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Grameen Intel: The Experience of the World’s First IT Social Business
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Fahim Kader
(132-0947-660)

January 7, 2014

Abstract
“Of all the countries around the world where we can invest, why should we keeping funds running to Bangladesh?” narrates Kazi I. Huque, CEO of Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd.). He talks about how he has had to convince people over at Intel Corporation, over the years, how despite all the well publicized negativities surrounding the political and (subsequently) business situations in Bangladesh, it would be great investment for Intel to finance the operations of Grameen Intel in Dhaka.

Huque, a long term employee of Intel, recalls how during the incorporation of Grameen Intel, he was caught in the middle of contrasting demands and ideas from the rest of the board members that included his own bosses. When he took on the responsibility of spearheading the venture, he knew it would be challenging. The canvas was empty and required lots of thorough planning and strategizing to be crafted into a successful project.

“I met with Craig Barrett (former Chairman of Intel Corporation) in his office, and I started complaining.” says Huque. “I said, ‘You’re all making different demands… you need to be on the same page.” Barrett simply replied, “Kazi, we got you onboard to deal with this. It is your job to sort it all out, so don’t ask me for solutions. You find them.”
That was a big moment for Huque. He understood that the road ahead won’t be easy, and that he needed to face the problems and find the solutions – an idea that still holds true today, 5 years later. People typically ask a lot of questions but the best answer is the product. If the solution the company provides is sound, no question is ever too tricky. Huque states that it is mandatory that the software solutions of the world’s first IT social business, Grameen Intel, prevail and isolate themselves from the political hullabaloo in order to retain the investors’ trust.

Thus, when the fund providers over at Intel ask him “Why Bangladesh?” He simply replies, “So have you seen this new software we developed in Dhaka?”

Grameen Intel History and Background
Bangladesh is home to 160 million people, of whom 53 million are uneducated. 2.2 millions children die every year; 1.9 million are underweight. 80% of the global population suffers similarly. It was always going to take sincere application in and strong dedication towards social development, and would require the kind of commitment that many companies would gently pass on, opting to write big cheques for CSR campaigns instead. The Grameen Model By introducing Grameen Bank in 1983 (as the first official social business in the world) Prof. Muhammad Yunus took upon the much needed, right kind of social responsibility – one that is genuinely oriented towards the people and away from the ultimate goal of earning profit. The model was set in place and it demonstrated how a business can not only survive, but also grow in terms of structure and social impact. The success of the initiative was brought under global spotlight when Prof. Yunus went on to win and share the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with Grameen Bank for contributing remarkably to the fight against poverty and for rural development in Bangladesh.

On the back of tremendous worldwide recognition, he finally, officially introduced the concept of social business. The idea of a “no loss, no dividend” business model caught fire among firm followers of and believers in the inspiring economist. The model – set in place by Grameen Bank – was a proven one, and organizations and individuals around the world were convinced enough to place faith in the potential of social business.

Of the 7 billion people around the world, 6 billion are cellphone users. More over, 2.5 billion use the internet. Information technology has clearly enjoyed great innovation, success and outreach but the not all spheres of life have had the benefit of understanding the tremendous potential of information technology let alone availing it. While IT schools from many developed countries produce marvelous expertise, countries such as Bangladesh and India have been known to possess much untapped talent and expertise in the field. Unfortunately, very few of these people are made to realize the importance of dedicating some of their knowledge to helping the less privileged people – ones who are completely unaware of Facebook or Whatsapp, who do not spend spare time fiddling with iPads, and who do not turn to Google for the answers to their daily problems. Thus after Yunus’s pitching of the idea for social business, many companies around the world began to wonder how they can use IT to solve social problems. The First IT Social Business In 2007, then-Chairman of Intel Corporation Craig Barrett met Yunus at a breakfast meeting in Dhaka. The two people were at the same table. During conversation, Barrett mentioned about his interest in social business and asked Yunus how Intel – known so well for their microprocessors - could start something in Bangladesh. Yunus typically aptly pointed out how IT was yet to reach most of the country’s people, implying that there was much room for IT to help promote societal development. Craig Barrett was convinced, but neither of the two gentlemen could pinpoint what social problem would they solve or what product would they deliver.

