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Banker to the Poor Goes Beyond Microlending
Muhammad Yunus, who won a Nobel prize for inspiring a global microfinance movement, is now pioneering an idea he calls social business as a way to fight poverty. In a new book, Creating a World Without Poverty (PublicAffairs, $26), the Bangladeshi economist describes social businesses as those dedicated to social causes rather than profit. Nicknamed the banker to the poor, Yunus started his movement 30 years ago with a $27 loan to women i...
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Third World First
Das, a 42-year-old commercial painter, grins as a worker for a local micro-finance group frames his face with a digital camera and zooms in. It is an important moment. His photo will adorn a smart card that, with help from a mobile phone and a fingerprint reader, will allow Das to store money electronically, make small cash withdrawals, and send money to his family on the other side of the country. It is the first bank account he has ever had. This might seem like a classic example of...
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Google Offers a Map for Its Philanthropy
The second initiative, called ?the missing middle,? refers to the missing middle class in Africa and South Asia and the missing middle level of financing between microcredits and hedge funds. Microcredit funds currently provide families with three or four or five days of livelihood, Dr. Brilliant said. ?No country,? he said, ?has ever emerged from poverty because of microcredit. Jobs make that possible. China did it with manufacturing, India did it with outsourced call centers.? ...
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The Hunt for Profits Goes South
With Purchasing Power Rising, Euro Firms Eye Developing World By Julia Bonstein Ever on the lookout for tomorrow’s customers, Western corporations have set their sights on industrializing economies and developing nations. It’s a huge opportunity, but low cost isn’t the only important criterion for a vast new group of consumers. Innovations are also important for this growing market. The One Laptop per Child initiative ha...
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Going Wireless: Dialing for Development
Author: David Lehr Going Wireless: Dialing for Development How Mobile Devices are Transforming Economic Development at the Base of the Pyramid A draft white paper by former Acumen Fellow David Lehr has just been posted on the Acumen Fund blog that describ...
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Poverty reduction for profit? A critical examination of business opportunities at the bottom of the
Authors: J. L. Warnholz Publisher: Queen Elizabeth House Library, University of Oxford, 2007. The author examines the idea that selling consumer goods to poor people at the bottom of the economic pyramid (BoP) generates profits for large businesses and eliminates poverty at the same time. He admits that big businesses have a central role in shaping future markets and generating employment. The entry of multinationals in the BoP sector would also reduce prices, raise ...
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The Nano Inspiration
The lessons of design innovation, scale efficiency, vendor networking can help in hundreds of challenges By Ramesh Ramanathan I am inspired by the story of the Tata Nano. Beyond its cute look or frugal engineering-driven price tag, I find it remarkable how team Tata pulled it off in just four years. I?ve watched and read the rumblings ?on congestion, traffic, the environment. Confession: I own a car. This makes it hard for me to criticiz...
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A Nano Leap Into the Future
He’s been hailed as the world’s foremost thinker. He revolutionized the way corporate chiefs looked at markets through his bestseller, ’The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid’. And now, management mahaguru C. K. Prahalad writes exclusively for Sunday Times on the Nano launch. By C.K. Prahalad He’s been hailed as the world’s foremost thinker. He revolutionized the way corporate chiefs looked at markets through his bestseller, ’The Fortune at the B...
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