Articles by Caroline Ashley
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Thursday
September 29
2016Who Pays and What Works? The Changing Market of Inclusive Business Development Services
There are more development services for inclusive businesses than ever before. But how effective are they and what still needs to be done to improve the market? The Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business and the Inclusive Business Accelerator have been exploring these questions and more in a new series.
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Thursday
May 26
2016Inclusive Business Partnerships: Distracting Dead End or Sustainable Solution?
If anything has been proven in the past decade of inclusive business, it's that “go it alone” doesn't work. The enterprises that are going to scale have partners. The other inescapable facts are that partnering is hard and some partnerships don't work. The problem is perhaps that partnering is assumed to be something that just happens and anyone can do it.
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Guest Articles
Wednesday
January 6
2016Sloppy Numbers About Poor Households
Affordability – the ratio between price and household income – matters and gets insufficient attention. While there has been a huge effort to sell quality goods and services at a low price point, there's been relatively little effort to understand incomes and spending patterns in poor households.
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- Social Enterprise
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Friday
May 29
2015Regulators as Customers: Positive, negative, and subtle ways governments are affecting Inclusive business – and vice versa
Moaning about government regulation and red tape simply does not do justice to the complex field of inclusive business. Caroline Ashley sees a host of positive and negative influences of government and policy, and explores how inclusive businesses are influencing their local and state governments.
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Wednesday
December 17
2014Three BoP Business Portfolios: Progress across three portfolios supporting 160 companies
Caroline Ashley evaluates three base of the pyramid investment portfolios: The Business Innovation Facility pilot (2010-2013), Innovations Against Poverty pilot (2011-2013) and Business Call to Action (five years old and ongoing). The data is based on years of rich engagement with three contrasting portfolios, each with an exciting - but different - array of innovative businesses.
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Thursday
June 19
2014No More Guessing: The many pros (and a few cons) of IFC’s new Global Consumption Database
Whatever country you operate in, and almost whatever product or service you sell, you can use the new Global Consumption Database to work out market data relevant to your business. There are many pros to this powerful tool, and a few cons.
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- Education
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Monday
February 17
2014NexThought Monday – The Real 4Ps of Inclusive Business: Perseverance, pilots, partnerships and passion
We started last September – looking across the entire portfolio of businesses supported by the Business Innovation Facility since 2010. The more we looked, the stronger the common themes appeared. Most companies ended up innovating more than they expected, and in more parts of the value chain.
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- Education
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Guest Articles
Wednesday
September 26
2012Another Online Hub? Here’s Why We Tried Something Different : The Business Innovation Facility and IAP database is a one-stop-shop for social entrepreneurs
A new Database of Financial and Technical Support for Inclusive Business aims to reduce the time and challenge involved. Produced by the Business Innovation Facility (BIF) and Innovations Against Poverty (IAP), it’s a step towards a ‘one-stop shop’ for IB entrepreneurs.
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- Education, Social Enterprise, Technology