Kyrgyzstan’s Accelerate Prosperity welcomed its third Business on the Frontlines team this spring in its ongoing partnership. The organization, which is part of the wider Aga Khan Development Network, invests in training, incubating and advancing small businesses.
Justin Jones (MBA '16), principal consultant at Marco Polo Insights, has served as an adviser since the partnership between Frontlines and Accelerate Prosperity Kyrgyzstan launched in 2021. Jones first participated in Frontlines as an MBA student working on a project in the Philippines in 2016. "That formative experience helped me realize very concretely the power of using business frameworks to understand and positively impact the world," he said.
Now, Jones is helping the next generation of Mendoza students get the same opportunity, most recently working alongside his fellow advisor, Ross Fleck (MBA ‘11) and the 2024 Team Kyrgyzstan.
The team’s challenge this year was to research and assess the country's green construction sector to understand the potential for Accelerate Prosperity to best engage with and potentially invest in the industry. Knowing that they had only two weeks in-country, they hit the ground running on campus first, facilitating up to 15 virtual briefings or interviews per week to prepare.
Mitch Morecraft (MBA '25) said that the learning curve was steep. "Not knowing anything about construction, sustainability or small business development, and then needing to get sufficiently up to speed to have an intelligent conversation with an expert in-country required an extraordinary amount of work."
It was work that paid off when the team arrived in Bishkek.
The country’s emerging economy has been rapidly developing since it declared independence from the USSR in 1991. After the team’s initial meeting with Accelerate Prosperity in-country, Morecraft was humbled by the sophisticated organization and its portfolio of successful entrepreneurs. "They certainly didn't need our help to come up with a great idea for a green business in their country," he explained. "However, they did have a use for the perspective we would be able to share after talking with 47 people across the country working in the construction industry."
Collectively, the team spent hundreds of hours interviewing entrepreneurs, tradespeople, leaders and consumers. They crisscrossed the country, traveling to four regions: Bishkek, Osh, Karakol and Batken.
"I've never met a more eager entrepreneur. It's people like Nursultan who are helping Kyrgyzstan's economy to flourish."
MaKel McCracken (MBA '25)
MaKel McCracken (MBA '25) was particularly moved by a meeting with Nursultan Taabaldiev, a 26-year-old brick manufacturer in Batken, a Southwestern region of Kyrgyzstan. "He created an innovative type of sawdust brick that is environmentally friendly, waste-preventative and top quality. I've never met a more eager entrepreneur. It's people like Nursultan who are helping Kyrgyzstan's economy to flourish," McCracken said.
The team soon observed that a push for development and fast-paced growth is coming straight from the Kyrgyz people, who value tradition as much as they care about embracing technology and all that globalization has to offer.
Morecraft said that the most immersive way to observe this was the downtime in the team van between meetings, inching through rural villages with retro Soviet-era architecture. "There was a fascinating juxtaposition at play. For example, I'd see someone on horseback shepherding a flock of sheep but hunched over his iPhone."
The team collected a thorough assessment of sub-industries with potential for green construction and identified challenges, gaps and opportunities in the market that entrepreneurs could fill with green building.
Ultimately, the incoming assumption that Kyrgyz property developers and entrepreneurs would be motivated to finance green construction concepts or projects simply because they helped sustain and protect local ecology was, as Morecraft concluded, "actually incorrect."
The interviews revealed that individuals are far more motivated to choose a project that is cost-effective and supports their local neighborhood, village or city. If it is also green, they will view that as an added benefit but not a key selling point. Individuals care deeply about development, uplifting and supporting those around them. Culturally, they value maintaining a positive reputation among their neighbors.
As a result, one of Team Kyrgyzstan’s final recommendations was for Accelerate Prosperity to shift its proposed funding model. Instead of supporting projects with a single round of large-scale funding, Accelerate Prosperity should take a multi-year approach to invest in tightly knit communities of people making small changes that can then be replicated throughout the country. "It's a long game to develop the country and will take years of making small investments that align with a path towards gradual growth," said Jones.
McCracken, who applied to Mendoza in large part because it offered the opportunity to participate in Frontlines, didn’t leave disappointed. “I wanted to have an experience abroad while not only learning, but also making a difference. I think that together with our partner and clients, Team Kyrgyzstan was able to accomplish that.”