In spite of the vague nature of the mutual agreement to initiate a social business in Bangladesh, Barrett was determined to follow up on the idea and make a real foothold for Intel. Once back in the USA, he called upon Kazi Huque who is the Finance Controller of Intel and is in charge of worldwide financial and strategic investment responsibilities. It was not Huque’s caliber as an executive alone but the face that he was born and brought up in Bangladesh that resulted in his having to respond to the sudden call from Barrett.

Huque was intrigued before long. He realized the need for IT intervention in rural Bangladesh and the scope of successfully establishing a social business there. With a bachelor in applied mathematics, computer science and a MBA from the University of Rochester, he knew what he would be going up against if he committed to the challenge. Finally, in 2008, Intel signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Grameen Trust to form the business. But the questions remained: What product? Which problem?

The first employee Huque brought on board was Dr. Narayan Sundararajan, a core member of the emerging markets healthcare team in the World Ahead Program at Intel. Sundararajan had a bachelor in B. Tech and completed M.S. and PhD from Cornell. He holds 17 issued patents, with 50 more pending and is considered a genius in healthcare IT. With varied experience across technical, business and management roles at Intel, he was deemed capable of leading the venture with Huque. Together, they decided that the objective would be to develop software for social impact – specifically in the areas of agriculture, healthcare and education where IT can play an important role.

The task at hand was still not easy for Huque who lives in the Portland, Oregon, and was looking to a make a greenfield investment in Dhaka. He quickly made the trip to Bangladesh and hired a local employee to set the wheels in motion. Over the next two years, Yunus, Barrett and Huque formed the Board of Directors along with Prof. H. I. Latifee (Managing Director of Grameen Trust) and John E. Davies (Vice President of Intel) and Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd. (Grameen Intel or GISB, in short) was registered.

Over the next one year, Grameen Intel practically operated from the lobby of Rupashi Bangla Hotel, and hired a handful of employees who would then work from a coffee house in Dhanmondi until the first temporary office was set up to house a small team of software engineers and project personnel. The goal was simple: to use software to solve specific social problems.

Identity Crisis
From the very start, the company has struggled to establish its unique identity as the world’s first IT social business.

The concept of social business is still taking off although such businesses have grown almost exponentially around the world. A popular and obvious topic for many journalists, social business has often been what interviewers have been more concerned with than what Grameen Intel actually does. Many have simply resorted to the common notion that social business is almost (perhaps sometimes confusingly) interchangeable with non-government organization (NGO). Thus, new parties engaged by Grameen Intel, many a time, walked in thinking the company is a charitable organization funded by corporate sponsorships. Grameen is a popular name in Bangladesh and around the world. While most foreigners would immediately recall the name from Prof. Yunus’s Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank, Bangladeshis usually tend to think of Grameenphone (the first and largest mobile telecom service provider of the country). Upon first hearing the name Grameen Intel, many locals rather confidently identified the company as Grameenphone’s IT subsidiary – GP IT. Others thought of Grameen Bank. Many more have simply assumed the company to be a part of if not Grameenphone itself. While it took a while for job applicants to fully understand where they were applying, it took even greater effort for the employees to explain to their friends and associates that their new company had nothing to do with call rates or bonus talk-time packages. Intel is, as mentioned earlier, famous for their microprocessors. So the question here, from students to journalists, has been simple – “When is Intel producing microprocessors in Bangladesh?” When the answer told them that Grameen Intel had nothing to do with Intel’s well known line of work, the next question would always be – “Software from a hardware company?” Moreover, the Grameen Intel name has been continually typed (mostly deliberately) as Grameen-Intel, by many outside the company, making organization seem like a temporary program being undertaken jointly by a Grameen company and Intel.

