NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise blogs

Market Creation at the Base of the Pyramid: It Isn't Easy

Rob Katz — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:27:08 -0400

"...you can have the very best technology in the world, and if you don't get it out there and market it, if you don't have a distribution network, then it doesn't have any impact."

Martin Fisher, Co-Founder and CEO, KickStart

Creating markets at the base of the pyramid is hard work. This theme that has resurfaced again and again in my recent work, whether at a gathering of budding BoP-focused entrepreneurs or during a conversation with established social innovators.

What do we mean by 'market creation'? What role does it play in BoP venture creation? And why is it so often overlooked by entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and pundits? In this post, I'll touch on these issues by citing examples that have surfaced recently in my work, including insights from the Acumen Fund portfolio.

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Moving NextBillion.net's Servers - We're Back Online

Rob Katz — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:55:31 -0400

Thanks for your patience. We've moved NextBillion.net's servers and re-activated commenting. Everything should be working as usual. If you run into any issues or have questions about why we're making the change, feel free to contact us or leave a comment.

(Wondering what all the fuss is about? Check out yesterday's post on moving our servers. Fascinating, I know...)

We'll be back to base of the pyramid news, analysis and resources shortly - stay tuned.

Moving NextBillion.net's Servers

Rob Katz — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:15:53 -0400

Around 12:00 Eastern Daylight Time today, NextBillion.net will be moving to a new server. During the changeover, comments will be disabled throughout the site. Blog posts, news stories, events, resources and other existing materials will be accessible - you just won't be able to chime in for a few hours.

We appreciate your patience as we take care of these technical changes. It's part of our effort to re-brand, re-design and re-launch NextBillion - which is happening now and scheduled to go live in November/December 2008.

Questions? Contact us. Otherwise, thanks for your patience. We'll be back online shortly.

Social Entrepreneurs from GSBI 2008: Meet Tendai Mawunga from Pump Aid, Zimbabwe and Malawi

Francisco Noguera — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:07:40 -0400

Tendai used to be a teacher in his native Zimbabwe, until he saw one of his students died for reasons related to poor water quality. That event changed his life's direction and led him to become one of the founding members of Pump Aid, an NGO that has brought safe drinking water to thousands of villages in Africa by designing and manufacturing Elephant Pumps based on a centuries-old Chinese technology.

Pump Aid is experiencing an interesting transition that explains Tendai's presence at this year's GSBI. In the midst of the difficult and unstable situation in Zimbabwe, it recently re-located to Malawi where the elephant pump has been very successful since its introduction as a pilot project a few years ago. It has also experienced growing demand from households and is moving towards creating a fee-based social enterprise called WISH (Water, Irrigation, Sanitation and Hygiene) that will partner with microfinance institutions to offer the "WISH Package", a comprehensive solution for clusters of households that incorporates clean water (through the Elephant Pump), sanitation (through the Elephant Toilet) and nutrition (through nutrition gardens).

So here is Tendai, whose next steps I look forward to tracking and sharing through NextBillion.net.

Drishtee: Rural Health Franchising

Rob Katz — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:01:18 -0400

One in eight people on the planet lives in an Indian village. That's 775 million people, about half of whom live on less than $1 per day.

To Drishtee and its founder, Satyan Mishra, these numbers aren't daunting; rather, they represent an incredible opportunity. Drishtee is franchisor that helps Indian entrepreneurs set up internet-enabled kiosks to provide basic services in their villages. (Full disclosure: Drishtee is an Acumen Fund investee; I work for Acumen Fund.)

Since 2000, Drishtee's network has grown to encompass nearly 1,900 villages, bringing goods and services to about 2 million customers.

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Reviewing a New BoP Critique Published in Innovations Journal

Manuel Bueno — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:10:12 -0400

Some time ago, we at NextBillion had the pleasure of facilitating a debate about how - and how much - bottom of the pyramid strategy can improve the plight of the poor. The University of Michigan's Aneel Karnani wrote a very insightful paper critiquing various points about the BoP proposition. This paper then received a response by Michigan's C.K. Prahalad and Al Hammond (then at WRI; now at Ashoka).

Recently, a new critique was published by "Innovations: Technology|Governance|Globalization", a journal we have praised already here. The critique, entitled "The Fortune at the Bottom or the Middle of the Pyramid?" is authored by Anand Kumar Jaiswal, from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

As I read his paper, I found myself agreeing with many of his points, similar to when I read Karnani’s publication. This is because Jaiswal, like Karnani, doesn't refute BoP strategies as a means to approaching poverty problems, but rather contends that reality is sometimes more complex than theory, which is why I find it refreshing to read such articles.

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Introducing Social Entrepreneurs from GSBI 2008: Meet David Okello, from Coast Coconut Farms in Kenya

Francisco Noguera — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:59:40 -0400

The last 10 days have been truly exciting ones. I have had the amazing opportunity to participate in this year's Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University, a two-week in-residence mentoring program with social entrepreneurs from around the world.

Over the next few days I'll be sharing a few thoughts about the program, its amazing potential and some of the specific challenges that these entrepreneurs face. I will also introduce the entrepreneurs that are participating in the program through a series of short video clips.

Today I want you to meet David Okello, who runs Coast Coconut Farms in Kenya and is improving the lives of rural farmers by adding value to the coconut crop and producing high quality, extra virgin coconut oil. So without further ado, I leave you in the company of David.

A Hothouse of Creativity: From GSBI 2008

Al Hammond — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:50:18 -0400

It's pretty intense, the process Francisco and I are engaged in this past week and the coming one. Take 16 social entrepreneurs from a dozen countries on three continents, some very knowledgeable faculty, and more than a high-powered dozen mentors and guest lecturers from Silicon Valley companies, and stir well. Throw in 12-14 hour days, hard work improving business plans and elevator pitches, instruction on strategies, etc.

That's the Santa Clara University's Global Social Benefit Incubator. And we are both embedded, as the war journalists say--we talk to the entrepreneurs non-stop, we eat with them, we sleep in the same dorms, we go drinking together.

But even more interesting than the formal program are the informal interactions and unexpected discoveries. These are, after all, entrepreneurs, quick to seize on new ideas and used to thinking outside the box. So the cross learning is amazing. I can only give you my own subset of that, but it's happening all across the entrepreneur group.

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Cornell Announces Base of the Pyramid Essay Competition

Rob Katz — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:00:23 -0400

The Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management is accepting submissions for its 2008 Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Narrative Competition. This short-essay competition seeks to highlight the challenges of implementing business in underserved markets and identify innovative business initiatives or solutions to those challenges.

The 2008 BoP Narrative Competition (PDF) has been created to help identify cutting-edge experiences of business innovation in underserved or marginalized communities.

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Social Capital Markets Conference - Early Registration ends 8.25

Rob Katz — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:02:09 -0400

I first learned of the Social Capital Markets conference from organizer Kevin Jones, a friend whom I've often run into at various conferences through the years. Last year, Kevin - a principal at Good Capital - began to think that it was time to break down silos and get various 'social enterprise' factions to start talking. The result? A social capital markets conference that's bringing together both well-known and emerging leaders in this sector. (We first wrote about SoCap08 back in July.)

The conference will be held in San Francisco from October 13-15, with speakers including Jed Emerson, Bob Annibale, Premal Shah and Andrew Kassoy. These are just a few of the can't miss folks slated to attend. (I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my Acumen Fund colleague, Sasha Dichter, is also slated to speak.)

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