Page 239 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

224 grow from within

have been unlikely in developed economies. Take the emerg-
ing phenomenon of microfranchising. Microfranchising is sim-
ilar to microfinance, where individuals and institutions
provide small loans (often in the $25 to $500 range) to enable
independent entrepreneurs to become self-employed. The
practice was pioneered by Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in the
1980s. Microfinance organizations have since proliferated
within developing markets worldwide. Microfranchising com-
bines the scale of microfinance with the developed-world con-
cept of franchising. Instead of requiring tens or even hundreds
of thousands of dollars to launch a franchise, microfranchising
provides very poor people with the know-how, products, and
support materials necessary to initiate and grow a business.
Microfranchising helps address the lack of jobs and skills
necessary to start new businesses, the lack of products avail-
able for very low income communities, and the insufficient
understanding and interest of most companies regarding serv-
ing and operating in these communities. Drishtee of India pro-
vides an example. Founded in 2000, this for-profit company
provides a common information and communications tech-
nology infrastructure for use by village franchisees who own
the local node. This allows the franchisee to provide not only
Internet access to Web-based services such as online health and
education but also a range of products and services as diverse
as Internet access, cell phones, insurance, and even reading
glasses. The entrepreneur charges the villagers modest fees,
then returns a percentage to Drishtee. Researchers P. Clint
Rogers, Jason Fairbourne, and Robert Wolcott reported in a
2009 working paper for the Brigham Young University Center
for Economic Self-Reliance:

The Drishtee model has already made an impact. . . . By 2008,
Drishtee had successfully demonstrated this concept in about