While it took an enormous effort, the company has managed to establish its own identity as separate entity from Grameenphone and Intel, and as a software firm dedicated to helping solve the world’s social problems. The problems have not been categorically eliminated though, but Grameen Intel’s brand has come a long way and is much more prominent.

Company Structure and Philosophy
Grameen Intel aims to keep society in pace with software by empowering rural entrepreneurs with technology. The company is currently headquartered in Mohakhali, Dhaka, and has 29 employees. (Chief Executive Officer) Kazi Huque and (Chief Technology Officer) Narayan Sundararajan continue to operate from the USA but are still at the heart of Grameen Intel’s business and product development. They maintain daily contact with the project and engineering teams and try to manage 2-3 trips to Dhaka every year to review progress, desigen strategies an personally orient new employees with the philosophy, goals and vision of Grameen Intel.

Local operations are headed by a Chief Operating Officer based in Dhaka, while a General Manager, Technology, leads the Technology Development Team who are currently working on various agriculture and education products. The management believes in hiring and putting young employees on the forefront of the company, stating the importance of aligning the potential of innovative digital solutions with the enthusiasm and drive of the younger generation in the attempt to address the world’s social problems. The average age of employees in the Grameen Intel office is 27.

One of the most visible effects of such an approach has been the increasingly creative albeit cautious approach to marketing the brand. Whether it is active participation in conventions and group discussions or passive advertisements or newsletters, the presence of youth is clearly visible. Every now and then, the company would be open to feel-good messaging to capture the interests of the youth along with that of the older audience. The direction here has been away from dull, emotional statements and towards suggesting innovative and effective solutions that can be delivered through devices ranging from simple computers to state-of-the-art phones. While nothing about the problems being addressed can be taken lightly, the company invests in smart, confident and active approach to the actual problem solving process.

As much as the young employees are given the opportunity to drive projects and product development, the management finds it necessary to remind them of the company’s primary goal of societal development over money making. Grameen Intel’s tagline is ‘Smart Software. Better World.’ What they do, directly affects the people whose lives they try to make better. As such, one careless input or an ignored software bug can lead to grave consequences for the stakeholders. Which is why, the employees are required to act responsibly.

As a first step to developing smart software solution, the company picks out very specific issues that pile up to create bigger social problems. This helps them to narrow down the bigger picture for greater product focus. Surely, the ‘global food crisis’ is not the result of one common problem that is hampering crop yield. How do you solve the hunger problem? Where do you begin? What are the underlying little problems that farmers must tackle everyday? Which is the most important? How do we help solve this? What is the next item on the list of problems? These are some of the conceptual questions the product development team must ask and answer before they can start putting logic and algorithms together.

Specifying The Problems
According to World Hunger Facts, 80% of the world's population live on less than $10 a day and are subject to global issues such as famine and malnutrition. While such facts are easily available on social media platforms boasting more than 1.11 billion users, technology is yet to reach the 5.6 billion people who need our attention for better livelihood. Food crisis is not the only problem. A much related issue is poverty. For some, lack of proper cultivation is the cause for their poverty; for others, poverty is the cause of malnutrition. So quite obviously, one cannot tackle one of these items without having an impact on the other. We live in a world where 75% of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas and rely on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood. 50% of the hungry people are farming families. Once you put all this into perspective, it becomes clear why governments and other global bodies should invest so much into the world agriculture sector – that is where the root of the food crisis lies. (www.thp.org)

Farmer’s Dilemma
There is enough arable land and manpower worldwide to easily tackle the issue, but the problem lies deep within the soil. The nutrient content changes with every cultivation and application of fertilizers. All the nitrogen, potassium, organic carbon et al. being poured into the soil may not give a farmer the best output, but in ensures one thing – soil nutrient content changes. This is one vital bit of information that farmers miss out on.

