NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Godrej Consumer Looking for Acquisitions Abroad

Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. is looking for acquisitions worth up to $1 billion abroad as the Indian soap and hair color maker wants to sell its products in countries like China, Brazil and Nigeria, Chairman Adi Godrej said. "We won’t go for anything very tiny, but if the acquisition is over $15 million, we would look at it," Mr. Godrej told Dow Jones Newswires in a recent interview. "On the upper side, we would look at something up to maybe a billion dollars." He s...

Source

Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

The Power of Soft Capital

In 2004 two Americans, Matt and Jessica Flannery, returned home from a research trip in East Africa gobsmacked by the resourcefulness and entrepreneurship capacities displayed by the poor in the rural areas they had visited. The Flannerys discovered, much to their surprise, that being poor didn’t double for being helpless and, more importantly, how far small loans of about $100 could go in facilitating and encouraging further resourcefulness of small businesses in the fight ...

Source

Mail and Guardian (link opens in a new window)

Rwanda Rising: A New Model of Economic Development

Nobody likes to say "No, Mr. President." So three years ago, when Costco CEO Jim Sinegal got a call from shareholder Dan Cooper, a partner in Chicago’s Fox River Financial Resources, asking if he’d have lunch with Rwandan president Paul Kagame, he agreed. That meeting in New York led to a presidential stop at Costco HQ near Seattle. Which led to Sinegal’s promise to visit Rwanda. "I made it in a moment of weakness," he says, "before I realized how long it takes to get there." He e...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Prahalad: We Need More Nanos, Amuls, Jaipur Rugs

When the corporate world is engaged in a debate over finding feasible solutions to come out of the current economic crisis, management guru Prof. C K Prahlad suggests innovative business models like Nano, Jaipur Rugs, Amul etc to move out from the crisis. While encouraging business leaders to adopt innovative ideas by referring to some of the success stories of top Indian companies, Prof. Prahlad said, “India has the ability to beco...

Source

MBA Universe (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Avon Calling: Could Beauty Be a Path Out of Poverty?

"No! No! No!" Oxford business professor Linda Scott does not use Avon products. In fact, she says with a smile, "One of the worst things that ever happened to me is that a friend of mine started selling Avon." But she believes her research in South Africa could prove a fascinating hypothesis: that becoming an Avon lady could help poor women in developing nations knock on prosperity’s door. Scott is a cultural historian-turned-marketing professor who first got interested in stud...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Monitor Group Report: Emerging Markets, Emerging Models

OXFORD, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship Monitor Group, one of the world’s leading advisory and consulting firms, releases “Emerging Markets, Emerging Models,” a first-of-its-kind report analyzing the actual behaviors, economics, and business models of successful “market-based solutions”—financially-sustainable enterprises that address challenges of global poverty. Compiled in an effort to use fact-based re...

Source

Press Release (link opens in a new window)

Innovation Trickles in a New Direction

Products traditionally are created in rich nations and repackaged for emerging ones. But General Electric, Nokia, and others are reversing the process By Reena Jana This month, General Electric’...

Source

BusinessWeek (link opens in a new window)

Seva and Grameen Partner on Eye Hospitals for Bangladesh

Seva and Grameen Bank are launching an unprecedented initiative to build a network of eye hospitals in Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries where more than 650,000 people suffer from preventable blindness. In 2006, Seva staff and our partners from Aravind Eye Care Systems in India met with Yunus at Grameen headquarters in Bangladesh to further develop plans for what will be the largest single undertaking of its kind. "Basically, we’ll be taking our proven model ...

Source

Press Release (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia