Rethinking social enterprise | Brian Forde | TEDxLondonBusinessSchool

As President, Brian Forde leads Llamadas S.A. strategic efforts to bring a low-cost phone service to rural Nicaragua through a series of innovative telephony projects specifically created for the developing world. Llamadas S.A. was recently named the Social Enterprise of the Year through the Inter-American Development Bank's program Pioneers of Prosperity.

Prior to founding Llamadas S.A., Brian taught small business classes in the mountains of Nicaragua as a Peace Corps volunteer, empowering 11th grade high school students to become self-reliant, starting their own companies. Brian graduated with a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California in Los Angeles.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Eight years ago, I moved to Nicaragua.

It was the beginning of a two-year journey
that got extended by five years

because of one phone call.

Like any good son
moving to a new country,

I looked for a way to call my mother
to let her know I was okay.

A couple of bus trips
and several hours later,

I finally found a phone

that could make
an international phone call.

Unfortunately, it cost me two days' wages

to make a five-minute phone call
to a teary-voiced mother.

Little did I know that fateful call
would have me loading phone cabins

on the back of a donkey cart
two years later

to start a social enterprise.

I'll be honest, five or six years ago
I didn't call it a social enterprise

because I had no idea what it was.

What I did know
as a Peace Corps volunteer

was that I saw lots of problems
that could be solved

through entrepreneurship.

And so, what I want
to talk to you about today

is how we built a social
enterprise in Nicaragua

that became one of the largest
phone companies in the country

by lowering the cost
of a phone call by 90%

and disrupting the local telecom industry.

So, six years ago,

my friend, Edgar, and I rented
a wall inside an ice-cream shop.

We installed five phone cabins,

and, little by little,
we grew the company

just opening call shops
around the country.

After two years of sacrificing a salary,

we started to look for ways
to expand our business

beyond the call shops

and grow our profits.

So, as many of you know,

when you visit the developing world,
you see cargo bikes.

Cargo bikes are the most effective way
to transport goods into rural areas.

They transport coke,
oranges, even ice cream,

into small villages through these bikes.

Which got me thinking:

"If we can transport ice cream
into rural areas,

why can't we transport
our low-cost phone technology

into these same areas?"

So, my friend, Edgar, and I
did a quick brainstorm,

and we decided to build
a mobile call shop.

We called it "llamadas pedeleadas",
or "pedalled phone calls".

While it's easy to understand
what a phone cabin is,

it may be more difficult to understand
what a mobile call shop is.

So let me walk you through
the process of how we've built it.

We took a cargo bike and installed
a used car alternator on the back.

When you're pedalling,

it's generating electricity
that's stored in a used car battery.

From the used car battery,

we have a computer UPS
to convert the energy to 110 volts

that will provide the energy
to our low cost technology,

allowing people in remote areas
to make phone calls

where there's no electricity.

So, if I were to ask you,

what allowed us to scale
to a 100,000 customers,

the phone cabins, or the bike,

which one would you choose?

Audience: The bike.

Brian Forde: The bike, right?

If you did chose the bike,
you would have agreed with CNN

and every other social investor
I've spoken with over the last few years

since I uploaded
a video of it to the internet.

You see, like any proud innovator,
I was excited to show off my invention.

So sure enough, five hours later,
after uploading it to the internet,

it was live on CNN,
in front of millions of people.

But, as you can guess,
the bike was a commercial failure,

(Laughter)

and the phone cabins served
100,000 customers last month.

Which got me thinking.

I started to realize that,
much like the beer industry,

sex sells on social enterprise.

(Laughter)

Only we have our own version of sexy.

It's sexy keywords.

What I fell into the trap of

was building a product
that followed trends, buzzwords and fads,

instead of listening to
what my customer needs were.

So, if I were to describe this bike,

it would be a locally sourced,
pedal-powered, microfranchise,

employment generator.

What it's not is commercially viable.

(Laughter)

And trust me, we tried to make it
as commercially viable as possible.

We tried it with our own employees,
we tried to microfranchise it,

we tried it in big cities,
we tried it in the smallest villages.

What we ended up with
were more flat tires than revenue.

(Laughter)

So, while I'm truly flattered

that we got so much press
and investor intention,

and interest in our bike,

my concern is that
if we sell social enterprise

with the latest fads or keywords,

that the media
and the investors will move on.

So, now, I want to talk
about just two of my quick learnings.

One: Business model sins
cannot be washed away

with the holy water of helping others.

Two: you must design your products
for your customers,

and not the latest fads.

Because what I've found, quite simply,

is that a new take on an old solution

can have the most financial
and social impact.

Thank you.

(Applause)