However, there is another fold to the story – the application of fertilizer. Farmers usually rely on knowledge passed down to them by their forefathers; and in most cases, the thought process is wrong, but quite simple: apply more to get more. That is to metaphorically feed your child more and more vitamins everyday hoping she grows up to be healthy and prosperous. A doctor will tell you such a practice is harmful for health. Unfortunately, the ‘doctors’ of soil and agriculture do not relay this message enough to the farming population of the world. So a farmer will typically apply more fertilizer that required, and generally it will be of the wrong type. On the other hand, he is likely not to apply the kind of fertilizer that his soil actually needs.

A farmer may sometimes consult the same person he buys his fertilizers from. But agriculture experts around the world will tell you that optimum fertilizer application is specific to the soil’s chemical composition. Thus applying surplus amount of Nitrogen to an already Nitrogen-rich soil could result in burning up of crops or straight infertility. The question of how much of what to apply is a common to all farmers around the world, but only a few has the right answer, if at all. A major step towards global food security is understanding the relationship between soil composition and fertilizer dosage.

Providing Smart Solutions

The Fertilizer Confusion
Based on the Fertilizer Recommendation Guide (FRG) developed by Soil Research and Development Institute (SRDI) of Bangladesh, Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd. have created mrittika – a fertilizer recommendation software designed to run on computers and Android devices.

The application is developed using over 20,000 lines of codes programmed around complex algorithms giving it a strong, dynamic backend which allows for much need customizability. On the frontend, however, mrittika has a very user-friendly interface which requires little orientation, meaning virtually negligible learning curve, and allows the user to guide through the functions and screens with relative ease.

FRG is a massive matrix of numbers that helps determine optimum fertilizer dosage and is a product of research and development that is carried out from year to year by agro experts and scientists. The regular research keeps the data updated therefore assuring the matrix never goes out of date and is rendered useless. This is necessary as soil composition and benchmarks change every few years across the varying ecological zones of Bangladesh.

mrittika – Fertilizer Recommendation Software mrittika was developed based on the same matrix and was meant to enable easy calculation of the required dosage. When taken outside Bangladesh, the software does not become useless as relevant soil benchmark (i.e. that of the region concerned) can be easily uploaded and hence incorporated into the software’s logic and thereby customize the matrix to account for local soil composition. In simple words, soil composition of a country is all that needs to be put into the software’s logic to make it a reliable tool for determining optimum fertilizer dosage in that country. Without this all important feature, the software would have been tethered to only be of practical use within Bangladesh. As it now stands, an user can be sitting in a farming village in North America, South America, Africa, South Asia or anywhere in the world and be using mrittika to help farmers yield better harvests using scientifically developed formulae that relies on local content which includes more than just soil composition (as will be explained soon.)

It is important to note that the software is meant for the use of entrepreneurs who in turn would serve farmers. An entrepreneur may have preference of device -desktop over notebook PCs, phones over computers etc. – based on financial circumstance. Fortunately the application is designed to run on even the most affordable of recent Android phones. The low hardware requirements make it an ideal application for users with otherwise very little use of computers because the software can be used anywhere on a mobile phone.

Prior to using mrittika, it is ideal that the entrepreneur carries out soil tests specified by agro experts for most accurate results. This test determines characteristics of the soil – levels of pH, Potassium, Phosphorus, Calcium, Magnesium, Organic Carbon and Nitrogen.

mrittika works in a few simple steps. First, the entrepreneur must register a farmer. This only requires the individual farmer’s name, address and contact information. Successful registration adds the farmer to a farmer’s list on the application. Then the entrepreneur must provide the specific type of crop (Boro, T-Aman etc.), size of the land, elevation of the land (low/mid/high), irrigation system (e.g. rainfed or irrigated), and the season (e.g. Rabi or Kharif, in Bangladesh). The next step requires the entrepreneur to provide the results of the soil tests. The output is the optimum dosage of fertilizer, based on the provided inputs that must be applied by the farmers at different stages of the crop cycle to boost crop yield. This recommendation is also saved and can be viewed at anytime, and sent out via email or SMS (depending on device used). The recommended fertilizers are shown with particular information such as brand, price and contact information of the local supplier who has the product in stock.

