265 Solving the big issues of our generation requires bold new business models Triple Bottom Line Business Models Earlier we shared the story of how Iqbal Quadir, an investment banker in New York, set out to build Grameenphone. His goal was to provide universal access to telecommunications services in remote, rural areas of his home country of Bangladesh. He achieved his aim with a for-profit model that had a profound, positive impact on rural Bangladesh. Grameenphone eventually provided over 200,000 women in rural areas with income-earning opportunities, raised their social status, connected 60,000 villages to a mobile phone network, reached 100 million people, turned a profit, and became the Bangla- deshi government’s biggest taxpayer. To accommodate triple bottom line business models, we can 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 line model seeks to minimize negative social and environmental impacts and maximize the positive. Villagers in Bangladesh were too poor to afford phones, so Grameenphone partnered with Grameen Bank, the microfinance institution, to provide local women with microloans to purchase mobile phones. The women sold calling services in their villages, repaid the loans, earned income, and thereby improved their social status. Grameenphone went beyond establishing near universal access to telephone service and earning a profit. It also had substan- tial social impact by providing “village phone ladies” with earning opportunities and improved social status. grameen bank network consortium (telenor) manage network income opportunity mobile communication village phone ladies villagers network grameen bank village phone ladies network communication income VP CR C h CS KP K A KR R$ C$ social and environmental costs social and environmental benefits “universal access” income for women and better social status bmgen_final.indd 265 6/15/10 6:01 PM