Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Microfranchising: the next big thing

Microfranchise is the next great idea after microfinance, writes Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar, in The Economic Times.

There is only one serious example quoted - GrameenPhones of Bangladesh. Aiyar cleverly bats for Telenor. ("Without the financial and technical clout of Telenor, GrameenPhones could not have gone far.")

The other examples - Scojo (Spectacles) and HP (Marriage photos and video) have a fair way to go. ITC is not in the same franchise model; it outsources Agarbathi production and few other similar activities.

Aiyar wants Anil Ambani of Reliance Infocomm to unleash a revolution like what Yunus did in Bangladesh through the 'Phone Women', rather than looking at taking over Hutch.

Microfranchise ideas look a bit farfetched at this stage.

1 comment:

Ganpat said...

If Anil Ambani were to unleash a revolution through his telephony, he is sure to get more suckers from the rural India.

You will know from the following link, how I got duped by reliance.

http://reliancemobilevictimsblog.blogspot.com/