The user can and needs to add suppliers and stocks by contacting and collecting information from suppliers in the vicinity. Proper fertilizer application has been proven to not only boost crop yield but also reduce costs and hence increase returns.

A terrific feature of the application is its ability to upload saved farmer information and recommendation history to Grameen Intel’s eAgro Portal – an online content management system for customers (i.e. us) and entrepreneurs to maintain a comprehensive database. The Portal is not an afterthought, however, it is the primary media through which Grameen Intel’s sales/product team deploys the software licenses to the organization’s customers, customers to franchises/entrepreneurs, and franchises to entrepreneurs. The Portal can allow the top level admin (usually someone at Grameen Intel) to view the life cycle of a license as it goes from deployment to serving scores of individual farmers across a village, thousands of miles away from the Grameen Intel headquarters. Interestingly though, since this Portal can be accessed from anywhere, at anytime, given the availability of internet access on a phone or computer, the actual deployment of a software license can itself be executed from anywhere in the world. Thus entrepreneurs too can synchronize their applications with the Portal on the go, downloading the latest benchmarks or other information and uploading the latest records of farmers and recommendations so that no track is ever lost. A farmer can always come back and compare recommendations from period to period or simply recover information that he may have forgotten.

Correct fertilizer dosage is not all that a farmer needs. He needs to know which brand of seed would be best for his soil; how to deal with pests and crop diseases; and how to make the most of his harvest in financial terms, among other questions. Grameen Intel also offers ankur (seed selection), protikar (pest control) and vistar (harvest management) as part of their eAgro Suite package.

Pilots and Results
To date, Intel are always looking for results. They need to see output from the money they have invested, particularly given that Bangladesh is not a popular choice for an investment site given the political unrest, the lack of effective infrastructure, and the Government’s highly publicized negative opinion of Prof. Yunus. Given these circumstances, the decision-makers at Intel always ask Huque why they should carry on investing in Dhaka while there are other countries in the world that are better structured overall for successfully operating a business.

In 2012, Grameen Intel launched Project Harvest – the collective program that ran pilot projects across Bangladesh to field test mrittika. Currently there are 30 farmers from 3 districts - 15 in Kushtia, 12 in Patuakhali and 3 in Chuadanga.

Md Alam, a wheat farmer from Kushtia, is one of the first farmers to have been recommended by mrittika. Hesitant at first at the very thought of being told how to do better what generations of his family has been already doing, and that too by a group of yound men from the city, Alam was ecstatic to find his harvest increased by 47 per cent compared to his previous wheat cultivation. Similarly, a Boro rice farmer in Kushtia also enjoyed up to 54% greater yield compared to other farmers in the vicinity, with the help of mrittika.

Project Harvest has so far worked with rice, jute, potato, wheat, mustard, mung bean, green chili, peanuts and ladyfingers and the results so far have been quite encouraging.

Two years before Project Harvest commenced, a social business in India, eKutir, co-founded by Grameen Intel’s Director of Strategic Business Development, Srinivas Garudachar, started using mrittika and ankur to the benefit of over 1000 farmers across Orissa. With a rigorous pilot for one year, the results were quite intriguing, with desired benefits achieved for both the micro-entrepreneur and the farmers.

By availing seed as recommended by ankur, a vegetable farmer named Biranchi Samal has achieved 20 per cent great crop yield and an increased income of 133 per cent. Samal now has better knowledge of seeds and is in contact with reliable seed suppliers.

A paddy farmer, Anand Nayak used mrittika to determine the quality of the soil and apply the proper quantity of nutrients. Using mrittika and linkages made through eKutir, Nayak was able to reduce his overall cultivation expenses by 30% and increase production by 13%.

Recently, at the UN Broadband commission, Grameen Intel and Republic of Macedonia signed a MoU and announced their plan to provide technology solutions for agriculture communities in Macedonia.

