What's red and white and seen all over Haiti?

My colleague recently shared an interesting article from a Canadian business magazine that profiles the struggles of several local and international businesses operating in Haiti. Check it out here. It was written by a Canadian journalist who made a brief visit to Port-au-Prince in February 2008. I’m really looking forward to discussing it with my Haitian neighbor who is a commercial banker at a local branch of a large Canada-HQ bank.

While micro-credit and other community development initiatives can be effective in lifting individual people from some of the immediate consequences of poverty (e.g. not being able to pay their children' school fees), they cannot restore a dysfunctional economy or significantly lower Haiti's 80% unemployment rate. Healthy private and public industries are essential for more wide-reaching structural economic change.

With its hardworking low-cost labor and proximity to the United States, Haiti should have a comparative advantage in today's global economy. (Note:It's hard to ignore the ethical catch-22 of promoting low-wage labor as an advantage when it’s actually a function of the generalized poverty and powerlessness of people to demand fair wages.) Instead, the storm clouds of insecurity (both real and perceived), political instability and corruption overshadow the many good things Haiti has to offer. Few local or global investors are willing to set up shop in Haiti with the unfortunate exception of drug dealers needing a staging point when smuggling goods to North American consumers.

The article briefly mentions one of the most visible foreign investments in Haiti in recent years – the 2006 entry of the Irish-owned cellular telecommunications giant Digicel into the Haitian market. Prior to entering Haiti, Digicel already operated in Jamaica and 11 other Caribbean countries. While I am not an MBA and have no idea what their balance sheet looks like, to the casual observer Digicel's marketing tactics ingeniously anticipate and respond to local realities.

Digicel entered the market offering cellular handsets for as little as US$ 7-10 and sells phone cards in small enough denominations that even poor people can buy them on a fairly regular basis. They are in constant communication with their clients. At least once a day I get a Kreyol text message from the company telling me about special bonus minutes they are adding to my account or highlighting a recent promotion.

Everywhere you look in Port-au-Prince you see Digicel's signature red and white branding. Their high-quality billboards and television ads feature cultural references in Kreyol. (In contrast to the poorly-produced French-language ads of many other Haitian businesses). There are charging stations outside Digicel stores where people who lack electricity can recharge their phone battery for free. Digicel umbrellas shade street vendors from the mid-day Caribbean sun and all around town you see women wearing the free Digicel tank tops distributed during Karnaval this year. (I was actually kind of disappointed not to get one myself– they're cute). Digicel sponsorship has brought back the national soccer team, prompted the search for the next "Digicel Star", decorated the Karnaval floats of popular local bands and paid for new street signs in Peitonville's commercial district. In line with more traditional corporate responsibility, the company has a Digicel Foundation sponsoring rehab of schools and other community projects across Haiti.

The response of the population seems to be the stuff of captialist legend. In a matter of 12 months, more than 1.4 million customers signed on with Digicel. (Haiti’s entire population is about 8.5 million and two other cellular providers had been operating for several years without half as many clients). It is now socially acceptable to call people at 3 or 4 am in order to take advantage of the bonus evening and early morning minutes Digicel offers. There are stories from the April riots of people stopping fellow rioters from throwing rocks at Digicel stores out of respect for the company. Almost every non-profit I know wants to partner with Digicel to capitalize on their visibility and communications network. I’ve even heard a few folks say that people will now buy phone cards before food.

Digicel’s success in Haiti is not so unique in the global arena of telecommunications – it’s partly a function of the “base of the pyramid”-appropriate nature of the cellular services. Unlike in the United States, where many of us prefer email as our primary business and personal communication tool and where I still know a few principled “no cell-phone” hold outs (love you SEM!), here in Haiti anyone who can find any way to get a mobile phone will do so.

Voice communication is essential for survival in a relationship-centered culture with high rates of illiteracy and an incredibly extended (but still connected) diaspora. Cell towers and handsets are relatively inexpensive technologies that can quickly reach locations where lack of infrastructure, geographical isolation or local bureaucracy have made it impossible to get a land line. The entirely “pay as you go” system allows people to purchase small amounts of phone credit as money becomes available.

It’s hard to say what other goods and services hold such incredible “base of the pyramid” market potential as cell phones. You can bet that almost every one of the Fortune 500 corporations has a high-profile Harvard-trained consultant (or two or ten) trying to figure that out.

While I mourn widespread consumerism and commercialism in my home country – and hold particular disdain for my US cell phone provider’s tactics to nickel and dime me and force me listen to long stretches of muzak while on extended hold with customer service - I actually smile most every time I pass another red-and-white monument to global corporate dominance here in Haiti. It's not that I think Digicel is a humanitarian agency in disguise or somehow incapable of ever wrongly taking advantage of its employees or clients. Rather, so far at least, their being in Haiti seems to be a good thing for Haitian people...and will hopefully promote other local and international firms to also make "good for Haiti" investments.