The Prahalad Interview: Brazil's Valor

Rob Katz — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 08:51:38 -0500

The Brazilian economic journal Valor recently interviewed University of Michigan professor and The Next Practice founder C.K. Prahalad about business strategies for the base of the pyramid. The full interview, translated from the Portugese, follows below. (Translation credit: Alex Bloom).

C.K. Prahalad: We can take Brazil as an example. One of the largest sellers of electronics products is "Casas Bahia," which primarily sells to poor people of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, most of whom live in slums. They take in about US $3.5 billion per year and are profitable. In the market of fast foods, "Habib's" is growing fast and also targets consumption by low-income people. These examples are repeated in different parts of the world. The biggest developing countries - China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa - concentrate a purchasing power on the order of US $12.5 trillion, which is more than Germany, England, France, Italy and Japan combined. It is a ready market to be explored, but that still does not receive due attention.

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The Prahalad Interview: Brazil's Valor