Today I had the pleasure of attending a panel discussion entitled “Can Business Bridge Religious, Territorial, or Ideological Differences?” which mostly dealt with the daily challenges and rewards that are an inherent part of business in what the panelists called “conflict areas.” The panelists were diverse, but the one who captivated my attention was Shainoor Khoja, the Director of Corporate Affairs for Roshan, an Afghani telecom company.
Despite the challenges that Roshan faces in Afghanistan, such as 70% illiteracy, a poorly developed government, little infrastructure, and a lack of human resources development (to name a few), they started turning a profit after only seven months. They did so in a way that also generated community engagement, such as selling rights to 15 towers to the government and people of the surrounding communities as collateral; this served to increase capital for the company while also helping to ensure the safety of the towers (which had previously been targets for terrorist bombs) because the community had a vested interest to protect them.
As an interesting side note, 23% of Roshan’s 1100 employees are women, which adds an incredible cost to their operating expenses because of the hoops they have to jump through to employ them in the first place; families must agree, transportation must be provided, groups must be arranged so that they don’t ever have to be alone. Khoja’s insight certainly gave me a different perspective on sustainable business – it’s not every day that you learn about business practices in one of Afghanistan’s premier companies!
-Liz Kitto, Junior, Majors: Economic Consulting, Public Policy Analysis, and Spanish
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