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Best of 2013: Product Development for the Poor: A crash course in human-centered design
Nearly 95 percent of new product launches fail every year. That’s 95 percent of the ideas that were considered pretty good by smart marketing executives in boardrooms who make decisions about what products to launch. These product ideas withstood hundreds of hours of focus group testing and strategic planning sessions, and they represent millions of failed investment dollars. So what’s wrong?
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- Uncategorized
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8 Defining Milestones in India’s Social Enterprise Landscape
As India celebrates its 67th year of freedom on Thursday (Aug. 15), it seems poignant to pause and reflect on eight milestones that have played an important role in shaping India’s social enterprise landscape and the lessons they teach us.
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- Energy, Social Enterprise
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The Best of 2013: Do the 4 P’s of Marketing work for BoP Businesses?: Solutions, Access, Value, Education (SAVE) might be a better guide
The famous 4 P’s of the marketing mix (product, price, promotion and place) has been a little limiting for businesses looking to sell to the BoP, as it puts more emphasis on product strategies than on the current trend of "selling solutions." Instead a Solutions, Access, Value, Education (SAVE) model might have a bigger impact.
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- Uncategorized
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The Best of 2013: Bridging the Gap with Early Capital for BoP Models: An impact evaluation of VisionSpring in El Salvador
It’s natural for impact investors to focus on companies with measurable social impact and financial returns. But they often overlook models with impact potential that are still in their pre-commercial phase. This lack of early stage capital can limit the development of promising businesses, leading to missed opportunities for the poor and for investors. That’s why the IDB’s Opportunities for the Majority initiative offers grants to pre-commercial pilots like VisionSpring’s eye care model in El Salvador.
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- Health Care, Impact Assessment
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Focusing on the Next Generation: An exploration of enterprise impacts on child poverty
Traditional interventions to reduce poverty during early childhood are not enough. Given the magnitude of the challenge and the limitations of existing approaches, BoP enterprises have the potential to positively affect early childhood development. However, our understanding of the impact BoP ventures actually have on the lives of children remains vague, and ultimately limits their ability to improve the lives of at-risk children.
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- Education, Impact Assessment
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Israeli hackers with a conscience
Tel Aviv hackathon aims to show that technology can help the world's poorest people - and make a profit.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Unlocking Scale: How seven inclusive businesses are creating their own keys
‘What does it take’ and ‘how long does it take’ for an inclusive business to reach scale? Persistence, adaptation, and many years are the obvious answers, but there is a lot more besides. Some answers to these questions emerge today with the launch of a series of case studies, exploring the journey to scale of seven frontier inclusive businesses supported by the Business Innovation Facility (BIF).
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- Education
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Journeying from First-Gen to Second-Gen BoP Strategy: And singing along to a different tune
Taking stock of the past and charting the way forward was a central theme at the BoP Summit. One key challenge, however, is transforming the way we collectively think about the realities of living in subsistence contexts and “frame the base of the pyramid.” Two compelling points made in the summit’s opening session set the stage for what makes this transformation so hard – but also how to journey forward from here.
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- Education
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