines a new approach to building business opportunities in the developing world. You Can Hear Me Now offers a compelling account of what Sullivan calls the "external combustion engine"—a combination of forces that is sparking economic growth and lifting people out of poverty in countries long dominated by aid-dependent governments. The "engine" comprises three forces: information technology, imported by native entrepreneurs trained in the West, backed by foreign investors.