This post is the continuation of my previous one last Monday. Just as it was posted, Robert Katz sent me an email with the following question:

"That BOP firms, to be competitive, don't have to be innovative in the same way that Western firms do makes sense. But what about Western firms looking to enter BOP markets? Do they need to invest in R&D to create the sorts of incremental "piggybacking" innovations you describe? Or do they need to invest more in the anthropology/observation to unearth the "obvious" innovations?”

As I was writing my reply I noticed that I could have been more specific and less fuzzy about some concepts in the previous post. I also noticed that there was plenty of scope for further analysis – and further questions.

The mentioned tradeoff between growth and innovation at the BOP was with local big firms in mind and elaborated on innovation in broad terms as an "unusual combination of technologies and other components that generates value for the consumer." By doing that, I lumped together two basic types of innovations: product level innovations and operational innovations.

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NextBillion joins in congratulating Prof. C. K. Prahalad. Prahalad, India-born management guru and academician, has been voted the world's most influential living management thinker in the Thinkers 50 biennial poll.

A professor at the University of Michigans' Stephen M Ross School of Business (and - full disclosure - a member of WRI's Board of Directors), Prahalad specializes in corporate strategy research and is a globally
known figure consulted by the top management of many of the world's foremost companies.

Prahalad, who is the first Indian-origin thinker to claim the title, was ranked number three in last year's Thinkers 50 list brought out by
Suntop Media.

Each guru was assessed against criteria including Originality and Practicality of Ideas, Presentation Style and Communication, Loyalty of Followers, Business Sense, International Outlook, Rigor of Research, Impact of Ideas - and the clincher, "Guru Factor".

Prahalad is probably best known for his work with Gary Hamel on resource-based strategy, which gave rise to the term "core competence". The poll might drive new interest in Prof. Prahalad's work on the Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.