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Villagers in Bangladesh were too poor
to afford phones, so Grameenphone
partnered with Grameen Bank, the
microfinance institution, to provide local Solving the big issues of
women with microloans to purchase
mobile phones. The women sold calling
services in their villages, repaid the loans, our generation requires
earned income, and thereby improved
bold new business models
their social status.

Triple Bottom Line Business Models
BG KA MG :I :J Earlier we shared the story of how Iqbal Quadir, an investment
manage banker in New York, set out to build Grameenphone. His goal was to
network
provide universal access to telecommunications services in remote,
income
grameen bank opportunity village phone
ladies
network
consortium KR :? rural areas of his home country of Bangladesh. He achieved his aim
(telenor) mobile villagers
communication grameen bank with a for-profit model that had a profound, positive impact on rural
network village phone
ladies
Bangladesh. Grameenphone eventually provided over 200,000
: R$ women in rural areas with income-earning opportunities, raised their
network communication income social status, connected 60,000 villages to a mobile phone network, 265
reached 100 million people, turned a profit, and became the Bangla-
social and environmental costs social and environmental benefits deshi government’s biggest taxpayer.
“universal access”
income for women and To accommodate triple bottom line business models, we can
better social status
extend the Canvas with Blocks illustrating two outcomes: (1) the
social and environmental costs of a business model (i.e. its negative
impact), and (2) the social and environmental benefits of a business
model (i.e. its positive impact). Just as earnings are increased by
minimizing financial costs and maximizing income, the triple bottom
Grameenphone went beyond establishing line model seeks to minimize negative social and environmental
near universal access to telephone service
and earning a profit. It also had substan- impacts and maximize the positive.
tial social impact by providing “village
phone ladies” with earning opportunities
and improved social status.

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