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How C.K. Prahalad’s Bottom of the Pyramid Strategies Are Paying Off
Five years ago, C.K. Prahalad published a book titled, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid , in which he argues that multinational companies not only can make money selling to the world’s poorest, but also that undertaking such efforts is necessary as a way to close the growing gap between rich and poor countries. Key to his argument for targeting the world’s poorest is the sheer size of that market -- an estimated four billion people. How has Prahalad’s book...
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Tata Power Links with MCX to Empower Farmers
As a part of its strategy, to take the benefits of the future’s trading to farmers’ doorstep and reach out to every corner of India, The Tata Power Company Ltd, India’s largest Integrated Power Utility signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), India’s leading commodity exchange. Through this alliance, the benefit of the future price information will be spread to more than 2000 farmers across 25 villages of Maharashtra where Tata Po...
- Region
- South Asia
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Understanding Rural and Low Income Customers in Asia
An important segment that marketers cannot ignore in Asia is the bottom of the pyramid and those Asian consumers living in rural areas. The challenges, marketers face in trying to address these consumers are high and risky due to the fragmented nature of the rural market and the low margins of this trade. There is no denying though that rural consumers want to access brands, if only because they are a promise of quality. For Asian marketers interested in tapping the huge rural markets in Asia...
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Water Purifier Players Battle for Every Drop
It’s said the next world war will be fought for water. While this frightening scenario — a global battle between nations for the precious resource — is strictly hypothetical in proportions, a skirmish over water has already erupted in India. No, not the disputed Cauvery water nor the water sharing between India and its neighbours, but between brands in the water purifier market. And it’s between market leader Eureka Forbes (EFL) and Hindustan Unilever which has been fo...
- Region
- South Asia
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Investors Back Social Initiatives in India
Bangalore: When Pune-based sanitation services provider Saraplast Pvt. Ltd started hunting for funds late last year, it was confident of attracting investors. The company had all its documents in place, a three-year track record of profits and a business model that it thought could be scaled up. However, Saraplast was baffled when investors indicated that they did not think its business of operating portable toilets was a business at all, even in a country where 55% of the populati...
- Region
- South Asia
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ANDE Announces $447K in Capacity Development Funding
Fifteen international economic development organizations have received grants in support of their work to expand small and growing businesses in developing countries. The grants-totaling US $447,000-were announced at the 2009 annual conference of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs in Glen Cove, New York. The grants were the first awarded as part of the network’s Capacity Development Fund, a US $1million effort to increase the productivity and effectiveness of organi...
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Financial innovation and the Poor: A Place in Society
Many nodded when Lord Turner, the City of London’s chief regulator, said recently that the financial industry had grown "beyond its socially useful size". The idea that devices such as collateralised debt obligations and credit-default swaps have been a blessing, not least by allowing the less well-off to buy houses, is in tatters: lots of those new homeowners have lost their houses as well as their jobs. It is remarkable, then, that the crisis should have given fresh impetus to "social f...
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Making Profits for a Purpose
CAMBRIDGE - Backed by a $50 million gift from a self-made billionaire, a young MIT center is betting Third World development will come not from governments but from profit-driven entrepreneurs who use technology to create jobs. The center’s founder and director, Iqbal Z. Quadir, has set a powerful example for his students to follow. He built Grameenphone in his native Bangladesh from a cellphone start-up in the 1990s into a business serving more than 20 million subscribers. The comp...
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