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Doing Well, Doing Good
And now we have the newest blend of greed and generosity: the high-minded private equity fund. A forerunner in this sector is Good Capital, in formation for the past year. The firm, which operates out of a dingy three-room office in San Francisco’s gritty Mission District, has raised one-third of the $30 million it wants to have on hand by December. Classic American philanthropy has the ruthless businessman--Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford--squeezing every last penny from the marketplace and the...
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The Next People’s Car
An Indian car may soon earn a parking place in history alongside Ford’s Model T, Volkswagen’s Beetle and the British Motor Corp.’s Mini, all of which put a set of wheels within reach of millions of customers after they rolled onto the scene. Tata Motors? (nyse: TTM -? news? -? people ) is developing a car it aims to sell for about $2,500--the cheapest, by far, ever made. There is a lot riding on its small wheels. If the yet-to-be-named car is a success when it goes on sale...
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Prahalad Lecture: Democratizing Commerce: The Challenge for the 21st Century
Business guru touts standards and locally responsive solutions for globalization. ANN ARBOR, Mich.?People should not shy away from globalization, but harness it to the benefit of all, C.K. Prahalad said this week during his Distinguished University Professorship lecture---the highest honor accorded faculty members by the University of Michigan. Prahalad, the Ross School’s Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Corporate Strategy, said tha...
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Venezuela’s Poor Vastly Underserved
Only 11 percent of Venezuelans in social stratum E can afford home and personal care expenses, while 54 percent manages to afford the most important things. As a matter of fact, social stratum E comprises the most important consumption market niche in the country. The poor are increasing in number, but their income has improved significantly since 2004. Benjam?n Tripier, representative of Nueva Tecnolog?a de Negocios (New Business Technology), during...
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Philips-Manipal BOP Portal Launched
A new Philips-Manipal Base of the Pyramid (BOP) portal was launched here on Friday with the main objective to build fundamental knowledge in BOP domain while supporting projects with specific goals. Launching the BOP, Alexius Collette, the CEO, Philips Innovation Campus (PIC), Bangalore, said partnering with Manipal University for the BOP programs had its unique significance with respect to accessibility to BOP market to bring about an ideal integration of research, medicine, manageme...
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When a Cell Phone is Like a Cow
Grameen Bank has an impact on the poor, GrameenPhone on the entire economy,? says Muhammad Yunus. The idea of GrameenPhone was conceived by 36-year-old Manhattan-based venture capitalist Iqbal Quadir in 1993. It was triggered when his computer network crashed, leaving him unproductive. Concluding that connectivity is productivity, the Wharton business graduate returned soon after to Bangladesh to launch a phone service. At that moment the country had one of the lowest teledensities in...
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China Mobile Subscribers Surpass Total US Population
China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator, recently announced that its subscriber base grew to 301 million, surpassing the total population of the United States. Julie Pohlig, senior analyst at Vital Wave Consulting, a research and consulting firm focusing exclusively on emerging market business growth, says the 300-million-person milestone provides perspective on the sheer size of the Chinese market, and illustrates the perceived value of information and communications te...
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Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition
The nascent field of social entrepreneurship is growing rapidly and attracting increased attention from many sectors. The term itself shows up frequently in the media, is referenced by public officials, has become common on university campuses, and informs the strategy of several prominent social sector organizations, including Ashoka and the Schwab and Skoll foundations. The reasons behind the popularity of social entrepreneurship are many. On the most basic level, there?s something ...
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