During the last decade, first-generation "Base of the Pyramid" (BoP) ventures focused primarily on "finding a fortune at the BoP" by selling existing goods to and sourcing familiar products from the world's four billion poorest people. Many of these initiatives did not scale, and some failed outright. But through that experience, crucial lessons have been learned. Innovators are now succeeding--thanks to a more sophisticated and nuanced approach based on "creating a fortune with the BoP."
In this book, co-editors Ted London, Stuart L. Hart, and other leading BoP thought and practice leaders show how to apply these second-generation BoP innovations, techniques, and business models. You'll learn how to build successful business ventures, create sustainable business ecosystems, design new technologies with the BoP in mind, and even transform entire sectors through collaborative entrepreneurship. Key lessons to be learned include
Roadmaps for Success
* A roadmap for venture development
* Patient capital and innovation for the BoP
Strategic Opportunities
* The "Green Leap" and the BoP
* Turning BoP needs into markets
Effective Implementation
* Understanding the BoP at the micro level
* Reframing design for the BoP
* Scaling up BoP ventures
Ted London, co-editor, is a Senior Research Fellow at the William Davidson Institute (WDI) and a member of the faculty at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. At WDI, he directs the Base of the Pyramid Initiative, a program that champions innovative ways of thinking about more inclusive forms of capitalism. At the Ross School, he lectures on the opportunities and challenges inherent in developing new business models to serve BoP markets. An internationally recognized expert on the intersection of business strategy and poverty alleviation, London focuses his research on designing enterprise strategies and poverty-alleviation approaches for low-income markets, developing capabilities for new market entry, building cross-sector collaborations, and assessing the poverty-reduction outcomes of business ventures. His numerous articles, chapters, reports, and cases emphasize creating new knowledge with actionable implications. His article, “Making Better Investments at the Base of the Pyramid,” (Harvard Business Review, 2009), for example, offers a pioneering perspective on listening to the voices of the world’s poor to enhance mutual value creation. Over the past two decades, London has also directed and advised dozens of leadership teams in the corporate, non-profit, and development sectors on designing and implementing market-based strategies in low-income markets. Prior to his arrival at the University of Michigan, London served on the faculty at the University of North Carolina, where he also received his Ph.D. in strategic management. Before that, he held senior management positions in the private, non-profit, and development sectors in Africa, Asia, and the U.S.
Stuart L. Hart, co-editor, is the Samuel C. Johnson Chair in Sustainable Global Enterprise and Professor of Management at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management. He also serves as Distinguished Fellow at the William Davidson Institute (University of Michigan) and is Founder and President of Enterprise for a Sustainable World. Hart is one of the world’s top authorities on the implications of environment and poverty for business strategy. He has published more than 70 papers and authored or edited seven books with over 5,000 Google Scholar citations in all. His article “Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World” won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in theHarvard Business Review for 1997 and helped launch the movement for corporate sustainability. With C.K. Prahalad, Hart also wrote the path-breaking 2002 article “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” which provided the first articulation of how business could profitably serve the needs of the four billion poor in the developing world. His best-selling book,Capitalism at the Crossroads, published in 2005, was selected by Cambridge University as one of the top 50 books on sustainability of all time; the third edition of the book was published in 2010.
