Note: Please watch this brief video as part of class preparation. 1. How has Roshan performed in Afghanistan? What are the positive highlights? What could it have done better?
- Community Involvement and educating customer
- Involving local that reduces security concern
- Invested heavily on training employees – long term philosophy of financial backers
- They are using their position as a market leader and continue push innovation in product and services
- Using competitive advantage for building whole system.
- Expertise of the management Khoja who worked in other countries – understood contextual issues and ways to overcome them. price risk appriately
- If you are not a monopoly, how do you fight corruption.
- If you have enough power, you can demand such services.
- Corruption - Did not bow to corruption, maintained as policy, played clean game. People recognized the value of their services.
- Single largest taxpayer-so some leverage.
- Create jobs…security people
- M-Paisa – empower the people (incubate)
- education services are not meeting the need of the people
- Precondition need to be in place o motivated and trained workforce o ICT – infrastructure
- Introduction of phone led to material improvement
- Demand was there.
Social Taboo
- AFDN – mutually reinforcing
- Portfolio of services…
- The weaker the state the more the tentacile of services…
Social enterprises can take on many different identities, but all share the end goal of employing business strategies to tackle social problems. Roshan Telecom Development Company Afghanistan is a perfect example of a for-profit business entity directly and indirectly involved in social enterprise
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In 2003, Roshan entered the Afghanistan market when the country virtually had no telecommunications infrastructure in place. It played a significant role in bringing wireless technologies to the country during a time when other telecom providers were hesitant to enter because of ongoing war and security constraints.Today,Roshan’s network covers over 230 cities and towns in all of the country’s 34 provinces. It is now the leading telecommunications provider in Afghanistan and serves over 5 million active subscribers, a number unimaginable just eight years ago.Throughout its existence, Roshan simultaneously contributed to the nation’s reconstruction and economic development. It is Afghanistan’s largest taxpayer (contributing over $146 million through 2008) and the largest employer (with over 1,200 employees). Indirectly, the company has added over 30,000 jobs to the Afghan economy through top-up stations, retail stores, and call centers located around the country. Roshan also emphasizes sustainable corporate social responsibility programs by investing in the community in the areas of education, microfinance, health, and infrastructure.
“Putting a mobile phone in the hands of women is critical for the development of Afghanistan,” says Roshan CEO Karim Khoja. “We see the mobile phone as much more than a communication device.” Khoja says a provincial government official thanked him for making him a grandfather, because when his daughter had complications in childbirth, the midwife used her mobile to call a doctor, saving the mother and child.
• Segmenting the market to serve the needs of each and every individual customer through customized tariff plans, promotions and products and services.
• Building Afghanistan’s best network, providing superior quality and coverage across Afghanistan. The cutting-edge network is geared towards high-speed data transfer and has been recognized by both our customers and the Regulatory Authority for its high quality.
• Developing a variety of Value Added Services (VAS) that meets the needs of the population, including Airtime Assistance, Ring Back Tones and Interactive Voice Response content.
• Introducing M-Paisa in Afghanistan, which provides 97% of the unbanked population in the country with safe, secure