Society. Software. Shoulder to shoulder.
Grameen Intel is still a very young corporation. As the company grows year to year in terms of personnel, product and outreach, it is important to maintain specificity in their direction in order to succeed in its vision. The reputation is slowly building but the title of the world’s first IT social business creates a lot of expectations for Kazi Huque and his employees to fulfill, not just for themselves but also for the people whose lives the company has always sought to touch.

The novelty of the business has been quite a challenge. Identifying the right problems, developing suitable products, picking the best-fit promotion, and subsequently establishing the brand image has offered all aboard a long and testing journey. The noble aim of helping society has required Grameen Intel to align their goals with the country’s primary Millennium Development Goals and then to use that foundation to launch themselves towards the global scenario. All has been done with great belief and strong sense of responsibility that infectiously spreads from the core of the company.

Successes of mrittika and ankur have kindled great spirit within Grameen Intel. With farmers benefitting from greater, healthier yields and increased incomes, the days when entire societies can be lifted out of poverty and hunger is now a much more believable idea.

The products are smart enough to solve problems and yet simple enough for not-so tech savvy users to easily glide through. The solutions are varied with many more agriculture product concepts waiting approval. Business-to-business angle has been much preferred and understandably so. Selling mrittika licenses to individual users would not be financially feasible; so to sell in bulk to other businesses such as eKutir – who can then help set up entrepreneurs and hubs, and distribute licenses as necessary – is the most viable option. However, Grameen Intel is extending its education applications directly towards households. Such an application designed to run on Android devices is gSlate which is designed for preschoolers to learn alphabets and numbers. There are others education apps in the pipeline, which are intended to be distributed through Google Play and Apple’s App Store to parents of targeted children. From what was a confusing start to a venture is now a promising small company that is growing rapidly with innovative solutions and a shared mindset of making the world a better place through information technology. Kazi Huque and Narayan Sundararajan had a lot of big decisions to make, but thus far they have certainly made the right ones.

Reference:

* Alam, Rashedul. Deputy General Manager, Grameen Intel. Personal Interview. December 2013. * daily sun | Business | GrameenIntel, Macedonia to bring farm services powered by technology. (n.d.). daily sun | Business | GrameenIntel, Macedonia to bring farm services powered by technology. Retrieved January 9, 2014, from http://www.daily-sun.com/details_yes_27-09-2013_GrameenIntel,-Macedonia-to-bring-farm-services-powered-by-technology_628_1_3_1_17.html

* Hoq, Pavel. Chief Operations Officer, Grameen Intel. Personal Interview. December 2013.

* Huque, Kazi. Chief Executive Officer, Grameen Intel. Personal Interview. December 2013.

* Khan, Saqif. Project Officer, Grameen Intel. Personal Interview. December 2013.

* Rashid, Afzalur. General Manager, Technology, Grameen Intel. Personal Interview. December 2013.

* Sundararajan, Narayan. Chief Technology Officer, Grameen Intel. Personal Interview. December 2013. * The Hunger Project. (n.d.). Empowering Women and Men to End Their Own Hunger. Retrieved January 9, 2014, from http://www.thp.org * The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006. (n.d.). Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank. Retrieved January 9, 2014, from http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html

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[ 2 ]. www.indexmundi.com, www.bbs.gov
[ 3 ]. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html
[ 4 ]. www.worldbank.org
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[ 6 ]. Alam, Rashedul. Personal communication. December 2013.
[ 7 ]. Internal discussions within Grameen Intel
[ 8 ]. Hoq, Pavel. Personal communication. December 2013.
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[ 10 ]. Rahman, Afzalur. Personal communication. September 2013.
[ 11 ]. Internal documents. June 2012
[ 12 ]. Grameen Intel Project Reports
[ 13 ]. www.ekutir.com
[ 14 ]. http://www.daily-sun.com/details_yes_27-09-2013_GrameenIntel,-Macedonia-to-bring-farm-services-powered-by-technology_628_1_3_1_17.html