=============================================================
NextBillion News Vol. 25 June 03, 2008
=============================================================

NextBillion.net Hosts Discussion on Scaling Strategies, Turns Three and Partners with Acumen Fund

[Contents]

1. Taking Base of the Pyramid Strategies to Scale: A NextBillion.net Featured Series

2. Update on NextBillion.net's Team and Latest Happenings on the Site

Al Hammond to join Ashoka's Leadership Group, NextBillion turns 3, announces partnership and welcomes news from its team of staff writers.

3. Featured Blog Posts: God at the Base of the Pyramid, Micro-Innovation, The Wealth of the Poor and The Next 4 Billion's Spanish Language Version

4. Featured Event: The S.E.VEN Film Competition

5. Jobs/Careers: Associate, Satya Capital

=============================================================

1. Taking Base of the Pyramid Strategies to Scale: A NextBillion.net Featured Series

By Derek Newberry

"Taking Base of the Pyramid Strategies to Scale" is a series of eleven blog postings that debate a radical new approach to scaling BoP business models, which its proponents call a "transformative sector strategy."

In the series, Al Hammond introduces the conceptual framework for this new development model and provides examples of the strategy in action from the Health and ICT sectors. Six BoP experts - Emily Fintel, Sagar Gubbi, Ryan Gunderson, Francisco Mejia, John Paul and Brian Trelstad - comment on the strategy in subsequent guest commentaries, followed by a concluding post from Hammond.

This is the first of what we hope will be more NextBillion.net blog series that explore BoP issues and debate them with experts in the field. A pdf version of the complete series is available to download. We encourage you to join the discussion through comments on the site.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Featured Content on NextBillion.net's Team and Latest Happenings

May was a month full of remarkable news and happenings relevant to NextBillion.net's team and the site's projection into the future.

First and foremost, Al Hammond's departure from WRI to join Ashoka's Leadership Team marks a milestone in the site's history. A co-founder of NextBillion.net and lead author of The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid, Al will continue to work on scaling BoP strategies in two of the sectors he knows best: healthcare and ICT. We all wish him well and, luckily, will continue to read his contributions to NextBillion.net as a staff writer.

It was also time to celebrate NextBillion.net's third birthday and announce the site's new partnership with Acumen Fund, by which it will co-own and co-manage the site with WRI. This will allow the site to deepen its Base of the Pyramid focus and bring in fresh perspectives.

Finally, we were glad to welcome David Lehr to our diverse team of Staff Writers and also announce the news of Grace Augustine joining the team of Stanford Social Innovation Review's blog.

These are exciting times for NextBillion.net and look forward to hearing the reactions from our readers. We will be announcing new events concerning the site in the coming months.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Featured Blog Posts: God at the Base of the Pyramid, Micro-Innovation, The Wealth of the Poor and The Next 4 Billion's Spanish Language Version

God at the Base of the Pyramid?

By Moses Lee

A key concept when operating a business at the base of the pyramid, or in any place for that matter, is contextualization. And by contextualization I mean a deep understanding and embrace of local culture. A simple example of contextualization in business can be observed by comparing the McDonald's menus in Asia and the United States. For instance, it would be impossible to find any McDonald's in the state of Michigan serving a curry burger. Why? Because people in the state of Michigan don't have a taste for curry burgers and wouldn't buy the product. Indeed, it is critical that businesses be aware of local patterns of human behavior – such as lifestyles, tastes, and social involvement – and develop products and services that suit these behaviors.

What I have mentioned thus far is nothing new and probably very elementary to the NextBillion community. However, I would like to suggest that we have left out of the conversation a very important component of culture: religion. It is a subject that is very polarizing and often taboo to discuss in business. But it is important to bring up because religion is very important to people in the communities that we in the NextBillion community are trying to serve.

Read More

Micro-Innovation: Bringing Billions to the Conversation

By Grace Augustine

Base of the Pyramid (BoP) strategy has a few key tenets, one of which is the power of aggregated demand. Those living at the base of the economic pyramid may have little buying power on their own, but when they are pooled together, their consolidated demand amounts to a viable market.

Companies are increasingly aware of and planning around this aggregated demand approach, as we have seen through such examples as the William J. Clinton Foundation's ability to bring down the prices of AIDS drugs through a guaranteed high volume of sales.

That said, there is a need for not only existing products and services, but even more so for innovation at the BoP – so what about aggregating demand in those cases? How do you assess the ability and willingness of the poor to pay for products and services that do not already exist, and how do you convince companies to take a risk on such a vast and fragmented market?

Read More

The Wealth of the Poor: How Ecosystem Services Benefit the Base of the Pyramid

By Guest Blogger Karen Benett

When you drink a glass of fresh water, do you think about how it may have been cleaned by a watershed upstream? When you eat fresh fruit or grains, do you think about the thousands of species - like bats, bees, birds, and butterflies - that pollinated your food? If you do, you're a minority. Most of us don't think about - or don't even realize - the vast array of services nature provides us every day. We call this myriad of nature's benefits on which we fundamentally depend ecosystem services.

Ecosystem services range from the obvious - crops, fish, fresh water - to those that are harder to see - erosion regulation, carbon sequestration, and pest control. While people everywhere depend on nature, those in rural areas, and particularly the rural poor, are most directly dependent. Products from forests, oceans, and fields are an important source of rural income, and these goods are a safety net when other employment fails. Over a billion people depend on nature for employment - in other words, nearly half of all jobs worldwide come from the environment. Ecosystems, whether healthy or degraded, represent the wealth of the poor.

Read More

Los Siguientes 4 Mil Millones: Tamaño del Mercado y Estrategia de Negocios en la Base de la Pirámide

By Francisco Noguera

I am glad to announce the release of "Los Siguientes 4 Mil Millones: Tamaño de Mercado y Estrategia de Negocios en la Base de la Pirámide", the Spanish language version of WRI and IFC's milestone report "The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Busines Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid". This report was made possible by the Network for Inclusive Markets, formed by WRI, Avina and Fundes, strong regional players in the BoP space.

Read More

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Featured Event: The S.E.VEN Film Competition

In light of the power stories have to connect people with causes and build movements, the film competition announced by S.E.VEN is a smart move. From now until September 15^th, the Fund is soliciting films from professionals and amateurs alike that "showcase the story of an entrepreneur - to show the story of what odds this person has overcome, what impact they have had on the world, and how they've managed to achieve their goals." $35,000 in awards will be distributed among three winners, which will be announced October 7^th.

Read More

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Jobs/Careers: Associate, Satya Capital

Location: London, England

Organization: Satya Capital Limited is a private investment firm specializing in Africa-related investment, providing companies with the operational, technological and financial resources they need to expand and take advantage of burgeoning growth opportunities in their industries.

Position Description: Satya is searching for an Associate / Director level candidate with experience in transaction execution, valuation, cash flow modeling and fundamental analysis who would be available on a permanent basis. Candidates should have a strong banking / private equity background. Regional experience and a keen interest in investing in Africa are helpful.

Read More

=============================================================

NextBillion News Vol. 25 June 03, 2008

To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: http://www.nextbillion.net/newsletter
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) will send you www.NextBillion.net headlines either to your desktop or via email. Read more about what RSS can do: http://www.nextbillion.net/rss. We welcome reader comments sent to info@nextbillion.net.

Thank you,
NextBillion.net Team
World Resources Institute
Acumen Fund