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MicroPlace Offers 6 Percent Return on Microfinance Investment
MicroPlace (www.microplace.com), a website that enables everyday people to invest in the world’s working poor, announced today the launch of the first microfinance investment opportunity that offers a 6 percent annual return for everyday investors. This investment offering comes at a time when Americans are examining the best ways to use their tax refunds in a tough economy. According to a recent poll by Taxsoftware.com, 58 percent of Americans planned to either save or invest ...
- Region
- Latin America
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Bottom of the Pyramid Spurs More Indian Ideas
We have the Nano, we have mastered the art of low-cost surgery, we know how to engineer sports utility vehicles at a fraction of the cost of a multinational corporation, we send spacecraft to the moon and launch satellites at a third of the cost, we have the world’s cheapest mobile phone, we’re the world’s IT champs… So why haven’t we been able to devise cost-effective ways of delivering education and healthcare to the majority of our people? This is ...
- Region
- South Asia
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How customer focus is helping Bajaj Auto, ITC cut deeper
Mumbai: Visit any company website, or read any corporate brochure, the words "customer focus" invariably leap at you. What makes this a powerful trend is that it is not only restricted to the FMCG or the services sector. Now we have cement companies talking directly to end users on primetime television spots. We also have manufacturers of telecom cables and water pipes jostling for the customer’s mind space alongside cola majors. The foregone conclusion: customer focus is the n...
- Region
- South Asia
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Cornell Announces BoP Essay Contest Winners
The Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at the Johnson School at Cornell University is pleased to announce the winners of its 2nd annual Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Narrative Competition. Sponsored by USAID and International Finance Corporation (IFC), the competition was developed to highlight the challenges of doing business in underserved markets and identify innovative business experiments or solutions to those challenges. Open to all, this competition attracted over 1...
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Mart With a Rural Heart
Previously the people of Illol village travelled to the nearest town of Himmatnagar, Gujarat, to buy a sachet of shampoo. But now they are able to buy it from the shop in the village,” says Nadeem Jafri, who has set up Hearty Mart — a chain of supermarkets in rural areas. Rewriting the rules of top-down retailing models, Jafri has chosen to target the ‘bottom of the pyramid’, as advocated by well-known consultant C.K. Prahalad. With a presence in little-know...
- Region
- South Asia
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A New Effort to Boost Small Businesses in Emerging Markets
Microfinance has improved the quality of life for millions of people at the bottom of the world’s economic pyramid, yet studies have not shown much of an impact on the economies of developing (or declining) nations. Microfinance, whether delivered via Grameen Bank-style rural distribution systems or direct loan operations like Kiva, just isn’t enough of a job creator. That’s why a number of economic development organizations are focusing on the next tier up—small but g...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Social Entrepreneurs Go Mainstream
In the wake of the 2008 financial flameout, most business people are, to put it mildly, downbeat. Banks aren’t lending, consumers aren’t spending and the prospects for the rest of the year seem grim. All of which makes social entrepreneurs, well, intensely—even passionately—optimistic. "This is a slam dunk," says Willy Foote, the founder of Root Capital, which provides loans to rural businesses in Latin America, Africa and Asia. "The Wall Street meltdown provide...
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Root Capital Launches 5-Year, $63M Growth Capital Campaign
Root Capital announced today that it has launched a comprehensive Growth Capital Campaign that will significantly increase its capacity to serve rural grassroots businesses in developing countries by establishing a sustainable social enterprise and fully self-sufficient lending program by 2013. The five-year $63 million campaign includes a unique combination of Philanthropic Equity and Debt Capital and will accelerate the organization’s ability to impact global poverty by linking rural ...
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- academia
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