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During a recent visit to the U.S. from India, Vikram Akula walked into a downtown restaurant to talk to a group of well-heeled Seattle philanthropists about how they could help end poverty.
Confident and articulate, he held a microphone and paced in front of the crowd like a talk-show host.
The base of the economic pyramid (BOP) in India representing the masses is an over $1.2-trillion market, making up the biggest chunk of the global $5-trillion BOP market excluding China, says a study by IFC and World Resources Institute (WRI).
The term ‘bottom of the pyramid’ was coined by management guru CK Prahalad to describe the poor and the underserved section of the market. The BOP market in India, about $1.205 trillion, in purchasing power parity terms, makes up 84.8% of the total $1.42-trillion national household market.
There is a need to get a structured plan in a sustainable ecological mode to attract venture capitalists to India, said Dr. Nachiket Mor, Chairman, New Ventures India Steering Committee and Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank at a seminar on "Emerging Business Opportunities in India and Venture Capital Finance".
Dr. Mor also announced Rs.100 crore investment towards the innovation and development of green businesses in India.
Toronto will host a conference May 2-4 of 30 leading North American health biotechnology firms with over 30 counterparts from developing countries - the biggest-ever known assembly of emerging market biotech companies to focus on global health problems.
It became a model for Thomas S. Lyons, a professor of entrepreneurship at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business in New York, and Gregg A. Lichtenstein, a business consultant in Margate, N.J., who were searching for ways to develop entrepreneurial talent. “We kept coming back to baseball’s farm system,” Professor Lyons said. “It is one of the best talent-generating systems in the world.”
The pair had an ambitious goal: to build a system in underserved and overlooked regions of the country for identifying, recruiting and developing entrepreneurs. In so doing, they said, they hoped to revitalize local economies and stimulate business development in areas that needed a jump-start.
The World Resources Institute, working with the International Finance Corporation, has released a study that estimates the 'Base of the Pyramid' (BOP) consumer market - which includes four billion people worldwide with incomes below US$3,000 in local purchasing power - is worth US$5 trillion.
Following a recent consultation that IBLF held with support from McKinsey & Co and Unilever, IBLF has produced a set of guidelines showing how companies can develop successful base of the pyramid products and services.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Scojo Foundation and Population Services International (PSI) have signed a five-year pan-Africa agreement to make reading glasses available to the millions of Africans who lack this simple, essential health product and tool for economic development. For most Africans living in poverty, reading glasses are unobtainable due to barriers of cost, access, and awareness. Without reading glasses, people who need to see up close to earn a living, such as weavers, farmers, electricians, and artisans, can lose their productivity and ability to support their families.
It's no secret how Wall Street looks at a stock; most investment banking analysts play some version of the same numbers game. They gin up models of a company's financial drivers, then plug in data based on what they know or can guess about revenue and spending. The spreadsheet spits out projections of future cash flows and profits, which imply a certain valuation.
Africa needs many things, but most of all it needs capitalists who can start and run legal companies. More Bill Gateses, fewer foundations. People grow out of poverty when they create small businesses that employ their neighbors. Nothing else lasts.
Latin America
Inspiration for a new case can strike at any time. For Harvard Business School professor Frances X. Frei, the time and place was one morning at home while reading The New York Times. An article on the front page of the Business section about an innovative Brazilian retailer prompted an immediate e-mail to Gustavo Herrero (HBS MBA '76), executive director of the School's Latin America Research Center (LARC). Herrero responded promptly, and with the assistance of LARC senior researcher Ricardo Reisen de Pinho (HBS PMD 74, 1999), Frei was soon on her way to researching and writing "Magazine Luiza: Building a Retail Model of 'Courting the Poor.'"
