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A Lesson Learned
In this article, I discuss the importance of disruptive business models, using the success of the Amazon Kindle as a disruptive innovation and business model to the publishing world. Unfortunately, what once could have been a device that could have had a significant impact to the BoP, is now another gadget for the well-to-do.
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Notes From the Field: The Future of Healthcare Part II
Last week, I stood in a room in India where perhaps 15 women in clean-room garb were assembling point-of-use rapid diagnostic kits. These were pregnancy tests, but the company makes similar diagnostic kits for malaria, dengue, hepatitis, HIV, glucose levels, etc.; more than 30 in all. But that’s only part of the story.
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Unlocking the Creative Potential of the “Next Billion”: Idea Competitions at the Base of the Pyramid
What are concrete methods to make co-creation / innovation from the bottom-up happen? The recent popularity of competitions seems to offer an interesting method. Interesting, fun and popular as they are, the case still seems to be that they do not capture much attention when the challenge at hand requires them to take place at the BoP.
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SOCAP09: So What? 3 Reasons Why You Need to Be There
Yes, another social enterprise conference is around the corner, and you’re thinking, "Do I really need to be there?" I hear you. Well, SOCAP09 is coming up and I AM going, so in the interest of transparency, here are the 3 reasons why you need to be there, too.
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E+Co’s Invisible Schoolhouse and the (Online) BoP Ecosystem
E+Co, a leading clean energy investor for the BoP, recently announced the launch of their latest initiative, the Invisible Schoolhouse. When I learned of it, I was reminded of several other online portals connecting entrepreneurs, experts, consumers, and more.
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Guest Post: Hybrid Value Chains and the Base of the Pyramid in Africa
As a 2009 Global Graduate Research intern, the goal of my research on Africa has been to identify collaborations between the private and citizen sectors and learn what made them work (or what caused them to fail). So far, I have been able to find about 67 cases and while there’s still more work to be done, two clear trends seem to have emerged.
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Safe Water at the Base of the Pyramid: What Works? What Doesn?t? What?s Next?
IFC recently issued Safe Water for All, a thorough and illustrative report about the opportunities for the private sector in delivering clean water to the base of the pyramid. It sheds light on many of the topics covered in the review published here in NextBillion back in 2008.
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Guest Post: Imagining Sustainable Solutions
I am an unlikely choice to judge the final round of an event that touts itself as the "world’s premier student technology competition". Ask any of my tech-savvy and much younger co-workers - and when they stop laughing at the thought -they will undoubtedly and forcefully concur that I am technology-challenged. But there I was...
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