New Markets, New Mindsets: Creating Wealth With South Africa's Low-Income Communities Through Partnership and Innovation

The base of the pyramid (BOP)—the largest socio-economic group, but which also has the lowest income—is the subject of increasing attention in business practices worldwide, the current shift of which is toward creating a more sustainable market. That trend is thoroughly detailed in this helpful guide to understanding and succeeding in BOP business. Utilizing case studies from South Africa, the book demonstrates that in South Africa, around 60 percent of the population is not served or underserved by current business, with similar comparisons existing globally. The book offers strategies for tapping the significant new market both effectively and ethically, and showcases pioneering BOP businesses as well as the failures—giving special focus to what makes an approach sustainable. Also included are interviews with more than 40 top players, and the case studies include Nestlé, Danone, Walmart, Blue Label Technologies, and Capitec.

Tashmia Ismail is a fellow of the Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Centre on Innovation and Technology at United Nations University, and a senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science where she heads the Base of the Pyramid Hub program. Nicola Kleyn is a senior lecturer at the Gordon Institute of Business Science and is involved in the Base of the Pyramid Hub program. She has been awarded the University of the Witwatersrand’s Distinguished Teacher’s Award for the Faculty of Commerce and has published articles in the International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Marketing Intelligence and Planning, and the South African Journal of Business Management. Gwen Ansell is a freelance journalist, a media trainer, a consultant, and a visiting associate at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a contributor to Business Day and the Mail & Guardian, a representative of the South African National Editors Forum Education and Training subcommittee, and a member of the Forum of African Investigative Reporters’ advisory board. She is the author of Introduction to Journalism and Soweto Blues. Stuart L. Hart is the Samuel C. Johnson Chair in Sustainable Global Enterprise and a professor at the Johnson School of Management of Cornell University. He lives in Ithaca, New York. Michael Gordon is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Social Entrepreneurship and Information Technology at the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.