NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Get to the ’bottom of the pyramid’

C K Prahalad can take credit for seminal ideas in business and management including core competence which he elucidated in a Harvard Business School article in 1990. His 1994 book Competing for the Future (with Gary Hamel) is also regarded as path-breaking. His latest breakthrough idea is on what he calls the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Innovation, along with equitable distribution of wealth, was what you stressed on in your address (at the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas 200...

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

Beyond The Green Corporation

Under conventional notions of how to run a conglomerate like Unilever, CEO Patrick Cescau should wake up each morning with a laserlike focus: how to sell more soap and shampoo than Procter & Gamble Co. (PG ) But ask Cescau about the $52 billion Dutch-British giant’s biggest strategic challenges for the 21st century, and the conversation roams from water-deprived villages in Africa to the planet’s warming climate. The world is Unilever’s laboratory. In Brazil, the compa...

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BusinessWeek (link opens in a new window)

Now that China eased market entry policies for banking institutions in rural China last month, seven commercial banks have applied to set up a subsidiary in rural areas. On Dec. 22, 2006, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) published proposals to give financial institutions more market access in rural areas. The move was aimed to promote rural development. The CBRC has received applications from Minsheng Bank, Beijing Rural Commercial Bank, Tianjin Rural Cooperat...

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Xinhua (link opens in a new window)

Region

Asia Pacific

Despite several high profile emerging-market exits by Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Ahold NV, and Carrefour, retailers will continue moving into developing nations such as India and China, a market research firm predicted on Monday. I think there are several compelling reasons why retailers need to continue internationalizing their businesses, said Matthew Stych, Euromonitor International’s global director for retailing research. Economic growth is more rapid i...

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China Daily (link opens in a new window)

Texas Instruments predicts sales at its cell phone chip unit will grow, mostly of cheap phones. TAIPEI (Reuters) - Global sales of mobile phones are expected to grow to between 1.1 billion and 1.2 billion units in 2007, up as much as 20 percent from about 1 billion units sold last year, a Texas Instruments official said on Friday. ?We are optimistic on the growth momentum of low-price mobile phones,? Terry Cheng, the president of Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) Asia, to...

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Reuters (link opens in a new window)

A new bout of sell-offs in emerging markets is likely ?at some point?, the Institute for International Finance warned on Thursday, as it unveiled forecasts for a slight easing in private ?capital flows to emerging markets this year. Charles Dallara, managing director of the IIF, which represents most of the world?s leading banks, was troubled by the market?s apparent disregard for the risks facing emerging ?market assets. ?We think there is a good bit of uncertainty out the...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

First we had Fairtrade coffee, claiming to help farmers in poor countries. Then came Penguin Approved products, carbon neutral to prevent climate change. This week, scientists at Imperial College, London, gave us ethical pharmaceuticals, claiming they will slash drug prices and save poor countries from disease. Unfortunately, like most ethical products, this is more about salving Western consciences than actually helping the poor. The pr...

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The Monitor (Kampala) (link opens in a new window)

South American trading bloc Mercosur needs to do more to address social concerns, regional leaders have said. At a summit in Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said national interests had to be put aside to tackle inequalities between Mercosur states. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez went further and said the bloc needed to be de-contaminated of neo-liberalism. The bloc - which also includes Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay - is discussing Bolivia&...

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BBC (link opens in a new window)