Business Development as a Means of Empowerment

This week, I sought to do business development for Source for Change, our women-run, rural BPO. With managerial and administrative duties taking up a lot of my time, I have not been able to dedicate time to the BPO. Our Business Process Associates (BPAs) have, therefore, started to take on responsibility for business development.

On Friday, one of our BPAs came up with the idea of visiting the local Electricity Board to find a data-entry project. On Saturday, the women and I went to the Electricity Board, where they presented Source for Change, its’ accomplishments and asked for data-entry business. Although the Electricity Board, Water Board and local municipal government had no interest in giving data-entry projects to our organization, I was still extremely excited about the BPAs willingness to take responsibility for business development. Additionally, it was amazing how far along the women had come in terms of their empowerment. About five months ago, when Source for Change started, the women we work with covered their faces when going out in public. Now the women are empowered to take responsibility for business development and ask local persons for data-entry projects. I am humbled and inspired by the BPAs and their ability to grab opportunity, take on responsibility and tackle unknown dimensions such as business development.