NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Design for the Other 90%

The vast majority of designers put their talent to where the money is: crafting products and services that aim to beguile the richest 10% of the world’s population. Nothing wrong with making a living. But could the tens of thousands of designers who fashion things that appeal to people’s desires?rather than fulfilling their needs?be missing an opportunity to break into a much, much bigger market? Paul Polak certainly thinks so. Polak, the maverick, septuagenarian founder of In...

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Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Inclusion, the Way to Market Growth

C K Prahalad?s book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, asks managers to shed the blinkers of conventional guidelines that are constraining their view of markets for their companies. Conventional wisdom would suggest that until their incomes rise above a certain level, large masses of poor people cannot be a target market. Prahalad points out that innovations in products and pricing could make products affordable to people with even lesser incomes and thus expand a company?s ma...

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Economic Times of India (link opens in a new window)

Citibank India & SKS Announce USD 44 Million Rural Microfinance Program

SKS Microfinance and Citibank today announced a USD 44 Million (Rs.1.8 Billion) groundbreaking financing program involving Citibank India purchasing loans that are originated by SKS. Representing Citibank’s increased foray into rural microfinance, the program will deliver income-generating loans of between Rs.5000 to Rs.20,000 to a population of over 200,000 unbanked customers spread across 7,000 villages in 11 States of the country by financial year 2007-08. The partnership combines SKS’...

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Citi Press Room (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

IBM Launches BOP/Africa ThinkPlace Challenge

IBM today launched its first-ever public ?ThinkPlace Challenge,? a three-week open forum designed to foster global collaboration on innovation opportunities and economic development issues facing the African continent. The top ideas generated through the ThinkPlace Challenge will help shape the agenda for IBM?s upcoming Global Innovation Outlook (GIO) focus on Africa, and provide longer-term input for IBM’s World Development Initiative (WDI). The GIO brings together more than 150...

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IBM Press Release (link opens in a new window)

Making Money, Making a Difference

If you think that the women and men in the shiny suits, operating some of the world’s most powerful corporations, are just sitting around talking dollars and cents all day, then take a look at this report. Fortunately, there are executives out there who recognize the necessity in addressing serious global issues while doing some serious global business. One of the main points the authors make is that the discussion framed around corporate social responsibility has often ...

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Motley Fool (link opens in a new window)

Green businesses attract Rs.100 crores investment from venture capitalists

There is a need to get a structured plan in a sustainable ecological mode to attract venture capitalists to India, said Dr. Nachiket Mor, Chairman, New Ventures India Steering Committee and Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank at a seminar on Emerging Business Opportunities in India and Venture Capital Finance. Dr. Mor also announced Rs.100 crore investment towards the innovation and development of green businesses in India. Th...

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NewKerala.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

“Businesses Try to Make Money and Save the World”

ALTRUSHARE SECURITIES is a brokerage firm, engaged in the sort of things you might expect of a Wall Street outfit, like buying and selling stock, and providing research on companies. Unlike its peers, however, the firm is majority-owned by two charities that each control about one-third of it. So is it a for-profit business? Or a nonprofit fund-raising machine? In fact, like hundreds of new businesses starting up around the country, it is both. Altrushare is an example of the em...

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New York Times (link opens in a new window)

Can India Afford its Villages?

There has been a general tendency to romanticize village life as a return to our roots. What is noticeable, though, is that most people who romanticize village life in India tend to live in cities?in India, or elsewhere. They also seem incapable of noticing the irony implicit in this romanticization, since their forefathers, too, were once villagers ?who migrated to cities for good reason. There was no greater proponent of villages than Mohandas Gandhi, who had been educated in London...

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Live Mint (link opens in a new window)