NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Interview with Erik Simanis: BoP, Green, Development and Much More - Comments

This was great

Chris Crawford — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:23:52 -0500

This really gives me hope. I am an undergraduate student at a typical American University right now. As you can imagine, there is not much discussion going on about these sorts of issues... issues about what kinds of people are needed to do BoP work, that is. I am incredibly eager to make my mark on the world--I want to make piles of money, get noticed, and do it all while saving the world. This dream only works when I have some sense of being actually able to attain it--I don't study business, per se, and I find that a lot of doors are closed to me because of that... but not out here in the BoP world. Out here, I can make a difference. Thanks a lot, you have no idea what this means to me.

I specially appreciate

Francisco Noguera — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:41:13 -0500

I specially appreciate Erik's emphasis on the human side of the BoP discussion and the importance of building long term relationships with, and not just "understanding the needs" of the BoP. I would argue that leading institutions in the BoP space like Cornell and Ross should take the lead in incorporating not only technical business skills and their potential for serving the BoP, but also the development of 'soft skills' that allow those interested in working in the space to develop the critical traits like empathy and in general the emotional intelligence necessary to build those relationships with communities.

Excellent interview! Thank you, Erik and Rob.

Interview with Erik Simanis: BoP, Green, Development and Much More

Rob Katz — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:06:58 -0500

Erik Simanis is not your average Ph.D. student. For one thing, he's done work on his degree at two separate institutions (the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School and Cornell University's Johnson School of Business.) Furthermore, he's spent more time in the field than in the library – not necessarily good for paper writing, but certainly a benefit as far as the paper's content is concerned. Finally, Simanis probably knows as much about the Base of the Pyramid space – and how it relates to sustainability – as anyone, including BoP gurus like C.K. Prahalad, Stu Hart and Al Hammond.

Last week, I had the chance to sit down with Erik while I was in Ithaca for the Entrepreneurship@Cornell event. Sitting in Monica Touesnard's office in the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, Erik and I polished off a couple cups of coffee over the course of two hours. The outcome of that discussion – a long-form interview – follows.

Rob Katz: How did you get involved in the "base of the pyramid" community?

Erik Simanis: It goes back to the late 1990s, when I was doing my MBA at UNC. That's when I met Stu Hart. I had gone back to school to focus on sustainability – he was (and is) a major player in that space. Interestingly, the late 1990s was when sustainability was still pretty young. At the time, the draft "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" paper (co-authored by Hart and C.K. Prahalad in 1998) was going around, and I had an interest.

While I was doing my MBA, I had an internship with Monsanto and, after graduation, I was supposed to work there as a country manager in India for their smallholder farmers business. Essentially, it was in their BoP/sustainability team. Of course, Monsanto's stock price took a huge hit between the time I was offered the job and when I was to start, so I had to think differently - quickly. Specifically, Monsanto was acquired by Pharmacia in the face of the GMO uproar – as part of the merger, they effectively dissolved the "BoP team." I moved into a consulting position with Paul Gilding's ECOS and continued to work with Stu to launch the BoP Lab.

Meanwhile, I was reaching out to different parts of the school (anthropology, social work) and wanted to see Stu and C.K.’s ideas mature. What I mean by this is that, in 1999 and 2000, the whole BoP space was just about getting people's attention – 4 billion people! Trillions of dollars!

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